Page 65 of Then and Now (The Edge of Retaliation 3)
“What if one of the neighbors heard something? They could have called the police, they could already be on their way.”
“Callie,” he demands, his eyes hard. “You’re not hearin’ me. This is not goin’ to come back on you. You have my word. Tanner is goin’ to take you away, and when you come back, it’ll be like nothin’ ever happened.”
My hands are trembling as I hold his eyes, “Do you promise?”
He nods. “I fuckin’ promise you. Go.”
Tanner thanks him, and then walks out of the apartment with me in his arms. I close my eyes, not wanting to see if I’ve killed the other two men, or if they’re just injured. I know if they’re still alive, they won’t be for long. Alarick will make sure of that. I think that will be so much worse for them.
They’ll have wished I killed them.
Tanner puts me in his truck. He has murmured things, but I don’t know what he’s saying. My ears are ringing and my head is spinning. I close my eyes and keep them that way until we pull up at the tattoo shop. I look around, confused. “Why are we here?”
“It’s safe here until Alarick has finished everything. He said there is an apartment out back, we can clean up there.”
I don’t bother to argue, I let him lead me into the shop and out into the apartment. It’s only small, and by the looks of it, is only here for temporary stays. Maybe when Alarick is working late and doesn’t want to go home? It’s tidy, and neat, and it’ll do if it means we’re safe.
Tanner places me down on the sofa and kneels down in front of me, taking my chin in his hands. “You’re okay. This is going to be okay. I promise you.”
“How did they know we were alone?” I whisper, my hands still shaking. I can’t stop them, no matter how hard I try.
“They must have had more ears on us then we thought. They knew we were comin’ and they put a plan into place, only they didn’t expect you’d be the one to take them out. We dealt with the rest of them, they were ready for us when we arrived, but they were no match for Alarick’s club. Those men…are incredible.”
I don’t want to know.
I don’t even want to think about it.
“When we realized he wasn’t there, we came rushing back.”
“But it was too late,” I whisper. “I’m not only a killer, I’m now a murderer, too. I’m a murderer, Tanner.”
“You listen to me, Callie, and you listen fuckin’ good,” he orders, his voice harder than I’ve ever heard it, “those men are the reason Celia is dead. They raped her. They took her innocence and they crushed her life. You are not a fuckin’ murderer, you got her the vengeance she deserved. You just gave her her peace. You set her free.”
Tears burst forth and stream down my cheeks.
“You really think so?” I sob.
“I more than fuckin’ think so. Thank you, Callie. Thank you.”
I hiccup and my head falls forward. He catches me in a hug, a tight hug, a hug that makes me feel like everything will be okay.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“Oh honey,” he murmurs, “I love you, too.”
Is he right?
Did I really set Celia free?
Is it all finally over?
25
JOANNE
“How bad is it?” I croak groggily, looking at Tatum who is sitting on the side of my bed, my hand in his. “Do I look like Frankenstein?”
He chuckles. “Honey, you’re fuckin’ beautiful. Not a thing in the world could change that.”
“You’re not answering my question,” I murmur, “which is a little concerning.”
He glances around the room and then stands, walking over to my purse and opening it, pulling out my makeup mirror. He carries it over and hands it to me. “See for yourself.”
I take the mirror, terrified of what I’m going to see. Terrified of the damage that has been done to my face. I close my eyes and turn the mirror towards me, and then slowly open them. For a few seconds, I just stare at myself. My face is swollen, and I have one hell of a black eye, but the cuts from the glass aren’t as bad as I pictured in my head.
When he crushed my face into it, I thought I’d be forever damaged. It felt like a thousand tiny knives piercing my skin. I thought I’d never ever come out of it clean. But I can see now, it’s not so bad. Tatum paid for a plastic surgeon to do the clean-up, insisting he didn’t want any old doctor working on my face.
The surgeon did a great job.
There are probably five or six cuts that have stitches, the rest are small enough that they probably don’t need anything done, they’ll heal on their own. The cuts that are there, are mostly on my cheek with a few on the side of my face, but thankfully none near my eyes, nose or mouth. They’re deep, I can see that, but I can also see how incredibly clean he has stitched them.
