Page 116 of Unhinged Kallie

He tapped his chin. “True. What do you have in mind?”

“I want to put tracers on her. Multiple tracers.” I crossed my arms, mimicking his position.

“Okay, but I suggest making one obvious and the others not so obvious.”

I nodded, liking that. It was a bait and switch. I should feel like the worst fucking boyfriend for doing this, but I knew she would try something. She was so fucking brave and stubborn, and I wasn’t letting anything happen to her. Not ever.

Cain turned, opened a drawer, and pulled out a small box. He stared at it before walking around the table and holding it out to me. Taking the offering, I opened the lid to see Kirby’s wedding ring. I would recognize it anywhere.

“We may not always understand one another, but I trust you will love and protect my daughter. When you’re ready, this ring is for her. Kirby would’ve wanted her to have it.” Closing the lid, I looked into Cain’s eyes. It was the first time I could see the depth of his love. The emotion was vivid, something I’d never seen before. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for him to lose her.

“Thank you, she’ll love this, and thank you for trusting me.”

“Yes, I guess it’s a good thing Kirby made me promise not to kill you,” he said, his lip curled up in a sinister smile that stopped my heart but made my pulse race. He gripped my shoulder and leaned in like he’d done when I was a child. I swallowed hard, the hair rising on the back of my neck. “But if you break her heart, nothing will save you from me finding you and skinning you alive. Do you understand me, son?”

How was it that this was the first time he’d called me son, and I was just as terrified before he said it that he would reach into my chest and rip out my beating heart?

I straightened my spine and turned to look him in the eyes, mere inches from my face. “If I ever hurt Kallie or fail her, you won’t have to find me. I’ll hand myself over for you to do your worst. She is my life. I will die for her.”

“No, stay at the school. I’ll pick you up from there,” Cain said.

“Too late, I’m already jogging north on Banker’s Way,” I said and heard him curse in the phone.

“What part of do not draw attention to yourself do you not understand?” I could hear doors bang and Abel yell that he was coming in the background.

“I couldn’t do nothing.”

“So wearing yourself out was your next best option? Unbelievable. Where is she heading?”

“I’m not telling you that. You need to pick me up first. I’ll stop at Cedar Creek Elementary. It’s a quarter mile up the road.” I didn’t trust him not to pull the same thing Kallie did and take off without me, and I was getting to her one way or another.

“Fuck,” he growled. “Fine.” The call ended.

With each footfall, the panic rose higher in my body. Kallie was getting further away by the second. Running into the school’s parking lot, I paced and waited for Cain and Abel. Putting my hand in my pocket, I gripped her bracelet.

“I’m not losing you, Kallie. Do you hear me?”

I looked up at the night sky, closed my eyes, and did something I hadn’t done since before my parents died. “Mom, Dad, Aunt Kirby, Troy, if you can hear me…I need your help. Keep Kallie safe til we get there. Please, I’m begging you.”

I begged over and over until headlights pulled into the parking lot, and I ran for the truck, hopping in the back seat.

“Let’s go.” Abel smacked his hand on the dash. Cain looked at his brother but didn’t say anything. I’d never seen Abel so serious and certainly never thought I would be happy to be in a car with two serial killers, but the world worked in mysterious ways.

“Where to,” Cain asked as he pulled out on the road, and I handed him my phone with the tracking app open.

“Huh, smart girl. That was obvious. I should’ve thought of that,” Cain said, handing the phone back.

The dot was still moving but had slowed down. “Where is she going?”

“Chicken farm. I know a shortcut, but you’ll want to fasten your seatbelt. This is going to be a rough ride.”

I should’ve known he wasn’t fucking joking, it wasn’t really a Cain trait. He wheeled the truck onto a narrow ATV trail with large bumps and ruts and loose gravel that pinged the undercarriage. I gripped the door and still hit my head off the ceiling multiple times, but Cain never slowed. He flew so fast along the narrow path, cutting cross country, that all the trees and farms we passed were a blur.

“Faster,” Abel growled out.

“Shut up, I need to focus,” Cain said.

“Troy just died. We’re not losing Kallie too,” Abel said, his eyes wild and his motivation clear. The pain of Troy’s death was riding him like a demon on his back. There was no way to save Troy, but that didn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter to Cain how many people he had to torture to get the information he wanted about Darryl.