Page 29 of Unhinged Kallie

I pointed to the table, “So, what are you planning on doing with him.”

“Oh, we’re going to kill him. It will just be slower than my normal process. So, are we in agreement?” The man began crying and begging through the strange gag, and I turned my head away.

“Do I want to know what will happen if I don’t want to do this,” I asked, gripping my notepad harder to my chest as his cold eyes found mine.

“Then you will end up…looking at the flowers,” he said. I knew what he was referencing and swallowed hard. Kallie had always loved anything horror or thriller, and The Walking Dead was one of her favorite shows. I’d watched the episode so often that I could say it word for word.

“Understood, Sir,” I said.

“Good. I promised Kirby I’d look out for you, which is the only reason you’re still breathing, but if you threaten this family or, more specifically, Kallie’s wellbeing….” He didn’t finish the sentence, and I didn’t need him to. I heard him loud and clear. I was dead if I opened my mouth. I needed to find a way to be okay with this. I quickly glanced at the wall with the images and realized that at least they were all bad people that had done terrible things to others. That was what I needed to remember.

Nodding, I walked to the door before stopping and looking back at Cain. “Did you love her?”

“Kirby?”

I nodded.

“With all that I’m able. I miss her every day.”

Those words held weight for me, and for whatever reason, I wanted to protect Kallie more than ever before.

Chapter Eleven

KALLIE

SIX YEARS LATER

“Dad, you cannot back out of our deal. You promised I could attend high school like a normal kid this fall.”

“Technically, I didn’t promise anything,” Dad said as his hand slowly carved an image of a tree into the man’s chest.

“Dad, don’t be like that,” I complained. “I could easily place into senior year, but I’m happy to do grade nine.”

“I think you need more time.”

I didn’t want to wait another year. I was bored to tears, and Carter was already in high school. I missed having him around all day with me. He’d also started to date, which I wouldn’t admit pissed me off. Carter was my best friend, my sort of brother, and mine if I wanted to date him. I looked back to where he was leaning against the wall staring at his feet like he was the one dying of boredom.

“Do you not have anything to add to this?” I said, annoyed that he wasn’t sticking up for me.

“Who me?” Carter raised his head. He’d changed a lot in the last two years. It seemed like he had doubled in size overnight. He was so much taller and had added on muscle by working out and playing baseball all the time. He was always practicing something..

“Yeah, you.” I crossed my arms and hit him with a glare.

“Shit, I don’t know. Your dad knows what’s best for you.”

“Are you kidding me?” I threw my hands up in the air stomping toward the table and the man who hadn’t stopped crying since I walked in.

“Dad, I’m smart, and I can do this. Let me show you. I don’t know why you have to make everything so difficult.”

His eyes flicked up from his work. “Your intelligence is not in question. You’re my daughter. Of course, you’re highly intelligent. It’s your temper and lack of self-control that’s the issue. You’re too much like your uncle,” he said, finishing the trunk of the tree.

“I’ve gotten better. I’m practicing breathing and word techniques. Talon is coming back and going to school, and Troy is enrolled. I will be here alone. I need to be normal for a change.” Leaning on the table, I touched the blood and rubbed it between my fingers before drawing a question mark on the man’s forehead.

My dad hated it when I interfered with his work, and he immediately grabbed a cloth and wiped the question mark off.

“You’re not normal, Angel. You’ll never be normal,” he said as I drew another mark on the guy’s chest. My father glared but didn’t say anything and wiped it off. Now this was a fun game. How many could I make before he lost his cool?

Dipping three fingers, my dad snarled at me. “Don’t you dare.”