chapter 14
TRINITY
“WHEN DID WE BECOME people who have afternoon naps?” I ask, unable to keep the laughter out of my tone. “I’m not usually one of those people, are you?”
Callum’s head turns in my direction. “Nope. Clearly we’re getting old.”
He’s definitely not getting old.
We had sex twice more after the first time, and now my body has that numb, sated feeling. All I want to do is have a shower, then return to bed, maybe eat something. I can’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed.
“We even missed sunset,” I tell him, yawning. “It would have been a pretty one from the back porch.”
“There’s always tomorrow,” he replies, lifting the sheet up as he gets off the bed. “I should start cooking dinner, but first I’m going to have a quick shower. Do you want anything from the kitchen? Water?”
“No, I’m okay, thanks. And steak does sound good right now,” I reply, admiring his body as he walks out of the room. I hear the shower turn on in the bathroom and roll over onto my stomach, stretching lazily.
I slept with my law clerk.
My younger law clerk.
And I don’t regret it.
I just had the best sex I’ve ever had in my life, come more times than I ever have in one session before, and have never felt more beautiful and cared for in my entire existence. I can never regret that. And I don’t want to give it up either. I don’t know how this will work, when things return to normal, but you know what? Right now, shit isn’t normal. It’s all messed up, and I’m in danger, but in between all of that, I found this.
Him.
And something good came out of this.
I don’t know how it happened, but it did. The attraction was always there, but I ignored it, or at least I tried to. I don’t know. Something always set me on edge about Callum, but really it was because I was drawn to him. I expel a deep sigh and pull the sheets over my head. Here, in this house with him, everything seems so simple, but out there it’s not. Things have changed though, I have changed. My world view has been turned upside down all because of this one thing that happened, and now I see things so differently. The shower turns off, and a few moments later Callum returns to the room, so I lower the sheet and roll over onto my back. His towel is wrapped around his narrow waist, droplets of water still on his chest.
“Don’t give me that look,” he murmurs, grabbing some fresh boxers from his bag and sliding them on.
“What look?” I ask him, feigning innocence.
“Like you want to lick me from head to toe, because otherwise I’ll be back in bed with you instead of cooking dinner, and I know you have to be hungry by now.” He grins at me and adds, “I fed one hunger, now I need to feed the other.”
My stomach chooses this moment to grumble loudly, and Callum chuckles. “See, I told you. How do you like your steak?”
“Medium rare, please,” I tell him, mentally preparing myself to get out of bed and into the shower. I also need to change these sheets, and then I’ll help him with dinner.
Callum disappears into the kitchen, and I force myself out of bed.
My other hunger calls.
THE LOCAL SHERIFF DROPS by to check in on us just as we’ve finished dinner.
“How are you finding the town?” he asks as he sits at our table, drinking a coffee I made him. I don’t know how good it is, but he hasn’t flinched or complained about it. I didn’t miss Callum’s amused grin as I offered him one, but I’m not a rude host.
“It’s very . . . different to what we’re used to,” I say, trying to be diplomatic. “We didn’t get to see much today except for the creek, so we’re going to do some exploring tomorrow. Do you have anything you’d suggest for us to check out?”
He scratches his bald head. “Our pub has great food. We have a rodeo on the weekend that will be fun. What else?” He’s racking his brain for things for us to see, probably not a good sign. “I’ll see what my wife can come up with and let you know.”
“Sounds great,” I say.
Once he leaves, Callum and I are cleaning up the kitchen when I hear a bang. I still, my hands in the soapy dishwater as I look to Callum, to see if he heard it too. He puts down the cloth in his hands from where he was wiping down the counters and moves toward the front door. I quickly remove my hands from the water and wipe them dry, then pull out the knife I’d grabbed when Shaun was at the front door. It could be the sheriff; maybe he forgot something. Or maybe Shaun has returned to ask for something—we are his closest neighbors after all. Are we being paranoid? Maybe it’s a fucking bear, or deer, or something. What animals do they get out here? I have no idea. When we don’t hear a second sound, I think that it definitely must have been an animal or something, until another bang.
This time on the back door.
“Callum,” I whisper, fear hitting me. It sounds like someone is trying to kick the back door in. Callum grabs the phone and hands it to me.
“Go into my bedroom, call the sheriff or police station, and lock yourself in,” he demands, pushing me toward the door. “Don’t come out, Trinny, no matter what, all right?”
I nod and do as I’m told, calling the sheriff’s mobile number. When he doesn’t answer, I call the police station and tell them to send someone to the property, now. I don’t listen to the rest of Callum’s orders though, because there’s no way in hell I’m going to lock myself into a room and hide while he faces my enemies for me. I might not be much, but two is still better than one. I’m not going to lie: I’m shit scared. Adrenaline is pumping through my body, and my fight-or-flight instinct is at war between the two options, but my mind, my strongest weapon, is telling me to fight.
Fight, Trinity. Fight.
I walk toward the back door just as it bangs open and Trevor steps inside, a sneer on his face. It’s not him I concentrate on though, it’s the man behind him.
A man I haven’t seen in years.
Callum grabs my arm and pulls me behind him. He’s armed himself with a knife too, I’m guessing because he couldn’t find anything else, considering the shit he gave me for it the first time. “Pretty sure I told you to stay in the room.”
“Not going to let you fight my battle alone,” I tell him, then step out from behind him and ask the men, “How did you find me?”
Trevor answers, even though it’s not him I want to hear from. “We followed the sheriff here. He’s not the smartest tool in the shed.”
“How did you know we were in this town in the first place?” I ask, my eyes still on the man behind Trevor, Luke Templeton. He’s aged over the years, but I never forget a face, especially not this one.
This is the face of a man who ruined my life.
“The police are inadequate,” Trevor says. “All you need to know is the right people, Trinity, and any information is available.”
“And you know the right people?”
“Let’s just say there’s a reason I was let out early, Judge. My uncle is on the parole board, and he has a lot of cop connections. All it took was one phone call to find out your location.”
How did I miss this? His uncle? I hope I get out of this alive to make sure he loses his job and potentially goes to prison himself.
I look to Luke. “Did you put him up to this?”
Luke glances down at Trevor. “He’s my son.”
It all suddenly makes sense.
Trevor might have a reason to dislike me, but it’s his father who has plenty of reason to hate me, and I to hate him. He took more away from me than anyone ever could.
Callum takes my arm. “Who is he, Trinity?”
My hand tightens around the knife handle. “Luke was the pilot when the private plane crashed that killed my parents, four air hostesses, and the copilot. He’s the only one who survived.”
And when it came out that Luke was flying while under the influence, I took him to court. I hired a lawyer, and I sued him. The lawyer did my case pro bono. He said he had a daughter my age and hoped if she was ever in the same situation, someone would help her. He put the money we won in a trust for me, one that I could only touch when I became of age. I didn’t want any of my foster families trying to take the money. Luke lost his job, and I was given the large payout. He killed my family, and I took away his identity, his career, and any respect he ever had. He became a nobody, a disgrace to his employers, and the man who cost them their business.
But he got to keep his life, and his family, which is more than I can say for myself.
And he has a son who he got to raise, while I was sent off to foster care, where not all of the families I was sent to were good people. I’ve been hit before; I’ve been left to go hungry. I’ve been through it all, and still, this bastard is here, in front of me, set on revenge, when ultimately he had the better life out of the two of us.
This right here shows who is weak and who is strong between us.
I took a worse situation and used it to fuel my accomplishments, while he used revenge to fuel hatred and blame.
“And then you took everything from me,” Luke fires back, eyes filled with dark hate.
“And now what? You’re here to kill me? Killing my parents and leaving me an orphan wasn’t enough?” I yell, losing my temper. My fear starts to fade away, anger now pumping through my veins. “I lost everything just because you couldn’t control your drinking and decided to fly that plane drunk!”
It was him driving the getaway car when Trevor tried to grab me, him who pulled the gun out that day.
“You never told me that, Dad,” Trevor murmurs, studying his father, confusion written on his face. “You were drunk when you crashed?”
“Does it matter?” Luke snarls back at his son, fists clenching. “It’s because of her I lost my job, my house, my car . . . everything. And then your mother left me too. It’s all her fault, and now she’s going to pay for the shit life she left me with.”
He pulls out a gun.
His hands are shaking, but I don’t think it’s from nerves. It’s from excitement. He’s wanted this moment for so long, and I don’t think he even cares if he has to do time.
I need to protect myself, protect Callum.
All we have are these kitchen knives, and unless I suddenly learn how to throw before he shoots me, I have no chance.
My mind flashes to something Faye Black, a lawyer I know, once said to me. She said, A woman needs to learn how to use all kinds of weapons. At the end of the day, all you have to protect yourself and your loved ones is yourself.
She invited me over to teach me.
I declined.
And now I’m going to die because of it.
Being antisocial is literally going to be the death of me.
Before my eyes can even adjust to take it in, Luke cocks the gun at me, aims, and pulls the trigger. I close my eyes and brace myself for the impact, but it never comes. Opening them, I scream “No!” as Callum steps in front of me, the bullet hitting him in the stomach. He falls to the ground at the same time I hear the sirens.
The cops are here, and Callum is starting to bleed out. Before I lower myself to help him, I throw the knife. A gamble, I know, but I have nothing to lose. I don’t even look where it ends up, I throw myself onto Callum and try to stop the bleeding with my hands.
“What have you done?” I ask him, my whole body shaking as I realize that I could lose him when I just found him. The cops rush in and I hear one of them call for an ambulance. The others rush around the property, trying to catch Trevor. Luke, I see, is on the ground, my knife sticking out of his chest, but he’s alive, and watching me as he gets arrested.
A cop kneels down next to me and applies pressure to Callum’s bullet wound. Callum has lost consciousness, and I don’t know what to do.
“Will he be okay?” I ask.
I don’t hear his answer, because I go into shock.
Suddenly, everything is black.