CHAPTER 16
“You don’t need to know the details.” Night’s voice on speakerphone was very dark and absolutely expressionless. “But I told him that his daughter is now none of his concern and that if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll forget he even had a daughter.”
Jack frowned at the coffee table on top of which sat Faith’s phone, uneasy with Night’s minimal explanation. Callie had been right, it felt too . . . simple. Anticlimactic. “So what?” Jack asked belligerently. “He’s just going to do what you said? Just like that? And what about that bullshit press conference?”
Isiah, standing with his arms crossed near the couch, gave Jack a warning look, which Jack ignored completely. The guy wasn’t his commander, not fucking yet.
“Yes, he’ll do exactly what I said,” Night answered with absolute conviction. “I saw the footage Sabrina got from the security camera at the Boston MFA and I played it to him. He was . . . less than pleased when I told him I’d hold a goddamn press conference myself, then upload that video to every news site on the planet if he didn’t drop the kidnapping story with the police, then leave her alone.”
Jack couldn’t help glancing over at Kellan at that. He was sitting next to Sabrina on the couch and gave Jack an easy grin, nodding at Sabrina, who was too busy staring at her phone to notice.
A strange feeling went through him and he realized he hadn’t been expecting Kellan to do anything at all about that footage. He’d expected he’d have to deal with this whole thing on his own and . . . well. Turned out he didn’t.
“What changed your mind?” Jack asked, curious despite himself.
“The footage of the senator twisting his daughter’s wrist was a good place to start. Plus, there were other factors, which I’m not going to go into now.”
“But you said there were other lives at stake. What about those?”
“That’s none of your fucking concern.” There was an edge in Night’s voice now. “All that you need to know is that Senator Hawthorne is no longer a threat to his daughter. And as for you, Mr. King, well . . . Now you owe me.”
Jack tensed. He’d been expecting something like this, because rich, powerful fuckers like Night didn’t do favors for nothing. There was always a price. Still, he needed more than this man’s voice down the end of a goddamn phone before he promised the guy anything.
“I’m not done yet,” Jack growled. “I want proof before we get into shit like who owes who what.”
Kellan, sitting on the couch on the other side of the coffee table, grimaced and shook his head, while Sabrina simply stared at Jack as if she couldn’t believe what he was saying.
Clearly, they all held Night in awe for some reason. A reason that Jack must have missed somewhere along the line since he hadn’t met the guy.
And you probably won’t now, not given the way you fucked up your mission.
Yeah, well that was too bad. He’d promised himself he’d protect Callie and he had. She wouldn’t go down on his list of people he’d failed. She would be one of his victories, she just fucking would. He wasn’t going to accept any other outcome. And if that meant he’d screwed up his chances of being one of the 11th Hour team, then he’d screwed up his chances.
He’d find something else to do somewhere. Maybe the fact that he hadn’t found anything for the past six months was simply because he hadn’t looked hard enough.
“Proof?” Night inquired, as if the word was distasteful in some way. “You screw up my goddamn mission, put information I need in jeopardy, and now you want fucking proof? How about my word as a motherfucking gentleman?”
Christ. Did they really not understand the gravity of the situation?
Jack opened his mouth to tell him that actually, his word meant nothing because Jack didn’t know him from a bar of soap let alone a motherfucking gentleman, but then Faith moved over to the table and picked the phone up, hitting a button and lifting it to her ear. She turned and walked away toward to the gym area, talking furiously while holding up a wait hand in Jack’s direction.
“You want some advice, Jack?” Kellan murmured from the couch.
“No, I fucking don’t.”
“Night is someone you really don’t want to piss off,” Kellan went on, taking absolutely no notice. “I mean, seriously.”
Sabrina wrinkled her nose. “Sorry, but I’m on Jack’s side. Sure, Night’s the boss, but if I had a guy like Senator Hawthorne on my tail, I’d want proof he’d been handled too.”
“It’s too easy.”
Jack snapped his head around at the sound of Isiah’s flat voice. “What?”
The older man had gone to sit in the recliner, meditatively stroking his beard between his thumb and forefinger. “You heard me. It’s too easy. The guy’s powerful in his own right and I can’t imagine he hasn’t got the issue of that footage handled.”
Well, this was interesting. Jack hadn’t expected dissension from Isiah.
“Seriously?” Kellan was looking at the other man in surprise. “Come on, man. You really think Night would have said all that if he hadn’t dealt with the issue?”
But Isiah only shook his head. “The whole goddamn situation is strange. The senator wanted our help to protect his daughter from some supposed death threats and according to King, there was an incident when they were both threatened. Yet now he’s suddenly all okay with letting her go? What happened to the whole death threat issue?”
Good question. It had concerned Jack, but he’d dismissed the reasons behind that particular problem as not being part of his job. Yet even from the beginning Callie had been suspicious of her father’s motives, hadn’t she? She’d thought Jack had been hired specifically to keep an eye on her and that the death threats had been merely the excuse her father had given her.
“Callie didn’t think there was an issue,” he said slowly. “She thought her father had hired me to report on her movements to him. I dismissed it at the time, but knowing what I do now, I wouldn’t put it past that prick to have done exactly that.” Another thought occurred to him. “Shit, I found cameras all over her apartment so I took them out. Then he told me to put them all back. But what if they were his right from the beginning?”
Isiah’s hazel gaze was thoughtful. “In that case manufacturing a death threat or two as an excuse for a bodyguard would be nothing. Still . . . Why bother to make excuses anyway?”
“Maybe to generate sympathy?” Sabrina offered. “Could be useful for a political campaign.”
“Holy shit,” Kellan muttered. “Good goddamn point. He gets something for his campaign and gets to keep track of his daughter twenty-four-seven. Perfect. I bet even that attempt on her life was something he manufactured to make the death threats look convincing.”
Yeah, it made sense. It made a lot of sense. The attempt on Callie’s life the night at the club had been half-assed at best, and the driver had been way too nervous to be a professional. It had all been a front, Jack would have bet anything.
But Isiah was right. What did not make sense was Hawthorne letting Callie go simply due to the threat of that footage. A man like the senator could easily explain it away. Easily.
“He’s sure going through a lot just to keep tabs on his daughter,” Sabrina murmured.
“Men like that do,” Jack said, because if anyone knew that, he did. “They’re possessive, territorial.” Like you. “And I know for a fact that he views Callie as his property.” Hadn’t she said something about her father wanting a dynasty? And that with her birth, his plans for that dynasty had ended because her mother hadn’t been able to have kids.
“Mom always said that Dad never hurt her before I was born, but that he changed afterward. And that was my fault.”
Something shifted in the pit of Jack’s stomach, something hard and cold.
Men like Senator Hawthorne wouldn’t accept failure. And they wouldn’t accept losing what they considered theirs. He’d heard enough of his father’s jealous rages to know that.
And you’re just the same.
No. Fuck that. He wasn’t the same. He was different. Yes, he was territorial and he was violent, and sure, the issues he had with his own urges when it came to Callie were twisted. But she was right. Intention mattered.
All he’d ever wanted for her was what she’d wanted for herself. To be safe and happy and free.
Nothing else mattered.
“Fuck,” Kellan said. “He’s not going to let her go, is he?”
But Jack was already turning toward the door, heading straight for the exit, the cold feeling in his gut getting colder and colder.
Because he knew the answer to that already.
* * *
Callie stumbled back from the doorway as her father advanced into the hotel room, shutting the door and his security chief outside.
Adrenaline was pumping through her veins so hard she felt light-headed and sick.
Did you really think you could escape? Did you really think this was all over?
No. NO.
She wasn’t going to panic. She refused.
So her father was here. Okay, so he’d found her. But she knew the drill. She had to calm the fuck down and not let him get to her. Not be afraid.
Because she was strong. Jack had told her she was and she believed him. She felt it inside her, every time he touched her, every time the menace and danger of him whispered over her skin. Every time she challenged him and he answered.
Her father may have won for the past twenty-two years of her life, but he wasn’t going to win today. She wouldn’t let him.
It was her turn to fight. And it was her turn to fucking win.
He didn’t wait for her to speak, just started straight on in, “I have to say, I’m disappointed, Callie.” He put his hands in his pockets, white-haired and handsome and smiling. Unthreatening. Except for the cold glitter of his eyes. “I expected more than for you to take off so suddenly. And without even telling me or your mother where you were going.”
She lifted her chin, met that icy gaze head-on. “You really thought I’d stay? Be forced to go on a date with whatever random asshole you picked for me? And let’s not even go into the years of abuse you put me and Mom through.”
He frowned. “Years of abuse? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m only doing what’s best for you, you little fool.”
“No.” She straightened her spine, drawing herself up, squaring herself off. “You did what’s best for you.”
He shrugged. “What’s best for me is best for you, or haven’t you quite realized that yet? Anyway, that’s beside the point. You’re coming back to Boston with me and you’re coming now.”
“How did you find me? I saw you giving that press conference. . . Did you get the police here to track me?”
“There was no need. Not after one of my security team pointed out that there was a tracking chip in your guitar case.” Satisfaction glimmered in his eyes. “Brought me right to you.”
Oh shit. She’d never thought of that. Then again, she’d never thought there would be cameras in her house either.
“I guess it doesn’t matter how you found me. It doesn’t change anything.” Callie looked him straight in the eye. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Her father’s gaze narrowed, then sharpened as he took in her fighting stance. “Was I not clear? Then let me explain. Either you come with me without fuss or I get Hank to drug you, then carry you out to the car over his shoulder.”
But Callie wasn’t the scared little girl who’d left Boston only a day or so earlier, and maybe she hadn’t been even then. She’d learned fear and suspicion at her father’s hand, but in a matter of a week, she’d learned something else from Jack.
She’d learned how powerful she was. That she wasn’t helpless and she did have choices. More, she’d learned what it was like to have someone protect her. Someone keep her safe. Someone hold her like she was precious.
Someone who cared about her.
Her parents should have been the ones who’d taught her those things, but they weren’t. Jack had.
And she wasn’t leaving him. Not for anyone.
“What?” her father asked quietly, apparently reading her mind. “Are you thinking about your precious bodyguard? Who spirited you away like a knight in shining armor? Rescuing you from your evil father?” He laughed softly and shook his head. “It’s a nice fairy story. But you and I live in the real world, and we both know your place is with me. You promised me, Callie. You know what I’m owed and you said you’d give it to me.”
She had. But only because she was afraid. Only because one look at her mother’s face and she knew she had nothing and no one, so what was the point of fighting?
But she had something now, oh yes, she did.
“No,” Callie repeated. “I’m not giving you a goddamn thing. My place is right fucking here.”
“What? Here? With him?” Her father looked around the hotel room with a sneer. “In this shitty hotel room?”
“This shitty hotel room is perfect.” She let every ounce of contempt she had show in her face. “It doesn’t have cameras in it for a start.”
He laughed at that. Unpleasantly. Like everything else he did. “Ah, so he told you, did he? That’s unfortunate. Then again, it won’t be an issue anymore since you won’t be going back to your town house.”
This time it was Callie’s turn to laugh. “If you think I’m upset about that, I’m not. I don’t want to go back to that damn place anyway. Not when I have everything I need right here.”
Her father stiffened, then tilted his head, his gaze moving coldly over her, like he could see right into her head. “What did he promise you, hmmm? A white picket fence? The whole forever deal?”
But she was ready for the way he used her own doubt against her, the way he manipulated her emotions. Probing for weaknesses. “He didn’t promise me anything but the fact that he’d keep me safe,” she said flatly. “And he has.”
“Sure,” the senator said mildly. “But where does that leave you? Alone in a strange city. No friends to help you out. No job.”
“I don’t mind being alone and I can find a job.”
“What kind? Waiting tables? Scrubbing floors? You have no experience, Callie. Of anything.”
She didn’t even blink. “I don’t care.”
“No, but he might.” There was an icy glitter in her father’s gaze now, she knew it well. He was starting to get pissed. “Face it. You’re a deadweight, girl. He’ll only help you out for so long, and then, once he realizes how much I can make his life a living hell, he’ll drop you so fast your head would spin.”
She blinked, feeling for the first time a little shaken. “What do you mean you’ll make his life a living hell?”
The senator smiled. “I mean, I’ve already got charges against Mr. King for kidnapping. Why not make it rape as well?”
“Rape?” Callie struggled to keep her temper. “Jack never raped me!”
“Did he not?” Her father shrugged again. “I’m sure we can find some evidence that would say he did. And that he threatened you into keeping quiet.”
Now this, she should have anticipated. She really should have. She should have remembered to keep what she felt locked down, never let it show, because he always found her weak spot and he always took advantage of it. Mercilessly.
It used to make her afraid. But she wasn’t this time. No, this time she was absolutely furious.
“You don’t have to threaten him,” she said fiercely, taking a couple of steps so she was right up close. And even though he loomed over her the way he always had, her fury made her feel as if for once they were the same height. “He’s got nothing to do with this.”
“I won’t have to if you make the right decision.” He stared at her, his blue eyes boring right through her. “I’m not going to wait all day, girl. You either come with me willingly or you get carried out. Your choice.”
Yes, and she knew what her choice would be. What her choice would always be.
“I’ve already told you,” she said, and met that cold blue gaze without even a flicker. Because she was fucking steel all the way through, which he should have known. She was his daughter after all.
Impatience rippled over his face. “You don’t understand, I will—”
“Oh, I understand all right,” Callie snapped, interrupting him and relishing the fact. “I understand you’re a small, petty little man who likes to get his own way using threats and intimidation. Well now it’s time for you to understand something. That won’t work on me anymore, Dad. I’m stronger than that. Because the simple fact is, I don’t care. I don’t care about you or your threats, or anything about you. So do what you have to do.” She took another step toward him, getting up in his face. “But know this. I. Am. Not. Coming. Back. To. Boston. And if you want to get me out of this room, you’ll have to kill me first.”
Her father’s mouth twisted. “You’re a stupid little girl and I don’t have time for this nonsense.”
Then he reached for her.