CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
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Calder
An easy contentment was in my eyes as I stood in front of the mirror in my bathroom getting ready for the day. I felt rested again after my second night of uninterrupted sleep since Ella and I got back together. My workout this morning had been especially good. I felt strong, powerful, and on top of my game, like I could take on the world and have a guaranteed win. What would it be like when I finally got to sleep next to Ella? I snorted out a laugh and grinned. Well, for one, I wouldn't have to jerk off in the shower to thoughts of my hands all over her body while I told her all the filthy things I wanted to do to her.
The Indigo Room was closed today, so I didn't have to work late tonight. I planned on visiting her afterwords, and bringing the two of them dinner. Maybe she and I could fool around a little after Violet went to sleep. Tomorrow night I hoped to convince her to stay after work so I could take advantage of her in my office before she went home. Maybe I could tie her to my desk for a little erotic torture session.
My grin widened. I didn't think it would take much convincing. Ella wanted me as much as I wanted her. It had been excruciating dropping her off at her brother's house last night and going home alone. She belonged in my home, in my bed, but we'd agreed that Violet wasn't ready for that. I had to be patient. The last thing I wanted was to hurt that kid in any way. I left the bathroom and sighed as I glanced toward the guest room across the hall where Violet had slept the night before. I missed that little girl. She belonged here too.
I walked out of the bathroom and went into the closet to get dressed. I flicked through my suits trying to find the one that fit me the best, wanting to look good for Ella and stack the deck in my favor, so I could get laid tonight. My phone started ringing on the nightstand. I groaned and hurried to answer it, thinking Gwen was already calling about some crisis. I saw Ella's name on the screen as I picked it up and smiled.
"Good morning, my lovely," I greeted her warmly. "Did you miss me as much as I missed you last night?"
"He took her," came Ella's unexpected reply in a wavering voice. "He...he took her, Cal."
"What?" I asked as icy dread streaked up my spine.
"Violet," she said frantically. "He took her last night. I woke up, and she was gone. I have to get her back. I have to." Her babbling voice was panicked now, her breathing erratic and all over the place. What the hell was she talking about?
"Ella," I barked out to jolt her out of it. "Calm down and tell me what's going on," I demanded sharply, feeling the first stirrings of panic myself.
"Ray's alive," she answered between sobs. "He's...he's alive, and he took my Violet."
The dread turned to stark fear, paralyzing me where I stood.
"Are you sure?" I asked hoarsely, not wanting to believe it was true. It couldn't be.
"Yes," she said. "He video called me, and he told me to leave you and come to him tonight if I ever want to see my baby again."
"How?" I asked incredulously. "How is he alive?"
"I...I don't know," she gasped out between harsh ragged breaths. "I don't know what to do, Cal. Help me. Help me, please. I...I have to get her back."
She began sobbing hysterically now, and it tore my heart in two and enraged me. I latched onto the anger, using it to burn away the panic that threatened to overwhelm me. I didn't have the luxury of losing it right now. Ella needed me. Violet needed me. I wouldn't let them down.
"I'm on my way, baby," I told her as I rushed back into the closet to grab some clothes. "I'm coming to you, and we'll figure it out. We'll get her back. I promise you that we'll get her back."
"Okay," she whispered dejectedly.
"I'm hanging up now," I said in as calm a voice as I could muster. "Just stay put and hold on until I get there. Can you do that for me?"
"Okay."
"Good," I said firmly. "I'll see you soon, baby."
It pained me to end the call, but I couldn't do this alone. I needed help, and I knew just the person I needed. I quickly threw on some clothes, then pulled up the number I needed and placed the call as I rushed downstairs to head for the garage.
Scott answered on the first ring. "What's up?"
"Voss is alive, and he took Violet," I explained succinctly as I hurried through the house.
He was silent for a beat, then asked, "When?" His tone was sharp and focused now. That was what I needed. No one could stay calm and level headed in a crisis like my best friend.
"Last night," I replied. "I don't know the details, but I'm on my way to Ella's house now."
"Text me the address," he demanded. "I'll meet you there." The call ended.
I sighed in relief as I climbed into my Tesla, then sent him the address. I knew Scott would drop everything and come to my aid. He was my blood brother, and I could always count on him.
I drove to my Ella like a madman, weaving around slower cars and cutting people off as I left a trail of blaring horns and middle fingers behind me. I didn't care. When I finally skidded to a halt in front of her brother's house and flew out of the car, Ella came bursting out through the front door and was running to meet me with the most heart-wrenching expression of anguish on her face I'd ever seen. I pulled her into my arms halfway up the sidewalk, and clutched her to my chest as she began to sob.
"I'm here now, baby," I murmured into her hair. "I'm here."
I just held her for a while, trying to will my strength and love into her. We were still standing there when an old gray Buick Le Sabre pulled up behind my Tesla. I breathed a sigh of relief as Scott climbed out and strode toward us with a laptop under one arm and a gym bag in his other hand. His eyes narrowed slightly as he took in the sight of Ella in my arms, but he said nothing about it as he approached.
He came up beside us and stopped. "We should go inside," he said, his tone even and business-like, then he moved on toward the front door.
Ella stiffened as she watched Scott disappear into the house. "Cal?" she asked worriedly as she twisted in my arms and met my eyes with an anxious expression.
"I trust Scott with my life." Hell, he'd saved my life when I almost died from an overdose. "He's our best bet to get Violet back." I reached up to cup her face tenderly. "Trust me," I added sincerely as I tried to remain calm and not let on that the fear and despair in her eyes gutted me. It was killing me to see her like this, but she needed my strength right now, not my tears.
"Okay," she whispered with a subtle nod.
I gave her a quick kiss, before ushering her back into the house. We walked in to find Scott already sitting on the sofa and setting his laptop on the coffee table. I led Ella to the love seat that sat catty-cornered to Scott, and pulled her down next to me with my arm wrapped around her shoulders reassuringly.
Scott opened and powered up the computer then looked at Ella with a calm expression. "Walk me through everything," he said to her in a reassuring voice.
She took a shaking breath and began speaking, telling Scott how she woke up alone, and frantically searched for her daughter, before finally looking at Violet's tablet. She began to tremble as she told him about the video call with Ray, and the horrible things he said to her. I could tell how much seeing him alive had shaken and upset her. My blood was boiling by the time she was through, and it was all I could do not to start pacing or punching a few fucking holes in the wall.
Scott nodded as she finished, his expression grim now. "I'll need to see that tablet."
"Okay," Ella replied and stood to hurry toward the stairs.
Scott's sharp and calculating blue eyes narrowed in on me as soon as Ella disappeared upstairs.
"You're not just playing house are you?" he asked in a pointed, yet thoughtful tone with his head cocked slightly.
I shook my head.
"You love her?" he asked in a softer tone.
"I've always loved her, Scott. She's mine."
"And the little girl?"
"She's mine now too," I said vehemently. "That bastard can't have either of them."
He nodded once in understanding, then turned to reach into his duffel bag. A second later, he pulled out a Glock 9mm pistol in a black leather belt holster and wordlessly held it out to me. I glanced at the weapon and recoiled away from it, then looked back up at Scott. I hadn't touched a gun in a very long time, and was loath to do it again. It brought up memories from when I was a desperate addict living in the darkest and most dangerous parts of The Armpit where I was never really safe.
"Raymond Voss is a violent and ruthless killer," Scott said grimly. "Don't think for a second that fucker will hesitate to eliminate anyone he sees as a threat to his agenda, you, me, Ella, or even his own child." He pulled open one side of the button-down shirt he was wearing over his T-shirt to show me his Smith and Wesson 9mm in a shoulder holster. Then he leaned forward and pressed the Glock into my reluctant hands. "We need to stack the deck in our favor."
I sighed as I gripped the pistol in my hands, then nodded in agreement and quickly placed the holster on my belt at the small of my back. Hopefully, if I got caught by the cops with it, I'd only get a fine and no jail time since I didn't have a gun license, let alone a concealed carry permit. Thankfully, my record was clean for the last eight years, but the years prior to that, and especially the ones while I'd been using, weren't so untarnished. I was fortunate I didn't earn myself an actual felony. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just never got caught doing anything that would have earned me one. I was just pulling my T-shirt down over the pistol as Ella came back downstairs. Good, I think seeing the weapon on me would push her over the edge right now.
Ella handed the tablet to Scott then rushed over to sit back down next to me. She curled close against me, burrowing her face into my chest to cry silent tears. I held her tight and murmured comforting words to her as Scott silently scrolled through the tablet's contents for several minutes.
Eventually, Scott made a disgusted noise. "What a piece of shit bastard," I heard him growl quietly to himself as he put the tablet down with a hard glare at it. He shook his head and turned his attention to his laptop. He clacked away on the keys for a moment then turned the screen around toward me. "Do you know this place in The Armpit where Ray wants Ella to meet him?" he asked me.
I focused on the screen and studied the street view image of a large and dilapidated brick building for a moment. I abruptly stilled as I recognized it with wide eyes, then swore under my breath.
"I'm assuming that's a yes?" Scott asked with a worried frown.
"Yeah," I said softly.
Ella sat up and looked at the computer now too, then gave me a questioning expression along with Scott.
I swallowed and fought to calm my racing pulse. "I squatted there for a while the first time I was homeless."
Ella gasped and gaped at me in horror. Scott merely gave me a nod and a look of empathy. He'd heard me talk about my time on the streets in our addiction recovery meetings many times over the years, but this was all new information for Ella.
I got myself evicted from the apartment that she and I lived in within a year after she left me. I stopped paying the rent to spend the money on heroin, since by then I'd already pawned anything of value I had for drugs, including her engagement ring. All I'd left behind when I lost the home I once shared with her was a mattress and some clothes.
The building on Scott's laptop wasn't that far from Rexy's Bar, and it was convenient for me to go to work so I could earn more drug money. I recognized the nearby sketchy convenience store in the image that I used to shoplift from for food when I actually remembered to eat or for booze when I wanted to get drunk while I got high.
It was a wonder I didn't die alone from an overdose or get murdered in my sleep in that building before Rex took me in for the first of many times he tried to help me get clean. I hid my homelessness from him for quite some time before he figured out I was living in an abandoned and condemned building and got me out of there. I wished I could say it was the only time I ended up living on the streets.
"So you're familiar with its interior?" Scott asked me.
I nodded reluctantly at him, trying to ignore Ella's stricken expression. I never wanted her to know the true extent of how bad those fucked-up years were for me. I didn't want her to feel anymore guilt than she already did, and frankly, I was ashamed of what I did to myself too.
"Can you remember it well enough to get around inside?"
"I can try," I said in a quiet subdued voice, feeling the first stirrings of panic rising inside me.
Seeing that building again stirred up a lot of horrible memories that I just as soon forget, and made me feel sick. Now it looked like I'd have to go back there, and the mere thought of it filled me with dread that the place might trigger a relapse, but I would do it anyway. I'd do anything for Ella and that little girl, no matter the cost to myself.
"Good," Scott said with a shit-eating grin and a cunning gleam in his eyes as he met my gaze. "Because we're going to get Violet back, and take that piece of shit down in the process too."
I nodded and breathed a little easier, his calm confidence easing some of my disquiet. It gave me hope that I was strong enough to see this through. I had to be, because the alternative was unthinkable and would cost me what I'd just managed to get back and wanted more than anything, the promise of a happy future with Ella and Violet.