32. Callie

Eli had been gone for so long that the room had grown as dark as the world outside. The only light came from the electronic clock on the sideboard but it served as nothing more than a beacon highlighting how fucked I really was.

My earlier struggles as soon as Eli had left knocked the chair onto its back, and I was unable to right myself or roll to the side. Both my arms had long gone cold and numb from being bound and trapped to the wooden slats. Pain flared hot through my left shoulder for the first hour or so but eventually, even that went numb.

Eli went to meet Sawyer and never came back.

I had no clue if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but with only my thoughts for the company, I was spiraling down into darkness I couldn’t escape. My mind ran on its own, taunting me with horrors. What if Eli got hit by a car and died, never meeting up with Sawyer? No one would know I was here. Would housekeeping come looking for me, or had they been paid to stay away?

What if I was trapped here forever and left to die? What if Eli got what he wanted and abandoned me here?

In the end, I resorted to doing the only thing I had power over. I screamed. I screamed as loud and as hard as I could through the tape, with all the air I could drag into my lungs.

No one came.

I screamed out all my rage and hurt, screamed out my upset, and screamed until my throat was burned raw. I screamed until there was no air left inside me and only this, by some stroke of luck, did someone finally enter the room.

In the darkness, it was hard to track the shadow as they stormed into the room, highlighted by pale yellow light streaming in from the hallway. A switch clicked, and a small lamp flooded the room with warmth. Then two hands grabbed my shoulders and hauled me and the chair upright.

Through tears of relief, I breathed hard through my nose and sought out my rescuer.

Only, he wasn’t my rescuer.

His eyes weren’t the first clear thing I saw. Instead, it was a lanyard with the PRISM logo stamped on the bottom right corner. This wasn’t someone from the hotel. This was someone who worked for Eli.

“Thank god,” he said with a groan, patting my cheek. “You wouldn’t stop fucking screaming, it was driving me insane. You know there’s no one else here, right? Eli bought out the entire floor, so you’re screaming to no one. Just me and I don’t give a shit.”

His dark green eyes were light with amusement as he patted my cheek. All I could do was glare at him, spitting muted curses behind the tape keeping me unable to speak. Just as I cursed out his entire bloodline, white-hot pain shot down both my arms and I choked. Throwing my head back, I twisted in my seat and yelped as the fire seared from my shoulders all the way down to my fingertips. Unbearable heat built up inside me, followed by the most painful pins and needles I had ever experienced while blood rushed back into my numb arms.

“The fuck is wrong with you now?” The man grabbed my jaw, pulled my head forward and looked me in the eye. “Nothing you can do will make me untie you, understand? You’re here until the boss gets back. Honestly, I don’t know what you did but…” He shrugged and released me, straightening up with a sniff. “He’s pissed. And you don’t want t?—!”

Suddenly the stranger was gone, whipped away from my vision by a blur. I blinked and strained through my tears, trying to see what the hell had just happened. Grunts reached my ears; then suddenly, a warm palm cupped the side of my face.

I looked up, and Liam was right in front of me.

What the hell?

“Hey stranger.” He smiled so wide and warm that my heart punched painfully up into my throat and I couldn’t take in enough air to sob.

He was here. He was, somehow, right here.

“I need you to stay still, okay? I’m going to try and take the tape off.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Every detail of his handsome face was utter perfection and I tried my hardest not even to blink so that this mirage wouldn’t fade. Liam’s hand on my cheek was so gentle that tears flooded my eyes. I watched him for as long as I could and he slowly began to unwind the tape from my mouth.

“God, it’s even in her hair,” Liam muttered as he moved around me. Despite the initial sting of individual hairs being snagged in the tape, the pain faded as Liam stepped away and Sawyer melted into my vision.

My heart seized in my chest as a tight band snapped across my ribs. Sawyer was here.

I glanced to my right,and Kane was on the floor, apparently having knocked the guard out with a punch or two.

They were all here.

Oh my god.

Then Liam was back in front of me and the final strip of tape was pulled painfully from my mouth.

I gasped openly, unsure whose gentle fingers were working at the rope around my wrists and ankles.

“You’re here,” I croaked, studying every detail on Liam’s face once more. “I don’t understand. You’re all here. How are you all here?”

Emotion swelled up in my chest and I couldn’t contain my sobs. The moment my hands were free, I clasped them over my mouth and glanced from Liam to Sawyer. Uncontrollable trembles swept down my arms and legs, and with how tight my chest was, I couldn’t manage more than short gasps.

“Of course we’re here,” Liam said.

The guard on the floor grunted and moved as Kane stood, so he turned and swiftly punched the man straight in the face once more.

“Fuck,” I gasped, “that was kind of hot. I think this might be a dream.”

“Not a dream,” said Sawyer as I was scooped up into Liam’s strong arms. “Not a dream at all.”

As soon as I met his gaze, a fresh wave of tears consumed me, and countless apologies fell from my lips, which were mostly incoherent. I was scared, exhausted and confused – mixing that with relief was one incredible elixir in my mind that fuzzed the edges of my world.

“Later,” Sawyer said, stepping close and placing his hand on my arm. “We’ll talk later. First we need to get you to a hospital.”

Fresh out of the hospital after a four-hour check-up, I sat in my apartment, wrapped up in a flurry robe two sizes too big for me – courtesy of Liam. Liam sat to my left. Kane sat to my right and Sawyer stood in the middle. They hadn’t left my side since my rescue, refusing to talk about anything until I had been seen by a doctor.

All three of them had been unwilling to leave me when the doctor requested privacy, but eventually, they relented. I was mostly unharmed. I had a few bruises and cuts and a nasty egg-shaped lump on the back of my head, but all in all, physically, I was okay.

Mentally? That remained to be seen.

“He just… appeared one day. I didn’t really understand what was going on and to some degree, I still don’t. One minute he was just at Bianca’s clinic, the next he was paying my overdue bill and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have the money to pay him back and in the end, it slipped my mind. My own fault, I know.”

A strained noise escaped Sawyer, but he remained silent.

“Then he moved her. He just… took her and no one seemed to see an issue with it. It was a complete accident that he was put down with as my husband but none of the staff listened to me. I even called the police but they made me feel so stupid and so… so humiliated that I gave him. I had no idea what to do; I was caught between a rock and a hard place, and I just…”

My attention drifted down to the large sleeves covering my hands. I started picking at the fluff, enjoying the softness as much as being irritated that I didn’t deserve kindness and gentility right now.

“And then…” My throat closed briefly and I swallowed hard. “Then I found out I was pregnant and I had no idea what I was going to do. It was all so real. Too real. I thought I was just sick with stress because Eli had my Mom and he was demanding I steal all that stuff, so I did.” Tears stung at my eyes. “I stole it because my Mom remembered me and it was such a good feeling. I was selfish, and I clung to that feeling so hard because I needed her to know me. But then it was the wrong thing and I tried to tell you all. But you were fighting, and it was all my fault, and then Bianca lost her job, and I?—.”

I hurriedly wiped away a few stray tears. “So, I was going to hand myself in. I wrote you all a letter, and then I was going to hand myself into the police when Eli snatched me. I thought he was going to kill me. He was so angry.”

Sniffling, more fluff from the robe drifted past my picking fingers and down to the floor, scattering around my bare toes.

“So that’s it. That’s all of it. And I’m prepared, so if —if you want to take me to the cops yourself or have your lawyers deal with me, then I am ready. I am.”

“Callie.” Kane’s warm hand suddenly slid over my own, and he wound our fingers together so I could no longer tear the fluff off my sleeve. He gripped me with such comforting strength that my heart fluttered and my head spun a little.

How could he stand to touch me after what I did? How do they not hate me?

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, keeping my head down. They rescued me and got me medical treatment but I was still so scared I would glance up and see hate in their eyes.

“How far along are you?” Liam asked quietly. “With the pregnancy?”

“Uhm…” My brow pinched and I shrugged one shoulder. “Around two months, I think? Given how long I was feeling sick for and things. I was due another appointment but I haven’t had time. Given how we’ve all…” Shaking my head, I finally looked up. “One of you is the father but I had no idea who. I’m so sorry that the pill didn’t work. I swear this was unintentional.”

Sawyer finally stepped forward away from the wall. He stopped just in front of me and dropped down to his haunches so that we were at eye level.

“We don’t care who the father is,” Sawyer said. Thankfully, he kept talking before my mind could doom-spiral and fill in the gaps. “We care about you. Deeply. And the baby. Individually, it doesn’t matter before the health of the baby. It’s… amazing news.” A warm smile curved across his lips. “We don’t care about the patent either. It’s a stroke of luck, I think, that you stole the wrong one. We’re not in trouble, not in the slightest.”

“Bianca has her job back,” Kane said, squeezing my hand.

“And we’re taking care of your mother’s bills for now,” Liam said. “Ultimately, her care is up to you but until you’re ready to make that decision, all payments will be taken care of by us.”

“I don’t understand,” I whispered, glancing between the three of them. “Why don’t you hate me?”

“For what?” Sawyer asked, drawing my attention back to him. “For being scared? For doing what was best for your mother? I think I speak for all of us when I say that the only thing that pains us is that you couldn’t come and talk to us. Whether we weren’t open enough or we need to gain more of your trust; whatever the reason, we will work on it.”

“Because we care about you, Callie,” Liam said. “So fucking much.”

“In regards to Eli,” Kane sighed. “We also have your back if you wish to press charges against him.”

“I—no. No, I don’t think I want to do that.” I shook my head. It would place the spotlight on me and give Eli a chance to turn the blame back onto my shoulders for all the wrongs I did. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to have any more to do with him. Not even a little.”

“It’s your choice,” Sawyer replied softly.

“So are… are you going to have me arrested?” I asked cautiously, wiping away another few stray tears. “For what I stole?”

“No,” Liam chuckled. “What you did… well, we’ve all done crazy things for our family and like Sawyer said, we only want you to trust us and understand how much we love you.”

The words slipped from his lips, and then the cutest pink blush crept over his cheeks. My heart fluttered in my chest, and my mouth turned impossibly dry.

“Love?” I repeated hoarsely. “You love me?”

The blush on Liam’s cheeks deepened, even as he straightened himself up and cleared his throat. “I do,” he said. “I have for a while but admitting it has felt… impossible.”

“Admitting it feels like exposing a part of ourselves that we wanted to protect because loving you so deeply meant that the rejection would be crushing,” Kane said softly, pulling my attention to him. “But loving you is the easiest thing to do. I knew it for a long time but I didn’t see it until Eli was threatening to keep you away from me forever.”

“I think I have been in love with you since the moment I met you,” Sawyer said, delicately placing his hands on my knees. “I knew it the moment you fell in my office and had the sweetest smile on your face even as you were flat on your back. I just didn’t see a way to make you mine. Until I thought I was going to lose you. Loving you is like breathing. I can’t live without it.”

“Even after what I did?” I whispered, lacking the strength to speak properly. “Even after I nearly ruined your business?”

Sawyer cupped my cheek and traced his thumb along under my eye, catching tears.

“Losing you would ruin me,” he said. “Whatever you want, whatever you need. We’re here.”

“Whatever you want to do with your baby,” Liam said, sliding his arm around my back. “We’re here for you.”

“Just please,” Kane added hoarsely. “Don’t send us away.”

This couldn’t be real. Maybe I died in that room and this dream is the afterlife. They weren’t mad at me; they loved me even despite what I did. What hurt, surprisingly, was that they also all seemed to understand why I did what I did. If only I had reached out and told them the truth sooner.

“I can’t ever send you away,” I wept quietly, taking them all in. “Because I love you too. All of you. That’s why I was so scared that anything I did would make you hate me. But I love you. All of you and I think…”

Wetting my lips with a dart of my tongue, I sniffled softly.

“I think I want to have this baby.”