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“Fuck,” I yell and punch my dashboard.
Anger is easier to deal with than fear.
Anger I know how to control.
Fear is paralyzing.
“Get it out, man.”
It takes a minute before I can breathe again without fire in my lungs.
“Okay, good,” Declan tells me while we’re stopped at a red light that I’d really wish he’d run. “Now you want to tell me what the hell is going on? And when exactly you started seeing Caitlin Beneventi?”
“August.” I don’t bother denying it because Sam can suck a dick for all I care. I’m never denying it again. Fuck him, if he can’t keep her safe.
“Want to tell me what happened?” he asks.
“No. But you might not want to come inside. It’s not going to be pretty,” I warn him.
And when we pull up to the gate ten minutes later and the guard lets us through, I turn to my brother. “Call your wife. Tell her to come get you because I don’t know what I’m walking into, Dec.”
“What the hell, Callen? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means if I have my way, I’m not leaving here without Caitlin, and I don’t want you here for this shit. Sam’s your friend, but he’s not mine.”
But that woman inside that house—the one who’s carrying my baby—she’s mine.
Declan doesn’t listen.
He follows me to the front door and smiles sweetly when Amelia opens it for us.
“Where is she?” I ask, not giving a shit what kind of an ass I sound like.
“Caitlin?” Amelia steps back, letting Declan and me inside. She kisses his cheek, seemingly confused.
Until she isn’t.
Her eyes narrow on me, and a hard glint takes shape in her icy blues. Eyes the same color as her daughter’s. Her entire attitude changes in an instant. Where a second ago, she was confused and open, she’s now closed off and furious. “Why are you here, Callen?”
“Amelia—” Declan starts, but Amelia holds up her hand, stopping him.
“This doesn’t involve you, Declan,” she snaps, and I get a glimpse of the woman everyone likes to warn you about. The one who killed another woman to save Declan’s wife’s life. “Your brother took something that didn’t belong to him, and instead of treating it like the precious gift it was, he tried to destroy it.”
Every word... Every syllable... They’re laced with a deadly venom directed at me. “So, I’m going to ask this one more time before I have you escorted out of my house, Callen. Why. Are. You. Here?”
“Callen?” Maddox comes out of the kitchen with Lucky and Rome next to him. “You here to see Cait?”
“He’s leaving,” Amelia announces.
“I’m not,” I move around her until Rome blocks me.
“Hey, man.” He widens his stance. “Not sure what’s going on, but you heard Mom. Sounds like it’s time for you to leave.”
Maddox stays back, watching. “What the hell is going on?”
“Why don’t you ask your friend, Maddox,” Amelia challenges, like she thinks I’m going to back down.
Maddox watches me.
