The sound of our running feet echoes through the cave while gunshots sound closer by the second. After running a few more yards, I guide us left to a crack that leads to the end of the cave we’re in. It’s just wide enough for us to squeeze through, then we push through the bushes that are in front of the entrance before we step out in to the light. Quickly looking behind me, I count at least eight of the Carrillo men still following in our tracks, ignoring my heaving lungs as we make a run for the car.
Ten seconds later, we rapidly jump into the car I stepped out of only twenty minutes ago and Jeremy starts the engine.
He hits the gas full throttle the same second Reyes soldiers jump out of the woods and point their guns at us. Instinctively, I duck my head before I hear the muted thuds of bullets against the bulletproof glass. Jeremy easily maneuvers the car onto the road, and I take a deep breath before I sit up and at the other three Escalades driving at full speed in front of us.
I jerk my head back and look behind me. Four Reyes men are standing in the road, their guns pointed at us, with my brother standing in the middle.
He looks like death staring back at me, as if he can feel my eyes on his.
The car is moving farther away every second, but it doesn’t ease the fear running through my body, knowing this is not the end.
He won’t let me walk away. Not because he gives a shit.
No, because he wants to control me.
“Does Kane really have Genny?” I inquire, my voice laced with fear, hoping he was bluffing.
If Genny is not where I think she is, I’m fucked, my back against the wall.
And left with absolutely no clue as to how to stay alive.
Jeremy glances at me with guilt in his eyes before turning his attention back to the road.
“I don’t think so.”
My heart fills with hope, thinking Kane may have been lying about having Imogen.
“Can I take this off?” I glance down at the belt still hugging my waist.
He reaches in front of me to the glove compartment and takes out a knife before he tosses it on my lap.
“Thank you,” he says while I cut the belt of my body, “for getting us out of there.”
I give him a smile, sawing at the fabric part of the belt until I hold it in my hand.
“Is this real?” I send him an inquiring look.
He chuckles with a smug grin.
“They don’t do bombs, Callie.” He pushes the button of my window. “Throw it out.”
I don’t wait a second before I quickly throw it out, then push the button to close the window again.
“Sure. Now what?” I turn my body to watch him closely.
His smile looks genuine, but at this point, I don’t know what to expect.
“Now we go home.”
41
Kane
Present Day
Liam hands me a tumbler filled with bourbon as I glance down to check my watch, realizing it’s not there.
That sneaky little pickpocket.
I chuckle against the rim of my glass before I lower it and look at my brother.
“What time is it?”
He looks at his wrist before he cocks an eyebrow.
“Almost four.”
They’ve been gone for three hours.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and look for any updates, even though I know there won’t be any. I feel anxious about letting her walk into that cave, knowing they don’t give a shit about her. The only reason I agreed is because I trust Jeremy to get her out safely, and I knew she was right. Put Liam and me in a room with Junior, and one of us will end up dead. If that happened, it won’t take long before it turned in to a shootout, and I promised her we won’t kill her father.
Even though she has no idea who her father really is.
“Any word from Jer?” Liam’s eyes meet mine, and I shake my head.
“What about Reyes?” I shake no again, knowing he’s talking about Callie.
We look up when Jeremy busts through the door with a black eye, followed by the rest of our men.
Minus Callie.
They all look disheveled and frazzled with stern expressions, and my heart skips a beat, preparing for the worst.
“Where the fuck is she?” I bark as I jump up anxiously.
Jeremy takes a deep breath and straightens his shoulders, bracing himself before his eyes move up to mine.
“I’m sorry, boss. She ran. I tried to stop her.” He hands me a black velvet bag.
“What do you mean she ran?” I snarl, confused as fuck.
“She said she had to get to Imogen.”
This was not the plan. She was going to tell her father to fuck off, then come back.
I would’ve brought her to Imogen as soon as this was over.
“Why didn’t she ask me to take her to Imogen?”
I give Liam a confused look, trying to process what’s fucking happening, not fully understanding what this means until something in my head clicks.
She wouldn’t.
“Check the stones,” I bark while I throw the small bag to Liam, unprepared to face the truth myself.
Jeremy’s eyes move from the bag, then back to me, the question visible in his eyes.
“She checked the diamonds. She said they were real. You don’t think …?”
“What exactly did she say?” My blood is boiling, the anxiety swimming in my stomach just moments ago now completely replaced by rage.
She may not be a Reyes by blood, but she is still a Reyes. Liam was right about her, even though my heart has a hard time admitting it.
“She told me to stop the car as soon as we got back in the city. I stopped, thinking she needed some air or something. She seemed upset. I figured it was because of her family. That Junior fucker really hates her. She apologized and told me she was sorry, and then she mumbled something about how she couldn’t come back. I asked her what she meant, but she didn’t answer. I tried stopping her when she started to walk away, but she punched me in the face and made a run for it. We tried to follow her, but she was gone in seconds. Like she disappeared into thin air.”
“Motherfucker!” I shout while I reach for the table and flip it over in anger. “Of course she’s gone. She knows this city like the back of her hand. Do you have anyone trying to track her?” I glance at my brother whose hands are on his hips, gritting his teeth, looking at me with a clenched jaw.
I know what he wants to say, but I don’t want to hear it.
My mind is ready to kill someone, but my heart just wants to know that she is safe. If she’s hiding out in the city, it could take us a while to find her, but Junior will be able to find her in a heartbeat.
“I have two men scouting the city as we speak, but I wanted to discuss things with you before we make any other moves. I was under the assumption she isn’t our prisoner anymore,” Jeremy continues with guilt dripping off his face.
It’s not his fault. He’s right; she wasn’t a prisoner anymore.
I’d expected her to come back.
“It’s all there, the Rustenburgs, the Griff and the Ocean Blues,” Liam confirms.
He is doing his best to keep a straight face, but the sympathy in his eyes is clearly visible.
He feels sorry for me. Here I am, the motherfucker who fell for the same tricks my brother did, even though I should have learned from his mistakes. I was ready to give her everything, and she left me empty-handed.
She fucking bailed.
I run a hand through my hair in frustration, then focus my gaze on the stones laying on the table.
My first reaction is to get in my car and find her, so I can ask her what the hell is going on. To assure her that whatever it is, I will fix it for her.
Her father, her brother, and whatever the fuck mess she’s in with the Italians. I will handle it.
I’m rubbing my palms down my face when I notice something is missing.
“The Russians,” I blurt out as my face falls. “Wh
ere are the Russians?”
Jeremy’s eyes widen in shock.
“I saw them, I swear. They were right there! Two rings and a necklace!”
“Fuck!” I mutter under my breath, feeling more defeated that any other time in my life.
The little witch played me. She tricked me and took the jewels before she took off.
I can’t help but laugh, melancholic thinking about how stupid I was.
“She fucked us over?” Liam asks carefully.
I close my eyes, trying to calm myself down before I nod in agreement.
“She fucked us over,” I admit through my teeth.
“Aaaaaaargh!” I roar in anger while my phone starts to ring in the pocket of my jeans.
I pull it out and see the name that is the root of my rage. I hold it up in the air, showing Liam and Jeremy before I eagerly answer it, still hoping this is all a misunderstanding.
“You lied to me, baby girl,” I growl softly, knowing that yelling at her will show that I care.
“Technically, I didn’t, though,” she refutes with the sounds of traffic in the background. “I told you I would get you your diamonds back. The Russians were never yours in the first place. They’re mine.”
“That is not how this works,” I answer, even though she has a point.
For me, this isn’t about the stones. I don’t give a damn about them. I can buy her anything she could ever want, and I would have.
It’s the betrayal that is fucking with me.
I trusted her. I was ready to give her my heart, yet she stomped on it like it is trash beneath her feet by going behind my back.
Just like her fucking cousin.
“I know, but I’m done letting men control my life, and this is my ticket out of this shit,” she explains before she stays quiet for a few heartbeats. “I’m sorry, Kane. I want to live, and I’ll keep fighting to live for the rest of my life. Thank you, though. For not being a bigger asshole. But I have to go.” I can hear the regret in her voice, and my mind can’t comprehend why she would leave. For the first time in my adult life, I feel powerless. I use my gut and my head to make billion-dollar decisions all the time. So how could I have been wrong about this one that is worth so much more?
I felt it, the connection between us. The chemistry, the undeniable feelings. My fingers twitch, wanting to throw a knife through her deceitful face, but my heart can’t accept that what we shared was all in my head.
She made her bed. Now I’ll have to bury her in it.
“You took my watch,” I tell her, reminded by the empty space on my wrist.
“I did,” she admits flatly.
“I want it back.”
“I know.”
“You know you just signed your own death certificate, right?” Although I hardly believe them, the words come out of my mouth on their own as my gaze flits to my brother.
“I was dead to you either way, Kane,” she whispers.
I have no clue what she is talking about, but at this point I’m too angry to ask. Unless she walks through the door in the next ten seconds telling me it was all a joke, I don’t want to hear anymore explanations from her.
She already got under my skin way too much.
“You can run, or you can hide like your scumbag dad, but you know I’ll find you, baby,” I sneer.
She stays quiet for a few beats, the tension between us vibrating through the phone. I hear her sniffle, like she’s fighting back tears, which baffles me since this was entirely her choice. I want to not give a fuck, but my heart is aching, and I just want to wrap her in my arms.
“I’ll see you then, Kane,” she murmurs before I hear the phone click, and the line goes dead.
The end … for now.
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Acknowledgments
I could write a novella thanking almost everyone I have ever met because I’m an emotional person, but since I don’t think my high school janitor is going to read this, I’m going to keep it short(ish).
First of all, I want to thank you, my reader. Thank you for taking a chance on a newbie author and making my dream come true. Having my stories read by other people than myself is a wish granted. Contact me! Send me a DM, an email, a smoke signal if that is your game, but I want to know if you loved Kane & Callie as much as I do (or if you don’t)!
Second, I want to thank my husband, my baby, my best friend. All the things you have accomplished in the last 10 years of our lives together inspired me to chase my dream, be a better person, and reach for the top. Since the birth of our daughter, being a mom has been my main priority which caused me more stress than we’d first anticipated. Thank you for giving me the freedom to discover what kind of mom/wife I wanted to be and for supporting me through all my ramblings and ideas. Know that everything I do, I do for us and our family. You force me, in the best way, to never stop working on us, myself, and be the best version that I can possibly be for all three of us. I love you more than anything.
Tot het einde & terug.
Thirdly, I need to thank the person who has been my biggest cheerleader since the first day I met her. Lon freaking Cornelisz, you never fail me. Thank you for being my number one fan when I decided to start writing for a living, and thank you for giving me the excitement that was the fuel when my writing car broke down. Thank you for being my unconditional friend no matter the circumstances. *Gets down on one knee* Will you be my alpha-reader for as long as we both shall live until the last book I write? (SAY YES, SAY YES). I love you girl.
Thank you to my first Instagram friends & my dear Betas. Rion, Lea, & Jordan, the three of you took a chance on me, spent your time reading my story even though this isn’t your go-to trope/genre, kept me on track, motivated me, and pushed me to write this thing a lot quicker than I’d initially anticipated. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Sheryn, my Aussie friend, my Beta. Thank you for reading Chasing Fire with such enthusiasm! If you are the only one who reacts to my book like this, know that you made me believe I could find more readers like you.
Thank you my precious pocket friends: Katie, Jess, & Jess. I’m so glad I can share this journey with the three of you. You make me laugh when everything makes me want to cry. Your pep talks, optimism, motivation, and the fact that y'all embrace my level of sarcasm keeps me going when I’m fed up with all of it. Just so you know, you’ll never get rid of me again.
Ride or die, bitches. (No eye rolling, Katie)
And a special thanks to you, Katie Salt! I feel so blessed to be taking the same steps at the same time, to have someone that has the same mindset and to share the moodswings that are a given when one decides to become an author. I probably could've done it without you, but it would've taken me another year to get where I am now and frankly, well... I just don't fucking want to. <3 8
Thank you to my Author friend, Jacie Lennon. Thank you for all your help, guidance, and Southern charm. You are the sweetest girl, a damn good writer, and I feel blessed to call you my friend! One day, I’ll pack my boots and head out to Tennessee!
Kim, thank you for taking a chance on me when I know you are busy as fuck. I feel honored you want to work with me, thankful that you helped me make Chasing Fire the best that it can possibly be & blessed that we had this instant connection that seems to work. I hope you will get a thank you in every book I write, because I refuse to work with anyone else. Just saying.
Thank you to Sharon Plokkaar. Yes, you. Bet you didn’t see that one coming, huh? You were the first who blindly trusted my writing and have always believed in everything I decide to do. Thank you from the bottom of my sometimes ice-cold heart. I know we don’t see each other much anymore, but you have a special place in it, and have been a big influence in my adult life.
And last, but not least … thank you to all my family & friends who believed in me, even though they probably all thought I was crazy at some point.
I love you all.
About the Author
Billie
Lustig is a dutch girl who has always had a thing with words: either she couldn’t shut up or she was writing an adventure stuck in her head. She’s pretty straight forward, can be a pain in the ass & is allergic to bullshit, but most of all, she’s a sucker for love.
She is happily married to her own alpha male that taught her the truest thing about love:
when it’s real, you can’t walk away.
Check out www.billielustig.com for more info, send her a DM on social to let her know what you think of Callie & Kane!
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