Caleb (The Unseen Series Book 1)

by K. M. Thompson

  “When you shot him in the head, you mean?”

  Logan killed our father? I look to Grayson who looks to be as flabbergasted as I am. He just shakes his head at me and shrugs. He has no idea what’s going on either.

  “You didn’t tell your brothers that Daddy dearest was killed by your hand, did you?” Vitale is clearly trying to provoke Logan and I really don’t understand why.

  “He didn’t deserve such an easy death, he deserved to rot away slowly after what he did.”

  “It doesn’t matter now, the ring is up and going again and I’m the new ring leader.” Logan moves quickly, faster than I think I’ve ever seen anyone move, ever. It’s all too much to take in at once, my brain already cloudy from the torture and pain can’t seem to get a handle on what’s going on.

  Logan and Aiden have guns, Grayson is coming toward me, the door flies open and the room begins to fill.

  Grayson looks me over and assesses the situation. He removes the bricks from under my ankles but doesn’t remove the restraints. “Man, I’m sorry but this is going to hurt a bit.” He lays the bed back down and places a hand over my mouth before he pulls the needles from my fingers. I could have passed out from that pain alone—the hand covering my mouth only partially muffles my screams.

  “I think I would have preferred to die,” I say through heavy breaths as I breathe through the pain glad the restraints are still in place.

  “I don’t see why? We’re rescuing you. Now please try not to be such a girl when I take the needles out of your toes.” I know why he’s being a dick, he can see I’m literally on my last legs and he needs me to man up for just a few more minutes until we get out of here. He’s provoking me on purpose to get a reaction and what better way to do that than by emasculating me even more than I already have been?

  “I am not a girl,” I spit through gritted teeth.

  I see the slight smirk on Grayson’s lips. “We’ll see,” he says and pulls the final six needles out of my toes. I manage to grit my teeth and bear it, but I’m sure I just chewed a chunk out of my cheek. “Maybe you’re not a girl after all.”

  “Once I’ve recuperated, I’ll show you just how much.” I chuckle softly, glad to be needle free.

  “Stop!” a voice calls from across the room. Grayson looks over, but I can’t see. With an unconcerned expression, Grayson turns back to me and begins undoing my restraints.

  I eye the situation in the room—Logan and Aiden have their guns in hand, and have been joined by Edward and Cain. They knew they were going to be ambushed or they had at least planned for that scenario. All except one of Vitale’s men and the man himself are down.

  “Now who has the upper hand?” Logan taunts Vitale. “You forget I know how you work. I knew your men were waiting in the city to take out Caleb. I knew you would find the trackers. I knew how your ego wouldn’t allow you to remove the tracker from Caleb’s groin because you want to get your hands on me so badly. I knew that if we arrived too quickly you would suspect a set up. I knew you were unaware of the extra hands we had. I played you at your own game Vitale, the whole way.”

  “Do you think you have amounted to something boy? I remember having you on your knees begging me to stop, to kill you, to get it over with and even to let you come,” Vitale gloats and for the first time I realize I’m missing some important information from my brother’s younger years.

  “I’ve amounted to a lot more than you have,” Logan replies, completely ignoring his latter comment. “What’s Buccieri going to do to you when he finds out you don’t have any more daughters to barter with?”

  “That piece of trash over there is my daughter whether I like it or not, so I decided I might as well use it to my advantage and then that fucking brother of yours went and knocked her up.”

  “Well that explains you torturing him,” Logan muses more to himself. “You know Caleb is the baby’s father but your big fat ego wouldn’t allow you to kill him until you got a confession from him. You wanted to break him down and punish him for what happened to Molly, but you see the thing is it wasn’t Caleb who killed Molly.”

  “He’s the reason she’s dead. He may not have pulled the trigger, but he played his part.”

  “No he didn’t, Caleb did everything he was meant to do.” Logan pauses for a moment and then raises his chin. “I was just one step ahead of him.”

  “What?” Vitale and I both say in unison as I step out from behind Grayson.

  “Caleb, put this on,” Grayson says handing me his long black coat. “No one will take you seriously naked.”

  I snatch the coat from him and pull it around me. “Don’t,” I say to him. “This isn’t the time for your sarcasm.”

  “I wasn’t being sarcastic—”

  “Don’t!” I yell. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I turn to Logan.

  “Are you telling me you’re the one responsible for my daughter’s death?” Vitale ask, his voice controlled and his words precise.

  “Not entirely true, but yes we were both involved in her abduction,” Aiden joins in. “After what you did, did you really think we wouldn’t get you back one day?”

  “You killed Molly?” I ask Logan, wanting to wrap my head around this. “I’ve blamed myself for the last nine months for her death. I always thought it was an inside job, someone who knew my movements, but I would never have suspected you.”

  “You killed my daughter for revenge?”

  “You damn near killed us! We swore we would do the same to every man and woman who put their hands on us,” Logan replies to Vitale, completely avoiding me.

  “Leo didn’t have to take you in. You’re not even his blood, but he did. He gave you a home, food, clothes and all you had to do was pay your way.”

  “I was a child!” Logan screams. “We all were and this new ring of yours will be shut down with your death.”

  “You can shut it down again and again but there will always be a demand for it, there will always be someone else ready to take over,” Vitale sneers.

  “And I’ll always be there to put a bullet in their heads,” Logan says with conviction. “Just so you know, I was Leo Slate’s son. A DNA test proved it. That was why he left me everything in his will. It was his way of trying to make amends for what he put me through. Maybe in another life I would have forgiven him, but not this one. In this life I put a bullet in his brain.”

  “So why has it taken so long for you to come after me, it’s been eight years since you murdered your father?”

  “I bid my time. I couldn’t draw attention to myself or my brother’s who were coming back from Ireland to help me and I couldn’t take you all out at the same time, so one by one I took something from you all. Just seeing your faces when you knew your child was dead should have been enough for me. No, I craved the look I got when they realized I was going to make them commit suicide. Everyone else knew it was us kids from the ring that were responsible and they were waiting for us to come. All of them except you, but now I know why. You had already taken Leo Slate’s place as the ring leader and were rebuilding it. Did you think you had shattered us that badly that we wouldn’t come for revenge one day? Are you that egotistical?” I’m listening to Logan wondering at what point I’m meant to understand his actions, but all I can think about is the innocent life he took.

  “So that’s it then, we all just go back to our lives? You get to walk out of here alive with your brothers and the girl, we’re all square,” Vitale says almost nervously.

  “No, my brothers, the girl, and I will be walking out of here alive. This is when you die and we shut down the ring,” Logan’s voice is eerily calm.

  “You killed my daughter and I’m letting you take the other one—”

  “Let’s get one thing straight, you’re not letting me take SJ, you have no choice in that matter. As for Molly, I didn’t kill her.”

  “You were involved—”

  “Molly isn’t dead.”

  The room falls silent at Logan�
��s words. I think my mind literally shatters at this new information.

  Molly isn’t dead.

  “You’re going to sit down and we will deal with you in a moment. Your daughter wishes to speak to you. Everyone else, get SJ and Caleb out of here,” Logan says, still not meeting my eye, but right now I’m not too bothered. I dash to the other side of the room and grab SJ up in my arms.

  I haven’t heard a peep out of her in the whole time I’ve been here, but as soon as I touch her, she begins screaming and flailing her arms around. Before I see what’s going on, Vitale’s last man standing has moved over to where we are. He pulls a needle from his pocket and plunges it into SJ’s neck. I see red and try to take the guy out, but I’m so weak. He pins me in seconds and I wonder why no one is rushing to help.

  “Caleb, calm down, it’s me,” the man says and I know who it is now.

  “Get off me Kade.” I shake him off. “What did you just do to her?”

  “She was going into shock, I sedated her,” he replies sincerely.

  “What about the baby?”

  “It won’t harm the baby,” he responds. “I was here when she was brought in. I gave her a mild sedative to keep her in a dream like state. Vitale didn’t know and thought Buccieri had just broken her. I tried reassuring her when she arrived—she gave me a pretty little smile. I promised her I would do what I could to keep the trauma to a minimum, hence the sedatives.”

  Kade takes off his jacket and places it over SJ, giving her a little modesty. He unlocks the collar around her neck, picks her up and leaves the room. Grayson and Cain follow him out, while Logan and Aiden are standing over Vitale. I go to speak to Logan but Edward steps in front of me.

  “Now isn’t the time,” he says gently. “Come on, you, SJ and the children are going to come and stay with Dana and I for a couple of weeks.”

  “I can’t—”

  “Logan said it would be for the best. Let the dust settle.”

  “I don’t care what he wants.”

  “Caleb, your emotions are all over the place. Logan never meant to hurt you, he just needed to avenge something traumatic from his childhood.”

  I think about what he says for a moment and realize he’s right. “The greater cause?”

  “Maybe? You can ask him when you get back,” he replies, placing his hand on my shoulder and leading me outside too.

  ***

  “I’m going in the van with SJ to the airport,” Kade says as I approach the group. “You’re going in the car with Edward back to your place to get the children and we’ll meet you on the plane.”

  “No, I’m going with SJ,” I say firmly and head toward the van SJ is in.

  Kade places his hand on my chest and halts me. “Caleb, would you want the woman you love to see you in such a vulnerable state? Let me examine her and clean her up and if she wakes up, Dana will be there to comfort her. We thought she would need a woman right now, especially if she wakes up and I’m touching her.”

  “I need to be with her,” I argue.

  “I know but I think she would want you to be with the children. They know you and it will make her happy knowing they aren’t with a stranger.”

  “What are you not telling me, Kade? Why are you determined to keep me from her?”

  “She’s been humiliated enough, you seeing her like this will only embarrass her more.”

  “She doesn’t have to be embarrassed around me,” I reply angrily.

  “But she will be.” Kade huffs and then lowers his voice. “For Christ sake Caleb, she’s wearing a diaper. If she sitting there while you were wearing one, what would be going through your head?”

  I think about it, I try really hard to put myself in that position. I know I would hate it, but I can’t help that feeling of needing to be there for her.

  “I thought you were a trauma surgeon, when did you become a psychiatrist?”

  “I’m just older and wiser,” he laughs and slaps me on the shoulder. “Go get the children and some clothes for you both. Dana and I will get her cleaned up and meet you at the airport.”

  “Can I just quickly see her?” I ask.

  “Of course,” he replies and opens the back door of the van. SJ is lying on a bench seat with a blanket over her and a couple of straps over her torso and thighs. I just want to pull her into my arms.

  “Can’t I stay in the van until we get to the house?” I ask.

  “I’m not going to the house. Dana is already in the car on her way to the airport. We wanted to make sure the children don’t see anything and I want to get SJ onto a bed and cleaned up before she wakes up. I’m out of sedatives, but Edward said there’s some in the plane’s first aid kit.

  I stroke the hair from her face and kiss her forehead. “I love you baby,” I whisper. “I’ll see you soon.” It isn’t until I kiss her again that I notice the glue on her eyelids. “What’s that?”

  “Buccieri glued her eyes shut, it’s a very effective blindfold.”

  “What the fuck? That sick bastard!” I roar.

  “Calm down, I’m going to do the best I can with it but depending on how long it’s been on there and how much she may have cried, it could take a day or two before they open.”

  “I’m going to kill him, Kade. I swear to God if it’s the last thing I do,” I vow, completely certain I will one day get revenge for what that fucker did to SJ.

  “We need to go, Kade,” the driver up front calls back to us.

  “I’ll see you on the plane,” I say and jump out.

  “Come on, let’s go get the children.” Edward leads me toward the car and we make our way back toward my house in the Palisades.

  After driving for ten minutes in complete silence, I finally speak. “I should be with her. I should have insisted I go in the van.”

  “Man, your brother is right. She needs a professional person tending to her right now, emotionless and clinical. Dana will be there to comfort her if she wakes up. Dana of all people knows what SJ will be going through when she wakes up,” Edward tells me.

  “How did Dana get through it?”

  “I don’t think she fully has,” he replies sadly. “She’s learned to cope with it.”

  “Am I strong enough to help her through this?” I ask.

  “You endured a good few hours of torture and you didn’t cave, all to protect that woman and your child. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know how I did that Edward. I was so close to confessing, you guys turned up just in time.” I laugh, but it sounds hollow. “Vitale was getting ready to fry my balls.” Edward gives me a small chuckle and we spend the rest of the trip in contemplative silence.

  As we pull up at the house, I know the first thing I’ll be doing after getting some clothes on is taking those children in my arms and never letting them out of my sight again.

  “After what Vitale said, I’m more determined than ever to find out what the ring is,” I tell Edward before we leave the car. “If Vitale wanted to involve my children in it, I’m going to do everything I can to help Logan and Aiden shut it down.”

  “Your children, huh?” Edward smirks as I realize what I just said.

  “I guess they are,” I smile. “If SJ still wants me and our baby after all this, that is.”

  “She’ll want you,” he says with such certainty. “It’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it? How quickly you can fall in love with someone?”

  “I knew the moment I saw her.” I laugh. “She walked into my office and I turned into a teenage boy with a constant hard-on.”

  “Too much information dude.” He laughs.

  “When did you know you wanted Dana?”

  “When I saw her photo. I hadn’t even met her.”

  “Well at least she didn’t walk into your office, pissed off at you.”

  “Actually,” he chuckles. “She did.”

  Chapter 19

  I’m flying. And bobbing.

  And bouncing?

  I try to open my eyes but they st
ay shut.

  Everything comes back to me, hitting me harder than a freight train. I’m being held by a man. I can feel the muscles in his arms flexing. It’s not Caleb, it doesn’t smell like Caleb. There’s a whirring sound, it’s loud and close by. Fear begins to creep in as whatever drug was in my system starts to wear off.

  I can’t let this carry on. I need to get away. I begin screaming and pounding my fists on my captors chest, pushing myself away from him. I’m aware that I’m going to fall on my ass if he drops me, but instead his grip tightens.

  “No, no, let me go!”

  “SJ, it’s Kade, please just keep calm for a moment until I can get you laid down.” The gravely male voice jogs something in my memory. I’m not with him anymore. He sent me back to my father.

  “You’re Caleb’s brother, the one who was there after I arrived at my father’s house?”

  “That’s right, I was undercover,” he says as he lays me down gently on what I think is a bed. “I told you I would get you out of there.”

  “Everything’s ready for you, Kade,” a female voice startles me.

  “Who’s that? Where’s Caleb? Where are the twins? Where are we?” The questions come flying out of my mouth.

  “I’ll tell you everything, but I need to examine you first,” he says and begins to uncover me.

  “Stop.” I halt his hand with mine.

  “It’s okay SJ, I’m a doctor. Dana is here to help me, but if you would rather she helped you get uncovered, I’ll leave the room.”

  I lower my hand to my waist and feel the padding, instantly cringing and just wanting the world to open up and swallow me whole.

  “Just get it off of me,” I manage to say just before I break down.

  “Shush.” Dana comforts me while stroking my hair. “It’s okay, everything will be okay.”

  “You’re Edward’s wife right?” I ask, remembering Caleb telling me his friend’s wife was British.

  “Yeah, the guys thought it would be better if I was here after what you’ve just been though,” she explains.