Run From Me (Barbed Wire Hearts #2)

20. Calliope

TWENTY

calliope

I opened my eyes as the echoes of motorcycle engines cut. The deafening sound had been like some dark symphony, and I liked it. The Vipers, or rather most of them, didn’t have nice cars, let alone motorcycles that could drown out the world, and even if they did, I don’t think I could have ever seen it the same.

Somewhere between the heat of his skin against my frozen body, the beat of his heart building a rhythm of calm inside me, and the sound of more than one bike at any one point, I remembered we weren’t alone.

Never alone.

I took in the warehouse around us. No, definitely not alone. No less than fifteen bikes were all parked in a large open space inside some kind of storage building. The scratch and creak of a metal door closed and only then did I take a deep breath.

And only then did I feel the breeze on my ass. I jumped off the bike so fast Xander nearly knocked it over trying to reach for me. I was too busy pulling down the skirt and praying no one saw me. No one except the man standing in his damn underwear. I really wish I had a second to see him fight because a body like that? It was one thing to feel all that power on top of you, but to see him beating a man? I gave my a head a quick shake. That was not a logical thought.

“Calliope, what the fuck are you wearing?”

I didn’t have time to even wipe the drool from my chin as he yanked me into his nearly naked body. I sank into the heat of him, and I wasn’t admitting just how cold I’d I been.

“More clothes than you, Xander,” I shot back.

A deep laugh greeted my ears as I leaned against his chest.

“You think so, do you?”

His voice went low as he leaned down to my ear.

“For the love of god, tell me you’re wearing panties.”

When I looked up at him with one eyebrow lifted, I was certain it said everything.

“Fuck,” was all he said.

I turned my head at the squeal of metal. The rolling door rose again and the sound of two more bikes echoed off the walls of the factory.

The voices were all low, and I realized no one had paid much attention to me.

“Fuck,” Zeid said as he stopped next to Xander, “if that wasn’t a blatant set up.”

Xander was nodding and I took in Zeid’s attire. Same as Xander.

“Were you both fighting?”

I hadn’t paid much attention until now when I saw a new purple mark blooming against Xander’s ribs. I looked between the two of them. Xander clearly had taken a few hits, and Zeid seemed untouched.

“Zeid never got a chance. And stop staring at my brother.”

That wasn’t the first time I’d heard him say that. Brother. But they looked nothing alike. Unless looking like a mean bastard was a family trait. This time I was looking back and forth between them.

“Different dads?” I asked.

“Not in blood, Calliope. X, Cas, and I all share a bond far deeper than blood.”

Zeid nodded as I turned my chin up again to stare at Xander. Here in his arms was that betrayal of safety. I felt safe in his arms and could forget that I needed to remember to survive, and the two didn’t go hand in hand. Still I couldn’t find anger. I couldn’t find the pain or the hurt. Right now? The adrenaline of trying to make it through the last, however long it had been, was wearing off, and I just felt tired. Tired from fighting.

I wanted to just pretend right now.

“Oh, my god, Cali. Are you okay?”

I looked over my shoulder and Rylee was running toward me. All eyes were now on me, and I didn’t like the way it felt.

“I’m fine. Why?”

Cas sauntered up, pulling Rylee into his body.

“Your boys got two of the three guys that were dragging Calliope into the tent. They’re over there dismantling their guns. Calliope, can you explain what happened?”

I thought I would have a lot more time to pretend.

“Here’s a bag for your two.” Zeid grabbed the bag from Cas and pulled out a shirt and pants and then handed Xander the others. I hated that he let me go as he pulled the pants on over what I supposed were shorts even if they showed just as much as boxer briefs. I wrapped my arms around myself and closed my eyes like if I couldn’t see any of it, then none of it would be real. I wanted it to be real so badly, and then came the reminder that I was still owned by the Vipers and shit didn’t appear to be getting better.

“Cali?” Rylee’s hand rested on the back of mine before I looked up.

I went to speak and was cut off as a shirt slid over my head.

“Cover yourself up, Sparky. And then tell us what the fuck happened. Why were you there? You answered the door, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t really a question from Xander. Those words had disappointment dripping all through them.

“I thought it was you, fuckstick. And you’ll excuse me for going with a guy with a knife. It was over Ripple. They wanted to know where he was. The only thing I did right today was checking in with a dead guy because I wasn’t born yesterday. I should be questioning why I haven’t once freaked out that he is dead, but we can talk about that later.”

I was staring at Rylee the whole time, too afraid to see the disappointment on Xander’s face, except when I turned to look at him, he was smiling.

“Aww. Sparky has a little demon in her, doesn’t she? He deserved what he got.”

I looked down at his leg where the knife wound had yet to heal.

“He did. He stabbed you and that pissed me off,” I said. I was damn happy that fucker was gone.

Xander grabbed me and pulled me back into his body, the T-shirt inches longer than my dress. At least I didn’t feel exposed now. Not physically anyway.

“I knew you cared, Sparky.”

I wanted the Xander who looked at me like there was a hell of lot more going on than just a casual sarcastic romp back, but here we were. His sarcasm was cute, but right now? I wanted something so much more.

“Okay, well. Guess it’s time to go back to my place.”

Cas tossed Xander and Zeid their phones, and Xander ignored my request for a few more seconds while the garage door scratched open again and a few more bikes pulled in and cut their engines.

“You won’t be going back tonight.”

All joking had completely disappeared from Xander’s voice as he showed me the camera view from my apartment. It showed at least two Vipers standing there.

I covered my mouth, trying to force back the fear, the anger, the need to scream.

“My life, it was fine. It was fine, and then you killed Ripple. Now they’re breathing down my neck. They know I know. They know I was with you near the hospital too. Did you know that?”

He spun me around.

“Your life sucked, sweetheart, so don’t give me that shit. Ripple might be what gives me an excuse to challenge the Vipers after too many years of a truce. A truce they don’t seem to respect anyway and they know it.”

I was breathing. I was trying to anyway. A rock sat in my stomach.

“Maybe we start some training with you tomorrow. Rylee, you got a sparring partner your own size for once.”

Rylee smiled at me, and that rock was still heavy but something else seemed to try and push it aside. Hope. That dangerous little thing I’d tried to find several times in my life and it was always the feeling that ended with me crashing and burning. I learned so long ago to just stop. Stop hoping, but Xander? His not so flowery words made me want to believe there was something else in this world than pain.

I glanced down at the screen he hadn’t closed.

“And clothes?”

He leaned down while holding me tighter as he whispered in my ear.

“I plan on getting you naked the second I can; no clothes required, princess.”

A shiver independent of the cold had goosebumps all over my skin as the ideas flooded my mind and memories resurfaced.

I took a deep breath and tried again. Tried what exactly? Tried to fight my way back to an apartment I didn’t trust anymore? Back to a life I didn’t want?

“What about my cat?”

I could practically hear the roll of Xander’s eyes.

“You just had to get a pet, didn’t you? Zeid and I will deal with him.”

His arm squeezed a little tighter around me, and damn it if my heart didn’t beat a little stronger and a little more sure that maybe I had something to live for.

Or at the very least, maybe I could live in this little dream a bit longer.

I ignored a lot of what was going on around us. Several more bikes showed, and it was starting to feel crowded in here. I could hear Cas and Xander talking. Zeid seemed to be coming and going, and Rylee, well she seemed just as happy to let Cas hold her as I did with Xander.

I caught her eye, and she smiled at me, and maybe it was a little conspiring, maybe it wasn’t. But I liked how right here, right now, my chest didn’t ache and my body didn’t feel exhausted. My mind was quiet even. The world wasn’t closing in around me.

But in came that same nagging thought. I had something to lose and that made my apartment seem more like the tomb I always imagined it to be. A tomb for my living body just waiting for the pain to stop.

“Cali? Tell us what happened. Aside from what we can see on the camera. Did they hurt you?”

I wrapped my arms around Xander’s waist and just held tighter.

“Cali, did they hurt you?” he repeated when I didn’t answer.

Hurt was subjective, wasn’t it?

“No, Xander. They didn’t hurt me.”

He pulled us aside, away from everyone, not that it mattered. There was a lot of chatter going on.

“Why are you wearing that string of a dress?” he asked.

“Ripple’s brother. He made me put it on. Ripple was in charge of whatever the Vipers supplied me. This dress was one of his few picks. His brother forced me to put it on.”

Xander stepped out of my arms, pulling them apart to let him pull away and I hated it. I hated that one negative word about some prick and he was walking away from me.

I shut in on myself, that is until he still held me and wasn’t letting go.

“Cali, did they touch you?”

I was confused at this point.

“Between the knife and picking out a dress? Yes. Did he watch me change? Well, he really tried, and I’m sure he saw some of it. But no. Out of respect for Ripple’s dibs, as they called it, no. No one touched me. Just let me go back to my life and you can move on to someone worthwhile.”

Only those words might have been wrong. Those black empty pupils seemed to consume his irises as everything darkened.

“You’re mine, Calliope. Stop acting like you aren’t good enough.”