Maybe he did care. Maybe he even loved me.
But those feelings didn’t go far. They weren’t deep enough to put me first.
It was with that realization weighing heavily on my heart that I switched directions, retracing my steps toward the clubhouse.
“Hello, Kellianne.”
A scream broke the peaceful, quiet night as I came face-to-face with Calvin and the gun he was pointing at me with an odd calmness that terrified me.
I hadn’t heard his footsteps or even felt the presence of another person. I’d been too lost in my head, too stuck on the realization that Colt would never really be mine, to hear anything but my own inner voices arguing over the future I fantasized about with my biker. Too distracted to realize the danger that was right behind me.
In the time I’d been walking the road, I hadn’t thought about Calvin. Never assumed he would come looking for me, despite his earlier comment to come out of my hiding hole. He was too much of a pussy to confront me face-to-face. If anything, I expected him to send someone to take care of me, to finally get rid of what he considered to be the biggest mistake he’d ever made in his life.
I’d thought wrong.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, taking a step back.
He followed, getting closer as I tried to backtrack. Moments ago, I was glad for the lack of traffic. Now, I was praying for someone—anyone—to drive down this road. My eyes were glued to the gun my father was holding, his hand steady as he pointed it at my heart. I couldn’t see his eyes, but the energy in the space that was getting smaller by the second was charged with his fury, making the cold air crackle with it.
“Are you happy now?” he asked, his tone arctic cold. “My career is over. You robbed me of the only thing I had left to live for in favor of a whore who never wanted you to begin with.”
“No. You did that to yourself when you started messing with Mom.” My own fury was rising, the pain of my mother’s loss hitting me like a ton of bricks. I forgot about the gun, and instead of backing up, I started walking forward. “You knew something would happen when you had Mom moved. You knew how dangerous that wing was. You probably even knew how crazy her new roommate was, and that was why you chose that room. You are the reason Mom is dead. You are responsible for all of this. Did you think I would let you just walk away? That I would let you keep everything you hold sacred when you took away the only person who ever meant anything to me?”
His hand began to shake as I drew closer, my reaction unexpected. He was the one backing up now, shrinking before my eyes in the face of my rage. My hands reached out, my nails raking down his cheeks. Dark lines of blood welled up as he howled with pain.
“You killed my mother, you sonofabitch. You killed the one woman who loved you more than life itself, and all you’re worried about is your precious career,” I sneered as I pushed him back, my hand slapping across his face, the sound echoing in the still night. “You are a heartless, soulless bastard who only ever cared about himself, you gutless, narcissist piece of shit.”
I pushed him again and again. Moving us back toward the clubhouse, but we were still too far away. I must have walked for more than two miles without even realizing it.
This close to him, I saw when his eyes changed. When the sudden fear he had of me reverted back to loathing and revulsion. “I never wanted you. I told your mother to abort you, paid her two grand to get it done. She didn’t want you either. But it was too late to get rid of you by the time she found out she was pregnant. She should have just given you away. Left you in a dumpster somewhere with the other trash.”
His words didn’t hit me like he wanted. I didn’t feel them like a physical slash across my skin. They hurt, but not nearly as badly as he was hoping. I sneered at him as I pushed my face closer to his. “Kevin hated you. He told me the whole reason he did all
the shit he did was because he couldn’t stand you and wanted to make your life miserable. He wanted to ruin your career with all the stuff he did. But you always covered it up, and he would have to come up with something more extreme, more stupid. Half the things I fed the press today, he told me. He gave me the proof of your embezzlements. He sent me the files of your dirty dealings with the attorney general from six years ago when you covered up Kevin’s DUIs, his rape of that sixteen-year-old girl, him nearly beating that gay boy to death. He didn’t even care if he went to prison. All he wanted was for you to lose everything. That was something we had in common. He demanded I take everything to the press the day he gave me the files, but I refused. It wasn’t time yet. I knew there would be a day when all of that would come in handy, and I waited until it wouldn’t hurt Mom.”
“Lying bitch,” he snarled, pressing the gun into my stomach. “You were always jealous of Kevin. You hated him for how much I loved him when I could never make myself love you.”
“I hated him because he was a disgusting bastard, just like you. I hated him and I hated myself, because I share your DNA,” I spat. “I prayed for a father like Hank.” His eyes dilated at the mention of the other man, but I kept going, uncaring what he said or did next. “I begged God for Hank to be my dad. There were times, after I realized just how revolting you really were, that I wanted to die rather than to continue to live with the knowledge that I shared the same genes as you.”
His face suddenly went blank. It was my only warning before I heard the click as he pulled the trigger, followed immediately by the explosion of the gun.
For a single heartbeat, I felt nothing. There was no pain, no burning, no tearing up of my insides. My brain seized at the realization that he had actually done it. He pulled the trigger. He shot his own daughter.
Then the shock faded, and I fell backward, my head bouncing off the asphalt of the road as my feet landed in the grass and blood gushed out of me like a geyser, pooling around me in a spreading puddle of dark red.
Chapter 24
Colt
After watching Kelli walk into the clubhouse, I debated going after her. But the sound of bikes coming up behind me gave me pause.
Driving through the gate, I parked and waited for the others to follow after me. Bash and Jet pulled to a stop right beside Kelli’s car seconds before the SUV with Hank Badcock and his men pulled in.
Shooting a glare at the SUV, I jerked around to face my brother and brother-in-law. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
“Relax, little brother,” Jet ordered. “The man only wants to make sure Kelli is okay. And he may be able to help with the Italian situation. Feel up to doing a little recon?”
My gaze went to the clubhouse. Kelli needed a little time to chill out, come to terms with the realization that I wasn’t just going to let her walk away. She would be fine in our room for a few hours. I had both sets of keys, so it wasn’t like she could run away anytime soon.