“I’d like to know that myself,” Ethan spoke up in a deadly quiet voice.
“We all would,” Adam said menacingly.
Max swiped his hand over his face. “Fuck this. I’m not explaining my relationship with Callie to you. I don’t owe you any explanations. The only person I owe anything to is her. ”
“If you think you’re walking out that door, you’ve lost your mind,” Dillon Colter said when Max started past Seth.
“Yeah? Try and stop me. ”
Chapter Twenty-Five
So it hadn’t been the smartest thing to take on six very pissed-off men. Max lay on the bed in his motel room and winced when he tried to move his fist. For old guys, Callie’s fathers could still move fast and they had fists like hammers. Dillon was a freaking mountain by himself and Seth and Michael were lean and muscled and they’d definitely gotten their shots in.
Max hadn’t gone down without a fight, though. He’d given as good as he’d gotten and the Colters would be feeling it just as much as he currently was.
He rolled to his side and sucked in his breath when a particularly tender area of his ribs pressed against the mattress. He stared out the window, just as he’d done for the past several hours, waiting for Callie to show up.
She’d at least come for her truck, wouldn’t she? She couldn’t stay away forever, and when she came, he’d be waiting. He wasn’t going to let her go without one hell of a fight. He’d sit on her if he had to.
He’d argue.
He’d fight.
He’d get on his hands and knees and beg.
Whatever it took to make her listen. To make her believe he loved her with everything he had.
He closed his eyes as the memory of her devastation flashed through his mind. She’d looked defeated. And so terribly hurt. He’d never forget that look. He’d live with it for the rest of his life.
“Come back to me, Callie,” he whispered. “Give me the chance to make it right. ”
Callie didn’t react to the sound of a truck engine as it neared. She sat in the darkness, her knees drawn to her chest as she stared up into the star-filled sky. The moon cast a pale glow over the meadow and from a distance, the sound of bubbling water reached her ears.
This was her place. Her haven. Her refuge. The one place above all that brought her peace.
Now it was her hell.
An arm curled around her shoulders and she was pulled into a warm embrace.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Ryan Colter said.
She turned into his chest and buried her face. “Oh Dad. ”
It was all she could say. All she had the strength for. She broke off in a sob when she didn’t think she had any more tears to shed.
He held her and rocked her back and forth, all the while smoothing a gentle hand over her hair.
“Your mother’s frantic. Adam and Ethan are pacing the floors. Your brothers want to mount a lynch party for Max and run him out of town. Seth seriously wants to arrest him for some trumped-up infraction and lock him in jail for several days. ”
“But you’re here,” she choked out.
“I’m here. ”
“How did you know?”
“This is where you’ve always come when you’re hurting, baby girl. From the time you were little this was your place. Remember when you were eight years old and you threatened to run away? You even packed a bag and left the house. Your mama nearly died. Adam about had a heart attack. None of them thought you’d actually do it. Me? I came here because I knew it’s where you’d be. It’s where you always run to. ”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest as she’d done so many times in her life. Her dads had always been there for her. The ups and downs. Good times and bad. Her family had always been the one constant in her life.
“I hurt so much,” she whispered.
He kissed the top of her head. “I know, baby. I know you do. I wish I could take it all away. I wish I could snap my fingers and the pain would disappear. ”
“I was such an idiot. I feel so…stupid. ”
“You should never feel stupid for loving someone, Callie girl. You gave him something wonderful, and he shit on it in return. That’s on him. Not you. Never you. One day he’ll look back and know he gave up the best thing that ever happened to him. He’ll have to live with that loss for the rest of his life. ”
“I loved him so much, Dad. I trusted him. Even after what he did. He said all the right things. It was like he knew me, and I guess he did. He certainly studied up on me enough. I feel like such an idiot. I took him out here. I babbled on about my dream house and how much the land meant to me, and all the while he stood there hating me, resenting me and my family for taking his birthright, and he schemed to get it back. ”
Her dad went quiet for a long moment. His breath came out in audible huffs as he seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say next.
“Callie, honey, there’s something I need to ask you. You said… You said some things to Max that worry me. You talked about control and dominance. Those are two serious matters. I need to know if he ever hurt you. ”
“No,” she said sadly. “Not in the way you mean. He’s never physically hurt me. I know you won’t understand—”
“Try me,” he challenged.
“God,” she muttered. “This is so not a conversation I want to have with my dad. ”
Ryan pulled away and she could see his utter seriousness reflected in the moonlight. “There’s nothing you can’t talk to me about, Callie. You know that. Now if you’d feel better talking to your mother, I’ll be happy to bring you home so you can have this conversation with her, but I’d rather you talk to me about it. ”
Callie sighed. “I know it might be hard to believe, but I’m submissive. At least with Max. I can’t say it’s something that’s built into me because I’ve certainly never been submissive in any of my other relationships. Quite the opposite, actually. I probably wore the pants in most of them.
“Max… He’s a dominant force. He just exudes this aura of power. When I was with him, I wanted nothing more than to please him, and I won’t lie, he took very good care of me. Very, very good care. He saw to my every need. He anticipated my needs,” she corrected. “He often knew what I wanted or needed before I did. ”
Ryan picked up her wrist so that the silver bands gleamed in the moonlight. “And these? Are they a symbol of his ownership?”
Callie was silent for a long time. “Yes,” she said quietly. “They are—were. ”