I called Celio and Marco to tell them to be on the alert.
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Jason was a fucking dead man.
Fifty
Calla
With Axel still suspended, picking up the kids was easier than it would have been otherwise. Just one stop at Dad’s shop, and I’d have them back with me and be able to think more clearly. I was early to pick them up, but my Dad never followed my work schedule enough to notice. He just knew I'd get them as soon as I was done, so when I made my way outside and buckled them into the spare car seat in the back of Jason's car, I regretted not saying goodbye to him. With everything up in the air, I didn't know how or when I'd see him again.
Ryker would know I could never stay away from my father, and he'd try to use that to contact me again. Ines was just as happy as ever, not caring that we were in an unfamiliar car or that Jason was with us. She’d never been as fond of him as Axel was, too young to see him for the connection to her father that he was.
But such was the life of a two-year-old who was as happy as my girl. Aside from her mostly random tantrums, nothing bothered her.
Axel was less unperturbed. “Where’s Dante?” he asked.
“He had some stuff to take care of, so Uncle Jason offered to hang out with us for a bit. To make you and Ryker more comfortable,” I said with a fake smile. The lie felt unnatural, but I didn’t have a choice. Until I made up my mind, I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“Okay, Mommy,” he said, and despite his hesitation he didn’t question me.
I didn't know how I'd gotten so lucky with such amazing kids, but as Jason drove outside of town to his house, all I could feel was immense gratitude for it.
I didn't know where we would go or what we would do. How we'd survive or if we'd find a way to be free at all.
But I knew wherever we ended up, we'd do it together.
As the shock wore off, I finally caught my breath. I could finally get enough air to just stop and think. I let out a deep breath, trying to calm the erratic beat of my heart as it warned me that something big was coming.
I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t walk away from the only man I’d ever loved. There had to be an explanation.
I might not know his name, but I knew him.
Glancing down at the phone somehow still clutched in my hands, I discreetly called Ryker. “I made a mistake,” I whispered when Jason’s head snapped to me and he glared at the phone that I lifted to my ear.
“Sunshine?” Ryker said when he answered. “Where are you?” He tried to keep his voice gentle, tried not to do anything to push me over the ledge I knew he probably thought I’d walked to. But I hadn’t. I never wanted to leave him.
I’d just needed space to think.
“Ryker,” I whispered. “We’re with Jason. He’s taking us to his house—”
“Give me the fucking phone, Calla. Do not fuck this up for me,” Jason warned. He reached across my body to snatch it from my hands, but I jerked away. Slapping his hand away from me, I called out to Ryker.
“Ryker, I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
My voice drowned out in the next second when the entire world narrowed down to the crash of metal on metal.
To the screeching sound of a car's brakes, piercing the air.
Fifty-One
Ryker