CRACK.
I’m not even able to finish my statement before Mike cracks his palm across my cheek, splitting my lip. Cal grabs a hold of Mike's shoulders and pulls him back towards his chest, putting him in a headlock. Mike tries his best to break free of Cal’s hold, but with his training and sheer size over Mike, he is unsuccessful. His feet flail out in front of him, trying to find purchase on the cheap carpet, but they continue to slide as his face turns a bright shade of red. Mike’s short nails try their best to claw at Callum’s arm, but he is unable to do much damage.
“Stop, please.” I whimper, needing to stop this before Callum crosses a line he cannot come back from. I will not allow him to kill someone on my behalf; he does not need that kind of blood on his hands.
Cal makes eye contact with me and sees the tears leaving salty tracks down my cheeks. Once he realizes how hurt I actually am, he leans down into Mike’s ear to growl.
“I have felt the warm tightness of her cunt, felt the love she could give someone who cared for her the way she deserves. But you have damaged her so far beyond repair that she won’t even give herself a chance to love again.”
Mike’s face turns a shade of red only seen in cartoons. Well, I thought it was only seen in cartoons until now. He is going to explode, and we are both in the blast radius. While I know Callum can handle himself, he does not need to witness this.
He will not leave your side with this maniac, and you know it.
“So you have been sleeping around on me? You dumb fucking cunt.” His voice is eerily calm. Was prepared for the screams, for him to start swinging and trying to fight off Callum.For him to attack me. To have to cover up one last round of bruising. But this, the calm anger, yeah, nope, was not prepared for this.
Cal still has a hold on him, so he cannot attack me, so I take advantage of this and cram the last bit of my shit into the luggage. I have one large suitcase filled with clothes and my shoes. My carry-on holds the few keepsake items that I hold near and dear to my heart.
“Cal, you can release him. I have what I need.” Callum meets my eyes just to confirm that I don’t want to be out of the house before he releases him. I nod and roll both suitcases out of the room.
Mike seethes behind us. I can hear his ragged breaths. The anger is radiating off of him. He doesn’t move from the spot that he was standing in when Cal released his hold on him.
“I want you gone.” He states.
“No problem. I am out. Just tell me where to find my Jeep and give me the keys, and I will be on my way.”Walking back to where he is, I stand in front of him. His chest is heaving; I can tell he is trying so hard to keep his cool.
Suddenly, Mike starts laughing, and not in that haha, something is funny but in that evil, maniacal way that villains do when they know they have the upper hand, but the protagonist has no idea yet. That thought sends chills down my spine.
What does he know that we don’t yet?
Callum meets my gaze with a concerned look, too, so it’s not just me who is concerned by this. I see him pull his handgun back out of the holster tucked into his back, and he holds it in both hands, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.
“Oh, darling.” Mike starts with a saccharine-sweet smile on his face. He almost looks possessed. “I sold off that ugly Barbie Jeep weeks ago.”
“Weeks? I’ve only been gone for a few weeks. Did you sell it as soon as you found out I was gone?”
”I assumed you ran off with Nyx. You two decided to just be lesbians together or something. You’re lucky I hadn’t gotten around to cleaning your things out of the house yet. I’ve been busy.”
Seriously, this man has no limits he won’t cross. Thank God I have seen this side of him, and I can finally be free and heal from his abuse.
“You don’t just decide to turn into a lesbian, Mike. Not to mention, Nyx has been trying to get me to leave for years, but I stayed. You chased me away. Captain Montgomery told me what you said when they were here, letting you know I had been kidnapped. You made me leave. Don’t put this on Nyx, granted, she is so excited to have her bestie back.”
I almost tell him that she is excited to have me in her backyard, but I refuse to give this man the slightest inkling of where I am living. I know once he has calmed down a bit and his hand gets tired of dealing with the shriveled-up worm in his pants, he would come and hunt me down. Taking a deep breath and straightening my back, with a confidence I didn’t know I could have around Mike, I waved Cal towards the door to leave.
“Come on, Cal, let's leave this man-child to his tantrum.”
On cue, Mike throws the living room lamp across the trailer, and it shatters. I just roll my eyes and take my luggage out to Cal’s truck. Callum leaves the trailer but refuses to turn his back to the door. Leaving the luggage by the tailgate, I walk back toward him to help and direct him down the stairs so we can leave.
I can feel Mike’s eyes burning into me through the living room window. Once we have Cal down the stairs, he opens the truck door for me, and I climb in. Now that I am safely secured inthis monster, he heads around back to put my luggage in the bed and joins me just a few moments after I hear the truck bed close.
“Are you ready to be done with this place, Sunflower?” Cal rests his hand on my knee again.
“Yes, it is time to put this place and him in my past.”
Cal starts the truck up, and we pull out of the trailer park in complete silence. Neither of us is really sure what to say after today’s adventure.
CHAPTER 20
CALLUM
