Stripping Callum (Last Hangman MC Book 6)

by Muriel Garcia

  We’ve been at Callum’s for half an hour now. The cops came over and did a sweep of the place and told us it was safe but to keep the alarm activated and that a patrol car would canvass the street and at Suzie’s as well. I can’t even begin to imagine how this must feel for Callum. Badass biker who does illegal shit has the protection from the cops. It’s pretty funny, but something else happened in Callum when it all went down. He’s hiding something. I don’t want to press him to tell me what is going on, but I need to know. If not for me, for him. He looks like he could do with talking to someone.

  He’s sitting in the chair while I’m on the couch. He’s resting his elbows on his knees, looking at the ground. This is quite unsettling to see Callum in such a state. You can usually feel his presence in the room, but it’s like he left his own body. It’s just a shell of the Callum I know, and it’s more frightening than when he is pissed off.

  As I was about to ask him if he’s okay, he gets up and leaves the living room. I don’t know if he sensed that I was going to talk or not, but this is quite frustrating. I want to follow him and check on him, but I’m sure he’d rather be on his own for a moment. It still makes me wonder what happened for him to react in such a way.

  I take the opportunity that he left the room to call Suzie, and she answers on the first ring.

  “Are you alright? The cops showed up and told us what happened,” she says frantically.

  “Yes, just shaken up, but I’ll be alright. I can’t say the same for Callum, though.” I blow out a breath.

  “What’s wrong? Did he get hurt?”

  “Physically, no, but something shifted in him after the explosion. I don’t know what exactly as he’s not talking to me.”

  “Maybe he realized he could have lost you.”

  “Maybe, I don’t know. We didn’t get to talk before it happened, and we haven’t been alone much since then. Although we’ve been in his living room for a bit, he still hasn’t said a word to me.”

  “Give him some time. You don’t know what happened to him in the past.”

  “True, I just want to help him feel better or at least let out the pain he’s feeling. It’s scary and frustrating to see him that way.”

  “I can imagine. He’s always so vocal about everything that having him be quiet must be a weird change.”

  “It is. Could you watch Elijah tonight? I want to make sure Callum is okay.”

  “Yes, of course. I figured you would anyway.”

  “Thank you, you’re a star.”

  “No need to thank me. And don’t worry about your stuff being gone. We’ll replace everything. We still have a bunch of stuff from when the kids were younger. I’m sure we’ll find things for Elijah in them.”

  “You’re the best.”

  “I know.” She chuckles. “Go take care of your man and make sure he’s okay. We’ve got Elijah.”

  “Thank you again.”

  “You’re welcome, sweetheart. Have a good night,” she says before hanging up.

  Placing my phone on the coffee table, I get up and stretch. All this silence is making me nervous, and I need to do something. I can’t stand the silence anymore. It’s too quiet. I look around the living room at the very few pictures he has displayed and they are all the girls from the MC. I’m sure they are the ones who put them there.

  However, I don’t see any pictures of Callum with anyone. No family, no friends. For some reason, I find it unsettling. Everybody has pictures or at least one with their family. I don’t have much time to ponder on that as my phone pings from the coffee table.

  Picking it up, I open the message and see it’s from Callum.

  Callum: Come to the last room to your left when you come up the stairs.

  This is weird. If anyone would tell me this, I’d think they are about to prank me, but considering the mood Callum has been in today, I doubt he’s about to do that. Or he could be wanting to kill me for some unknown reason. That sounds very psychopath-ish to ask for such a thing, but I do as he says.

  I have no idea what to expect. He never gave me any indication that he was hiding a double life or a bad secret that could be hidden in the room, and my mind is going wild after what happened tonight.

  Knocking on the door, I patiently wait for Callum to tell me to come in. I don’t want to just barge in.

  “Come in, babe,” he says, sounding sad. I open the door and take it in. I am shocked beyond belief at what I’m seeing. It’s a kid’s room. I don’t know what to make of this. The room is in pristine condition as if a kid is living in it, but Callum has never mentioned a kid and I’ve never seen him with one.

  What first comes to mind is that it’s a kid’s room for whenever he could be babysitting one of his brothers’ kids, but he doesn’t seem to be the type of guy to babysit.

  He’s sitting on the bed, holding a picture in his left hand, brushing his fingers over it. Looking up at me, he holds his right hand out to me. I don’t make him wait and join him.

  Taking his hand, I sit down next to him. For what seems like forever, he stays quiet.

  “His name was Billy,” he says on a shuddering breath.

  Callum

  Emptiness.

  That’s how I feel. I never thought I’d ever feel like the day they were ripped away from me. This is even worse. Nobody died, but Bella could have, and I could have never forgiven myself if that had happened.

  Everything is a blur after her car blew up. I vaguely remember talking to the cops, coming back here and talking to more cops, but other than that, nothing. I feel myself shutting off, and I don’t like it. I don’t want to do this to Bella. She doesn’t deserve it. She deserves to know, but fuck it if it’s not hard to open up about something that changed my life forever.

  With what happened earlier and this past week, I don’t want to throw more things at her for her to hate me because I hid stuff from her, too.

  It’s time for me to let go of the past and remember the good moments with Alina and Billy, but it’s so hard. How can someone recover from that? I thought it had made me angry for years, that I couldn’t feel anything anymore. Sadly, it’s not true. I’d rather not feel a thing than feel like my world is crumbling down around me.

  If it’s not someone from Bella’s past, it means it’s my own past coming back to haunt me and put me through misery again. Who could hate me so much to want to kill the people I love? I’m not even sure who killed Alina and Billy. For the longest time, I thought it was her ex but what would it have to do with Bella and Elijah? Unless he’s really fucked up and just wants me to pay for her breaking up with him, but then he would have targeted all the women I had sex with more than once.

  Leaving Bella in the living room, I go into Billy’s old room. It’s the only room I’ve kept the same since it happened. I donated most of Alina’s stuff, but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of Billy’s. I don’t know what that says about me. That I’m not capable of love? That I don’t care about women? Or maybe that I loved her so much that it was hard to have daily reminders of her? I don’t know. All I know is that Billy’s room is in pristine condition as if I just cleaned it while he’s at school. I know he’ll never come back, and holding onto his stuff is just causing me more heartache than anything else.

  The only things I need are the memories, and those are forever imprinted in my mind and heart. I’m not ready to let go, but Bella needs those things—the toys, the clothes. I know she could use them for Elijah since she’s just lost everything.

  It’ll break my heart every time I see him in Billy’s clothes or playing with his toys, but I have to do this. I need to man up. She doesn’t deserve the shit that’s been happening to her, and this is the only little payback I can give her for what I’ve put her through.

  Sending her a quick text to come join me, I look at the picture on the nightstand. It’s a picture of Alina, Billy, and I just a few days before it happened. We were at the park having a picnic, and we asked a passerby to take a picture of
us. It’s the only picture of the three of us. Usually, I was the one taking the pictures of Alina. Back then there were no smartphones, and you didn’t do selfies yet. Not that I do them now, except when one of the girls forces me to be in one, and they always whine because I don’t smile in them. I’ve never liked pictures of myself. I only see the sad, broken man that I am, and I don’t like that reflection.

  A soft knock on the door dissolves my thoughts, and I tell her to come in. Judging by the look on her face, she never expected to see a little boy’s room in this house. Realization seems to dawn on her, and she looks sad for me. I hold my hand out to her and she joins me.

  Handing her the picture, she takes it in her small hands and looks at it with a sad smile on her face.

  “His name was Billy,” I say on a shuddering breath.

  “He looks like you.” She smiles, looking up at me.

  “He looks more like his mother, but thanks. He was Elijah’s age.” I blow out a breath. This is a lot harder than I thought. I don’t want to tell her everything. I can’t.

  “Do you want to talk about what happened?” she whispers.

  “No, not now. I’m not ready.” She nods and kisses my shoulder.

  “Whenever you’re ready, I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

  “Thanks.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and hold her close to me.

  “You’re welcome.”

  A few minutes’ pass before I can say anything else. I’m shook up by all of this, and I hate appearing this weak and emotional. Something my father always yelled at me and beat me for.

  “They died fourteen years ago. They were getting in the car so Alina could take Billy to school, and the car went up in flames. I couldn’t do anything. I had to watch them die.” My voice breaks, and so does my fight against my tears.

  Bella holds me and comforts me. She doesn’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. She’s there for me, and that’s all that matters right now. That I’m not alone through this. There’s no telling what kind of fucked up shit I could get into.

  We stay on Billy’s bed for hours, just holding each other until I calm down. Very few people know what happened exactly. I can never bring myself to talk about it because it hurts too much to go through it again. I want to talk to Bella about it, tell her everything, but I don’t want to burden her. Not when she has her own shit to deal with. It’s selfish because I’m sure she would just listen to me spill my guts out to her, but I can’t do this to her right now. This isn’t about me. It’s about her.

  “You can take everything. The clothes, the toys, the teddies,” I say kissing her head.

  “What? No, I can’t.” She looks at me as if I’m insane.

  “Yes, you can and you will. Elijah needs clothes and toys. You lost everything. These are never going to be used again. Hell, I’m sure there are moth holes in some of the clothes, but whatever Elijah could use, take it. Please. This is the least I can do.”

  “What happened tonight isn’t your fault.”

  “It is.”

  “Uh, no. You aren’t the one who decided to turn my car into fireworks. Whoever did that is fucked up in the head. I get why you reacted the way you did when it happened. I can’t even begin to imagine how you must have felt back then and tonight when you witnessed it again. I don’t know how you survived it, but this is not your fault.” She holds my face in her hands, enunciating every word.

  “Had we not been together, none of this would have happened.” I sigh.

  “Maybe, maybe not. Do you know who did this? Did you know this was going to happen?”

  “No,” I say truthfully.

  “Then stop kicking yourself about it.”

  “Alright. Will you take stuff for Elijah?”

  “Are you sure? Isn’t it going to be hard to see him with them? Unless this is a goodbye present?” She holds my face and glares at me.

  “It’ll break my heart every time, but he needs them. I’d rather him have them than for you to have to scrape every penny you can to replace everything. And it’s totally out of the question for you to go back to the strip club for a while.” I glare at her.

  “You didn’t answer one of my questions.”

  “No, this isn’t a goodbye present. What about what I said?” I take her hands off my face and kiss them.

  “I don’t like it when you’re bossy, makes me want to slap you again. I wasn’t planning on going back right now.”

  “Good and I know, Ayden and Nancy threaten to punch me at least once a day.” I chuckle.

  “I like them.” She smiles and kisses me softly.

  “You’d get along with them.” I stroke her cheek, and she leans into my touch.

  “Oh, I’m sure, imagine all the good intel I could get on you.” She smirks at me.

  “Fuck,” I groan. “I’m going to get you some empty boxes. You can take everything if you want. I won’t be pissed or anything. Don’t go and take just a few things because you think it’s too much. It’s not. Got it?”

  “Got it. You’re one of a kind, Callum.”

  “I know and not always in the right way.” I kiss her and get her the boxes before disappearing in my room. As much as I don’t mind her taking everything, I can’t watch her put everything in boxes.

  Half an hour later, she comes into my room. She strips and joins me in bed. We don’t speak. We don’t need to. We just hold each other. My heart might be shattered into millions of pieces, but Bella’s love is slowly piecing them back together.

  Annabella

  A Week Later

  Callum has been slightly avoiding me this week. I know he was on some club business, and I totally hate the fact that he’s not allowed to tell me shit because I’m extremely curious. He keeps telling me it’s for my own good, and it’s a club rule, but I call bullshit on that. I know I’ve been speculating about a couple of things with Nancy. She’s been at the coffee shop a couple of times.

  She doesn’t like it either when Bennett doesn’t tell her anything so she and the girls come up with their own theories and they are always hilarious. Most of the time they are just ridiculous which makes the whole biker thing slightly less scary. I’m not going to lie, I’m scared shitless of what could happen to Callum while he’s on one of his runs, but there’s nothing I can physically do to prevent any of it.

  The other thing that scares me is that Callum could snap at any time and do something fucking stupid. Even though he hasn’t said anything about it, he’s clearly still struggling with the whole ordeal about my car blowing up and the memories of what happened to his ex and kid coming back to the surface. I wouldn’t blame him, but I don’t want anything to happen to him.

  Elijah loved all the things I brought back from Callum and I almost took everything, leaving a few items behind. Not out of greediness, but as he said, Callum won’t need any of those things so I could put them to good use. The next day he told me to save whatever could be saved and to give them to the other girls so that they can be used. It’s a way for him to keep the spirit of his kid alive, I guess.

  Callum has seen Elijah in Billy’s clothes, and I could tell it was hard at first to see him in them, but he either got over it quickly or recovered and hid it from all of us. Elijah thanked him, and it was hard for Callum not to break down again. These two haven’t spent much time together, but Elijah really took to Callum which makes me happy. Let’s just hope Callum isn’t going to up and leave at any given time. I know we’ve never promised each other anything, but it’s more for Elijah than for me.

  “Morning, sunshine,” a deep sexy voice says from behind me, scaring me half to death.

  “Don’t you ever do that!” I throw the rest of my toast at his head, and he catches it and pops it into his mouth.

  “What? I’m saying good morning, and you’re getting all mad. Your mom is crazy,” he says to Elijah who just giggles as if agreeing with Callum.

  “You don’t just show up unannounced! That’s rude.”

  “
Poor baby.” He kisses the back of my neck.

  “Good morning,” I finally tell him and kiss him softly.

  “Everything good?” he asks looking at me intently.

  “Yes, why?” I look at him, confused.

  “Just making sure.” He smiles at me, and my panties melt. If Elijah wasn’t there I’d totally jump on him and have my wicked way with him.

  “And you?”

  “I’m as good as I can be.” He kisses my shoulder and steals a piece of bacon from my plate.

  “You know I’m here for you.”

  “I know, thank you.” He winks at me. “Are you two ready?”

  “Ready for what?” I ask, confused.

  “The barbecue at the compound…”

  “I didn’t know you still wanted us to come.”

  “Of course. Stop thinking I was avoiding you. I was on a club run. Do you still want to come?”

  “Sorry. If you want us there, sure.” I smile.

  “Woman, I just asked you!” he says, sounding exasperated.

  “Keep your knickers on, grandma. I’m going to go get dressed. Can you keep an eye on Elijah?”

  “Crazy woman. Of course, go on.”

  A part of me didn’t want to ask him to keep an eye on Elijah in fear it would bring back more memories, but he seems a lot more relaxed today. It’s good to see the Callum I first met coming back to life.

  Not wanting to make him wait too long, I get ready quickly and put on skinny jeans, converse, and a flannel shirt. I do a light makeup and put my hair up in a messy bun. I don’t have the time or the patience to do anything else with it.

  Looking out of the window onto the patio where Elijah and I were having breakfast, I see Callum in deep conversation with Elijah. They are both laughing and I dread to think what they could be talking about. It doesn’t take a lot for Elijah to laugh, but to see Callum laugh is so heart-warming. It’s not his usual short laugh when I say something stupid. It looks like proper belly laugh as they are talking. The things this man does to me. I sigh happily and make my way downstairs. I don’t want to break their bonding moment, but I also don’t want him to start on me that I take too long.