Stripping Callum (Last Hangman MC Book 6)

by Muriel Garcia

  “You have no idea.” I spit out blood. My head is killing me from the repetitive blows it received. My shoulder seems out of place, and I feel the full impact of the bike crash I had earlier or was it another day? I can’t be sure.

  “So, tell me something, Callum. How did it feel to watch Alina and Billy being burnt to a crisp in her car?” He smirks, planting a chair in front of me.

  “Fuck you,” I say emotionlessly. I don’t want him to know how much it still affects me.

  “Now, now, I just want to know. It wasn’t easy for me. I mean, Alina was a nice piece of ass, but it had to be done.” He shrugs. Nothing makes sense anymore. I thought he did that because she dumped him for me.

  “I thought you loved her.”

  “Ah! That’s a good one, Callum. See, I never loved Alina. I never wanted to be with her, but it was all part of the plan. She was in on it in the beginning.”

  “What?” I’m baffled by what he’s saying.

  “You didn’t know? Ah man, I feel bad now. I’m not alone in this either. I’ve always had someone helping me. How do you think I keep tabs on you so well?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Someone very special, who sadly couldn’t join us today, has been working hard behind the scene to make your life a living hell. Any guesses?” He circles around me.

  “No.”

  “Oh, come on. You’re no fun! At least give it a try.”

  “My father,” I say through gritted teeth.

  “Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!” he exclaims.

  “He’s dead.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. After you left him for dead, he got better and swore to get his vengeance one day. He looked for you for years and when he finally found, you were deployed with the Marines. He tried to get someone’s help to ruin you, and that’s where I come into play. You might think I’m just a fucked up man who wants to make another one’s life a living hell and while that’s somewhat true, we’ve met before.”

  “I don’t fucking know you,” I say, feeling like I’m going to pass out.

  “Technically, you don’t, I’ll give you that. The thing is, you kicked my ass one day and stole my car. I had a good look at you and not long after, I met your father. He was asking around if we had seen you, showing your picture and I recognized the little shit who stole my car. I jumped on the occasion to get my revenge, and his way to get it was way better than mine so I followed his plan,” he says as if he was telling someone a funny story.

  “Why didn’t you kill me instead of Alina?”

  “See, we had to go through steps to break you the way we wanted. First, we had to wait for you to come back from war. Then, we had to find a woman who’d be willing to seduce you for a fair amount of money. We found Alina in a whorehouse and bought her off. She was grateful that we got her out of there, but your father and I had many goes with her. Sometimes we even tag teamed her. Her sweet pussy was heaven. Don’t you agree?”

  “You son of a bitch!” I yell, pulling on the restraints.

  “Easy, tiger, you’re going to hurt yourself. Anyway, we got her to agree to do whatever we wanted, and that included seducing you and making you believe that she was in a bad relationship with me and that you’d be saving her. That the warrior in you would do the right thing and save the damsel in distress.”

  “What was the point of your plan? It’s ridiculous to bring me a woman who had my kid.” I don’t know if it’s because I’m losing my fight and accepting it or if it’s because it really makes no sense, but I’m confused as fuck.

  “She was supposed to dump you and hurt you. That was the first part of the plan, but of course, you had to do things otherwise. She fell in love with you and wanted out. That’s when things got complicated for us in the beginning. We had planned on having other girls seduce you and have Alina catch you cheating on her and dump you, which would break your heart and send you into a downward spiral but you ma—”

  “That is the most ridiculous plan I’ve ever heard.” I laugh, and it hurts every muscle in my body.

  “Shut up!” He hits me again, and my head snaps back. “Your father’s plan, not mine. We hadn’t worked out all the details. Anyway, you got married and had a kid. We decided to let you think that things were all hunky dory and you had your fun with her, a sample of the good life. A job, a wife, a kid, a house paid for. You were living the American dream, but we couldn’t let you do that. That’s when we started with the phone calls. We both wanted you done for.

  “We met with Alina and told her to leave you and take Billy with her. She didn’t want to leave you as she really loved you in the end. Which was messing up with what we wanted to happen. So, we did what we had to do. We killed her and Billy. We thought that you’d be too much of a mess to stay alive, but you surprised us both. It was touch and go for a while, but you pulled through. Which was a massive bonus for us because it meant we could have some more fun.

  “We’ve kept an eye on you. We were always in the shadow lurking. We know everything about Nancy, how you met her, what she was. We know all about your life in the MC, all the fucked up shit you’ve done. We were there or we had someone watching you. See, we’d left you alone for a while, but with Annabella in the picture now, we can have more fun. I do have to say, it was fun to see you struggle with relationships, being unsure of what would happen to a woman if you were to get too close to her. We almost had Lewis to teach you a lesson and really make you feel cursed, but someone else got her before us. Such a shame.

  “As I was saying about Annabella, she’s going to get it good. I mean, she has more fight in her than Alina ever did, so it’ll be fun to see how she does. We even have a little throwback to the past for you!” He walks a bit further away and removes a dark cover that was over a car. The same car Alina was driving. “Does this bring back memories?” He smirks.

  “Screw you.” My eyes are fixed on the car; I can only see it. Everything around us fades into nothing. I can’t believe what this piece of shit just told me. All of it was just a setup. Alina might have fallen in love with me, but she was paid for it. How can I be sure that she really loved me or just wanted a safe life? He could also be lying about the whole thing to hurt me some more.

  My head is spinning with all this new information when a loud noise resonates from behind me. Light engulfs the warehouse, and I hear soft footsteps. You know when you are familiar with someone, you are accustomed to the way they walk and recognize their footsteps. In that moment, I know Annabella just walked in, and I want to scream at her to leave.

  She walks toward us and plants herself to my right. I look at her and see from my one good eye that she’s fucking furious at Shane.

  “Leave,” I tell her through gritted teeth.

  “I’m not leaving without you,” she says, glaring at me now.

  “I’ve got this. This is my fate. There’s still time for you.”

  “You shut up, I’m not letting you die!” she yells at me, making Shane laugh.

  “She’s a little spitfire.”

  “You shut up, too. I’m not going to let you come into my life and fuck with it, much less with the safety of my kid!” she says oddly calm with Shane.

  “Interesting. You might be worth a lot more than Alina ever was.” Shane smirks, and my world fades to black again.

  Annabella

  What the fuck is this man’s problem?

  “I’m not here to listen to your bullshit. I’m here to take Callum home,” I tell him, and he laughs again. I want to seriously kick his ass.

  “Yeah, about that. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. See that car? That’s where you and Callum are going to spend your last moment, but not together, it wouldn’t be fun if he didn’t get to see you be burned alive, too.”

  “Seriously, what the fuck is your problem? Do you have mommy issues? Did she not give you enough attention? Did she drop you on your head one too many times? Seriously? What is it? Enlighten me!”


  “You’ve got some nerves.” He glares at me, the muscles in his jaw tensing.

  “I’m just trying to wrap my head around why someone is as fucked up as you are.” I shrug, and he proceeds to tell me his ‘master plan’ which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. “You are one of a kind. So, let me get this straight, because someone stole your car and punched you in the face, you try to ruin their life? You willingly killed people for a car? God, you’re worse than I thought!”

  “Shut up!” he yells at me.

  “No, you shut up and listen to me. You’re going to let us walk out of here and disappear from our lives. You’ve done enough damage for a lifetime. You don’t need to do more. If you try to hurt us again, you’ll be the one ending up dead.”

  “You’re funny.” He chuckles.

  “Oh, because you think I’m joking?”

  “I’m not scared of a little mouse.” He comes closer to me, and two men I didn’t see come closer. What he didn’t expect is that I also have my own men with me. Jase and Bennett come out of the darkness they were hiding in after they blew up the door. Kind of a weird plan, but now I realize how effective it is. As his attention is drawn to Jase and Bennett, I pull out the gun and aim it at his head.

  “Little mouse got back up.” I smirk as he realizes I’m armed and ready to shoot.

  “You wouldn’t dare. You don’t have it in you.”

  “Oh really?” I smirk and aim at his shoulder to start. He howls in pain and falls to the ground while Jase and Bennett take care of the other two men.

  “You can’t aim, I knew it.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, I was aiming for your shoulder.” I smirk and shoot a bullet in his head. I’m not a sadistic person nor did I ever imagine I’d kill someone, but I wasn’t going to let him hurt us again in the future.

  With the psycho dead, I rush to Callum and untie him. Jase and Bennett are done taking care of his two minions and help me get Callum out. He’s in such a state. I’ve never seen someone beaten in real life, only in movies. And the reality surpasses fiction.

  His face is swollen and covered in bruises and blood. His once white shirt is now various shades of red and brown. His shoulder is really sticking out at an odd angle, and he’s unconscious.

  The guys get him in the back of the van, and we speed to the hospital. I dread to think what the doctors will say. I’m no medical expert, but with the state he’s in and his unconsciousness, it can’t be any good. That’s what worries me the most. That he’s really giving up. He said so himself, he was ready to accept the fate he thought he deserved to get. I just hope we aren’t too late.

  We had to wait for six hours to be able to see him. They had to perform surgery on him to fix his shoulder and the internal bleeding in his abdomen. I’m pretty sure Jase, Bennett, and Ryan hate me by now with my constant worrying and the shit ton of questions I asked them.

  We’ve gone over the whole mess that happened at least ten times, and we still can’t wrap our heads around what was said. None of it made sense, but if he was speaking the truth, it means we still have someone to worry about.

  Callum’s father…

  Callum

  Every single time one of my brothers has been in the hospital I’ve made fun of them. Fucking with them, laughing at them, calling them pussies for being in pain and whining about wanting to get out. Now it’s my fucking turn. Bennett and Ryan are laughing their heads off at me and if I could, I’d just pound their faces.

  “Karma is a bitch, isn’t she?” Bennett says, snickering.

  “When I get out of this bed, I swear to anything you want that I’ll fucking kick your ass,” I say through gritted teeth. Not by choice, but because of the state my face is in. Shane did a fucking number on me. It’s better than a couple of days ago when I was brought in, but it’s still a fucking mess. At least I can see now. My left eye isn’t swollen shut anymore, and they’ve fixed my lip. It’s just still painful to do anything.

  “You can talk, big man, I know you’re as soft as a puppy.” Bennett smirks at me.

  “What has Bella been telling you?” I groan both in annoyance and pain.

  “Oh, nothing.” He and Ryan giggle like schoolgirls, and I seriously just want to fucking smack them.

  “How’s my grumpiest patient?” Nurse Charlotte walks in.

  “Grumpy as ever if you ask me,” Bennett says, smirking.

  “So I see.” She chuckles and checks my stats. “Ryan…”

  “Charlotte…” he replies staring at her. I don’t know what’s going on between those two, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve spent so much time with the girls in the past or because I care, but I want to know what the fuck is going on.

  “Man, the sexual tension in here is through the roof!” Bennett exclaims.

  “No sexual tension here,” Charlotte says, sounding annoyed.

  “Now, don’t get annoyed or anything when you are holding a needle around me. I don’t want to suffer for whatever that prick did to you,” I scoff.

  “Duly noted.” She moves the bed sheets away and lifts my shirt before rubbing a small cotton pad on my tummy.

  “What the hell are you doing, woman?” I ask, confused, grabbing her wrist. I’m not scared of needles, I just don’t trust people, even medically trained ones. They have the power to save you or kill you. I don’t like that one bit.

  “I’m injecting you with a blood thinner so that you don’t develop blood clots because you’re still not allowed up. We’ve been doing them since you’ve been in here. They are the same injections we did to your brothers when they’ve been in. We prescribe them for people who aren’t able to walk for a certain period of time for whatever reason. I’m not trying to kill you, chillax.” She smiles at me. At least she wasn’t being snappy with me. That’s a first.

  “Okay then.” I let go of her wrist and relax, letting her do her thing.

  “You were really lucky that your friends brought you in as early as they did.”

  “I know, I owe these motherfuckers.” I sigh.

  “You love us,” Bennett chuckles.

  “I do to a certain extent.” I smirk and laugh at Bennett’s face falling but quickly sober up as it’s too painful.

  “Be careful. Your abdomen is going to be sensitive for a while. They’ve stopped the bleeding and fixed what needed to be fixed. You have stitches so don’t move too much. You don’t want to rip them,” Charlotte says before scribbling something on my chart.

  “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.” She smiles at me.

  “Can I talk to you?” Ryan asks her, and she groans faintly.

  “Fine,” she says tightly and walks out, followed by Ryan.

  “What’s happening between these two?” Bennett asks.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’m sure you do. Come on, spill it!”

  “I really don’t know, but I wish I did. Ryan is in so much trouble.” I snort.

  “He is.” Bennett smirks.

  We shoot the shit about what’s been going on—if they’ve found anything else about what happened or if there have been any more threats. Things have been quiet, but I know my father is still lurking in the background. The two guys Jase and Bennett killed were just two people Shane paid to finish the job.

  Deep inside, I think I knew my father was behind all of it. He’s always blamed me for everything and me almost killing him probably only made things worse. I have to find him before he finds Bella and Elijah. I won’t be able to forgive myself it anything were to happen to them.

  I still can’t wrap my head around all the mess that’s been going on without my knowledge about Alina. She might have fallen in love with me, or so she said, but she was paid to seduce me. Everything was a lie. Maybe she just wanted a sugar daddy or someone to take care of her and pull her out of the mess she found herself in. I’m not sure, but this is heartbreaking. I loved her, or I thought I did. Maybe Gabe was right. Your first love isn’t always yo
ur real love, and you get to meet her when you least expect it.

  Meeting Bella has been a blessing. She’s brought so much into my life. So many things I didn’t know I missed. Now that I have them, I can’t imagine myself living without them. Love, care, laughter, happiness.

  Despite her being half my age, she’s a lot stronger than I gave her credit for, maybe stronger than I am. She didn’t back down to Shane and ended him. I’m still shocked by that. I didn’t see it go down, but I’m glad she took power in her own hand to do the right thing. It seems to be a tradition that whenever one of us gets with our woman, they end up killing someone. Maybe it’s a rite of passage or just shows that we have strong women by our sides.

  Bella has been in every day since it happened. Never with Elijah, she didn’t want to scare him with the state my face was in, but I miss my little man. We share a special bond I didn’t even have with my own kid back then. It makes me wonder if he was even my kid since she fucked my father and Shane. Either way, I miss being able to spend time with Bella and Elijah. Visits are restricted to a minimum because ‘I have to rest’, which is bullshit.

  High pitched squeals wake me up. I look around, and Bennett is gone. I try to locate where the noise comes from and the top of a little blond head peeks from the side of the bed, and I ruffle the hair. Elijah.

  “Hey, little man.” I chuckle sleepily as he tries to climb up. I can’t help him, and it frustrates me.

  “Don’t wake him up, baby,” Bella whispers loudly.

  “Too late, Bella.” I smile at her.

  “Hey, you. Sorry about that. I told him not to wake you up.” She nibbles her lip.

  “It’s alright. How are you?” I ask as she helps Elijah on the bed.

  “Be careful with his sides, don’t hurt him. I’m good and you?” She pecks my lips as Elijah cuddles into me carefully.

  “Getting there.” I smile against her lips and wrap my arms around Elijah. “I missed you both.”

  “We missed you, too,” Elijah says, melting my heart.

  “Did you, now?”

  “Yes, mommy doesn’t like SpongeBob.” He frowns looking totally outraged by that.