Cautious: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

by Candice Wright

  Which is how I find myself in the car with Kellen, arguing about Justin Bieber, of all things.

  “You can’t be serious!” I laugh as he drives us back home to the loft after taking me to pick up my latest box of goodies to test.

  “What? You have to admit his new stuff is catchy,” he protests with a laugh of his own.

  “I think I should keep this between us, Kellen,” I tease. “If the guys find out they will revoke your man card.”

  “Oh, please, some of them are worse than me. Ask Arlo about his Britney fetish. He must have watched her videos a hundred times,” he protests.

  “Watched or listened to?”

  “Watched, why does that make a difference? It's still Britney coming from the speakers of his laptop singing about a slave or some shit when I walk past.”

  I shake my head at how dense he’s being.

  “He’s not watching Britney for her musical genius, Kellen. How have you never seen the ‘Slave for You’ video?”

  He looks at me in confusion, making me burst out laughing as my phone rings.

  I slide it out of my pocket as Kellen turns down the radio, silencing Justin Bieber’s voice and the whole reason for the prior conversation.

  I frown, not recognizing the number, but it's local so I answer anyway.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello, is this Miss Ward?”

  I frown. “Yes, this is she.”

  “My name is Claire. I’m a nurse at the SV medical center. I’m sorry to tell you this, but your mother has been admitted with some serious injuries after being in a road accident today. She’s sedated now, but she managed to give us your details earlier.”

  “What?” I don’t say anything else. I don’t even know what to say.

  “If you could come down and fill out some paperwork for us, that would help us out a lot.”

  “I… Okay, sure,” I answer because what else can I do?

  “Thank you, Miss Ward. When you get here, make your way straight up to the ICU on the fourth floor.”

  I hang up the phone and just stare at it, feeling strangely disconnected.

  “What is it? What’s going on, Callie?” Kellen asks from beside me.

  “That was the hospital. My mom’s been in a car crash,” I tell him, my voice sounding robotic and void of emotion. I feel nothing. My mom is in the hospital, shouldn’t I feel something?

  “What? Fuck. Is she okay?” Kellen questions, turning the car around sharply. “Which hospital is she at?”

  “She’s at the SV,” I say quietly, trying to make sense of what I’m supposed to do now. I’d washed my hands of her, labeled her in my brain as a persona non grata, and now all of a sudden she needs me, so I’m supposed to pick up the pieces and form them into something salvageable?

  “She’ll be okay, Callie,” Kellen reassures me, mistaking my quietness for worry.

  I don’t answer him. What can I possibly say without sounding selfish?

  Thirty minutes later, he pulls up at the hospital, slipping into a parking space behind someone else who just pulled out.

  Our car comes to a stop for all of two seconds before we find ourselves shunted forward when something collides with us from the behind.

  The force of the impact has me jerking forward, my head smacking into the dashboard with a thud that makes my ears ring.

  “What the hell?” Kellen yells, turning to look at me. “You okay?”

  I nod and watch as his face turns a shade of red when his eyes hit my hairline. That's when I feel it, the telltale sign of blood trickling down my face.

  “Stay in the car and call Marcus. He’s at the office, speed dial 2,” he says, tossing me his phone before opening his door and climbing out of the car.

  Oh boy, this is not going to be good.

  I press the number 2 button and wait for Marcus to answer, watching in the rearview mirror as two men climb out of a lifted truck that I assume is responsible for hitting us.

  “Yo,” Marcus answers, surprising me. I had been so focused on Kellen that I almost drop the phone.

  “Popeye?” Despite my best efforts, my voice cracks as I watch one of the guys shove Kellen, who doesn’t move at all.

  “Callie? Talk to me, where’s Kel?” he asks, and I can hear voices in the background but not what they’re saying.

  “We are at the hospital. We just pulled into the parking lot when someone plowed into us from behind. We’re okay, but Kellen lost his shit when he saw I was bleeding, and now he’s about to get into a fight with two humongous guys who look like they eat steroids for breakfast,” I say all in one breath.

  “You’re bleeding?” Marcus roars, making me realize belatedly that I should have left that part out.

  “It's just a bump, but if you don’t get someone down here soon there will be a lot more blood to deal with,” I snap, wincing when one of the guys throws a punch. I notice the back doors of the truck open at the same time and two more guys climb down, looking almost like clones of the other two meatheads Kellen is already facing off against.

  “Shit, fuck, shit,” I curse, fumbling to free myself from my seat belt before swinging my door open and climbing out.

  “What? What’s happening?” Marcus barks as I hear the sounds of a car starting. Hopefully, it’s heading our way.

  “There’s four of them now, I have to do something.” I look around for something to use as a weapon when Kellen’s head rocks back from an uppercut to his jaw.

  “No, absolutely not. Do not engage them, Callie, do you hear me? I want you to go inside the building and stay there until one of us comes for you.”

  “But—”

  “No, I know you want to help but, Callie, you’ll only distract him, and he will end up hurt worse trying to protect you. Go. We’ll be there in ten minutes, and the cops are en route.”

  I hesitate a moment longer until one of the guys spots me then smiles in a very not nice way and I realize Marcus is right. They’ll use me against Kellen, and that will hurt him more than a few punches to the face.

  I take off at a dead run to the hospital's main entrance, pushing past people waiting to be seen. The lady with a scowl on her face sitting at the large desk doesn’t seem bothered at all about the fight in the parking lot. But when she realizes I won’t go away until she does something about it, she relents and finally agrees to call hospital security, but not before I lose my shit and end up getting sent on my way.

  I take a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves and decide to head up to my mother's room, knowing that’s where the guys will look for me first. Besides, I’d rather get this over with without an audience.

  I take the elevator up to the fourth floor and head down the corridor to the nurses' station. One of the two nurses points me in the direction of her room, so I head that way, promising to fill out any paperwork she needs afterward.

  It’s quiet when I enter. The only noise is the intermittent beeping of the machine beside the bed.

  “Mom,” I call softly. I don’t know if she’s asleep or ignoring me, but she doesn’t turn to face me, so I leave the door open and walk over to the bed. I’m ready to tell her I’m leaving, that I’ll fill out whatever paperwork needs taking care of but that’s where my role in her recovery ends. Something else comes out instead.

  “I love him. Every single instinct I have tells me to run to keep him safe, but that's just my fear talking. Blake’s a fighter, strong, fair and protective. He knows all about Christian and yet I held back telling him the truth about you. I let you get in my head again, questioning how he would react because I didn’t trust him enough to believe me. That stops now. In a moment, I’m going to walk out of this room, and you’ll never see me again. I’m going to tell Blake everything. I’m tired of running, I’m tired of being afraid of my own shadow, and I’m so fucking done giving you any power over me.”

  She rolls toward me. One of her eyes is so swollen she can’t open it, but she doesn’t need to. I know it will be the same b
lue color as the left one blinking rapidly as tears fall down her cheeks.

  I suck in a sharp startled breath and take a step back as I stare into the eye that should be the same copper color as mine. I don’t know what’s happening, but one thing is clear, whoever this woman is, she isn’t my mother.

  “Hello, Callie.”

  I spin around at the sound of my name, gasping when I feel a sharp pinch on my neck. I can feel the blood draining from my face when my eyes connect with the icy cold blue ones of Christian.

  I spot a syringe in his hand. The image becomes hazy, fading in and out as I try to comprehend what that means, but then the floor rushes up to meet me, sending me into oblivion.

  Chapter Twenty

  Blake

  I sigh with relief as Noah and I wave goodbye to Tommy, the little five-year-old boy who’s heading off to live on his grandfather's ranch in Colorado.

  Tommy’s mother, Ellen, hired Price Security as a protection detail to get her to and from the courthouse safely while she battled against her abusive soon-to-be ex-husband for sole custody of her son. A son that had been sent to the emergency room six times already in his young life. Despite both Tommy and Ellen telling hospital staff and the police that Edward, Tommy’s father, was the one responsible for Tommy’s injuries, Edward had walked free. Not because he was innocent, but because he was loaded and had a judge or two in his pocket, meaning everything got swept under the rug.

  When Tommy found Ellen dead one morning in a pool of her own blood after a so-called botched robbery, Tommy was sent to live with his father. A father who didn’t know that Ellen had security cameras installed by yours truly in every room of her house.

  Thanks to the footage I pulled, Edward is now facing a life sentence and Tommy gets to live with his grandfather who seems like a good man who adores his grandson.

  Despite my frustration at not being able to save Ellen, I’m happy we managed to get Tommy out of his father's evil clutches.

  “Think he’ll be okay?” Noah asks as they pull away.

  “Yeah, I do. He has a rough road ahead of him, but he's safe now, and that’s half the battle.”

  “Plus, you can see the grandfather adores him,” Noah adds.

  I nod in agreement, thankful the kid has that. He deserves it.

  I pull my phone out to turn the volume back on and see I have eighteen missed calls and seven text messages. I frown as a feeling in the pit of my gut tells me to brace myself.

  “What’s wrong?” Noah asks, taking in my facial expression before whipping out his phone and cursing.

  I don’t say anything, I just dial Marcus and wait until he picks up.

  “Blake, man, Jesus fucking Christ. Get back here now. Meet me at the hospital.”

  “What the fuck is going on? Where’s Callie? Is she okay?” I ask, climbing into my truck with Noah getting into the passenger seat beside me.

  I switch my phone over to Bluetooth and let Marcus’s voice fill the cab.

  “Callie’s gone. I can’t talk because the cops are here. Just hurry the fuck up,” he snaps before hanging up on me, leaving me to feel like the bottom just fell out of my world.

  I slam my hand on the steering wheel and pull out of the parking lot with a screech.

  “Keep calm, Blake, Callie needs you in one piece. You just concentrate on driving, and I’ll call the guys and see what I can find out.

  “Keep calm? How the fuck am I supposed to keep calm when I don’t know where she is?” I snap.

  “We don’t know anything is wrong yet—”

  “She wouldn’t leave without one of us with her. She knows what's at stake, so don’t tell me to calm down, Noah. I’ll calm down when we find her,” I growl, panic clawing at my insides.

  I drive as fast as I can without getting us killed as Noah tries to find out what's going on, pulling up at the hospital two hours later when it should have taken at least three. It's only by the grace of God we didn’t get pulled over.

  Noah and I don’t really know any more now than we did before, the rest of the team being far too busy trying to ascertain what happened to Callie to sit around chatting to us. As much as I appreciate their efforts to find my girl, I’m two seconds away from losing my shit.

  I pull into a no-parking zone and jump out, not giving a fuck if they tow.

  “Give me the keys and go, I’ll meet you inside,” Noah offers, so I toss him the keys and head inside the hospital, finding Arlo waiting for me just inside the entrance.

  “Tell me what the hell happened,” I snap at him, following behind him at a fast trot to the elevators.

  “I know as much as you. I just got here myself and Marcus asked me to wait and bring you up when you got here.”

  By the time the elevator reaches the fourth floor, I’m almost crawling out of my skin and ready to rip this place apart to find her. I spot Marcus heading toward me as soon as the doors open and brace myself for what he’s about to tell me.

  “It's my fault. He set a trap, and I walked her right into it,” he admits, his face full of guilt and remorse.

  “If you don't start explaining just what the hell is going on, I’m going to knock your teeth out,” I growl at him.

  He leads me to a side door, and we go into what looks to be a family room of some sort where Felix is standing talking to a bruised and bleeding Kellen.

  Kellen jumps right in. “Callie got a call this morning saying her mother had been in a car accident.”

  “She didn’t seem to react much to that so I offered to bring her here, figuring she must be in shock. When we pulled up, a truck slammed into the back of us, making Callie bump her head on the dashboard. I climbed out of the car, intent on ripping the guy a new asshole when two fucking no-necked tanks got out, spouting shit off about me taking their space. It was all bullshit; there hadn’t been anyone there waiting when I pulled in. One of the guys shoved me, then threw a punch, before two more no-necks climbed out the back of their truck.”

  I seethe. If they took Callie, I’ll kill them one by one.

  “Callie called me,” Marcus takes over. “She wanted to help Kellen, but I knew she would get herself hurt and distract him, so I told her to go inside and wait, which she did. By the time we got here, Kellan and a security guard were giving their statements to the police, but the guys were long gone. Kellen told us what had happened to Callie's mother, so we came up here to find her. Only, when we got here, there was no sign of Callie. A nurse remembers talking to her. She said she saw her enter her mother's room but hasn’t seen her since. We've searched the place high and low, Blake. She’s not here. I’m waiting for the security guys to come back with the surveillance footage.”

  I will my heart to calm down. Logically, I know in a hospital this size she could have just been missed. She could be in any one of the many bathrooms or even in the cafeteria getting coffee. She could, in theory, be back any minute, but I don’t believe that, and the look on Marcus’s face tells me he doesn’t either.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking.” I learned a long time ago to trust his instincts.

  “Callie wouldn’t leave. I don’t care what her relationship is like with her mother, she wouldn't leave me and the boys to worry like that.”

  He’s right, she wouldn’t, no matter what, and that’s what I’m afraid of.

  “There's more. I found a smear of blood on the floor in her mother's room. There’s no spatter and no drops, and definitely not enough to cause anyone any major concern. It looks like a streak of blood from someone who was already bleeding, like from, say, a cut to their forehead,” he concludes, and it doesn’t take much for me to fill in the blanks.

  “You think she fell and hit her head on the floor and because she was bleeding from the bump she took in the car, it left a trace behind,” I state, trying to picture it in my head but the thought of Callie bleeding is more than I can stomach.

  “Yeah, but Blake, if it was an accident and she just tripped and fell, where is she? I know th
is isn’t what you want to hear, but I think someone took her,” Marcus says quietly, his voice almost drowned out by the roaring in my ears.

  “Christian,” I spit out vehemently, turning to face Arlo who came in behind me. “Chase up the security guy. I want that footage now.”

  “Yes, boss,” he answers, leaving the room to do my bidding.

  “Anyone talk to the mother yet?”

  Marcus shakes his head. “She was in and out of consciousness when I checked the room out earlier. Freaked out so much the nurse asked me to leave. She looks bad, man. I heard the nurse say she has a fractured eye socket and that she has broken her nose, wrist, and collarbone. Every inch of her is covered in bruises, but they say she’ll make a full recovery.”

  “Felix and I will go talk to her. She’ll recognize me at least. Marcus, I want you to wait with Kellen for the security footage, then call me as soon as you have it. Kellen, have you been checked out?” I ask, noticing how he’s favoring his right side.

  “I’m fine, just bruised, but I’ll live. Go, talk to the mother.”

  I don't argue with him. He’s a big boy, and if he says he’s okay then he’s okay. Even so, I catch Marcus’s eye and give him a look that says, “keep an eye on him.” I know he gets it when he nods at me.

  "Noah will be here any minute. Fill him in and get him to talk to the security guards from the ground floor, see if they saw anything,” I call over my shoulder as I follow Felix down the corridor. I stop when he points to the last but one room on the left.

  “Excuse me, sir, you can't go in there,” a nurse calls from behind us.

  Felix turns and dazzles her with one of his rare smiles before answering. “Blake here is her son-in-law and I’m her nephew. Apart from her daughter, we are the only family she has left.”

  Her face softens at the worried tone of his voice before she relents and gives in. “Fine, but you have ten minutes. She needs to rest,” she tells us before turning back the way she came.