Catching Fire (The Fire Duet Book 2)

by Billie Lustig

  “I don’t fucking want to hear it. I’m going into town for a drink. Don’t wait up.”

  “Kane, wait. Don’t go,” I plead while I watch him walk away.

  He twists on the spot, angrily pointing his finger at me, making me wince for a second.

  “Not. Now. Callie. Not now.” His eyes are darker than usual, and even though I know he won’t hurt me, his feral look scares the shit out of me.

  I let him walk away as I feel the tight grip his ire leaves on my heart.

  “He’ll be back,” Reign whispers as we watch him walk off the deck then storm into one of the SUVs parked out front. Jeremy runs after him, clearly not feeling like letting him go alone even though Kane doesn’t make an attempt to wait for him. Jeremy jumps in at the last minute, then the car disappears into the night with screeching tires.

  I exhale loudly, pissed at myself for hurting him.

  “Don’t do that, Angel. It’s not like he caught us naked or something.”

  “No, we would’ve both been dead if that had happened.”

  “Well, I told you that you would find a guy who would kill for you.”

  “You would kill for me.”

  He rolls his eyes.

  “Not the same.”

  “Right.” I grin, examining his face.

  Time looks good on him, and I’m wondering if there is a girl waiting for him at home.

  “Where have you been, Reign?”

  “Everywhere. Nowhere. Home.”

  “Boston home?”

  He nods before he takes another pull from his beer. He gives me a knowing look, and suddenly it’s like a lightbulb illuminates in my head.

  “Holy crap,” I blurt out, suddenly realizing what Kane was calling him before. “You run with the Boston Wolfes?”

  When he nods in agreement, I can’t hide my surprise.

  “Holy shit, you work for Franklin Wolfe?”

  He lets out a chuckle, so I tilt my head in confusion.

  “You make it sound like I actually have a choice.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s my brother.” A smug grin appears on his flawless face, as if he’s telling me the funniest joke in the damn world. But in his defense maybe it is, because that sure as fuck didn’t cross my head even once when he mentioned his family when we were together.

  “Your brother?” I gasp. “Holy crap, Reign. Here you are, telling me I need to stay away from the bad boys, yet all this time you’ve been one of Boston’s biggest.”

  He lets out a full belly burst of laughter.

  “I’m not that bad, am I?”

  “You’re alright.” I shrug, pushing my shoulder against his. “You said your name was Delaney, though. You lied to me for a year? I feel so offended. And here I thought you were my best friend.” I place my hand over my heart with mocking drama.

  “Technically, I didn’t lie. My mother’s maiden name was Delaney. When my brothers decided I should go to New York for a while, we thought it was safer if no one knew I was a Wolfe.”

  “Why was that again?” that curious devil on my shoulders asks, hoping he will cave.

  “Don’t push it.”

  “Fine.” I roll my eyes and stay quiet for a few beats while I focus my gaze back on the treetops in front of me. “I can’t believe you’re a Wolfe. Remind me to ask you to introduce me to your brother when I visit you in Boston,” I joke.

  “Which one?”

  “The hottest. Which one is that?”

  “Well, me?” He pouts, as if he’s offended.

  “Are you the oldest? I heard the oldest is the hottest. The leader of the bunch. Are you the leader?” I ramble.

  “I wonder if you’d still have such a big mouth if your man was still here,” he taunts.

  I suck in a breath, thinking about how Kane stormed off.

  I love his possessiveness. He’s an asshole, but he’s mine. But before now, on the yacht, all we’ve known is the world that we built around us, without any interference from any outsiders other than his brother. I have no clue what will happen after this. What he wants from me. What he expects from me. He is one of the biggest crime lords out there. I’m not foolish enough to think he will want a white picket fence and a few kids running around.

  Hell, I don’t even know if that’s what I want?

  “Hey.” Reign runs a hand through my hair like he used to do when we dated. It was a feeling I always cherished, knowing it was a gesture of love. And even though I still feel the love Reign has for me, I also feel it’s nothing more than friendship, any passionate love being completely replaced by the feelings I have for Kane.

  “He loves you. It will be fine.”

  I shoot him a coy smile before moving my gaze back in front of me.

  “I know,” I agree, meaning every word.

  I don’t know how, having no clue how we will spend our lives together, but deep inside me, I agree with the words that rolled off Reign’s tongue. It will be fine. We will make it work.

  He snickers next to me, so I move my head towards his.

  “What?”

  “I guess you really found your guy, haven’t you?”

  “I have.” I smile while I examine the troubled look on his face. “I’m sure you’ll find your girl, Reign. She’s out there somewhere.”

  “Yeah, I think I already found her.”

  “You did? What’s her name?”

  “Sienna.” He scrubs a hand over his face before he takes another pull of his beer.

  “She’s from Boston?”

  “Hmm.” He bobs his head in agreement, not looking like he wants to tell me more.

  “Why the face then?”

  “It’s complicated,” he grunts.

  “Isn’t it always?” We look at each other and laugh.

  Twenty-Eight

  Kane

  Present Day

  I hit the throttle, exerting all of the pissed off feelings swarming me as I drive us through the narrow turns of the Montana mountains, even though this is not the time to pretend I’m a Nascar driver.

  “Are you trying to kill us, Carrillo?” Jeremy grips the door handle, trying to keep himself steady in his seat.

  “Shut up,” I growl, keeping my eyes on the dark road in front of me.

  “Just take it easy.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come,” I snarl, making him huff beside me.

  “Yeah, well, you can thank me later when I’ve prevented you from killing anyone.”

  I keep my mouth shut because there is no fucking use arguing. I’m about as aggressive as a mountain lion that’s on a hunger strike, ready to kill the first thing that crosses my path.

  “Since when do you get jealous, anyway?”

  “What? I don’t,” I blurt out incredulously, quickly glaring at him before I move my gaze back in front of me.

  “Yeah, you’re not jealous at all,” he snickers in response.

  I take a deep breath, taking my foot off the throttle a notch.

  He’s right.

  I can’t stand the sight of my girl wrapped in someone else’s arms, and it’s fucking with my head. After last night, I know there is no way back. I might have claimed her body, leaving my teeth marks forever visible on her fair skin, but it’s the claim she made on my heart that feels heavy. It’s the fact that she could walk out on me, straight into the arms of another man, that’s fucking me over. It’s the fact that I would let her, if that’s what would make her happy. It’s the fact that I would sacrifice everything for her, even myself. I’ve never cared for another soul except my brother, yet here is this sassy firecracker, becoming a loose cannon in my normally organized world.

  “Do you really think she will walk out with Wolfe when this is all over?” Jeremy continues.

  “No,” I bark without hesitation, feeling the truth in my bones.

  She is mine.

  She will remain mine.

  She will be mine until my last breath, and even then, she will be mine until
her world stops spinning.

  “No, I don’t,” I repeat while I try to find the words that are the root of my frustration. “I just hate how he gets to touch her like that. It’s the familiarity that’s killing me. They have a history together. He’s her past.”

  “And you’re her future,” Jeremy points out, making me shoot him a scowl even though he’s right. “But he’s her friend. They’ve been through a lot.”

  I keep my eyes on the road, even though the tone in his voice makes me want to glare at him. And then I realize what he said.

  “You knew they dated?” I clench my jaw, already knowing the answer.

  “Of course I knew, Kane. You told me to find out everything there was about her. At some point, Wolfe came up.”

  “Did you know about the night he saved her from her brother?”

  “Yeah,” he admits. “I know it all.”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” I snap, gripping the steering wheel in a tight grip.

  “Because I knew you were going to be all possessive about it, and you would’ve never let me reach out to Wolfe. And we need him.”

  I crack my neck, knowing he’s right. If he’d told me Wolfe and Callie had a history, I would’ve demanded that he find someone else.

  Fuck me, I really am jealous.

  “You think she still needs him?” I ask, trying to calm myself down a bit instead of going on like a raging bull. A jealous, raging bull.

  “Why would you think that?”

  I think back to the sight on the deck ten minutes ago. She was sobbing in his arms, clearly flustered about everything she found out today. She let me be there for her when I told her that her mother was murdered, but I’m wondering if that was only because there wasn’t anybody else around. Mostly I get sassy Callie, but I want to be there for her in every single way. I want to be the one she seeks for comfort when she’s sad, when she’s angry. I want her to look for me when her world is falling apart.

  “She lets down her walls with him.” I shrug, hating the unsettling feeling I have while thinking about this.

  “Only because they have a history,” he refutes.

  I glance at his annoying face, which is currently looking at me as if I’m the world’s biggest jackass.

  Maybe he’s right.

  I’m throwing a fucking tantrum over this, and if my brother was here, he would be laughing his ass off.

  “Look, man, stop being a fucking baby. Let’s get a drink, settle down, then go back to your girl. I bet she’s feeling like crap, seeing you storm off like that. And I also bet that she will be scowling at you for being such a fucking toddler when you clearly staked a claim on her yesterday.”

  Before I can even think about replying, I look into the rearview mirror, noticing headlights behind us.

  “What? You thought nobody would notice?” Jeremy asks.

  “Pff, I wanted everyone to notice.” My eyes are locked on the car driving behind us, getting closer to my tailgate by the second.

  “Did you call in for security to follow us?” I ask, automatically reaching into the waistband of my jeans to grab my gun.

  “No, why?” Jeremy twists his chest to look at the road behind us. “Shit, you think we’re being followed?”

  “Yeah,” I snarl, feeling in my gut that this is bad fucking news. “Call Liam. Tell him to track us.”

  Jeremy dips his hand in his front pocket to pull out his phone while I curse inside. The tension in my body is making my neck hurt.

  I shouldn’t have been so damn stupid, rushing out of the house without any backup. I have too many enemies, too many people who would benefit from my death. Not to mention Junior fucking Reyes is hunting us down.

  “Kane, look out!” Jeremy shouts with fear coating his voice before I snap my eyes back to the road in front of me. We’ve reached a fork in the road, so I jerk the wheel to the side, trying to avoid the headlights that are rapidly moving directly at us. Even though deep down I know this is not a coincidence.

  This car is here to drive us off the road.

  This car is here for me.

  I give Jeremy one last glance before the other car drives into ours; the impact making everything turn black.

  Twenty-Nine

  Callie

  Present Day

  I’m about to open my mouth to urge Reign to tell me more when I hear Imogen call me from inside, her voice laced with panic.

  Reign and I share a worried look before we quickly jog inside where Liam is on the phone with a grim scowl on his face.

  “What the fuck is wrong?” I look at Imogen with wide eyes, moving my focus back and forth between her and Liam. My heart skips a beat when she answers with a shrug of uncertainty. After what seems like forever, Liam hangs up the phone, clenching his jaw before he opens his mouth.

  “That was Jeremy. Your brother took Kane.”

  “What?! Junior is here?” I exclaim, feeling like a knife is going through my heart.

  If my brother has Kane, there is a very big possibility I will never see him again. My brother isn’t just some criminal who takes people as leverage and honors his deals. He’s a psychopath who feels like he’s won when someone is stupid enough to believe whatever he’s saying.

  “Oh, God,” I groan with my hand in front of my mouth. My head feels like it’s about to spin like a fucking Ferris wheel, so I place my other hand on the table to keep myself from falling down.

  “Calm down, Angel.” Reign places a hand on my back, trying to comfort me with his touch.

  “What happened?” he asks Liam.

  “They got run off the road. Jeremy escaped and was able to hide in the forest, but they took Kane. I sent a team to pick Jeremy up. He’ll be here in a few minutes. I need you to work your magic.” He points his finger at Reign, who nods his head in agreement.

  “You okay, Callie girl?” I glance at Imogen, who gives me a concerned look.

  I take a deep breath before I take a seat opposite of her, pinching the bridge of my nose.

  “Did we know he was close?” I ask, referring to Junior. I ignore Imogen because the truth is, I don’t know if I’m okay. I need to act, I need to do something. I can’t just sit here and not be okay. I don’t have time to give into my fears.

  We need to get Kane back.

  Now.

  “We didn’t. I tracked them an hour ago, and supposedly he was still in South America,” Reign states.

  “But he’s not.”

  “Or he is, but he had someone following us,” Liam explains.

  I move my gaze to Liam, pursing my lips when I think about the next move my brother could make.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Well, it’s me he wants, right? So he will be calling me, wanting a trade.”

  Reign takes a seat next to me while Liam takes the few steps towards the back of Gen’s chair, resting his hands on the back of it.

  “Yeah, probably,” he agrees.

  “He probably has been watching us the entire time. Knowing exactly how big our team is and where we are.”

  “Fuck,” Reign mutters when he realizes I’m right.

  “We can’t gain an advantage because he already knows everything he needs to know. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have felt confident enough to take Kane when he did. There is no way Junior wouldn’t assume that there are people following Kane’s every move, to make sure he’s safe, unless he already knows he stormed out of the house with only Jeremy. He’s watching the house,” I declare.

  “Goddammit,” Liam growls right before Jeremy walks in, followed by the two guys who picked him up. His head looks busted, with a black eye and blood smeared all over his face.

  “Jesus Christ, are you okay? Did they see you?” I blurt out.

  I want to get up and wrap my arms around him, but considering that the reason Kane was in that car to begin with was because he saw me in the arms of another man, I feel like that would be pushing it.

  “I’m fine. I was able to get out o
f the car, crawled out of it undetected. I tried to grab Kane, but he ordered me to go and warn you guys. I lurked in the bushes for another minute and counted at least a dozen men. Junior was there.”

  “Do you need anything?” Imogen’s face is white as snow, reminding me how she hasn’t seen as much in her life as I have.

  “A glass of water would be nice.”

  Liam snaps his fingers to Julian while he pulls out a chair for Jeremy.

  Jeremy gratefully sits down with Liam, doing the exact same next to Imogen.

  “We need to get your brother out of there, ASAP.” Jeremy’s brows hug in the middle, showing the fatigue creeping in.

  “We will.” Liam nods, agreeing as he looks around the table. “We just need a solid plan. And quick.”

  “Easy. Give him what he wants,” I reply.

  “Callie,” Reign barks in a reprimanding tone, instantly knowing what I’m implying.

  “It’s what he wants.” I shrug.

  I’m not going to weigh out the pros and cons. There is only one thing my brother wants, and I’ll fucking give it to him if it saves the man I love.

  “Elaborate,” Liam booms from across the table.

  My eyes meet his straight face. He looks calm. But being stuck on a yacht with these brothers for three weeks taught me a lot about the subtlety of their facial expressions.

  He’s boiling inside, with both fear and anger.

  “Trade him for me.”

  “Callie! Are you out of your damn mind?” Imogen cries out with wide eyes. The light of the full moon shining through the window behind her makes it look like her baby blue eyes are beaming at me, her face showing how shocked she is.

  I don’t respond to her, instead flicking my eyes back to Liam.

  “You know it needs to happen.”

  “I also know my brother will kill me if he lives and you die.”

  “I don’t turn twenty-five for another six weeks. That gives you six weeks to get me out.”

  “I don’t know, Angel. Who knows what he will do to you in those six weeks,” Reign chimes in, shaking his head. “The guy sold you to the highest bidder for a night. He will probably try to make some more money off of you if you surrender to him.”