Page 26 of Callow

“I know,” I agreed, glancing over at him. “I will figure this out,” I added, climbing off of the table as my resolve came back little by little. “Thank you for saving my girl. And for calling me. And… everything,” I said, feeling like I needed to put some distance between us. Because every fiber of my being wanted to run back into his arms.

“Babe,” Callow called, making me turn back, finding him watching me with those gorgeous blue eyes.

“Yeah?”

He paused, like he didn’t know what he was going to say. Then settled on, “If you need anything…”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling teary-eyed again.

I had to blink away the tears as I moved back into the clubhouse, surprised by just how unexpectedly good it felt to have someone offer me help.

“Mom?” Daphne called, voice small, almost like a girl several years younger, as she looked at me.

“We should get going,” I told her. “These guys have… a lot going on,” I added, hearing the rumble of men’s voices in the common room. “Thanks for hanging with her, Cali,” I said, forcing a small smile.

“Yeah… thanks,” Daphne said as she rushed to follow me out of the room.

I said nothing to the other men as I led Daphne out of the building and to our car.

I could feel her gaze on me as we got in and pulled out of the lot, but I didn’t quite trust myself to say anything just yet.

In the end, it was Daphne who couldn’t take the silence as we walked into our apartment.

“Mom?” she called behind me, her voice quivering. I turned back to find her eyes welling up. “I’m sorry,” she said, voice cracking.

Her head fell as the tears started to slide down her cheeks.

Maybe Callow was right.

She needed to see me break down in order for her to be able to open up to me as well.

I walked back over, wrapping my arms around my kid in a way she hadn’t let me for almost a year.

As we stood there, I was sure that things had finally taken a turn.

There was no way I could have known what chain of events had been put into motion that afternoon. And how my daughter and I were going to find ourselves wrapped up in some sort of street war between criminal organizations.

CHAPTER SIX

Callow

“Everything okay with that?” Fallon asked when I made my way back into the clubhouse.

Sabrina’s tears were still wetting through my shirt. I swear I could still feel the way her body vibrated with sobs as I held her.

I’d only ever heard one other person cry like that in my life. When someone had seen his best friend get shot while we were on a mission.

Sabrina had clearly been holding those feelings in for an unhealthy amount of time. It was good that she’d had a chance to get it out. And, in my opinion, that her kid got to see that there were repercussions for her actions.

“Yeah. She’s not going to the cops. She just wants to try to figure out what the fuck is going on with her kid.”

“Okay. That’s one less worry,” Fallon said, sucking in a deep breath.

“How’s Perish?” I asked.

“He’s gonna be alright. The medics got the bullets out. They’re gonna be checking in on him every day to check for infection. He’s got some pain meds in his system, so he’s good for a while.”

“Here,” Croft said, coming walking over from where he’d been sitting at the bar, bent over a piece of paper. “This was the one I saw,” he said, turning the paper to show us all a really fucking realistic sketch of a man’s face.

---