Page 51 of Hell's Claim

“I do,” Callie replied finally.

Sunny dropped a kiss on her head and squeezed her. “I’ll explain after church.”

“Okay,” Callie muttered.

Callie

I watched as Sunny disappeared for church and turned to Thalia. Bear was beside himself as he held an ice pack on her chin. Despite Chance calling church, Bear wasn’t rushing. Bear kept stroking Thalia’s arms, and I could see her getting irate.

“Bear, for fuck’s sake, it was an accident. I stepped in the way, and it was a glancing blow,” Thalia muttered as she winced in pain.

“Baby, I hit like a sledgehammer,” Bear whined.

“Yes, you freaking do, but I’m okay,” Thalia insisted.

I wasn’t going to keep my mouth shut. “If you hadn’t attacked Sunny, Thalia would never have been hurt. You have temper issues.”

Bear looked crestfallen, while Thalia sent me a dark look. “Callie…”

“No. Whatever issue he had with Sunny, your stupid husband caused this. He clearly was lacking information and lashed out without knowing the full story. Chance made that very clear,” I pressed.

“This is club business,” Bear snarled at me. Fuck, no. I wasn’t standing for that. I shoved my face in his.

“You punching my sister is my business, asshole,” I hissed, and Bear flinched physically.

“I would never hurt Thalia on purpose,” Bear muttered as he hauled Thalia in closer to his body.

“That I don’t think I can believe. Honestly, you were so riled up you had no idea Thalia was heading to you! If you lost your temper at home, you’d kill her,” I snapped.

“Callie! Shut up! It was a damn accident!” Thalia exclaimed.

“Yeah. Take the side of the man who just punched you. Typical.” With that, I walked away.

Thalia and Bear may be right. But at the end of the day, Bear had been so incensed he’d not known who was in the vicinity. My blood ran cold at another thought.

“You know, you were so blinded with temper, you didn’t know who was around you. What if it had been one of the kids?” I demanded. “One blow from you and it’d lead to real damage.”

Thalia and Bear paled, while Clio sent me an admonishing look. With that final say, I headed out and got into my car and drove off.

Sunny

He winced as he heard Callie’s parting shot. It would make Bear doubt himself, and Sunny didn’t want that. There was no doubt in his mind that Bear would ever deliberately hurt Thalia, and Callie was severely mistaken there. But he could see shit from Callie’s side.

She’d not been close enough to hear what had happened, and all she had seen was Sunny talking to Sailor and Bear attacking them both. From Callie’s point of view, it looked bad. Then Thalia got hit.

Sunny remembered someone mentioning that Callie had been abused as a child. She’d never mentioned much around him, but an odd comment or two had slipped out of her.

The violence must have taken Callie by surprise, and she’d naturally reacted against it. He’d explain everything to her later, and hopefully, Callie would calm down. If Callie was going to be in his life, she deserved to know it all. Sunny owed her that.

He sat in the office as Bear entered; the man a much quieter version of himself than an hour ago.

“Any doubts now?” Chance demanded without preamble.

“No. But I can’t imagine who it could be,” Bear replied.

“Sunny is going to explain once more. You’ll listen, Bear, and pay attention. We’ve got a rat,” Chance ordered.

Sunny glanced at Chance, who nodded and began explaining to Bear again. This time Sunny could tell Bear was taking shit in.

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