Page 85 of The Burdens We Share
My feet start taking me to her, running at full speed, ready to destroy the man responsible for that sound escaping her. I find a door and shoulder through it, finding a gray stairwell. “Ivory!” I shout, raising my gun to be prepared.
I wait. I don’t expect her to respond, but I expect some kind of sound to give away what floor she’s on. Either footsteps from him or better yet, voices. When nothing comes for a moment, I start to panic. I need a hint as to what floor they’re on. I can’t just sweep every floor. Not after she made that noise. She could be seriously injured or close to it.
A moment later I hear it. A door slamming shut from the floor above me. I race up the stairs, taking them three at a time as I round the bend and make it up the last flight. When I reach the top, I swing the door open and raise my gun, stepping right through and into the chaos.
My ribs shatter into a million pieces, piercing my heart and leaving me to die as I take in my surroundings. This is a set scene of Ivory’s childhood home, and there in the middle of the replicated living room is the girl that I love, unconscious and dripping blood from her head and forearm, her face bloody and bruised. Her attacker holding her off the ground with an arm wrapped around her waist, her body slumped forward as he supports her weight. The sight of her like this completely killsme and I’m so ready to say fuck it and drop my gun just so I can rip him apart with my bare hands.
I’m so distracted by the sight of her limp body, that it takes a moment for my stomach to sink as I lay my eyes on her attacker. The air is stolen from my lungs as piercing blue eyes meet mine, a wicked smirk on his lips. “No,” my voice is barely a whisper, but he still hears it.
He raises his chin at me, arrogance radiating off of him. “Yes. Long time no see, old friend.”
“Calvin fucking Worshire,” I spit, venom in each word. He’s alive. He’s alive and breathing somehow. I thought he was dead for years, but this whole time he was just waiting in the shadows.
Calvin cocks his head to the side, “Glad you haven’t forgotten me. How’s Mommy doing?” I want to shoot him right in the face for his mention of my mother, whom of which he killed. “Oh, that’s right,” he pretends to think critically, “she’s dead. I killed her.”
My nostrils flare and my eye twitches. He’s baiting me. He wants me to lose control so that I get distracted because if my concentration falters for a second, he can hurt her worse than he clearly already has and he could kill me too. I’m not a fool. This man before me was a friend once upon a time. I know he has a gun or a knife on him somewhere and I know his aim with both is impeccable. Almost as impeccable as mine.
I clench my jaw, “Right, because your psychotic brain blames me for Lita’s death and you can’t hate me like a normal person. You have to resort to murdering my mother, faking your death for years, and then kidnapping the woman I love.”
At the mention of Lita, his calculated demeanor cracks. “Do not say her fucking name,” he seethes.
I smirk, “I’m sorry,” I tilt my head at him, “Did I upset you?”
His brows pull together, “Shut the fuck up.”
“Let her go and I will,” I nod my head towards Ivory who is still bleeding all over the place. At this rate, she’s going to bleed out. I need to get this situation under controlnowso that I can get her to a hospital.
Calvin growls, “You can’t have her. She belongs to me. She always has, you just didn’t know it.”
I cock my head at him, “She willneverbe yours. She’s been mine since I first laid eyes on her and over my dead fucking body will you take her from me.”
“I already have,” he presses his lips to the side of her head and my fingers itch to strangle him to death. “I took her from you months ago.”
Months ago? He didn’t just kidnap Brody and then Ivory in an attempt to get back at me? I narrow my gaze, “What are you talking about?”
Calvin’s arrogance returns and he suddenly looks so proud of himself. “Do you want the full story?” My silence is all the answer he needs as he begins, “When you had me sent to jail for the murder of Mommy dearest, I had quite a bit of time to think. About you, about Lita, about Harvey. I watched TV one night in the common room and saw the news where you and Harvey were pictured with the famous ‘Satan’s Angels.’ It didn’t sit right with me that I was locked in a cage for avenging my woman while you and Harvey were out falling in love with rockstars. I knew I had to do something about it so I faked my death in prison. I paid off a few guards, and I was able to fly under the radar for a while.
“I spent months following you, watching you closely. I wanted to know every facet of your life so that I could take everything you loved and destroy it in front of you. Which is how I found this little beauty,” his eyes lower back to Ivory before focusing back on me. “I discovered your little infatuation with her and thought to myself, ‘What better way to destroy your life than totake that which you love most?’ And just like that, I had a new target. I was going to gut her like a fish and leave her for you to find like how I left your mother for you, but when I went to do it, I couldn’t,” he looks back down at her and his gaze softens. Bile creeps up my throat and my blood boils under my skin like molten lava as he tenderly brushes bloody strands of hair from her face. He doesn’t look back at me as he adds, “She was too beautiful. There was just something about her that stopped me and made me spare her.”
He finally drags his gaze back to mine, his affection disappearing as quickly as it came. “I fell in love with her myself. Then the plan changed. I couldn’t kill her, but I could take her from you, make her fall for me instead. So that’s what I did. I left her little notes and beautiful roses, and I will admit, it was rather fun to play cat and mouse with you when you deemed yourself her bodyguard. I liked watching you get all riled up wondering where I was and freaking out over how to catch me.”
My face pales. Holy shit. Calvin was her stalker this entire time. She suffered through months of fear and panic because ofme. BecauseIput her in danger. I vow to myself that when she wakes up and when she’s safe, I’ll tell her everything. That way it can be her choice on whether or not to hate me. She should blame me for all of this and I don’t expect her to forgive me. She can never look at me again for all I care, so much as she’s alive and breathing.
Calvin continues, “But I know you, Dallas. I knew you would dig and dig and dig until you found me. Which is why I tampered with records and ensured you wouldn’t discover my connection with Connor. I needed you to think I was Connor and that he was locked away and you and Ivory could be free to live happily ever after. That way you wouldn’t work so hard to protect her and I could creep right back in.”
“Who is Connor?” I ask, interested in every detail.
“My cousin,” he smirks.
I scoff, “You framed your own cousin?”
Calvin chuckles, “I had to do what I had to do. Besides, we were never close.”
I already knew he was insane, but to turn on your own blood and frame them for a crime they didn’t commit? I don’t even think there’s a word to call that. “So then what? You framed him and then you figured you’d kidnap her and force her to love you? It would never work.”
He rolls his eyes, “Of course not. There was a better plan.” Calvin preens, “I wanted to get Harvey below the belt just as a little ‘fuck you’ to him after Lita’s death. I also knew you had brainwashed Ivory into trusting you and caring for you. She’d never willingly come to me when you had her under your spell. So I killed two birds with one stone and stole the feisty blonde to get under Harvey’s skin, but also to use her as a bargaining chip to get Ivory to surrender herself to me. And it worked, but clearly, my darling girl can’t follow directions.” He jerks her and her head lolls to the side.Hang in there a little longer, baby.
Calvin sighs, “She was instructed to not tell anyone where she was going and to ditch you and her little friends. In exchange, I would release the blonde and everyone could live happily ever after. I could finally leave my hatred for you behind because I would have gotten the one thing you loved most. She would’ve loved me just as much as I love her.”
