Redeeming (Red Lips & White Lies Book 2)

I walk out of the shower and over to my locker, feeling better about my practice than I’ve felt in a while. Things were clicking. We were hitting our marks. “Good practice out there today, Sinclair.”

“Thanks, man.” With a chin tip to my QB, I toss my towel in the basket and pull my sweats on, then grab my phone as it vibrates in my bag.

Looks like Coop’s been blowing it up.

Cooper

Call me when you get this.

Cooper

Callen—Call me back.

Cooper

Looks like you’re at practice. Call me.

I throw a hoodie on and hit Coop’s number as I head to Declan’s office.

Don’t let this be bad news about Dad.

“You need something, Callen?” Dec closes his laptop as I walk in, waiting for Cooper to pick up the damn phone.

“Is Dad okay?” I ask as I shut the door and switch my phone to speaker. “Cooper blew up my phone during practice.”

Declan grabs his own phone, then tosses it back down. “I’ve got nothing.”

“Callen,” Coop finally answers.

“Coop, you’re on speaker. I’m in Declan’s office. Is Dad okay?” Declan and I both hold our breath for the split-second it takes Cooper to answer.

“Dad’s fine. It’s not Dad.”

Declan rounds the desk and takes my phone out of my hand. “Then who the fuck is it, Coop?”

“Give the phone back to Callen, Dec, and give him your office,” Coop orders, his voice void of all emotion, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end.

“Fuck you, it’s my office,” Declan snaps back as emotions run high between him and me in direct contrast to Coop.

“Stop,” I yell, not willing to waste another second when something is obviously going down. “It’s fine, Coop. Just tell us what’s going on.”

“I just sent you a Kroydon Kronicles article. I saw it an hour ago but wanted to see what I could find out before I called you.”

“Whatever it is, ignore it. They’re desperate for a story, and I haven’t given them one, so they’re probably making shit up.” The Kronicles have been trash for years.

“Not this time, brother. Caitlin was walking out of a doctor’s office and was nearly hit by an SUV⁠—”

My vision sharpens to a single pinpoint as a woosh rolls through my ears.

No.

This isn’t happening.

“Tell me she’s fine and the article was wrong, man.” I’m not sure when I moved, but suddenly, I’m in front of my locker, grabbing my keys and trying to get Declan to move the hell out of my way. “Fucking move, Declan, or I’ll move you.”

The only thing I care about is getting to Caitlin.

“You don’t even know where you’re going yet, Callen.” He blocks me again. “Where is she, Coop?”

“She’s at her parent’s house. She’s okay. She was released from the hospital a few hours ago. It was her and Bellamy. Both girls are fine.”

The adrenaline letdown is fierce as it rushes through my body.

She’s alive.

She’s okay.

Holy. Shit.

I drop down on my bench and feel my stomach roll.

“Callen . . . there’s more,” Cooper’s voice is loud in the emptying locker room. “She’s pregnant.”

“What?” I had to hear him wrong.

There’s no way . . .

Declan holds his phone out to me with the Kroydon Kronicles article pulled up. “It says one of the girls might be pregnant. It doesn’t confirm anything,” Dec argues as I rip his phone out of his hands and skim the article.

“I have better sources than the Kronicles, guys.” Cooper leaves little room for argument. “You need to go to your girl, Callen.”

Declan looks from my phone in one hand to his in my other. “Your girl? Caitlin?”

Without stopping to answer, I toss him back his phone and run out the door. “She’s at her parents’ house?”

“Yeah, man. Sounds like she’s shaken up but fine. You gotta calm down before you drive anywhere, brother.”

“The fuck I will.” I yank my truck door open, and Declan rips my key fob out of my hand.

I hadn’t even realized he followed me.

He pushes me toward the front of the truck. “Get in. I’m driving.”

It’s then that the weight of everything hits me like a ten-ton anvil on my chest.

“She’s all right,” I whisper, not sure which way is up, just that I’m fucking drowning.

I could have lost her today, and she wouldn’t have even known . . .

It would have all been for nothing.

She still wasn’t safe.

Fuck this.

I jog around to the passenger door and jump in.

“Drive carefully and call me later,” Coop tells us before he hangs up.

“Breathe, brother.” The wheels squeal as Declan peels out of the parking lot on what feels like two tires instead of four. “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes. You need to get your shit together before then.”

“Fuck,” I yell and punch my dashboard.

Anger is easier to deal with than fear.

Anger I know how to control.

Fear is paralyzing.

“Get it out, man.”

It takes a minute before I can breathe again without fire in my lungs.

“Okay, good,” Declan tells me while we’re stopped at a red light that I’d really wish he’d run. “Now you want to tell me what the hell is going on? And when exactly you started seeing Caitlin Beneventi?”

“August.” I don’t bother denying it because Sam can suck a dick for all I care. I’m never denying it again. Fuck him, if he can’t keep her safe.

“Want to tell me what happened?” he asks.

“No. But you might not want to come inside. It’s not going to be pretty,” I warn him.

And when we pull up to the gate ten minutes later and the guard lets us through, I turn to my brother. “Call your wife. Tell her to come get you because I don’t know what I’m walking into, Dec.”

“What the hell, Callen? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means if I have my way, I’m not leaving here without Caitlin, and I don’t want you here for this shit. Sam’s your friend, but he’s not mine.”

But that woman inside that house—the one who’s carrying my baby—she’s mine.

Declan doesn’t listen.

He follows me to the front door and smiles sweetly when Amelia opens it for us.

“Where is she?” I ask, not giving a shit what kind of an ass I sound like.

“Caitlin?” Amelia steps back, letting Declan and me inside. She kisses his cheek, seemingly confused.

Until she isn’t.

Her eyes narrow on me, and a hard glint takes shape in her icy blues. Eyes the same color as her daughter’s. Her entire attitude changes in an instant. Where a second ago, she was confused and open, she’s now closed off and furious. “Why are you here, Callen?”

“Amelia—” Declan starts, but Amelia holds up her hand, stopping him.

“This doesn’t involve you, Declan,” she snaps, and I get a glimpse of the woman everyone likes to warn you about. The one who killed another woman to save Declan’s wife’s life. “Your brother took something that didn’t belong to him, and instead of treating it like the precious gift it was, he tried to destroy it.”

Every word . . . Every syllable . . . They’re laced with a deadly venom directed at me. “So, I’m going to ask this one more time before I have you escorted out of my house, Callen. Why. Are. You. Here?”

“Callen?” Maddox comes out of the kitchen with Lucky and Rome next to him. “You here to see Cait?”

“He’s leaving,” Amelia announces.

“I’m not,” I move around her until Rome blocks me.

“Hey, man.” He widens his stance. “Not sure what’s going on, but you heard Mom. Sounds like it’s time for you to leave.”

Maddox stays back, watching. “What the hell is going on?”

“Why don’t you ask your friend, Maddox,” Amelia challenges, like she thinks I’m going to back down.

Maddox watches me.

He looks from me to his mother, then back to me again.

He stiffens and balls his fists by his sides.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Maddox’s voice booms through the three-story foyer as the pieces click together. “My sister?”

“It’s not like that, man.” I try to get around Rome, but he mirrors every step I take. “I’ll tell you everything after I see Caitlin.”

I don’t even care if she doesn’t want to talk to me.

I just need to know she’s okay.

I need to see it for myself.

I need to know it’s not too late.

Rome blocks me with his whole body, shoving me back.

“My fucking sister?” Maddox moves, but Declan blocks him.

He grits his teeth, seething, like I knew he fucking would if he found out this way. “This isn’t your fight, Declan.”

“Move, Declan,” I tell my brother, not wanting him involved in this.

“We’re leaving, Callen,” Declan tries to force my hand, but he’s out of his fucking mind if he thinks I’m leaving without seeing Caitlin.

“I love her,” I tell anyone who gives a shit to hear it in the room.

Three words I should have given her months ago.

Maddox charges me like we’re on a football field.

Bad fucking move.

We both fly back through the round wooden table in the center of the foyer. It splinters as it gives out beneath the weight of us, shattering a crystal vase that shoots in every direction around the room, pinging off the travertine tile floor.

We wrestle for a minute before I manage to hold him back, wrapping my arms around his upper body until I’ve got him locked down with no move left. “You wanna hit me?”

Fuck. I didn’t want this to happen, but it’s clear that’s what he wants.

Because in Maddox’s mind, I betrayed him.

“I wanna fucking kill you. I can’t believe you’d do this to her. To me.”

I shove him off, and we both jump to our feet.

“It wasn’t like that, man . . . I fucking love her. I’ve loved her for years.”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it, you fucking piece of shit.”

I see the punch coming before it connects, but I don’t dodge it.

I take the hit and spit out the blood.

I deserve it.

This was always how it was going to end.

I was always going to choose Caitlin over Maddox.

It was always going to be her, and my friendship with him was always going to be the price I paid.

“I’ll give you that one.” I flex my jaw. “But that’s your only shot. You got yours. Now I’m walking up the stairs. Don’t bother trying to stop me.”

“Why now, asshole? You knock her up and leave her alone, and now all of a sudden, you want back in?” he yells, and everyone else ceases to exist.

It’s just me and him in the room.

All those years of friendship, and he thinks I’d do that to her.

“How about you ask your father,” I tell him in a tone so calm . . . so quiet . . . so in control when everything is spiraling out around me, that it only magnifies the rage.

“What?” Amelia interrupts from the other side of the room where she made no attempt to stop the fight.

“Ask Sam why,” I tell her as I look around the chaos and see the most powerful man in Philadelphia standing in the doorway. “I did what I was told I had to do to keep her safe.”

My words are directed to Amelia, but my eyes are locked on Sam.

“You said I’d get her hurt. Could get her killed. You told me I’d be the reason.” I take a step forward, and no one else moves. “I broke her fucking heart so she’d be okay. Is she okay now, Sam?”

“What’s he talking about, Sam?” Amelia asks, but Sam doesn’t answer.

“Daddy . . .” comes a quiet voice from the top of the grand staircase, and the vice that’s been squeezing my heart, making it impossible to breathe since Cooper’s call, finally loosens the first little bit.

My girl is standing there, wrapped in a bright red blanket. A giant bruise covers one side of her beautiful face, but she’s okay.

She’s breathing. And she’s right here. “Is it true?”

“Go back to bed, Caitlin.” They’re the first words Sam’s spoken, and every person in the room seems to be holding their breath from the fallout.

Everyone but me.