SWNOVELS Runner: Chapter 36
“Stop staring at her like she’s going to bolt,” Gray said, coming into the living room. “You heard the doctor. She won’t be able to walk without help for a while.”
Did it make me a piece of shit that I was glad she wouldn’t be able to leave right away? I hated seeing her in pain, but with her laid up, at least I knew she’d be here for a while. Because if she was able, she’d try to leave the second she woke up.
It was a miracle she hadn’t broken anything. Her ankle was severely sprained, and the cut in her stomach needed stitches. The doctor guessed she had a concussion from the gash on her head, but that was already looking better. I ground my teeth, my eyes going to her throat. It was red and bruised from whatever had been wrapped around it. The side of her face looked the same, with a small cut on her jaw. The rest of her body was just as battered and bruised from what we saw when we showered her off.
It had been a little more than a day since we brought her back to Ridgewood. Gray and I had barely left her side, even though she’d been sleeping the entire time. I was worried, but the crew doctor assured us that her sleeping was normal.
We both paused when she shifted in her sleep. She was lying on our pull-out couch in the living room, where she’d been since we brought her to our house. She’d been here once before, but she’d only seen the first floor where our study was. Down there was for business. We lived on the second floor, our one oasis from life. A door at the top of the stairs kept the floors separated. There were always members downstairs, even a few bedrooms where they could crash if needed. Crew business didn’t happen up here. Not even Vic and Juan had keys to this place.
It was an open concept, and I could still keep an eye on her in the living room as I sat on a stool in the kitchen. The walls were painted a light gray, and all our furniture was black. The stainless-steel appliances were almost brand new. This was the one place I could relax and not worry. We never brought anyone up here.
Except her.
We’d killed the six guys who were after her, and I was regretting not taking the time to look at their ink. We had no idea who they were, although from her reaction when we found her, I was willing to guess it had to do with her past. I’d never seen her as terrified as she was the moment she thought we were taking her to whoever she was running from.
“Did you look at her phone yet?” Gray asked.
I had found her phone on the floorboard of the car a couple of hours ago and plugged it in to charge, hoping something on there could give us answers.
My gaze flicked to the counter where it was charging. “Not yet. I forgot about it.”
“Vic and Juan are going to be pissed if they find out she’s here,” Gray muttered.
“No point in telling them,” I responded. “You think she’s going to stick around once she’s feeling better?”
“You’re going to just let her walk away?” Gray asked, arching an eyebrow.
I laughed, shaking my head. “Let her? She’d shoot us if we don’t let her go.”
A knock at the door interrupted us, and I hopped off the stool. I unlocked it, swinging the door open, my heart seizing when a gun was instantly pressed to my skull. The guy holding the weapon was wearing a black jacket with the hood pulled up. He shoved me back, making enough room to kick the door closed behind him.
“Put it down, man,” Gray said quietly from behind me. “You shoot us, and you won’t leave this house alive.”
I wondered how the fuck he’d gotten past our crew. There were always people downstairs keeping watch. Which was why I didn’t have a weapon on me. I never did when I was home. No one ever made it up the stairs that I had to worry about.
“Where is she?” the guy hissed, pushing the gun harder into my forehead.
Keeping my expression blank, I answered, “Who?”
“Don’t fucking bullshit me. I know she’s here.”
“No idea what you’re talking about,” I murmured. “But if I did, I’d tell you that you knocked on the wrong fucking door.”
“She’s coming with me,” he snapped, rage building in his eyes.
I straightened my spine. “You’re not getting out of here alive.”
He broke our stare, his gaze going toward the living room. His eyes widened when he saw Mili, and I used his distraction. I grabbed his wrist, lifting his arm to point the gun at the ceiling and punched him across the face. It barely seemed to faze him as he threw a hit of his own. My neck snapped to the side, and I lowered my shoulder, ramming into him.
He tried wrapping an arm around my throat to get me in a chokehold, and I put my knee into his gut. Both our hands were on the gun, fighting for control, when Gray flew past me, knocking the guy into the wall and sending the gun skidding across the floor. They wrestled, and whoever the hell he was, he could fight. But he wasn’t winning against both of us. He rolled on top of Gray, and I took that moment to grab him and yank him off, throwing him to the floor.
“Stop.” The scream echoed through the room. I glanced up, seeing Mili awake and trying to get off the bed. Her eyes were on the guy, full of worry.
“Mili—”
She cut Gray off. “Don’t touch him.”
“He came in here ready to shoot us,” I grated out.
The guy stayed still, his gaze on us to see if we were going to keep him on the floor. When neither of us moved, he jumped to his feet, waving his hands to show he wasn’t going to hurt us. I glared at him, stepping in his way when he went toward Mili.
“That’s far enough,” I warned, my voice low.
“Kade, let him,” Mili said, her voice softening. “He’s not here to hurt me. Or you.”
“He wanted to take you,” Gray said, not an ounce of trust in his gaze as he stared at the guy.
“I’m Caleb,” the guy muttered, pushing his hood back to reveal a mess of red hair. “I’ve heard she’s mentioned me.”
I bit my tongue almost hard enough to draw blood. “Caleb?”
He ignored me, shouldering past me to get to Mili. I spun around to see him embrace her in a gentle hug. She clung to him, a sob catching in her throat. Fury burned my veins as he stroked her hair. She trusted him. She fucking loved him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t answer,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I lost my phone, and we were an hour from home. By the time I got home to get a new one, your phone was already off. I couldn’t track you until it turned back on.”
“I thought they got you,” she said, her voice trembling. “Fuck. I thought you were dead—or worse.”
“I’m fine,” he soothed, lifting her fully back onto the bed.
Gray looked just as pissed as I did, and more than a little hurt passed through his eyes as he sat on a stool.
“Want to tell us how the hell you got past our men?” I asked gruffly.
Caleb looked at me, sizing us up as much as we were him. “Don’t worry, I didn’t kill anyone.”
“That’s not what I asked,” I snapped.
“Shit,” Mili gasped when she tried standing again.
“It’s not broken,” Gray told her. “But you’ll need crutches for a couple of weeks.”
She finally looked at us now that she seemed convinced that Caleb was okay. “You two brought me back here? Where is here?”
“Ridgewood,” Caleb answered before I could, making me scowl. “Their house, I’m guessing.”
“Rylan really did call you,” she said slowly, as if thinking of the events of yesterday. “Where is he—”
“He was here nearly all night,” Gray interrupted with a roll of his eyes. “Left a couple of hours ago. Our house seems to be a revolving door of uninvited guests today.”
“Rylan was here?” she asked in shock. “With both of you? In the same room?”
“You act like we can’t control ourselves,” I muttered. “Not even a hit was thrown.”
“Our turn for questions,” Gray said, standing up. “Want to tell us who almost killed you?”
Mili pursed her lips, her face going blank. “No.”
“We saved you,” I growled. “Not him. Not Rylan. You don’t think we deserve to know who those guys were? Especially now if we have targets on our backs.”
“Did you kill all of them?” she clipped out.
“Yes,” Gray answered.
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
“I think,” Caleb piped up, “she means to say thank you. For saving her.”
The murder in his eyes seemed to have dissipated now that he knew that Gray and I had no intention of hurting her.
A muscle in her bruised jaw flexed, clearly not used to relying on people. “Thank you.”
“Who were they, Rebel?” Gray asked, the use of the nickname making Caleb look at him in surprise. “Were they connected to the people who hurt you in the past?”
Those words made Caleb’s mouth fall open as he stared at Mili. “You told them about Joel—”
“No,” she cut him off sharply. “They heard Rhett talking about him.”
Caleb looked between her and us. “I told you not to take them to that job.”
I didn’t fucking like him. I didn’t like how they seemed to have a whole relationship that I couldn’t scratch the surface of. Did he know that she’d been here sleeping with not just me, but Gray and Rylan too?
What bothered me most was that I wanted her to look at me like that.
“Joel? Is he the ex-boyfriend?” Gray asked. “He’s the one who hurt you?”
Mili took a deep breath, wincing and rubbing her head. “Yes.”
“I thought you said he was dead,” I said, my hands clenching into fists. I had no idea what he’d done to her, but I knew it was more than enough to warrant death. If he wasn’t dead, I’d fix that fucking problem.
“He is,” she said quickly. “But he has friends who still want me because of what I did.”
“Friends,” I repeated. “Was he in this life?”
Her eyes darted to mine. “Yes.”
Gray shook his head. “He was in a gang, wasn’t he? What gang?”
“It doesn’t matter. They broke apart after Joel died,” she answered shortly.
“Seems like they still have some ties to send six men after you,” I muttered.
“Thank you for helping me,” she said softly. “But I handle it on my own now. Caleb and I will leave—”
“Can I eat first?” Caleb asked, standing from the bed. “I’ve been on the road for the last day.”
“If you’re going to get food, I might sleep some more.” Mili could barely keep her eyes open, and she was already lying down before she finished talking. “Don’t leave without me, Caleb.”
Both Gray and I were rigid as we listened. I knew she was going to leave, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon. My mind was already racing with ways to make her stay, but as I watched her drift off to sleep, I realized it wouldn’t happen. She would never stay somewhere she didn’t want. She’d do anything to keep her freedom, no matter who got in the way.
Caleb strode into the kitchen, a worried frown on his face. “She’s going to be pissed, but I can’t take her with me.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?”
“You got some…” Gray trailed off, looking at Caleb’s wrist.
I followed his gaze, seeing blood seeping from his wrist. Caleb grumbled under his breath, pulling up his sleeve to reveal a bloodied bandage. He leaned across the island and grabbed a paper towel.
“I guess we aren’t the only ones you decided to fight today,” Gray muttered.
Caleb glanced at Mili. “I have nowhere safe to take her. They found me. I don’t know how the fuck they did, but I barely got away. I didn’t lose my phone—it got destroyed when they lit my house on fire.”
“You knew him? Joel?” I asked, not having the courage to ask the question I really wanted to know. Like how long he and Mili had been together.
“I knew him,” Caleb said slowly. “I’m not telling you anything she doesn’t want to share herself.”
“You lied to her,” Gray said, his eyes narrowing. “Why?”
“Because if I told her I wanted us to separate, she’d refuse to listen.”
Neither of us said anything as we stared at Caleb, not sure where the hell he was taking this. He patted his arm, wiping off the blood. His gaze moved to us, as if debating about what to say next.
“She’s not well enough for us to be running around the country,” he said in a low voice. “She needs to stay in one place until she’s healed. And I need to find another place that’s safe so I can start tracking them down.”
“Them?” I questioned. “How many more are going to come after her?”
“Enough to worry about,” Caleb mumbled, running his uninjured hand through his hair. “I need to get all new computers and equipment…”
He trailed off, as if remembering that we were in the room. His jaw tightened, and his face went cold. He was as protective of his secrets as Mili was.
“You work with computers,” I said, tilting my head. “You work with her for her Sapphire jobs.”
“I work with her on everything. I will do anything for her,” he said, his voice going hard. “I will kill anyone who hurts her.”
“Seeing as we saved her, we’re good.” Gray moved to the fridge and pulled out some beers. “We have no plans to hurt her.”
“Your security is good here, even though I was able to slip past.” He looked around the room. “Can she stay here? At least until she’s good enough to travel?”
“She doesn’t want to stay,” I ground out. “She wants to go with you. We all heard it.”
“She’ll be fine,” Caleb said. “After she gets over the fact that I left—”
“You’re not going to tell her you’re leaving?” I snapped.
“If I do, she’ll try to leave with me.”
Well, if he wanted to leave her here while she was pissed at him, I had no issue with that. Gray, on the other hand, was thinking more logically.
“We’ll end up like the men she killed at that warehouse if we try to keep her here when she doesn’t want to be,” Gray muttered.
“You’re telling me you two can’t handle her?”
Caleb’s words brought both shock and confusion, and his amused grin only added to both. Did he know we’d slept with her? Did he fucking care?
“What the hell do you want?” Gray asked, crossing his arms.
“Keep her here. Keep her safe. Until I come back.”
Gray and I exchanged a glance before I nodded. “Fine.”
“Good, it’s settled. I’ll stay the night and leave in the morning.” Caleb leaned across the counter and grabbed his beer before going back to the couch. “But don’t forget—you hurt her, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“How nice to invite himself to sleep here,” I grumbled under my breath before taking a swig of beer.
“Only for a night.” Gray leaned on the counter next to me. “But she’s staying.”
“Better lock up our weapons before she starts using her crutches.”