Chapter 36: Chapter 36

CANNON

THE WHISKEY tasted like piss and for the fuck of it, I dunked down another glass.

No cheap whiskey would ruin my night and certainly not the man seated on my couch blabbing about his wife and related marital issues because that’s just the thing, I was high like a teen on Valium.

So, fucking high reliving the moment between me and Nicole. Six years? How the fuck had I restrained myself from her for six fucking years? One kiss and I might have as well been knocked out by a cupid’s arrow and that’s saying a lot given the fact that I didn’t believe in that little Houdini flying around with cupid arrows.

Then as if the kiss hadn’t clouded my senses, her moans followed, my name recklessly left her lips and when I sunk inside her wet heat, well, one word for it. Nirvana.

Fucking nirvana.

The thought of plunging into her luscious body once she came back from Tina’s crossed my mind and that fucking moment, my dick throbbed.

Fuck I loved her.

“Frank skipped town and Leonard from what I heard, has been a no show in the last three days. It’s so weird, don’t you think? Abigail Arkinson hasn’t said a word about her brother’s disappearance”

“The guy’s the mayor, he might have taken a vacation”, I bellowed downing a third glass.

If Holy had ears hopefully Leonard Arkinson was burning in the fucking depths of hell.

I gazed at the Tv no fucking idea what was going on. I was never a sports guy or a Tv guy if I’m being particularly honest yet in those five fucking seconds, I had never been interested in a Lakers game like I was at the moment.

Why?

Because I couldn’t make out their jersey numbers let alone concentrate on one thing at once. It was like looking at a kaleidoscope only less enjoyable.

Three glasses.

It took way more than that to get me drunk let alone to get me woozy. Three glasses of whiskey sours didn’t get me like this.

Add in the lurid wave of nausea and fatigue surging through my veins and I knew whatever shit Billy Duncan had given me wasn’t just plain whiskey.

Trying to fight the effects of the alcohol in my system I stood up like a wizened mushroom barely having enough strength to hoist myself up let alone reach for my Glock that was at the back of my jeans.

Motherfucking fuck, he’d drugged me and I didn’t have to put two and two together to realize that Billy Duncan was working for Leonard Arkinson which meant Luca fucking Hawkins was in the mix.

My face hit the Persian rug with a thud.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t fucking move any part of my body, my lips included.

The bastard stood up from the couch without a fuck in the world placing his glass on the table.

His glass that was still full! Something that I should have caught the moment we sat down on the fucking couch. He hadn’t drunk his so-called pity whiskey.

Showing up on my doorstep. Christ, Nicole!

The kids? A trap?

He scooted near my head the only thing I could a catch a glimpse of being his beige boots.

“Leonard, a vacation? The guy loves this town like his mistresses, he’d never take a vacation but you knew that didn’t you? He’s probably six feet under by now and that’s just comical you know? The fucker didn’t have it in him to kill a bug let alone shoot a man like you”

What?

Billy—not even sure that was his real fucking name-cackled.

“You know my grandfather was one of those men that taught nine-year-olds how to shoot tin cans using a rifle. Never liked the man but I enjoyed the sport. Guns, shooting, there was just something thrilling about knowing you had the power to take lives.

So, imagine how it felt when someone offered me a good deal. Money, a fucking gun and a target to shoot? You know no one ever suspects the neighbor. Ever. Every thriller, every slasher chick flick, the pathetic neighbor is never the suspect.

And that made all of this easier. Leonard Arkinson happened to be at the right place and time when I shot you from what? Five yards? Quite impressive if you ask me. And our dotting mayor? Where to begin about the bastard?

Lucky for me, he was the first person you suspected when you came back from the dead. I really thought I had killed you but no, you had to come back buddy. You made this job hard; you should have been dead and this wouldn’t have turned ugly like it is at the moment”

His hand gripping my hair, he leveled my face with his.

“Any last words?”

I would kill the bastard. Chop him to pieces.

“Right. You can’t talk. Bummer in another life we would have been friends, I kinda liked you. Men like you and I never know just when to quit”

Trying to grunt, my voice stuck in my damn throat, my gun stuck behind my jeans uselessly, Billy Duncan stood up and I heard his every movement.

I heard him reload his gun and whether I fucking liked it or not, this was it.

This was fucking it and I hated myself for it.

Hated myself for not fucking seeing what was in front of me. Billy Duncan.

And he was right damn him but he was right. I should have gone on with my hunch since day one, looked past the whole friendly neighbor thing and taken him out the day he appeared in front of me with his kid Greg and a fucking red balloon.

But worst of all, I hated that me dying at this fucking moment meant the lives of my boys would change.

Trying to make at least a single fucking bone in my body move, my attempts were shot down when Billy knocked me out by hitting the back of my head with his gun’s barrel.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Callan-

“Callan-“

What—what—

“Callan!”

Groggy, baffled, my vision blurry, i turned my gaze to the light up ahead that looked faint yet it dug holes to my eyes the pain rushed to my head all at once.

The vicinity becoming clearer by the minute, warm rays of light permeated through the thatch-roofed warehouse we were at. The door, a two-point five meter stack of wood stood so far away, calculating the distance between me and it made me weary.

Whatever the fuck that bastard had infused in my drink made me less me. Tired, drained, weak and suddenly all I could think about was the ten-year-old me in this body.

The ten-year-old me that stood by and watched my father do whatever the fuck he wanted with my mother. The ten-year-old me who didn’t have it in me to raise a hand against a monster.

The warehouse I was in was some sort of Hawaiian themed storage room. Slick floorboards, thatch roof, sacks of grain situated at one corner. I whipped my head to the side staring at the dark screens situated by my right.

I tried to move my hands only for them to be stuck tight in place. Any more attempt to try to get myself free and the metal chains digging into my skin would render me without hands.

“Callan? Callan!”

Someone wiggled behind me.

She touched me and I cocked my head to my left her glossy eyes meeting mine.

“N—Nicole?”

“Callan, he—Lucas he took our kids. He has them, he might spare Connor but—Jr, he’ll kill him. He’ll kill him and it’s my fault. I should have never ran away—I should have never put our boys’ lives in danger…”

Still dazed, my heart in my mouth and the sight of her weeping with regrets, my chest heaved with guilt. I wasn’t a hundred percent, drugged, a blow to my head, there’s no way I would assure her that I would get her out of here.

I would fight Lucas to the deaths if that was possible but God fucking knew, I would lose the fight.

But I would fight.

I might have died here, today but my kids were not going to die.

“H—Holy, Bates. They’ll get an alert if I don’t check in within four hours. Jr is going to be safe; Connor is going to be—”

“They’ll never get here on time!” she shrieked; I gave her a mortified expression.

I knew I would kill Lucas if I ever came one on one with the guy but I wasn’t God to fucking know how fate played its cards which was why I had created a system incase shit went FUBAR. Holy was always on stand by and if something happened to me an alert would be sent to B&A—

“C-Connor he told Tina everything. Every security system in the house, everything else in the panic room…he-he told Tina everything. Lucas managed to get to our son, I’m sorry…he’s a good kid. He’d never do all this on purpose. I need you to understand that—Connor is not to blame for what will happen today”

I tried. Tried to remain neutral, not to feel shit that would make her panic even more but then I couldn’t help but feel the dagger of betrayal cut my damn heart into two.

He was not my kid; he was Lucas’ kid. I had never said that out loud, never even thought about it but now…

The probability that Jr would die because of his brother cut me so deep, the migraine throbbing in my head felt like a slight slap to the cheek.

“He’s a good kid”, Nicole repeated but that only tainted all the memories I had with Connor.

He was a kid, yet he did this. Betrayed his mother?

I treated him like my son!

I loved him like my son!

He—that kid meant everything to me!

“Hurts, doesn’t it?”

A new voice filled the near empty room. In a Tom Ford suit, leather shoes, Sandy Brown looked different than I remembered him.

His sandy brown hair had roughly faded to tufts of grey, he’d grown more muscles than I remember, muscles that wouldn’t mean a thing if he got rid off the chains sinking into my wrist at the moment.

The bastard stood in front of us and I could feel Nicole’s back move against mine. Could feel the terror run up her spine.

“Lucas”, she exhaled, the rich turd curled his lips up in a cynical smile.

“Nix”, he purred her name, I ground my teeth together feeling the copper taste of my own blood on my tongue.

“Where’s Jr?!”

He tsked pacing across the floor with his hands in his pockets.

“Jr? Can you blame Connor for hating you? You never loved him because he was mine, you only cared about your son with this bastard. How does it feel to have something taken away from you? It hurts right? I loved you Nicole—”

“You fucking hit her! That’s not love—“, I thundered before he cut me off.

“Right because you love her. You know how to love her better than I ever could—”

“Lucas please”, Nicole cried.

“No. No. I want to hear him out, I want to see what he has that I don’t. I gave you the world Nicole and you lied to me. Lied to me when you married me, lied to me about my own damn kid! I’m not a bad guy you turned me into this monster. You!”

“Why don’t you get these chains off and I’ll show you just what it is to be a monster”

“Aah the mighty Callan ASHER. I know how it feels. I know every fucking thought crossing your mind right now and that stinging feeling you feel inside. That’s how I felt when she betrayed me! Love got me here and that’s the same case for you soldier.

Because that love blinded you from seeing the truth. Too caught up with jealousy to actually figure out that Leonard Arkinson was just an average man minding his own business. Love made you weak and it is love that killed your son”

The world stilled. He was bluffing. He couldn’t have killed an innocent boy no matter how bad he claimed he was.

That kid was his once upon a time.

“You don’t mean that, you are lying! Jr—no Jr is alive. MY SON IS ALIVE!”

“His death is on you, Nicole. You made me do this—”

“He was innocent!” this time it was my voice spearing the nauseating silence, my lungs trying their best to take in as much oxygen as they could.

“Innocent, guilty? His fate was sealed the minute he came to this world with your blood but I’m a fair man so I’ll give you a second chance to control fate. You couldn’t save your son but maybe you’ll be able to save—”

He turned around whipped a remote from his pockets and switched on the screens in front of us.

Gagged, looking tortured, tied to chairs like animals with explosives tied around their torsos, my sister’s eyes stayed glued to the camera above the dingy room they were being held at.

Eyes that had horror and anguish written in them.

“Sy, Nance?”

“Your sister, your nephew, the whole family is here”

“Let them go! You fucking bastard they have nothing to do with this”

“Maybe, maybe not but that’s why I have this”, he wiggled a cell phone in his left hand.

“See I’m not a complete monster, I believe in second chances which is why I’m giving you the chance to save your family in exchange for both your lives. For you to understand how difficult it was to let go of Nicole and choose Connor. To love is to suffer and no matter what you tell yourself at the moment, you love your sister way too much than you love the woman chained next to you.

And if you choose the woman next to you will that be fair to them? How long has it been since you saw them? Did you know your nephew plays soccer? He might be the next Harry Kane’, he chortled.

I gazed at Sy.

He’d grown up since I last saw him. He was almost hitting puberty now judging from the brown lush hair and that jaw he had inherited from Gunner.

Why hadn’t GUNNER protected them? Why hadn’t he caught up to them yet?

I had promised myself my sister wouldn’t die because of my shit and now a bomb was strapped against her chest.

My son was dead and I—I couldn’t think. Couldn’t fathom any shit happening at the moment.

“Callan”, Nicole called behind me and I knew what she was asking me to do.

The need in her voice, the fear of knowing it was game over.

She didn’t want to die.

NICOLE

Jr was dead.

No matter how loud I tried saying it, the tears clogged my throat and I was sobbing looking at the monster in front of me.

The two innocent people from the screen looked scared and horrified and Callan…he didn’t sound like himself because of what he had heard.

He was processing.

Processing how to save me and to save his sister and nephew.

I had lost my son and this was all my fault which was why I wouldn’t let another kid die. I wouldn’t let Nance die. She’d taken a bullet once for me this was the least I could do.

Die for every mistake. Pray to God that Connor would turn out okay.

“Callan-“

I called, my voice breaking.

“Nance and Sy have done nothing wrong. S-save them, choose them”

Lucas laughed playing with the golden cufflinks of his suit.

“It’s not that easy is it Callan Asher? Choosing them means you two dying, are you ready for that?”

“Let them go”, Callan’s voice grated the air, hard.

I swallowed saliva, smiling amidst the tears. They would live. They got to live.

“Right away soldier but first one tiny detail. Your friends will never get to your sister in time if they keep searching for you. Make an order, tell them to leave you”

Lucas dialed a number placing the phone on the ground putting the phone on loud speaker before he turned to me.

“We would have been happy together Nix. I loved you, I truly did”, he blew a kiss in my direction, I threw a glare of disgust in return.

“Cannon? Thank fucking God—”

“Save Nance and Sy. Use all resources to find them, I don’t need saving”

“Cannon what are you saying? We caught Billy Duncan he revealed everything about Lucas. Holy’s still working on mapping your location, Gunner’s got a lead on Nance, don’t give up man—”

“Bates, that’s a fucking order! I’m a DEAD man, SY AND NANCE have their whole lives ahead of them. They’ll live, I trust you Bates. You’ll save them”

“Callan don’t do this. This is not fucking goodbye because you don’t get to boss me around. You do not get to give up—”

“Jason? For once in your fucking life, listen. God damn it I need you to listen to me. Nance and Sy are the mission not me, buddy”

“You can’t save your family all by yourself”

“Who said anything about saving?”

There was no saving because we were goners. He believed it. I believed it and accepted death. Lucas took the phone switched it off before throwing it who knew where. He turned the screens off and with a mellow sadistic smile he said,

“This is goodbye, I guess. I wouldn’t want to be here when things go kaboom! In honor of your memory, I’ll raise our son well”

Lucas left. Callan and I sat together with our backs to each other, waiting for death and I was trying to be strong but deep down I was scared.

Scared of leaving my son alone. Scared of dying because what was next after dying? Heaven? Did I deserve to see heaven after everything? Jr. All the bad shit—

“I wasn’t enough and I’m sorry”

Came Callan’s voice and I looked upwards trying to make the tears return to their abode. It stung. Us here, ending like this.

“It’s not your—”

“Jr!” Callan heaved.

I sobbed harder.

“Our son he died—”

“Dad, mommy”

I heard it.

“Jr”, Callan roared, I whipped my head back trying to see what Callan was seeing.

Jr. He wasn’t…dead. Sobbing, dirt on his face, his dark hair disheveled, he ran to us clutching the chains around our hands.

I could see the smile on Callan’s face. It was the same smile and relief plastered on my face. Our son not dead.

Our son not dead!

“Mommy, I’m scared. Daddy Lucas…we have to go. We have to leave”

I couldn’t baby. I couldn’t. The chains. The explosives.

“Nicole, he has to leave”, Callan said with urgency, Jr’s eyes watered.

“I don’t want to leave. I want my mom and dad”

“Phone, buddy you have to take the phone. Right there”

Jr apprehensively moved across the room coming back with the phone that had a smashed screen.

“Yes, just like that buddy, you are doing great. Keep the phone to your ear and then I want you to run, run as fast as you can from here. Talk to Uncle Jason as long as you can. You’ll survive, because you are my son. I love you”

“Listen to your dad, okay? Run, we are right behind you. I love you so much. So much. You’ll find Connor and you’ll tell him we love him, okay? This was not his fault, tell him that”

“Nicole—”

“Run baby, run”

He nodded and he was running to the exit with the phone pressed on his ear.

“He’ll survive. He’ll survive. They both will”

Callan said, I held his hand despite the chains digging into my skin.

“They’ll survive”

I repeated.

The bombs went off I heard Callan say the words ‘I love you’ before everything turned pitch black.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Updates are everyday... a chapter a day.

I really like it when I read all your comments about the book so be sure to leave your thoughts on the chapter.

See you in the next chapter

Thanks for reading