“I’d like to know that myself,” Ethan spoke up in a deadly quiet voice.

“We all would,” Adam said menacingly.

Max swiped his hand over his face. “Fuck this. I’m not explaining my relationship with Callie to you. I don’t owe you any explanations. The only person I owe anything to is her.”

“If you think you’re walking out that door, you’ve lost your mind,” Dillon Colter said when Max started past Seth.

“Yeah? Try and stop me.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

So it hadn’t been the smartest thing to take on six very pissed-off men. Max lay on the bed in his motel room and winced when he tried to move his fist.For old guys, Callie’s fathers could still move fast and they had fists like hammers. Dillon was a freaking mountain by himself and Seth and Michael were lean and muscled and they’d definitely gotten their shots in.

Max hadn’t gone down without a fight, though. He’d given as good as he’d gotten and the Colters would be feeling it just as much as he currently was.

He rolled to his side and sucked in his breath when a particularly tender area of his ribs pressed against the mattress. He stared out the window, just as he’d done for the past several hours, waiting for Callie to show up.

She’d at least come for her truck, wouldn’t she? She couldn’t stay away forever, and when she came, he’d be waiting. He wasn’t going to let her go without one hell of a fight. He’d sit on her if he had to.

He’d argue.

He’d fight.

He’d get on his hands and knees and beg.

Whatever it took to make her listen. To make her believe he loved her with everything he had.

He closed his eyes as the memory of her devastation flashed through his mind. She’d looked defeated. And so terribly hurt. He’d never forget that look. He’d live with it for the rest of his life.

“Come back to me, Callie,” he whispered. “Give me the chance to make it right.”

Callie didn’t react to the sound of a truck engine as it neared. She sat in the darkness, her knees drawn to her chest as she stared up into the star-filled sky. The moon cast a pale glow over the meadow and from a distance, the sound of bubbling water reached her ears.

This was her place. Her haven. Her refuge. The one place above all that brought her peace.

Now it was her hell.

An arm curled around her shoulders and she was pulled into a warm embrace.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Ryan Colter said.

She turned into his chest and buried her face. “Oh Dad.”

It was all she could say. All she had the strength for. She broke off in a sob when she didn’t think she had any more tears to shed.

He held her and rocked her back and forth, all the while smoothing a gentle hand over her hair.

“Your mother’s frantic. Adam and Ethan are pacing the floors. Your brothers want to mount a lynch party for Max and run him out of town. Seth seriously wants to arrest him for some trumped-up infraction and lock him in jail for several days.”

“But you’re here,” she choked out.

“I’m here.”

“How did you know?”

“This is where you’ve always come when you’re hurting, baby girl. From the time you were little this was your place. Remember when you were eight years old and you threatened to run away? You even packed a bag and left the house. Your mama nearly died. Adam about had a heart attack. None of them thought you’d actually do it. Me? I came here because I knew it’s where you’d be. It’s where you always run to.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest as she’d done so many times in her life. Her dads had always been there for her. The ups and downs. Good times and bad. Her family had always been the one constant in her life.

“I hurt so much,” she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head. “I know, baby. I know you do. I wish I could take it all away. I wish I could snap my fingers and the pain would disappear.”

“I was such an idiot. I feel so…stupid.”

“You should never feel stupid for loving someone, Callie girl. You gave him something wonderful, and he shit on it in return. That’s on him. Not you. Never you. One day he’ll look back and know he gave up the best thing that ever happened to him. He’ll have to live with that loss for the rest of his life.”

“I loved him so much, Dad. I trusted him. Even after what he did. He said all the right things. It was like he knew me, and I guess he did. He certainly studied up on me enough. I feel like such an idiot. I took him out here. I babbled on about my dream house and how much the land meant to me, and all the while he stood there hating me, resenting me and my family for taking his birthright, and he schemed to get it back.”

Her dad went quiet for a long moment. His breath came out in audible huffs as he seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say next.

“Callie, honey, there’s something I need to ask you. You said… You said some things to Max that worry me. You talked about control and dominance. Those are two serious matters. I need to know if he ever hurt you.”

“No,” she said sadly. “Not in the way you mean. He’s never physically hurt me. I know you won’t understand—”

“Try me,” he challenged.

“God,” she muttered. “This is so not a conversation I want to have with my dad.”

Ryan pulled away and she could see his utter seriousness reflected in the moonlight. “There’s nothing you can’t talk to me about, Callie. You know that. Now if you’d feel better talking to your mother, I’ll be happy to bring you home so you can have this conversation with her, but I’d rather you talk to me about it.”

Callie sighed. “I know it might be hard to believe, but I’m submissive. At least with Max. I can’t say it’s something that’s built into me because I’ve certainly never been submissive in any of my other relationships. Quite the opposite, actually. I probably wore the pants in most of them.

“Max… He’s a dominant force. He just exudes this aura of power. When I was with him, I wanted nothing more than to please him, and I won’t lie, he took very good care of me. Very, very good care. He saw to my every need. He anticipated my needs,” she corrected. “He often knew what I wanted or needed before I did.”

Ryan picked up her wrist so that the silver bands gleamed in the moonlight. “And these? Are they a symbol of his ownership?”

Callie was silent for a long time. “Yes,” she said quietly. “They are—were.”

Ryan sighed. “I can’t say I like to hear any of this. You’re my little girl—will always be my little girl. You’re in a position where power is easily abused. That worries me. It takes a very special man to have that kind of control over a woman and truly love and cherish her.”

“Yes, it does,” she returned sadly. “I thought Max was one of them.”

Ryan hugged her to him again. “I just want you to be careful, honey. We love you so much.”

“I love you too, Dad. All of you.”

“Your brothers are worried about you. Especially Seth. He’s feeling pretty awful about the way he dropped this on you. He was pissed at Max and he was angry at the way he’d used you, and you know Seth. He’s intensely protective of those he loves. He doesn’t always think before he acts.”

“I wish he’d told me privately,” Callie admitted. “That was probably the most humiliating experience of my life. But I’m not angry with him. I know he did it because he loves me and wants to protect me.”

“Don’t feel humiliated, baby. We’re your family. We love you and want what’s best for you. We were all surprised, and angry. I don’t want you to feel self-conscious around us now. That’s the last thing we want. We’re here for you. Always. This is your home.”

“I just want to know if it’ll ever stop hurting.”

Just the words made her eyes sting and her nose draw up. She closed her eyes as more hot tears slipped down her cheeks.

“I can’t answer that, baby girl. We’ve told you the story about when your mother took it upon herself to protect me and your other dads and she left us for our own good.”

He nearly snorted as he got to that part. Callie had indeed heard the story before. It never failed to get her dads riled up, but now she listened to it with new understanding.

“It was the most painful moment of my life. I thought when I was shot and the asshole trying to kill her took her away was the worst moment. Or when I lay in the hospital not knowing if she’d live or die. But the worst was finding her gone from her hospital room and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to bring her back. Your fathers and I had to return home and hope like hell that she would eventually come back to us.

“I don’t know if I would have ever stopped hurting. It was the worst few months of my life. But when she walked back through that front door and she was all round and pregnant with Seth, it was the best moment, and the moment only got better after that. Seth’s birth. And then Michael and Dillon. And then you.

“We always believed that our family was complete. But not your mother. She was convinced that there was one more Colter yet to be born. You. And when you arrived, I didn’t think life could get any better. You completed us, Callie.

“And I said all this to make a point. You hurt like hell now. I know I did when your mother left. But you won’t hurt forever. You have a lot of happiness in front of you. Your best times are yet to come.”

“I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you talk at one time,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

“Smartass,” he chided. “I talk when I’ve got something to say. I have plenty to say when my only daughter is hurting.”

“I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, baby girl. Think we could head back so your mama can fuss over her only daughter for a while?”

Callie sighed. The last thing she wanted was to go back to her parents’. But she knew she had to or they’d be worried sick. All she wanted was to be alone and to think. To absorb all that had happened. To rid herself of the sickness that welled up from her soul.

How could she face her family when nothing felt like it would ever be right?

She stared up at the sky again and gazed at the stars that scattered like diamonds. Why did she have to fall so hard for Max? Why had he lied to her? Why make her fall like she had? Why did he have to be so…perfect? But he wasn’t. He wasn’t real. He was what he wanted her to see. He’d so deftly manipulated her that she’d lost all faith in her ability to read people. How could she trust anyone after this?

Her judgment sucked. She’d even known that she fell back into his arms too quickly, and yet she’d done it anyway. She was partly to blame because she’d been too willing to forgive. But she’d wanted what he’d offered so much that she’d turned a blind eye to the pain he’d already caused her.

As much as she didn’t want to go back to her parents’, she didn’t have a choice because her only other option was to go to Lily’s where her brothers would hover and make threats against humanity.

“Callie?”

She drew away and dragged a hand through her bedraggled hair. “Yeah, we can head back. I don’t want Mom to worry.”

He helped her to her feet and then herded her toward her mom’s SUV. “You can ride with me. Your dads and I will come back for the Land Rover later.”

Callie nodded because it was far easier to just go along with whatever he wanted. She didn’t have the energy to drive anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Callie lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, just as she’d done for the last twenty-four hours. Her mom was worried. Her dads were worried. Her brothers had called every hour on the hour.She didn’t have the strength to face their sympathy or their desire to fix things. They couldn’t.

She hadn’t slept. Oh, she’d wanted to. She could think of nothing better than to escape her reality and just let her mind go blank. Just for a little while. But sleep had eluded her and so she’d lain here, wide-eyed, heart hurting so much and her mind crowded with Max.

The solution was reactionary—let’s be honest here—she was running. Just like she’d always done. And as much as she’d like to think she had the will to stand up, face Max and her family, the simple truth was she just wanted to get away from it all.

The more she thought about it, the more the idea took root until it was all she could think about. It helped that it took her mind off the awful, gut-wrenching grief. Action was preferable to lying here with her mom just a few feet away on the other side of that door, silent and worrying.

She sat up and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. When she got up, she bobbled a bit and stood there a moment while she regained her balance. Then she strode to her dresser and looked at herself in the mirror.