Page 57 of Between Regrets and Promises (Between Us Trilogy #2)

He crosses the kitchen and harshly rips it off. I let out a gut-wrenching scream, which only causes him to laugh. Going back to where he was standing, he tosses the tape on the counter. He drinks straight from a tequila bottle.

I notice a gun on the counter next to a police scanner. The volume’s so low, I can barely hear it.

“Caleb.” I release an unsteady breath. “What’re you doing?” I try to stay calm, but I’m struggling as the adrenaline rushes through my veins. “Let me go.”

Laughter roars from his chest, and that’s when I notice light reflecting off the blade of the knife in his hand. “Let you go? I don’t fuckin’ think so, darlin’.”

He saunters toward me again, and I keep my focus on him. Caleb presses the sharp tip to my chin, forcing me to look at him. I swallow hard as I stare into his cold eyes. “Caleb, please …”

He adds force, digging the knife into my skin until a drop of blood drips down the blade. Pulling it back, he looks at it, satisfied.

“Let me tell you a little story, Sophie darling .” He says my name like it’s poison and steps back. Disgust is written on his face as he glances at me.

“Family is everything to me. I love my parents. I love my cousins. I loved my brother.”

I don’t dare say a word. This isn’t the Caleb I met weeks ago or the man who’s shared stories about his wife. I don’t know who this Caleb is, and it’s terrifying.

“And then one day, he died at the hands of someone else,” he adds.

“I’m sorry. No one deserves to lose someone they love. Your wife, your brother…”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch!” he shouts, then walks over to the roll of duct tape on the counter. He rips off a strip, then stalks toward me and slaps it over my mouth. “Don’t. Fucking. Talk.”

Wincing, tears welling on the edge of my eyelids. The last time I felt this scared was when Weston lost his temper and choked me so hard I thought he was going to kill me.

“My brother’s death was your fucking fault. Your fault. It disgusts me to look at your pathetic face.”

My eyes go wide, confused. His brother? My fault?

He nods at my expression, and that crazy smile returns and recognition hits me. It begins to make sense. All of it.

“Weston,” he croaks out and stabs the blade into the countertop next to the gun. I shake my head, wishing I could scream so someone knew where I was. A cell phone vibrates next to him, and when he grabs it, his smirk turns devious.

“Ahh, your boyfriend’s starting to panic now.” His shrill laughter sends a shiver down my spine. “See, this is the thing…”

Caleb juggles the phone between his palms.

“Earlier tonight, he figured out who I really was, and while you were busy in the bathroom, your phone kept vibrating and interrupting the meeting. So I opened your clutch to silence your phone. But then I read his messages, his warnings to get away from me, and that’s when I knew I had to put my plan into action tonight.

He killed my only fucking brother and then got away with it!

” His voice booms against the walls, and I jump.

“And it’s your fault because you’re a goddamn lying, cheating whore, and you got your boy toy to get him out of the picture so you two could be together. Now, you’re gonna pay. An eye for an eye. Hell, you’re both gonna pay, and it will be the justice my brother and family deserve.”

I try to scream, but it’s so muffled from the tape there’s no way anyone outside this room can hear me. I’m not sure where we are, what time it is, or if I’m still in Sacramento.

“Your boyfriend is a murderer and got away with it because of who his daddy is, so I’m taking matters into my own hands. It’s a shame I have to kill you, Sophie, because you’re quite pretty. I would’ve fucked your brains out in a heartbeat.”

Disgust rolls through me as I narrow my eyes at him. Then he walks toward me and rips the tape off my face again, which hurts like a motherfucker.

“You got something to say?” He leans down, his face inches from mine.

Shaking my head, I close my eyes tight, hoping this is all a sick nightmare I haven’t woken up from.

“Caleb,” I plead softly when I finally look at him. He stands and paces in front of me. “Let me go, and I won’t tell anyone about this. We can go our separate ways and both move on with our lives. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

The tears come, and I try to push away my hysteria.

He furrows his brows as if he’s studying me, and what scares me the most is how insane he looks.

“Did you love him?” he asks, and when I don’t answer, he repeats, “Did you love my brother?”

My eyes meet his, and I notice the resemblance between the two of them even more, though I remember recalling a familiarity about him when we met.

Now it makes sense. They’re both fucking crazy as hell, yet I can’t figure out why Weston never mentioned having a brother.

He never gave me many personal details about himself, though, and the ones I knew were all lies.

It seems as if I can say the same about Caleb.

Knowing I need to choose my words carefully, I try with everything I have not to set him off, but I take too long to respond.

It’s hard to say I loved a man who hit and nearly killed me.

“Fucking answer me!” he yells, making me jump. “And don’t you dare lie to me. Your life depends on it…” His threat has my heart racing harder.

Blinking, I swallow down the lump in my throat, hoping he can’t hear the fear in my voice. “Yes, I did at one time.”

“But then Mason happened,” he concludes. “We’ve been having a little chat.”

I study the device in his hand, and it looks like one of those cheap prepaid smartphones. “How’d you get his number?”

“I’m a lot smarter than you think. You don’t give me enough credit, Sophie,” he spews as a cruel grin spreads across his face.

“I mirrored your phone, knowing he’d find a way to track it and then strategically placed it somewhere else.

So he’ll go looking for you in one place, but you’ll be in another.

By the time he figures it out, your body will be cold.

And if all goes according to plan, I’ll have the satisfaction of killing him too.

” He flashes an evil smirk, and it’s scary because it’s genuine.

The realization hits me that he’s using me as bait to get to Mason, and I pray Mason stays away and doesn’t try to be a hero. I don’t want anything to happen to him or anyone else.

Weston’s death is partially my fault, and I feel guilty about everything that happened.

I should’ve left that night without him, called the cops, told Lennon the truth—any of those scenarios would’ve kept him alive and Mason out of trouble.

If I’d never dated Weston, rushed into a relationship and introduced him to everyone, things would’ve been so different.

Or hell, if I would’ve left him after the first time he hit me and reported it, maybe none of this would’ve happened.

“So did you fuck Mason while you were living with my brother?” He steps closer, narrowing his gaze on me like a predator hunting his prey.

I can taste the bitterness in his tone as he scowls at me, and I know that nothing I say will satisfy him.

My chest heaves with the anticipation of his next move, and the adrenaline rushes through me, but this time, I won’t take his shit lying down.

I already did that with Weston, walked on eggshells, and that got me nowhere just as fast.

“I never cheated on Weston. I was faithful,” I tell him truthfully. “I loved him until he started hitting me and choking me and then threatened to kill me.” I wiggle my wrists, struggling against the tape, anger fueling my next words. “Now that I think about it, you two have a lot in common.”

And just like that, his fist comes toward me, and everything fades to black.