Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(60)

Two seconds later, Brenna’s mother’s house came into view.

My stomach dropped to the floorboards.

Caleb was in the driveway, shouting at Brenna, who was cowering against the back of her car.

Dread spiraled through my senses. “Oh my God, I told her to stay inside.”

Quick to release the seatbelt, I sat forward, hand already on the doorlatch as Ollie screeched to a stop.

“What the fuck?” Ollie growled. “It’s that little fucker who sold me the car.” His arm flew out in front of my chest, his body ridged in hard lines, muscles bristling as he took in the scene. “Don’t move out of that seat, Nikki.”

His door flew open, voice low. “I mean it.”

I didn’t pause.

Didn’t listen.

I jumped out of the car.

Caleb whirled around when he felt me approaching him. “You bitch. You’re responsible for all of this. Telling her not to be with me.”

No, Caleb. You’re responsible. You twat.

I didn’t say it.

Not wanting to incite him more.

It didn’t matter because he started for me as if this time he was going to take his anger out on me.

His warnings never so glaring than right then.

A tremble of fear rocked through me as I prepared for him to hit me.

A blur of movements had me taking a shocked step back.

Before I could process it, Ollie had an arm hooked around Caleb’s neck from behind, his hold cinched tight.

No fear.

No reservation.

Brenna shrieked, and Ollie wrangled Caleb, who clawed at his arm, flailed and kicked and shouted as if he might wrestle out of his hold.

I doubted it took a whole lot of exertion on Ollie’s part to keep Caleb restrained. Ollie had the scrawny kid in a lock that there was no chance he could break free of.

Once he knew he had him contained, Ollie sent me an angry glare. “Told you to stay in the car.”

“Since when do you get to tell me what to do?” I shot at him.

He scoffed and pretty much rolled his eyes while he kept a tight hold on Caleb who continued to flail and kick. “And you say I’m impossible,” he said.

“You, asshole. Let me go, you piece of shit. You’re gonna regret it,” Caleb ranted.

Ollie tightened his hold. “Pretty sure it’s not gonna be me who’s feelin’ the regret, fucker. You really think I was gonna let you play us all? Is that what you thought? You thought wrong.”

Confusion wound through my mind, Ollie’s words making absolutely no sense. But my only concern right then was Brenna. Brenna who started sobbing when I pulled her into my arms.

She clutched me and buried her face in my shirt. “Nikki . . . you’re here.”

“I’ve got you. I’m right here.”

Sirens rode on the night, a quiet toll that grew closer and closer with every second that passed. “The police are on their way. You’re safe. You’re safe.”

Her fingers curled in my shirt. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. But he was trying to get inside to take Kyle. I couldn’t let him take him. I won’t let him take him.”

“Shh . . . I know. I know. It’s okay.”

Kyle’s cries lifted on the dense air, fearful and distraught, and I peeked over to where Brenna’s mother was holding him, her wary attention darting between all of us.

“That’s my son,” Caleb shouted. “My girlfriend. You can’t keep them from me. They’re my family.”

He thrashed against Ollie’s restraint, and Ollie was hauling him farther back, out into the street.

Away.

But I could hear him. The low warning he uttered at Caleb’s ear. “Shut the fuck up, asshole. You don’t get to claim someone as your family when you threaten them. When you hurt them. That’s not what family is. You think you can mess with her? Take advantage of her? I’ll end you if you even look at her again. You hear me, asshole?”

Two cruisers rounded the corner, lights reflecting off the darkened sky. I knew neighbors were peering out, could feel the eyes of morbid curiosity, but the only thing I cared about was Brenna.

That she was safe.

Four officers slipped out of their cruisers, their guns drawn. Thank God, one was Seth.

“Don’t move,” one of them shouted.

“Stand down,” Seth ordered, pushing a hand out at the officers as he moved toward Ollie and Caleb, cuffs out.

“On the ground,” he told Caleb.

Ollie released him, and Caleb dove to the pavement.

“Motherfucker,” he gritted, face in the ground.

“Motherfucker is right,” Ollie spat, backing away and letting Seth read Caleb his rights as he cuffed him and patted him down.

Seth hauled him to his feet, looking between Ollie and me. “This him?” he asked me.

I nodded. “That’s him.”

Ollie roughed an agitated hand through his hair that flashed with the colors of the lights that spun through the night, his face lit up.

So bold and striking I lost more of my breath.

My beast.

“Asshole came into Roke’s this afternoon with an old car that used to belong to Nikki’s grandparents. Nikki told me about the notes. He has to have been stalking her. Finding out who her family was and trying to get close.”