Keep Me Safe (Slow Burn #1)(73)

He closed his eyes as grief consumed him once more. He swayed, nearly toppling over as he opened his eyes to see the others all standing around him.

He stared bleakly up at Eliza, his chest so tight he couldn’t breathe. When he tried to speak, he choked on the words, bile rising up his throat.

Tears slipped unheeded down his cheeks. Eliza’s gaze was as grief stricken as his own.

“I hurt her,” Caleb whispered. “I did this to her. How can I ever get past something like this? I don’t deserve to go unpunished. I hurt her. She deserves justice.”

“She does, indeed,” Eliza said quietly. “And that’s why we’re going to give her justice by going after that son of a bitch and taking him down once and for all.”

Caleb struggled to his feet and then blurted out where the killer—and Ramie—were located. Eliza gently pushed him down onto one of the sofas. “It’s probably best if you don’t come.”

Caleb shot to his feet again. “The f**k I’m staying here! Ramie is mine. I love her. And I can’t for one minute let her continue to think that I did this to her! That it was me who handed her over to a psychopath.”

“I understand,” Eliza said in a placating tone. “But you have to see it from Ramie’s perspective. If we go in and rescue her and she sees you, there’s no telling how she’ll react. She’s already damaged enough. Seeing you right now would likely crush her.”

“I can’t stay here and do nothing,” Caleb seethed. “Not when she’s out there dying an agonizing death. Because of me,” he said bleakly. “Because of me.”

His words ended in a whisper and he lifted his haunted gaze to Eliza, Dane and his brother. “I put her where she is right now. It seems all I’m capable of is hurting her. First Tori’s captor and all I forced her to endure so Tori would be saved and now I hand her over, bloodied from wounds I inflicted. How is she ever to believe I love her? Or that I’d never do something so horrific? How can I even believe it myself? Do you know how it feels to watch yourself do the unthinkable to someone you love and be absolutely powerless to stop it?”

Eliza’s expression softened, and a glint of sympathy flashed in her eyes. Beau’s face was a wreath of torment as he watched his brother completely break down.

Caleb didn’t bother to wipe the tears away. “I have to go. I can’t stay here. I can’t allow her to think even for a moment that I wouldn’t come for her.”

Eliza looked clearly torn but Dane shook his head at her. “Think if it were someone you loved, Lizzie. You wouldn’t stay back no matter what.”

Eliza sighed. “No, you’re right. I wouldn’t.”

“Then let’s get the hell out of here,” Caleb said in a tortured voice. “You can call the police for backup on the way, but I have to get to her first because they’re going to arrest me on sight. And I’m not waiting on them before we go in and take this guy out. He signed his death warrant when he used me to hurt the woman I love.”

THIRTY-SIX

IT took everything in Caleb’s power not to burst through the doors of the ramshackle cabin on an old hunting lease, thirty miles outside the Houston city limits. Only the knowledge that the killer could kill Ramie if he were threatened held him back.

He and Beau positioned themselves at the back door, making sure to keep out of the line of sight for any of the windows. Dane and Eliza took the front door because Caleb was sure the killer wouldn’t have stood anywhere in the pathway of the front. It was instinctual to fear entrance from there. And he wanted to be the one who came across the bastard first.

“On my count,” Dane whispered through the phone into Caleb’s ear. “One . . . ​two . . . ​three!”

Caleb crashed through the back door and straight into hell. His gaze found Ramie, who was tied in a grotesque manner to a metal bar suspended from the ceiling. Rope was wrapped tightly around her ankles, blood seeping from the abrasions, and her legs were secured at an odd angle.

Every time she strained against her bonds, the rope cut deeper into her flesh. Her head sagged weakly, her chin resting on her chest as blood dripped from her nose and mouth.

Caleb forced his focus away from Ramie and he locked on to her tormentor, who looked shocked to see Caleb standing in the open doorway.

“Didn’t think I could find you, you arrogant, sick f**k,” Caleb hissed.

A ghost of a smile glimmered on the man’s face. Then he laughed, the sound sending shivers down Caleb’s spine. It was a laugh that would haunt Caleb the rest of his days. The killer had laughed while Caleb had systemically carved Ramie up.

Dane burst into the kitchen from the living room, where he’d gained entrance, he and Eliza both holding their guns up and trained on the killer.

Dane and Eliza would want to do it by the book. They’d want to take the bastard in, throw him in jail. But Caleb knew that as long as this man lived, Ramie would never find peace. She would be forever bound to him by the psychic link connecting them. And Caleb would never know a night’s sleep. He’d forever live in fear of doing the unthinkable once again.

Caleb would already be arrested when the police arrived for attempted murder. He may as well go down fighting. He’d gladly sacrifice his life in prison if it meant Ramie would finally be free of a monster’s hold.