Guilty By Association

Chapter 41 - Bravery is a Façade

Chapter 41 – Bravery is a Façade

Kelsey could feel pain before she realized that there wasn’t anything to feel. Her eyes were glued shut and that one gunshot had nearly rendered her breathless. But, the moment she did realize that she didn’t feel any pain, her eyes instantly flew open.

Kara was still in front of her looking equally shocked.

Their eyes remained focused on each other for a long moment before they both realized that neither of them had been hurt. As soon as that realization hit, they both turned to try to find the source of the gunshot and Kelsey’s eyes widened when she spotted Caleb Rocha enter the room. The gunshot hadn’t been fired at anyone. It had merely been to capture their attention.

“I know I should be surprised.” He began with an annoying smirk on his face. “I’m not. I knew that as soon as I left you alone, you’d try to get away. I’m a little disappointed at your lack of trust in me, Kelsey. But tell me, Kara, what are you doing here?”

“C-Caleb.” Kara’s breath was but a whisper as emotions flooded her eyes. For a moment, she seemed to forget that she was hurt. “Ah!” She clutched her leg and Caleb’s eyes flew down at the motion. His eyes seemed to darken when he saw the injury. “What happened there?”

“I did it.” Kelsey confessed, knowing that she was outnumbered and out-trained now. She couldn’t lie even if she wanted to. “She was going to fire at me, so I fired back first.”

“Interesting.” Caleb remarked. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

He was teasing her. Kelsey just knew it. “It must be your company that made the change in me.”

“Aren’t you mad at her?” Kara asked, her voice suddenly high. “Baby, she hurt me. Don’t you want to hurt her?”

Kelsey almost pitied her sister at the moment. Then, she pushed the thought out of her mind. Sure, she might have pitied her sister, but the woman in front of her was no longer in sister. No, this woman was just Kara, Caleb Rocha’s girlfriend.

“If you wanted me to hurt her, you could have done it yourself, Kara. You have the gun in your hand.” Caleb responded easily. Kelsey glanced at Kara and saw that he was right. Kara did still have the gun in her hands. “Besides, I thought I told you to stay away from here.”

“You told me Kelsey was here. You told me she was alone. I knew she’d try to get away. I thought she’d do it. I wanted to make sure.” Kara sounded desperate for Caleb’s approval. Kelsey was disgusted by her at the moment. How could Kara be so needy when Caleb was involved? She just didn’t get it. The Kara she knew was never this needy.

Just then, a coughing captured everyone’s attention. “This really is a lovely get together you’ve got here. Twins? I’m impressed.” The new man in the room said. This man was older than Caleb was, but definitely radiated the same kind of power. He had dark-toned skin and dark hair that had been chopped into a crew cut.

“Ladies,” Caleb said. “I’d like to introduce you to Ricardo Ortega.”

Kelsey’s eyes widened. This was Ricardo Ortega? “What is going on here?” She asked, trepidation leaking into her voice. What was going to happen to her? She knew Caleb liked messing with people’s heads. She knew he liked messing with hers, but he’d promised her that she wouldn’t get hurt. She was confused now. Just now, Caleb had accused her of not trusting him, but she did. She didn’t know why, but she trusted him when he said he wouldn’t hurt her. It had been a promise. A part of her still wanted to trust him. So what was he trying to accomplish by putting her face to face with another murderer? Was Caleb going to ask Ortega to hurt her? “Why is he here?”