Caleb

Chapter Forty Five

Elaina ~

Lainey knew that the group may have wondered where she and Natalie had gone, but it had seriously only been a few minutes. It's not like they had been gone for hours, yet Caleb and Pierce had exploded out of the back door, panicked and angry which meant something else had to be going on.

Caleb's chest was heaving with fast breaths and his face was serious and stoic, like his mind was processing faster than his facial expressions could respond as he pulled her in for a tight forceful hug. His large body relaxed slightly against hers as he squeezed her tight, but tensed again as he read a text from his watch.

"What's going on?" Lainey asked, pulling away so she could study Caleb's face.

"Some men were taking pictures of you and the rest of the girls tonight. He scared the hell out of Lexi and the guys have him around the corner, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. We didn't know what their intentions were or how many of them were here so Pierce and I had to find you and Nat asap. You scared the shit out of me." He said, pulling her against him again in a hug that did really feel like a hug, but was more of a need to engulf her body with his and shield her from the entire word for a second or two.

"I didn't mean to scare you Caleb, I'm sorry." She said softly hoping she hadn't made him too angry.

"Not your fault Darlin', but I need to go see what's going on, okay?" He said, pulling her face up to look at him.

She nodded in his hands before he pressed his lips against hers with a soft kiss that she knew was to remind her that he wasn't angry.

Caleb took her by the hand and led her toward the side of the building, stopping to show Pierce the text he had received.

"Good. I thought I heard Kincaid puttin' in work over there." Pierce said, lifting Natalie into his arms as he stood to follow Caleb.

As she and Caleb rounded the corner Lainey's eyes tried to process and understand the violent scene that was unfolding in front of her.

Nate was standing with Claire tucked underneath one arm and Lexi tucked underneath the other as they watched the rest of the team take care of three unknown men.

One of the men was bloodied and beaten, laying on the ground with Declan's boot on his face, pinning him against the graveled pavement.

Gunner had another man restrained in a choke hold while Slater scrolled through the unknown man's phone.

Marcus was easily restraining the third man who was feebly fighting against him, screaming, cussing, and straining against Marcus' massive arms that held him firmly in place, completely unmoved and unfazed.

Kincaid had his sleeves rolled up, revealing one arm that was covered in tattoos. His button down shirt already had blood spattered across the front of it while he paced in front of the man that Marcus was restraining, smiling at him with a sadistic and confident grin as he spoke to him.

"Don't like what I did to your friend huh?" Kincaid taunted.

"Fuck you!" The man screamed.

"Oh he's real tough, boys." Kincaid continued, eliciting malicious smiles from the men around him.

"Well come on then. Let's see what you've got tough guy." Kincaid taunted.

Marcus isn't really going to let that man go is he?

"I'll even let you throw the first punch." Kincaid said, putting his hands behind his back.

Lainey couldn't wrap her mind around why the men were going to let Kincaid fight this man when they already had him restrained. Why risk Kincaid getting hurt? Why not fight him together?