Chapter 75

No sooner had the words left Carl's mouth than he brought the machete down on Cayden again. "Stop! Stop hacking at me! Please!" Cayden wailed loudly for mercy. The next second, he swore at Tommy on the other line, "For fuck's sake, Tommy, just let the man go! "Do you want me to get chopped up alive? I'm warning you—I'm dragging you through hell if anything happens to me tonight!" Cayden was having a full-on meltdown at this point, courtesy of Carl's terrorizing. To be honest, I was pretty startled, too. Carl was ruthless and violent. At that moment, I found myself wondering if he were death incarnate. Tommy finally lost his earlier indifference, appearing to be spooked as well. I couldn't tell if Tommy was worried about his father's cemetery becoming collateral damage if Cayden got hurt, or getting into trouble with the other bigwigs in Fairhaven, or both. Either way, his tone softened considerably when he spoke again. "Carl, right? Let's not be rash about this. We can talk and w