Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
PARKER
With the lengthening daylight of late spring, our days at Out of Bounds Scotland were running longer. I still had official office hours, but the guys regularly didn’t wrap their excursions and get their equipment stowed until well after five. So it was close to the dinner hour by the time Callum and I made it to The Stag’s Head a few days after my parents had departed. Alex had finished whatever research he was doing on the credibility of an actual threat as pertained to me, so we were convening for what I’d been informed was a sit rep meeting. As Ewan was their former squad leader, we were having the meeting in the private party room at the pub so he could be in attendance. I really hoped this was just an abundance of caution and not some effort to soften bad news with good food.
Callum and I stepped through the doors, waiting for several seconds as our eyes adjusted to the dim interior. He stayed close, his broad hand on the small of my back. The din of conversation faded as the gathered patrons noticed us standing there. Beside me, Callum tensed. Instinctively, I tucked in closer to him, wrapping an arm around his waist.
“Parker!” Laura waved from behind the bar. “You want your usual, lass?”
I’d developed a serious fondness for the local ciders they had on tap. “A pint, please. We’re gonna be in the back.”
She shot me a thumbs up, and Callum began gently shepherding me through the tables.
“Oy, Quinn.” Old William Fraser, who was eighty if he was a day, nodded from his regular corner spot near the dartboard. “Is your lass keeping you in line?”
Six weeks ago, I’d watched this man pointedly avoid Callum’s gaze. Now his lips were twitching with a smile beneath his beard.
Callum huffed a quiet laugh. “She tries.”
“Best listen to her, lad. A good woman’s hard to find and worth holding onto.”
He inclined his head toward William, even as his grip tightened on me. “Understood, sir. And agreed.”
“Oh, Parker, love!” Mrs. Byrne beamed from a tableful of other middle-aged women. “Don’t forget about Thursday.”
“Wouldn’t miss it!”
“What’s Thursday?” Callum murmured.
“Somehow I got roped into their weekly knitting circle.”
“Do you knit?”
“Not a day in my life. I’m hoping it’s possibly just an excuse to feed me copious amounts of shortbread and share village gossip.”
“Sure they’re no’ planning to ply you with pastries to tell them how you tamed the savage beast?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. “I hadn’t considered that.” With a grin, I bumped his shoulder. “They aren’t very observant if they think I tamed you.”
But there was no question people had been responding to him more kindly since we got involved. He walked around with less of an aura of “Fuck right off” and more “I probably won’t bite if you approach me.” I called that a win, considering where he’d started. Even Ewan had commented on the change last week, noting that Callum had actually managed a civil conversation with old Mrs. MacPherson about her garden without looking like he wanted to crawl out of his skin. The transformation wasn’t dramatic—he was still fundamentally himself, gruff and reserved - but those tiny shifts felt like miracles to those of us who knew him well.
Everyone else, including Jade, had already arrived. They were clustered around the heavy wood table that dominated the room, various drinks already in hand.
“Ah, the guest of honor has arrived.” Finn swept a bow. “We can begin.”
“Maybe let’s order food first,” Ewan suggested. “Dom’s only going to get busier.”
“Fair point.”
Callum and I settled at the table. Zo came in carrying my pint and another of lager for Callum, which I supposed must be his regular order. She took all our orders, then withdrew, shutting the door behind her.
Without additional preamble, Callum stretched his arm along the back of my chair and looked at Alex. “Well? What did you find?”
He settled back in his chair, his expression dialing in to a level of serious I wasn’t accustomed to seeing. I wondered if this was how he’d been on missions during his military days.
“Right. So I’ve been looking into the situation with these shipping routes and the pressure campaign. It’s bigger than just Meridian Global. There’s a pattern of escalating tactics against multiple companies who’ve opposed the consortium’s initiatives.”
“What kind of pattern?” Callum’s voice remained carefully neutral, but I felt the tension in his shoulder where it pressed against mine.
“Started with the usual corporate strong-arm tactics—heavy fees, restricted access, regulatory pressure.” Alex tapped one of the papers. “But in the past eighteen months, there’s been a shift. Three executives’ family members from different companies have been grabbed. One from Maersk Line, one from Hamburg Süd, and one from Pacific International. All companies that were blocking the consortium’s expansion plans.”
Grabbed. He meant kidnapped. Jade had alluded to that during the dinner with my parents, but I hadn’t fully grasped the significance. My stomach clenched. “What happened to them?”
“Two were released after their companies made concessions. The third...” He hesitated. “That situation’s still ongoing.”
Which meant… what? An ongoing hostage situation? Torture? Murder? The possibilities churned in my stomach like curdled milk, and my imagination—usually my greatest asset—became my worst enemy as it conjured up one horrifying scenario after another. Suddenly, the plot of every international espionage thriller I’d ever read seemed less like fantasy and more like a blueprint for the brutal reality of global business. My fingers curled into my palms, nails biting into flesh, as I tried to ground myself in the present moment. Swallowing hard, I tried to keep my voice steady. “And you think Meridian Global could be a target?”
“Your father’s company is one of the largest still actively opposing their initiatives. There’ve been six separate attempts to breach Meridian’s network in the past month alone, specifically targeting files related to shipping contracts and route planning. And there are definitely people watching several properties connected to key executives.”
“As I mentioned,” Jade said.
“Aye. Your instincts were good. But…” Alex hesitated again.
“But what?” Callum prompted.
“There’s chatter suggesting they’re expanding their targeting. Not just going after the executives themselves anymore, but board members, key shareholders… anyone who might be able to influence company policy.”
My head went light as the blood drained from my face. Callum’s arm tightened around me, pulling me into the shelter of his body.
“So, in your estimation, the threat is credible?”
“Aye. I believe it is,” Alex confirmed. “The good news is that Scotland would be very low on their list of possibilities. The company has no offices here. Certainly, they wouldn’t be thinking of Glenlaig. Small village, tight community, everybody knows everybody. Strangers stick out. That’s all in our favor. However, there are a few potential vulnerabilities we need to address in terms of how you could be tracked.”
“Anyone monitoring her parents’ movements could theoretically track them here,” Callum said. “Even with the false trail being laid about them having stopped in Glasgow for repairs.”
“If there’s any chatter to that effect, I’ll get an alert.”
“What about my work visa?”
Alex nodded. “Aye. That’s the second concern. The application’s in process, which means there’s a paper trail. Mind, it’s buried in thousands of similar applications, but someone who knows what they’re looking for could potentially find it.”
“What else?” Callum’s arm tightened fractionally around me.
“The YouTube channel.” Alex grimaced. “We’ve been careful not to show Parker in any of the recent videos, but there are comments from right after she started where people noted seeing her in the background at the office. And there’s the Instagram trail from her European trip—even though Jade’s been maintaining the fiction that she’s still traveling, someone dedicated enough could reconstruct her path and notice it went dead around the time she reached Scotland.”
“Social media’s the easiest to deal with,” Callum said. “We can scrub any mention of her.”
“Already on it,” Alex assured him. “The work visa’s trickier, but I’ve got some contacts in the Home Office who can help obscure the records a bit. The parents’ travel... that we just have to hope wasn’t noticed.”
My pulse whooshed in my ears as the reality of all this began to sink in. My parents hadn’t been unnecessarily paranoid. It wasn’t just some out-there possibility. “So… what the hell do we do about all of this?”
“You’re moving in with me.” Callum’s tone brooked no argument. “We can get your things packed up tonight. Your flat’s small enough we can probably manage it in one trip?—”
My spine snapped straight, and I pulled away. “Excuse me?” The words came out sharp enough to cut glass. “Did you just tell me what I’m going to do?”
He frowned at me, as if baffled by my tone. “It’s the most sensible solution.”
I shoved back from the table. “That’s not the point. You don’t get to just… dictate what I’m going to do. I’m still an independent adult. I specifically asked for your input, not your orders.”
“Parker—”
I began to pace in the narrow confines behind the table. “No. I left Nashville precisely because I was tired of other people making decisions about my life without consulting me. You do not get to do the same damned thing. I won’t be put in a fucking bubble again.”
Callum scrubbed a hand down his face, his expression shifting from determination to something softer. “That’s no’ what I meant to do.”
“Isn’t it?” I spat.
“No.” He shoved out of his own chair, interrupting my pacing with his bulk. “This has nothing to do with questioning your capability—or Jade’s, for that matter. I want you close so I can protect you.” He curled his hands around my shoulders. “And I want you close just because I want you close. I want you in my bubble, with me, where I can see you’re safe with my own eyes.”
The intensity in his good eye made my breath catch.
“You… matter to me, Parker. More than I thought anyone could. And I will personally feel better if I’m your first line of defense. But you’re right. I should have asked.” He skimmed his hands down my arms to take my hands in his. “Will you move in with me? Please?”
There it was. The request instead of the command. The vulnerability beneath the protectiveness. How could I say no to that?
Besides, if I was being honest with myself, I’d been thinking about taking this next step with him anyway, almost from the moment I’d left his bed. I wanted to be with him, too.
“Okay,” I murmured. “Yes.”
From the other end of the table, Finn gave a sniff. I glanced in his direction to find him miming tears. “Oh, that’s beautiful.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, shut up.”
“Well, you might as well brace yourselves. Ciara is going to demand you have a housewarming party,” Alex warned.
I laughed and let Callum pull me in for a hug. “Well, courtesy of all the work she and the girls already did, the house is ready.”