16. Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Callum
I t had been three days, and I hadn't heard from Fleur and neither had June and Titus or any of her other friends who hung out at Peychaud's.
Brian had come to see me at home after the denouement at Sabine's place. Apparently, his kid had managed to convince him and Lenora that she wasn't at fault and that she'd been nervous about losing Seamus or some such shit.
I told him to leave and not come back until he got his head straightened and never come back to plead Sabine's case with me. As far as my family and I were concerned, we were done with Sabine. If Brian and Lenora refused to see what was in front of their eyes—that they had a selfish and spoiled kid who never grew up, we were finished with them as well. Sure, Sabine had a ton of polish, and that fooled a lot of people—but eventually, it slipped, and I wondered how often it had with Seamus. Had he excused it like I had to keep loving her until it had crashed and burned?
How upset was Seamus after that confrontation with Sabine? Was that the reason he had an accident?
I knew it was futile to keep going back and hoping that something would change and my brother would once again be alive and with me. The hole he left in our lives was massive, and that ache was there all of the time—except, I now realized, when I was with Fleur. She lightened the pain. She made me happy. And I fucking hadn't made her happy, had I? No. I'd been a jackass.
I texted her again: When are you back? Come on, Grian, don't ghost me.
No response. In fact, the iMessage didn't even change to read. She wasn't getting these messages. Damn it! Had she blocked me again? Where the hell was she? I was getting pretty close to calling her company to ask to talk to her—but that would annoy her, and I didn't need her to be any more pissed off with me than she already was.
I was in the middle of reviewing some investment proposals when my assistant buzzed in. "Mr. Gallagher, there is a Miss Anya Burke for you. She says it's urgent."
I glanced at the clock. It was barely past noon, and my schedule was packed. "Who is she?"
"Ah…she just says it's confidential."
I frowned.
"And insists it's a matter of great importance," she added.
I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Send her in."
The door opened, and a woman I didn't know at all walked into my office. She was tall and athletic, with a no-nonsense demeanor. She wore a pair of jeans, army-style boots, a T-shirt, and a bomber jacket. I was certain she was former or current military.
I rose and introduced myself. We shook hands.
"I don't know who you are," I stated as I sat back down on my desk chair, and she sat across from me in a comfortable leather chair.
"I know that you don't know," she said, her gray eyes and dark face giving absolutely nothing away. "I'm Anya Burke, and I work with Fleur Landry at brT Systems."
My heart skipped a beat at the mention of her name. "Is Fleur okay?"
Anya licked her lips. "I'm not supposed to be here. In fact, I'm not here."
I arched an eyebrow. "Is Fleur okay?" I repeated.
She sighed. "Fleur is my boss. We're a four-person programming team that works on military projects for brT Systems."
My heart started to hammer. "Military? What does that mean?"
"Can't tell you," she said softly, looking me straight in the eye. "Three days ago, Fleur and another teammate went to an undisclosed location and something went wrong."
" Is Fleur okay ?" I repeated, barely getting those words out because I was afraid of the answer, frightened that this woman was here to tell me that my girl wasn't alright.
"Don't know." She tapped her fingers on the desk. "We lost contact with her and Orion, our teammate twenty-two hours ago."
The room seemed to tilt for a moment. I gripped the edge of my desk, trying to steady myself. "What do you mean, missing? Is she—"
"We don't know," Anya cut in. "All communication from their end is silent."
"What the fuck? Is she military? CIA? What?"
"She's a programmer like I am. We work for a private contractor."
"Why didn't she tell me about this?" I demanded, a mix of anger and fear rising in my chest.
Anya's eyes softened slightly. "She couldn't, Callum. It's classified. I shouldn't even be telling you this much, but my teammate and I thought you deserved to know. Fleur wanted you to get a message in case she doesn't make it back."
I felt a lump in my throat. "What message?"
Anya reached into her jacket and pulled out her phone. She set it on the table and pushed some buttons.
Fleur's voice filled the room.
"Tell Callum…tell him that I love him…really, really love him. I forgive him. I've always loved him since the start. Hell, Viper, I hope I get to see him again. But if I don't, do me this favor and let him know. Okay ?"
I lost my shit, and tears were rolling down my cheeks.
"I can't believe this. How could she be involved in something so dangerous? She's a coder, not a soldier."
"She was doing her job," Anya said quietly. "And she's damn good at it."
"What's being done to find her?" I asked, desperation creeping into my voice.
"A team is on their way," Anya said, but she didn't look hopeful.
"You came here because you don't think she's alive…or that she won't make it."
Anya shrugged. "I came here because she wanted me to. She left that message, hoping it would get through, and it did. It's the last we heard from them. So, yeah, I came. Rune is the fourth person on our team. He's still tracking, and we're all…. Fuck! I don't know, Callum, if she's alive, if Orion is alive. We just…." She flung her hands in the air. "I'm ex-military, and so is Orion, so we know our shit, but Rune and Wraith, they're—"
"Who the fuck is Wraith?"
Anya smiled. "I'm going to so lose my job, maybe end up in prison if anyone finds out I'm talking to you. But fuck it. Wraith is Fleur's codename—cause when she started her career, she was one of the best white hats ever and caught a whole hell of a lot of black hats."
White hats? Black hats? I felt like I was in a CIA movie. I never suspected, not even in my wildest dreams that this was what my sunshine did. No wonder she made such good money because she risked her fucking life. Well, she'd just have to quit when she got home. I couldn't live like this.
But what if she never came home? What if…? I looked up at Anya, my vision blurring with unshed tears. "I need to do something. I can't just sit here and wait."
Anya's expression was firm but compassionate. "The best thing you can do is keep faith. Fleur and Orion are fighters. If anyone can make it out of this, it's them."
"Out of where?" I asked.
"Sorry, man." She shook her head sadly. "I get it. My husband is an ex-SEAL, and even he doesn't know what I do most of the time, and he actually has security clearance."
I wiped my tears. "She's gonna come home, isn't she?"
"She is." Anya smiled weakly at me.
"You don't know, do you?"
"I gotta go. I have a takeoff time for my Cessna."
"Where did you come from?"
Anya chuckled. "Sorry, bud, can't tell you that either. Already said too much. My superiors find out, I'll be fucked."
"I don't know what's to find out," I deadpanned, "since you were never here."
"Atta boy."
We shook hands again, and as she was about to walk out of my office, I called out, "If you hear anything, anything at all, will you let me know?"
She paused. "I'll do my best."
After she left, I collapsed into my chair, the weight of her words pressing down on me. The bustling city outside my window seemed so distant, so irrelevant. Fleur was out there, somewhere, fighting for her life, and I was powerless to help.
"I love him…really, really love him. I forgive him. I've always loved him since the start."
Me too, Grian, me too. Since that first night, I've been yours, and you've been mine. I'm so sorry I was an idiot for so long and never told you, never gave you that truth.