Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
WYATT
The fuel yard smelled like rust and old petroleum, the stale industrial scent of a place that had seen too many shortcuts and not enough oversight.
Wyatt sat in the passenger seat of Cal’s truck, binoculars resting low against his chest as he tracked the movement near the abandoned storage tanks.
Driscoll leaned against a stack of cracked pallets, the cigarette glowing between his fingers as if he had nowhere else in the world he needed to be.
“Lazy,” Wyatt muttered.
“Comfortable.” Cal corrected from the driver’s seat. “Men like him don’t feel watched.”
Wyatt didn’t respond as his eyes scanned the perimeter, tracking shadows, angles, and sightlines the same way years of operations had trained him to do. No second vehicle, no unusual movement. There was just heat shimmering off the asphalt and a cloud of flies.
“You thinking about the suspect?” Cal asked casually.
“Yes.”
“You’re not.” Wyatt lowered the binoculars, but Cal didn’t look at him. “Letty,” Cal said.
Wyatt’s jaw ticked. “She’s part of the case.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Silence stretched as Wyatt rolled the silver dollar across his knuckles without looking down. “I think Banner knows her sister,” he said finally.
Cal hummed. “I’ll bite. Who’s her sister?”
“Olivia, James Callahan’s widow.”
“Never met her, but I know there was drama.”
Wyatt continued. “I knew her when she was married to him. She and Banner had a brief thing a few years ago. Said she was… complicated.”
Cal raised and lowered his shoulders. “Women usually are.”
“She’s in Dallas,” Wyatt said.
“That what she told you?”
“Not directly.” I eavesdropped on Letty.
Cal glanced at him now. “You’re assuming.”
“I’m connecting dots.”
“Based on?”
“Banner, CPSP, and her sister needing protection in Dallas.”
Cal leaned back in his seat. “Dallas is landlocked.”
Wyatt frowned. “And?”
“She studies hurricanes.”
The word hurricanes eased Wyatt’s mood.
“She can’t do coastal disaster research in North Texas.”
Wyatt didn’t answer as the pause continued. “She could pivot,” he said finally.
“She could.” Cal looked at him. “But would she?”
Wyatt watched Driscoll flick his cigarette into the dirt and check his phone.
“You ever think,” Cal continued evenly, “that maybe Dallas isn’t the obvious choice?”
Wyatt’s gaze didn’t leave the yard. “She fits here.”
Cal’s mouth twitched. “She does.”
Wyatt shifted in his seat as Cal clicked his tongue. “You didn’t go to Dallas.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Wyatt didn’t respond. “Banner and Maxim wanted CPSP to be the next chapter.” He breathed out, finally speaking. “Private contracts, corporate security, and Dallas is full of their families. They fit there.”
“And you didn’t.”
“I wanted different.” Wyatt looked at him now. “I didn’t want to follow the same path just because it was familiar.”
They watched the man look down at his phone and grimace, the expression flashing across his face before he tucked the device back into his pocket.
“Salt & Steel gives me ocean, community, something smaller. More hands-on.” He scanned around the fuel yard. “I didn’t want to be the same man in a different zip code.”
Cal studied him.
“You think she’d choose this?” Wyatt inquired.
“I think she’d choose what’s more like home.”
That resonated more than it should have, settling somewhere deep in Wyatt’s chest where logic usually kept emotions locked down.
Driscoll shifted position, pacing now.
Wyatt adjusted the binoculars.
Cal’s voice lowered. “You jealous of Will?”
Wyatt didn’t hesitate. “No.” Cal waited as Wyatt exhaled through his nose before he spoke. “It’s not about him.”
“Then what is it?”
Wyatt hesitated. Don’t be like Dad and blurt before thinking. That had become one of his many mantras. “It’s about the life she could’ve picked.” Cal didn’t interrupt as Wyatt continued. “Academic circles, conferences… not… this.” He gestured toward the fuel yard. “Not stakeouts and arson.”
“You think you can’t give her a real life.” It wasn’t a question.
Wyatt’s jaw flexed. “My mother died when I was nine.”
Cal didn’t move.
“My father didn’t miss a rodeo. Didn’t miss a trophy ceremony.
Didn’t miss a chance to tell me I wasn’t riding hard enough.
” He swallowed once. “He didn’t miss my mom’s funeral either.
Showed up late.” Silence thickened in the truck.
“He wanted me to be what he never was,” Wyatt said. “Didn’t matter what I wanted.”
Cal’s voice stayed level. “You’re not him.”
Wyatt gave a short, humorless snort. “I don’t know what kind of man I am with someone like her.”
“That’s honest.”
“That’s sad.”
Cal’s gaze shifted toward the yard again. “You think she needs someone polished?”
“No.”
“You think she needs someone safe?”
He didn’t answer.
“She needs steady,” Cal said. “You’re steady.”
Wyatt’s grip tightened on the coin. “She could’ve had Will,” he muttered. “He’s polished and educated.”
“But she didn’t choose him.” Cal’s voice was steady. “She chose you.”
The words settled into his heart as Wyatt’s focus lasered in on Driscoll looking at his phone.
Both men went still at the same moment, every instinct honed from years of operations snapping their attention toward the slow approach of the sedan.
Wyatt leaned forward. “Hold.”
The sedan stopped as a figure stepped out. Tall, clean-cut, a man who didn’t belong anywhere near a place like this. Will Thomas. Wyatt let something colder than anger settle into place, the determination that came when a threat stepped out of the shadows.
Cal’s voice stayed even. “Now that’s interesting.”
Will approached Driscoll with casual familiarity. In a beat, a large envelope passed from Will to the other man.
“This isn’t about jealousy anymore.”
“No.” Wyatt lifted the binoculars again. “This is about intent.”
Will gestured sharply toward the marina as Driscoll nodded.
“Looks like your academic rival has hobbies,” Cal said.
Wyatt lowered the binoculars. “He’s not touching her again.”
“That wasn’t the concern,” Cal replied with no emotion.
Wyatt glanced at him as the sedan pulled away, leaving Driscoll standing.
Wyatt slipped the silver dollar back into his pocket. “Let’s move.” Simple arson was becoming a much bigger conspiracy, and if Will Thomas has crossed the line from wounded ego to arson, he will never get near her again.
LETTY
Salt & Steel felt different when Wyatt wasn’t with her.
It wasn’t that it was unsafe. Letty stretched her neck.
Everything just seemed less grounded. She sat at the long table inside The Bridge, screens glowing around her while Rhea typed on her computer.
The marina rolled beyond the glass, gray-green and restless, but inside the loft everything hummed with silent control.
Wyatt had been clear before leaving. “You stay here. Jackson’s got eyes on everything.” It hadn’t been a request, and she hadn’t argued. Much, she thought.
Her phone buzzed in her hand.
Livvy. Letty stepped toward the far side of the loft, near the glass overlooking the dock, and answered. “Hey.”
“I owe you an apology,” Livvy blurted out.
Letty blinked. “That’s a strong opener.”
“For pushing Dallas,” her sister continued. “I was projecting.”
Letty leaned one shoulder against the beam. “I get it.”
“I was trying to fix something that isn’t yours to fix.”
Letty’s voice softened. “Banner?”
A pause. “Yes.”
Letty smiled. “You always liked him.”
“I always did,” Livvy admitted. “I just thought that part of my life ended when James died.”
The image of Olivia’s first husband, Commander James Callahan, came to mind. Letty closed her eyes briefly. “You told me once some moments don’t come back.”
“They don’t,” Livvy murmured. “But sometimes new ones surprise you.”
Letty let that settle. “You’re spending time with him again.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And I felt something I didn’t think I was allowed to anymore.”
Letty exhaled. “That’s not a crime.”
“No,” Livvy said. “But it is complicated.” They were quiet together for a moment. “Can I really start over here in Dallas?” Livvy questioned. “I thought I had my life planned out in Virginia.”
Letty lifted her head. “Meaning?”
“Banner’s aunt found me a fellowship.” She paused. “It’s better than I could have asked for. I’ll work directly with her… and she’s a powerhouse in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She’s world-renowned.”
Letty’s lips curved. “But?”
“Will I be able to step out from her shadow and become the doctor I want to be?”
“Livvy, you’re brilliant. You made a tremendous difference in Virginia. I have no doubt you’ll find your path in Dallas… If that is what you want?”
Livvy waited. “I think it is. Even if he and I don’t…”
Letty made a sound in her throat.
“Letty?” Livvy asked.
Letty’s gaze drifted past the glass to the water. “There’s someone here,” she said.
“I gathered,” Livvy replied. “Tell me about him.”
“Wyatt.”
“Occupation?”
“Security. Former SEAL.”
Livvy chuckled. “Of course.”
“He’s steady,” Letty said, the word coming easier than she expected.
“Steady how?”
“He doesn’t overreact, doesn’t posture or panic…”
“And?”
“And when he looks at me, I don’t feel like I have to be the strongest person in the room.”
Silence hummed between them. “That’s rare,” Livvy said quietly.
“Yes.”
“Do you trust him?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation in Letty’s voice.
“That was fast.”
“It wasn’t,” Letty murmured. “It feels like I’ve known him longer.”
Livvy exhaled. “Does he know I want you to come to Dallas?”
“Yes.”
“Are you?”
Letty pivoted, scanning the marina. Her eyes caught the cannery beams, the screens, and the reflection of the ocean on the glass. “I don’t belong inland,” she admitted.
Livvy was quiet. “No.” She exhaled. “You don’t.”
Something inside her relaxed at that confirmation.
“Does he make you believe you have to choose?” Livvy asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
“Livvy?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to build my life around someone else’s geography.”