Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
He knew she would choose him. She didn’t have any other options. Not good ones anyway. Seth stalked into the front yard, away from the house, and dialed Ghost.
“How’d she take it?”
Seth could still feel her trembling in his arms. Sobbing her heart out while a knot formed in his throat. He shouldn’t have been affected by her crying, but after hearing her talk about how proud her mother had been to become an American, and knowing that she’d lost both her parents so recently, he felt her tears like a rock lodged beneath his ribs.
“She wanted to take her sister and run. I dissuaded her. But I’m going to have to stay with her for now, get her to talk to me. Watch out for her. Probably need to watch the sister, too.”
“Copy. I’ll put Ethan on the sister. Whenever she’s not in school or at home, he’ll be there.”
Relief was instant. “I’m glad you agree.”
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s a good idea. Callie is the closest we’ve gotten to what’s happening. She’s involved, whether she wants to be or not.”
“Truth.” Seth blew out a breath, frowned. “If she’s actively involved, she’s giving an Oscar-worthy performance.”
Ghost chuckled. “This mean you don’t think she’s guilty anymore?”
He’d wanted to believe she was their leak, because it would have been so easy to tie this mission up in a bow, but that scenario was getting less believable by the minute. “Unlikely. But I don’t dismiss her completely. There’s a chance, however small, that we’re being played.”
“It’s possible, I’ll grant you. We need to find out who was pulling Volkov’s strings, why they chose Callie in the first place. What they wanted her to do.”
“I’ve got a lead on that last one, boss. At least part of it.”
He told Ghost about the cable and the fact she hadn’t switched it. He knew it hadn’t been one of his own cables being handed back to him because he’d marked them both with a groove across the plug. The Ghost Ops cables were still in place so far as he knew.
“Thank fuck for that,” Ghost said. “I’m going to assume you haven’t gotten any communications from our rogue cables today.”
“No, sir, I haven’t.”
“I’ve heard nothing about when the lab will reopen, but I don’t expect them to be down long. The pressure to get back to work is enormous. Whoever set the fire wanted to scare Callie into cooperating, but I don’t think they’re concerned about the timeline. Washington’s launch date doesn’t matter to them, though it matters a great deal to the president and her closest advisers.” He paused a moment. “We need to find whoever set the fire, get some answers. See where it leads us.”
“I’ve got inquiries out on the janitorial staff. The researchers who were there last night are clean.” He’d gotten that bit of information a few minutes ago before he’d come outside to call Ghost.
“How many cleaners on last night?”
“Four. Griffin Research contracts out to a local company. Their employees are background checked and cleared before they’re hired, and they undergo regular security checks.”
Standard procedure for government facilities and top-secret access areas. But if it wasn’t the researchers, and it wasn’t, that only left the janitorial company and their staff. People were capable of being compromised. Apply the right pressure and even the most law-abiding citizen could fold like a house of cards.
“Copy. Keep digging, Phantom. You need anything out there while you’re watching Callie and her sister?”
Seth stared into the distance. He dreaded Nikki Crowell coming home. Dreaded being around her. She was sixteen, same age as Mia. There wasn’t a day that went by he didn’t think of Mia, but he usually compartmentalized those thoughts pretty well. What was it going to be like when he had to share a house with a girl the same age? Was he going to think even more about the little girl he’d never gotten to see?
He shook his head. He’d handle it. Same as he always did whenever he thought of Mia. So long as she was thriving and happy, that was all that mattered.
“Nah, we’re good. I brought weapons and ammo. I’ve got my own Wi-Fi and a backup. I picked up a couple of trail cameras from our supply, and I intend to mount them when we’re done talking so I can monitor the approaches to the house. Callie’s planning to tell her sister I’m staying with them because I’ve got lead paint and it’s being removed. She didn’t want to scare the kid. Not sure if you need to know that or not, but I’m telling you in case it comes up for some reason.”
“Copy that.”
Once the call ended, Seth went back inside to get the trail cameras and a drill. Callie was sitting at the table again, playing with her papers and tweezers. She glanced up when he walked into the kitchen. Her eyes were red, puffy, but she had an icepack and a towel nearby. She saw the direction of his gaze and gave him a watery smile.
“I’m hoping there’s enough time to stop looking like I’m having an allergic reaction. I don’t want to alarm Nikki.” She glanced at her phone. “I’ve got about an hour and a half to go before she arrives.”
He didn’t want to think about the moment the girl walked in. “Are you allergic?”
“To certain pollens and dust, but that just makes me sneeze. Were you talking about me out there?”
There was no point in lying. “A bit, yeah. We’re with you until we resolve this.”
“I don’t see how you can. You’re very skilled, I’m sure. But how are you going to find whoever killed Mikhail? And then make them leave me alone?”
He didn’t correct her assumption that Mikhail’s killer and the person who texted her pretending to be him weren’t necessarily one and the same. It was a logical assumption, because of the phone, but it was also a lot more complicated than that.
“Because we left the military, but we didn’t leave the profession. We still have connections, sources. Resources. Besides, whoever’s been pressuring you isn’t going to stop pressuring you. The communication won’t end. They’re going to keep pushing, probably even come looking for you, and I’m going to be here when they do. Nobody’s getting near you, Callie. Not without going through me.”
“I still think it’s worth a try to disappear. If you still have those connections you claim, you can help me. Walk me through the process, help me get the identification and the new life. Then you can go back to your life while Nikki and I start our new ones.”
She looked hopeful. He understood why, but he couldn’t do it and she needed to understand. “I can’t help you with that. You need to trust me and let me do my job. I’ll keep you alive, and I’ll make sure this asshole never gets to you. That’s not nothing, even if it’s not what you want.”
She had the grace to look sheepish. “I’m sorry to sound ungrateful. I’m just… scared, Seth. For me. For Nikki. She’s already been through so much, and now I’ve dragged her into this by being stupid and trusting somebody I shouldn’t have.”
“Did you know he was going to ask you to do illegal things when you met him?”
“No.”
“And did he help you get a job when nobody else would or could?”
“Yes.”
“Then how is that being stupid and trusting? It’s what anybody would do, Callie. It’s usually called networking, and I’d wager it almost never ends up like this.”
She tipped her head to the side. A ghost of a smile played at her mouth. “For a guy who doesn’t like to talk much, you sure know how to say the right thing sometimes.”
“I see no point in talking nonsense. When it’s important, I’ve got things to say.”
“I noticed.” She sucked in a breath, let it out again. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He held up the box with the cameras. “Going to install a couple of trail cameras to watch the outside of the house and barn. I’ll see anyone who comes onto the property in real time.”
“Do you need the Wi-Fi information, or do they use cellular?”
“Cell.”
“What information do you need from me to get them running?”
“Nothing. They’re already registered to One Shot Tactical. When they aren’t needed anymore, I’ll take them down again.”
“I don’t feel like thank you is enough for what you’re doing. When I went to the range this morning, I thought I might get some advice. Maybe even an offer to act as personal security for a few days for a price. But what you’re doing…”
“For fuck’s sake, don’t cry again.”
Her chin trembled. Her upper lip looked like she was having a spasm. Her red, puffy eyes were shiny. She was a mess, and he still thought she was cuter than hell. Weird.
She laughed and swiped the back of her hand over her eyes. “I’m trying not to. Maybe you should be grumpy again. That’ll help.”
“I’m not grumpy. What makes you say that?”
She laughed again. “You definitely are. Daphne said so too.”
Now that hurt. Sort of. “Daph? She thinks I’m grumpy?”
“She said you were perpetually grumpy but I shouldn’t take it personally because you were that way with everyone.”
He wanted to protest his innocence like a man on trial for a crime he didn’t commit. He wasn’t grumpy, dammit. He just didn’t talk about bullshit. And hadn’t he spent time talking to Daphne this morning about her car situation?
He had. He’d been friendly.
Come to think of it, she had seemed a little surprised by the conversation. Like she hadn’t expected it. But he was working on it. And he liked Daph. Not the way Kane liked her, but enough that he didn’t want her leaving the range the way she’d shown up—unexpectedly and clearly hiding from something.
He’d done a background check on her because of course he had. Ghosts Ops wasn’t letting someone into their orbit without a full background. She’d come back clean. Unremarkable. Vanilla. Nothing floating around about Daphne Bryant that was concerning.
That didn’t mean she hadn’t been fleeing demons of her own, though.
Seth sighed. Well, fuck. And here he thought he’d been so ordinary this morning. Not charming in a Chance or Kane way, or conversational in a Blaze or Ethan way. Hell, Ghost didn’t talk a lot of nonsense either, and nobody called him grumpy.
“I’m not grumpy,” he said. Belatedly. And grumpily.
“You’re frowning.”
He smoothed his face. “I’m not.”
“You were.” Callie laughed. “It’s okay, Seth. You don’t have to make small talk with me. I’m going to pretend life is perfectly rosy and glue some stuff into my journal while trying to make this swelling go away. Then I’m going to paste on a smile and lie to Nikki about why you’re here—do you remember why?”
“Lead paint.”
She gave him a thumbs up and went back to studying the paper and scraps in front of her. He wanted to ask what the point was in pasting scraps into a book, but he refrained. It wasn’t until he was outside, searching for the best location for the cameras, that he realized what he’d almost done.
Small talk.