Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Seth worked on chasing down photos of Mikhail Volkov in Poland, but he wasn’t having any luck. The fact Callie’s version of Volkov was different from the photos he’d originally found was disturbing. Definitely meant a foreign intelligence service was involved. Probably the Russians, though maybe not. But the Volkov Callie knew spoke Polish and Russian in her presence, so presumably it was one of those two.
“Fuck,” he said with a groan, putting his head into his hands as he stared at the screen. He heard Callie moving around in her bedroom from time to time, and he wanted to be in there with her.
They’d had sex only hours ago, and he missed it. But worse than that, he missed the intimacy. Lying in bed with her last night, before they’d ever gotten naked together, holding her next to him, had been a revelation. He was the kind of man who didn’t get close to people if he didn’t have to.
But being close to her had felt right. Callie fit in his arms, fit the curve of his body, and fit into his life.
Maybe it was Blaze’s and Chance’s influence since they both seemed so damn happy, or maybe there really was something in the water in Sutton’s Creek. But for the first time in his life, he could envision spending time with a woman beyond a few nights of orgasms and trying to listen to her talk about shit he didn’t care about.
He didn’t care about some of the shit Callie talked about either, like scrapbooking, but he didn’t mind listening to her talk about it. Hell, he wanted her to.
Making pancakes for her this morning had been the best way he could think to express how right he felt when he was with her. He wanted to take care of her. He was already taking care of her safety, but he wanted to take care of her in other ways.
He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to watch her glue her paper scraps into her journal and know it made her happy. He just wanted to be with her. Near her, because she made him feel needed and useful in a way he hadn’t felt in, well, maybe ever.
Not that he hadn’t been those two things most of his life in the pursuit of his job. The people he’d rescued had needed him, and he’d been useful in helping and protecting them.
But it wasn’t the same thing as being needed in a personal way. Callie hadn’t just needed him to sleep nearby with an arsenal of weapons close to hand so he could keep her safe. She’d needed him to hold her so she could sleep.
Seth straightened and twisted to work the kinks out of this back, then returned to searching for information. He found additional records on Mikhail Volkov, older ones than he’d found before, that featured photos of the same man, though younger. There was an obituary for his dad, who’d died of lung cancer twelve years ago. His mother was in a memory care facility with advanced Alzheimer’s. Volkov hadn’t married and had no children.
He’d been a great target for a spy who needed a new identity.
Seth’s phone buzzed on the table. It was Kane. “Did you find anything?”
“Think so. There’s a lot of foot traffic in the area because of the hotels and restaurants, the fitness center, and the lake, but we finally isolated a couple of people who look like they could be headed in the right direction within an hour before the fire started. The resolution isn’t fantastic, but it should be good enough to show Callie. One of the suspects is a woman, one a man. We compared photos of Robbins and Spinner, but it didn’t help. Both are wearing ball caps, so it wasn’t ideal.”
“Thanks. I’ll show her.”
“So, uh, everything all right out there?”
“Fine. Why?” Seth stared at the wall opposite. It wasn’t a very interesting wall, but it was something to focus on.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, bud, but there seemed to be a little tension between you and Callie today.”
“What makes you think that? She was pissed we lied to her—pissed I lied since I’m the one who’s been out here with her every day. Not telling her we already knew who she was and what she was working on. I worked to get her to trust me then dropped a grenade in the middle of it. Yeah, I’d say there was tension, and mostly directed at me, but she’s mad at all of us. Do you blame her?”
“No, I don’t, but there were a few moments where, uh, it seemed a lot more personal than that.”
“Kane, I love you buddy, but unlike you I don’t want to talk about whether or not I’ve banged every woman in a hundred mile radius, okay? Even if anything was personal, and I’m not saying it was, it’s none of your business.”
“Way to turn it around there, Phantom. Not asking for details, man, just wanted to make sure you’re all right. Blaze is ridiculously in love. Chance too. Thought it might be nice if the same happened to you. I want all my friends to be happy, even if Ghost is convinced his balls are in a vice with Washington over it.”
Seth ground his jaw. “You think it’s going to happen in, what, four days? That’s not realistic.”
“Why not? Chance fell for Rory at first sight, even if he didn’t admit it. Not sure about Blaze, but it didn’t take him long either. They’re both better off for it if you ask me.”
“What the fuck, Demon? You been shooting up estrogen on the side? Reading romance novels with Rory? You want to talk about feelings now? Haven’t you heard I don’t have any?”
“Don’t know what you think you’re proving other than my point. But okay, I’m done. You do what you gotta do, brother.”
Seth was boiling with feelings, and he didn’t like it. “You know, before you go pushing others about their personal lives, maybe you need to take a look at your own.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Daphne. You’re crazy for her, and you won’t admit it, not even to yourself.”
Kane scoffed. “Seriously? Dude, she’s like a little sister to me. That’s gross.”
“Right. Never seen anybody look at their sister the way you look at her.”
“Fuck you, Phantom. You’re being a dick because you’ve got yourself tangled up over Callie. She’s angry, and you don’t know how to fix it. Now show her that footage, figure out if we’ve got a match, and stop busting my balls.”
“You started it.”
Now how mature was that? Jesus, he was losing his fricking mind.
“Yeah, whatever. Take your Midol, dude, and get over yourself.”
Before Seth could retort, the call was over. He slid his phone across the table and growled as he found the footage and cued it up. The feed was grainier than he’d like so he used a software tool to sharpen it up. Wasn’t perfect, but it was better than Kane had sent.
There were two people tagged. One a woman who strolled through the parking lot with an athletic bag. She moved briskly, like she had somewhere to be. The other was a man who wore a backpack. Kane had tagged where they parked, but the lot was full enough that you couldn’t see what kind of car they were in. Backing up the footage didn’t help because it was dusk and their headlights were on, obscuring the vehicle make. He’d show Callie that too, just in case.
The woman returned to the parking lot forty-five minutes later. The man returned a few minutes after that. Both were potentials, like Kane said. Luna trotted in and licked his hand when he dropped it to pet her, which meant Callie was awake. He didn’t have to go find her, though, because she walked into the kitchen on silent feet and set her wine glass on the counter.
Then she turned to face him, arms over her chest, back against the counter. “I can’t sleep.”
“Sorry.”
“You haven’t even tried.”
“No, I’ve got work.”
She blew out a breath and scrubbed her hands over her face. “Look, I’m sorry for being mean to you. Really. I like you Seth. Too much, if I’m honest, and it scares me. So it’s not that you’re a terrible person or anything, okay? It’s just that I’ve been through enough already and I don’t want to risk something else blowing up in my face. I hope you understand.”
“I do.”
Because what else could he say?
She chewed her lip. “Was any of what you said real? Mia?”
Hot anger rolled through him. But he wouldn’t unleash it on her. It wasn’t fair. In her position, he’d probably wonder the same damn thing. “Mia is very real. I have a job to do, it’s true, but being such a dick that I’d make up a daughter I’ve never met isn’t something I’d ever do. Everything I told you about that situation is true.”
She nodded. “Okay. Thank you. I won’t say anything. But you should, you know. Your friends care about you. I think they can handle it.”
“Thanks, but I think you gave up the right to offer life advice to me, don’t you?”
She swallowed. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Kane sent over some video. Need you to look and see if maybe you can spot anyone you know.” He pointed at the chair nearby and she closed the distance, pulled it out, and sat down. But she didn’t move closer.
He turned his computer and started the sequence. “This woman is one of the possibilities. There’s a man, too. I’ll show you both. I tried to sharpen the picture, but it might be difficult. If you can’t tell, it’s okay.”
She leaned closer, looking hard at the woman. “I… I don’t know.”
He showed her the man. She studied the screen and then shook her head. “I can’t tell. If it was closer, like a bank camera, maybe.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
The code she’d found had yielded nothing because it’d been written into the program before Ghost Ops hacked it, so it was impossible to know who’d entered it into the system. Another potential lead fucked all to hell.
“Wait a minute,” she said, her brows furrowed. “Can you look at the woman again? Something just occurred to me.”
“Sure. First shot or second?”
“Second.”
He rewound the video and showed her. She leaned close, so close he could smell the sweetness of almonds. Her body wash they’d both used this morning.
Seth clamped down on the tingle that started in his balls when he thought about the shower. The way he’d rubbed her skin with that soap, fondling her breasts, caressing her ass. The smell of it on her pussy when he’d buried his face between her legs and licked her slick flesh.
Jesus.
“I think…” She sucked in a breath as she stared. “That’s a Louis Vuitton athletic bag. Dr. Robbins loves Louis Vuitton. She has several bags, a belt, and luggage. And though she’s wearing a ball cap and shapeless clothing, the walk is right. She’s told me before that, as women, we have to stride into a room of male programmers like we own it if we want them to take us seriously.”
She slumped into the chair and looked sorrowful rather than angry or scared. “I didn’t want it to be her. I like her, Seth. Why would she do such a thing?”
“I don’t know, baby. Money? Idealism? It’s hard to know until we get her in custody and talk to her.”
“Custody? Who’s going to do that? You guys aren’t official. If I learned anything today, I learned that much.”
She’d been briefed with the kind of intensity that only Colonel Alex “Ghost” Bishop—once a colonel, always a colonel—could provide. Seth had been there for it. They all had. Callie agreed to sign an NDA, which wouldn’t be worth shit if she decided to talk because they weren’t in any position to sue—no, they’d likely be thrown into a military prison—Guantanamo, probably—but he knew how seriously she took her pledges. He wasn’t worried about her talking.
“Not us. Ghost will handle it. He’ll make a call, and someone will pick her up. Possibly the FBI. Or the CIA. Maybe even Homeland Security. I don’t really know, I gotta admit.”
She threw a look at her wine glass. “Maybe I should drink the whole fucking bottle. It’s turning into that kind of night.”
He wanted to reach over and squeeze her hand, but he didn’t. “Do what you need to do. I’ll be here to watch your back.”
She propped her elbows on the table and put her forehead in her hands. “I wish I’d never heard of Griffin Research. Wish I’d never met Mikhail, whoever he is. Or was. I should have gone to work for a game development company.” She turned her head in her hands to look at him. “Is it too much to hope Dr. Robbins is the end of it?”
“Probably. Sorry.”
She sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that. You sure that whole disappearing thing is off the table?”
The idea of her and Nikki disappearing made his insides squeeze. She might not want to take this thing between them any farther, but she wasn’t kicking him out of their lives if he could help it.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”