Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
They spent the rest of the afternoon eating good food and laughing together. Seth kept an eye on Callie, worried she was stewing about everything that had happened. Her boss, a woman she liked, had tried to kill her. Whether or not the woman really meant to kill her was up for debate, but the fact that Dr. Robbins had told Callie to report for work tonight and let her think the team would be there too wasn’t a good sign.
He’d have been there close by, but he wouldn’t have been able to get into the building quickly if something had gone wrong. And how would he have known? Callie couldn’t take her phone into a SCIF. She could have been dead for hours before he found out.
The thought chilled him to the bone.
She was important to him. More important than he thought it was possible for anyone to be. Yeah, it was insanely fast, as Ghost had pointed out, but Seth was the kind of man who didn’t do emotional entanglements. If he felt this strongly this fast, there was something to it.
Something big.
Callie was looking at her phone, giggling, and his heart thumped. He loved seeing her happy.
She looked up, caught him watching her, and smiled. “It’s Nikki. They’re in Tennessee, stopping at Cracker Barrel.”
“And that’s what made you laugh?”
“No.” She turned the phone and he found himself looking at three teenagers who were making various goofy faces at the screen. The woman at the wheel of the pickup was smiling but looking straight ahead. “She’s having a great time.”
“You feeling good about that?”
She shrugged happily. “Yeah, I am. God, so much has happened—but Nikki’s happy, and that’s a good thing.”
“It sure is.” He reached for her hand, caught her to him and kissed the top of her head. He knew they were being watched and he didn’t fucking care. “I’m with you, baby. I’ve got your back. We’ll get some kind of closure on Smirnov, and then you’ll know. I won’t leave your side until we do.”
“You have a job, Seth.”
“I know. Right now, it’s protecting you.”
Her phone pinged and she picked it up. Then she groaned. “Great, it’s an email from Leo. He’s in charge of the team while Dr. Robbins takes a leave of absence.”
“Remember you’re the genius on the team. Show him what you’re made of and don’t back down.”
“And if he doesn’t listen?”
“Then I’ll come stand behind you with arms crossed and a couple of weapons strapped to my sides. As backup, because you can kick ass on your own. I’m just there if you need me.”
“You’re fun, you know that?”
His heart skipped. Nobody’d ever called him fun before. “If you think so, honey.”
“I sure do.”
“Hey,” Daphne said, standing, swaying slightly because she’d been drinking wine. “Let’s go outside and light the fire. It’s almost sunset. Oh, and Warren broke up with me. Just in case anybody was wondering where he is.”
Silence descended on the group in the meeting room. They’d had the picnic inside because it was hot out, but it’d be cool enough by now for a fire and sitting in chairs around the pit. Except everyone was focused on Daphne as she swayed slightly.
“You serious, Daph?” Kane asked, looking about as confused as a man could look.
“Dead ser-ous,” she said. “Ser-ous. Sri-ous. Fuck it, I’m not kidding. He said I wasn’t, um, smart enough. Too vain. Not proper wife material.”
The room went silent. Rory shot to her feet and wrapped Daphne in a hug. She looked furious. “Honey, baby, don’t cry. Warren Trigg is a pig. A male chauvinist pig. He doesn’t deserve you.”
Emma was on her feet, too. “That’s right. What an asshole! Does he have any idea how lucky he was you even looked twice at him?”
Emma motioned to Callie, including her in the female bonding exercise. Callie handed Seth her phone. “Can you plug it in? My battery’s nearly dead.”
“You got it, honey. Go console Daphne. Take Luna.”
She smiled as she stood. Luna was at her side instantly. Then the four women—and the female dog—left the room and headed outside to where the fire pit was located. Seth didn’t ask if anybody was going to light it for them because Rory had it under control. He could see Chance itching to help, but thankfully the dude knew better than to make Rory feel helpless. She’d eviscerate him if he did.
“Warren Trigg dumped Daphne?” Ethan asked with the kind of disbelief they were probably all feeling.
“Apparently.”
“Is he stupid?”
Kane snorted. “As a fence post. Daphne’s a beautiful girl. Sweet, smart, resourceful.” He was fuming the more he talked. “He doesn’t fucking deserve her.”
“Nobody does,” Seth said mildly.
“That’s right, Phantom,” Kane snapped, pointing at him. “Fuckin’ A. Nobody deserves Daphne. She’s an angel.”
Ghost coughed. “Here we go,” he muttered under his breath.
Seth heard because Ghost was sitting beside him. If anybody else did, they didn’t let on.
Blaze got to his feet. “Come on, we’d better get out there and sing kumbaya or something before it gets worse.”
Seth looked at him in disbelief. “What the fuck is worse than singing kumbaya in a circle right about now?”
“Uh, four women getting madder and madder and thinking men are shit?”
“That’s bad,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, but Rory and Emma aren’t going to agree. Are they?” Seth asked.
“Fuck no,” Chance said. “Not for real . But the girl code means they’ll agree for now, until the hurt one feels vindicated in her feelings. They’ll glare and do a lot of bonding over shared hurts, and we’ll be shut out. We get out there now, agree that men are shit, and this ends faster because our women will want to go home with us and show us that we aren’t shit.”
“That’s either genius or stupid,” Ghost said. “Not sure which. But let’s go get this over with and show Daphne our support since she’s one of us.”
“Sounds like a fucking nightmare,” Seth said. He looked at Callie, frowning and nodding in turns while Daphne threw her arms out and gestured. “I’m in. Let’s go.”
It was cooler outside as the sun fell. Grass waved in the field, waiting to be cut for hay, and deer grazed at the edge of the tree line in the distance. Lightning bugs were beginning to light the night sky around them, and the smell of burning wood surrounded everything, reminding Seth of the Boy Scout campfires he’d had before his grandparents decided that him being in Boy Scouts was too inconvenient and expensive and he had to quit.
The women continued to bolster Daphne’s feelings, and the men chimed in from time to time. Blaze was right that it went faster with the men out there offering sympathy because everything calmed down until they were sitting around the fire and the women were planning their book club. Chance chimed in from time to time like a proud parent until they shushed him and told him he was welcome to join but only if he read the books.
That shut him up quick enough that Seth had to stifle a laugh.
Callie drifted over to him, yawning happily. “I’m going to get my phone, see where Nikki is.”
“It’s in the office, babe. Want me to get it?”
“No, that’s okay. I have to pee anyway.”
She was only gone a few minutes when the door banged open and she rushed out again. He was on his feet instantly, as was his entire team. Alert. Ready.
“I missed a text from Nikki twenty minutes ago. Her car’s dead, and Lisa’s driving her home. I’ve tried calling to tell them to come here, but it keeps going to voice mail.”
His heart rate had quickened, but now it slowed to normal again. The guys relaxed too. He and Ethan had kept an eye on the locator on Nikki’s car and it was still at the stable in Madison. Now they knew why. The plan had been to leave when she did so they could be home before she got there. Ethan would head out to meet her vehicle before she reached Sutton’s Creek and follow her home down the dark roads she’d have to travel. If anyone were going to try and intercept her, that’s where it would happen.
But they’d missed a text, and she was already on the way. She hadn’t reached home yet because he’d had no alerts from the alarm system.
“All right, let’s get going then. We’ll meet her at home.”
“I’m sorry,” Callie said to the group. “This has been more fun than I’ve had in a while. I hate to leave, but I need to get home before my sister does.”
“We understand,” Emma said, standing. “It’s been great spending time with you, Callie.”
“We’ll do it again next week,” Rory said, coming over to give Callie a hug. “But at our house. We can talk more about the book club. I have soooo many good books for y’all to read!”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Bye, Callie,” Daphne said, steadier on her feet than had been before. She’d switched from wine to water over an hour ago.
The women had to hug each other, the bros did fist bumps, and they were outta there.
“I like your friends,” Callie said when they were in his truck, turning onto the road. “They’re good people.”
“They are… I told Alex about Mia.”
She snapped her gaze to him. He didn’t take his eyes off the road, but he felt it.
“And?”
“And you were right. He pretty much said what you did. He was adopted and had good parents, so he thinks giving her up was the right thing. I’ll tell the other guys soon. Wasn’t going to announce it while sitting around the fire.”
She snickered. “You didn’t want to upstage Daphne. Poor girl.”
He laughed. “That’s right. She had center stage. Best leave her to it. Can’t believe she was that upset over Warren Trigg though. I didn’t think it was serious.”
“I don’t know if it was or not, but she liked him. Said he was a good man who treated her well.”
His phone lit up with an alert. He glanced at it. “Trail cam,” he said. “Nikki’s home.”
Callie tried to call again. “She’s not picking up. Her phone must be dead.”
They weren’t far behind her, so he stepped on the gas a bit to speed up. He wasn’t worried anything was going to happen, but he wanted to get there so Nikki wouldn’t be alone for very long.
There was another alert, this one the house system disarming as Nikki went inside. The driveway cam alerted that Lisa the trainer was leaving. A couple of minutes later, the camera by the barn alerted. Nikki was going to check on Charlie. He didn’t like her going out there alone in the dark, but he wasn’t surprised by it. She loved that horse and she’d been gone for two days. She wasn’t going to wait until morning to visit him.
A couple of minutes later, he was turning into Callie’s driveway. “I’m so going to get after her about keeping her phone charged,” Callie muttered as they approached the house. “And maybe I need to get both of us a portable battery since I almost let mine go dead earlier. Pot, kettle.”
He parked beside the Toyota. Callie didn’t wait for him to walk around before she hopped out and opened the door for Luna.
Luna took off like a shot, arrowing straight for the barn.