Chapter 45
“Holy shit, you let her do that?”
Callie squeezed Seth’s hand as Nikki aimed Jack at the next jump and galloped toward it. Then they sailed over and headed for the next, a triple combination that meant Jack would have to take off, land, gather himself, take off, land, gather himself again, and sail over the last jump before continuing the rest of the course. They’d only jumped two fences at this point and Seth was freaking out.
“Yes, I let her do that. I did it too at her age.”
“That’s fucking crazy. She’s sitting on top of a one-ton animal and hoping she can keep steering it.”
“It’s a little more than hope,” Callie said with a laugh. “Now pay attention. You were the one who insisted on coming to the show.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know it was going to be a death-defying act every time.”
He shut up and paid attention though, flinching every time Jack’s hooves left the ground. Callie leaned into him and squeezed his hand again. She loved how he cared about Nikki. And she loved how he cared about her.
She’d gotten over her hang up about Nikki being in the house and made love with Seth every night in her bed. Their bed. They were capable of being quiet, though if Nikki was gone they got as loud as they wanted.
In the week since Dima Smirnov had been apprehended and taken away by the FBI, Callie had gone back to work and fixed the sabotage Dr. Robbins had done to the code. Leo had tried to bully her, but she’d faced him down and told him if he didn’t stop, she was filing a sexual harassment complaint with HR. Then she’d told him that without her, the project wouldn’t get done on time and did he really want to answer to the boss why that was.
He’d stopped bothering her and started consulting her, though he didn’t seem happy about it. The rest of the team consulted her with coding issues too, which was nice. She’d thought long and hard about the work she was doing, and she’d made a decision. She hadn’t told anyone what she’d started working on yet, but she would.
Starting with Seth.
She leaned toward him as Nikki sailed over the last jump. He tensed and then relaxed as Nikki and Jack galloped for the finish.
“You know that kill switch in your truck?”
“Hmm?” He looked down at her. “The kill switch? What about it?”
“Might be a useful thing to have, don’t you think?”
He was staring at her, not quite getting it. She could tell when the light dawned. “You think it’s possible?”
“I do. I got to thinking about Dr. Robbins. About what she said. I don’t know if she’s right or not, but if she is, it’d be nice to have that kill switch in place.”
She had his full attention now. “Can you do it?”
“Pretty sure I can. I’m working on it.”
“We need to tell the guys.”
“Agreed.”
He kissed her right there on the rail at the horse show, not caring who was watching.
“I love you, Caroline “Callie” Crowell. I love your honesty and loyalty, your sweetness, your fucking paper scraps, and your fierceness. You amaze me.”
“I love you, too, Seth. So much. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Me either. But I know it’s right because I want to be with you all the time. I want to talk about shit with you and listen to you tell me everything that’s on your mind. That would’ve been a nightmare to me before you. But not anymore. You make me want to be better.”
“How can you be better? You’re already perfect to me. You care about people, even if you hide it, and you’re the most honest person I know. You’d give your life to protect mine and Nikki’s. And not just ours, I fear. Anybody who needed you to save them.” She shook her head. “You can’t be better than you already are.”
His gaze was hot. “If we weren’t in public, I’d have you naked and moaning my name.”
She gave him a peck on the lips. “Later. Nikki’s staying for the after party and then going to spend the night with Amelia. We’ll have the house to ourselves.”
“That’s hours away.”
“I know. We’ll survive.”
“Maybe.” He was quiet for a moment. “I’m going to look for Mandy’s contact information, maybe send a message in a few months when things are settled.”
She knew he was talking about his mission.
“I think that’s a good idea.”
“Of course it is. I got it from you.”
Callie leaned into him, and he put his arm around her. She was so incredibly happy right now. She had a gorgeous man who loved her, her sister was thriving and even speaking Polish again, and Callie was becoming part of the group with Seth’s friends and their ladies. Tomorrow, they were going to Chance and Rory’s house for a cookout. Their new book club, which Rory had named The Bookalicious Besties Book Club, was meeting for the first time Wednesday night at Emma’s apartment. There they would pick their books and decide on a schedule. Nikki already had hers picked out but wouldn’t tell Callie what it was.
Something with Fae warriors, no doubt.
Callie looked forward to having everyone over to their place once the new furniture was delivered next week and they got everything decorated again. Whoever had broken into her house and trashed it wasn’t coming back. That was according to Diana Corbin, who wouldn’t say more.
Seth swore he had no idea and he wasn’t just saying that for the job. She believed him. If he couldn’t tell her, he would say so. They had that agreement now because they each knew there might be things they couldn’t say. Though now that she knew what the Athena Project really was, and his team knew what she did, there wasn’t much they couldn’t share, though only in the closed environment of the SCIF.
When the last rider finished their round, Callie was on her feet, cheering. Seth surged up with her, not knowing why, bless him, but there for the support.
“She went clean, and her time was fastest. Jack and Nikki won!”
Seth hugged her hard and then put his fingers to his lips and did a wolf whistle that had Nikki waving from the other end of the arena where she was returning to get her ribbon and trophy.
“Damn, that was amazing,” he said. “I’m so glad it’s over.”
“Oh baby,” Callie laughed. “You’re going to have to get used to this because there’s another show in two weeks.”
“Aw, hell. Okay, I can do this. I can watch a teenager hurl a giant animal at big scary jumps and not freak out. I can.”
Callie laughed. “If anybody can, it’s you. I believe in you.”
He smiled down at her. “I believe in you, too. Want to go congratulate our champion?”
“Yes, definitely!”
“Too bad we didn’t bring Luna,” he said as they headed for the stables. “I think she’d like this.”
“She would, but Auntie Daphne needed something to do.”
Which was why they’d asked Daphne to dog sit while they went to the show. Daphne loved Luna and enjoyed watching her. Plus they’d thought maybe all the horses and activity would be too much for the dog. They needed to introduce her to it slowly by taking her to the stable during lessons first, then branching out to shows if she handled it well.
Nikki came running over to them in her tall boots, her ribbon flapping from where it was pinned to her jacket pocket. Her face beamed happiness as she threw her arms around them both and jumped up and down.
“We won! We won! We won!”
“Noticed that,” Seth said, laughing.
“What did you think?” she asked him, her eyes bright. “Did you like it?”
Callie cringed, worried about what he’d say. But he wrapped an arm around her sister and hugged her to his side. “I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. You and Jack were wonderful.”
“I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I thought maybe, you know, horses. Ugh. Some guys don’t care.”
“I care. It was beautiful. Can’t wait to see what you do next.”
Nikki’s smile was wide and happy. “Oh, gotta go take some pics with Jack and Lisa. Don’t go anywhere.”
She ran off, and Callie turned to the man she loved, shocked once more at how fast it’d happened but also certain it was right. “You didn’t tell her the truth.”
“Nope. Some things are better kept quiet. No way am I dimming that kid’s sparkle over my shit. What?”
He stared at her suspiciously, but she couldn’t contain the giddiness of her smile. “Nothing. I love you, that’s all. I always will.”
“That’s all I need, baby,” he said, looping his arm around her and tugging her close while they watched Nikki ham for photos. “I can’t wait to see what life brings us.”
Neither could she. Because she knew it was going to be good.
Thank you for reading SETH!!