Chapter 2 #2
He glanced down at her dark green flannel button-down, rolled up at the sleeves. The shirt hugged her breasts before drifting inward at her waist to fall, untucked, against light blue denim.
Never could he resist Natalie in a pair of jeans and cowboy boots. He bit back a groan. Owen wanted to run to her, to yank her against him and plunder her sweet lips until the world faded away. Instead, he remained where he was, realizing too late that he was screwed six ways from Sunday.
“Sucks to be you,” Cullen murmured.
He didn’t bother to respond because he could barely wrap his head around the fact that she was actually there. Beautiful, vibrant, confident Natalie.
“What the fuck do you mean you work here?” Wyatt demanded of Callie in a callous voice.
Owen watched Callie’s blue eyes flash angrily. It was always the same between them. Ever since Callie was thirteen and Wyatt seventeen when she’d come to work at the ranch during the summer. They’d butted heads immediately, and rarely were they together when they weren’t fighting.
He stepped in before Callie could tell Wyatt where to go and how to get there. “You’d think all these years away would change you two.” His gaze then moved to Natalie, who now wouldn’t look his way.
“I’m not the one with the attitude,” Callie said with a cold look in Wyatt’s direction.
He leaned a shoulder against the wall. “You came back after college to work at the ranch?”
“No.” Callie shook her head and bent to get Natalie’s cap. She handed it to Natalie and straightened. “I work for your father.”
“Fucking wonderful,” Wyatt muttered as he strode past them out to the porch.
Cullen shook his head as he came to stand beside Owen. “What do you mean, you work for Dad?”
“Orrin is running a private ops team here,” Callie said, glancing at Natalie. “Whitehorse. He’s been doing private, off-the-books missions for the government for the last several years.”
Owen was staggered by the news. His father was no longer with the Navy? That wasn’t possible. Just as it seemed improbable that Natalie now stood in his living room. “Dad would never resign his commission.”
“He did.” Callie sat on the arm of the sofa. “He and his men have been going on missions the government couldn’t send any of its forces to do.”
“Why?” Cullen asked in a soft voice.
Callie shrugged, her gaze lowering to the floor.
“He had men taken captive in Yemen, and despite his rank, his orders to send in a SEAL team to get them out was shot down. The men died, and he’d had enough.
He put in the paperwork to retire.” She looked up at Owen.
“Until the DOD came to him with an offer.”
“The Department of Defense?” Cullen asked. “Dad said he’d never work with those assholes.”
Callie lifted a brow. “Things change.”
“How did you get involved?” Owen asked. He noticed that even though Wyatt had walked outside, his elder brother stood near the screen door, listening.
Natalie’s soft smile as Callie glanced her way told him that she already knew this part. By how chummy the two women were, it was clear that Natalie had been a part of things to some degree.
Just how much, he intended to find out. Then he’d send her straight home. He needed a clear head, and he couldn’t do that with her around.
“Your father found me at Quantico,” Callie explained. “The FBI recruited me. I was about to join when Orrin told me what he was putting together.”
Owen rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He hadn’t slept in thirty-two hours, and it didn’t look like he was going to get any rest anytime soon. “You go on missions with Dad?”
“I’ve been on a few. Mostly, I gather intel, get the requests to decode from Washington, and hack my way into whatever is needed.”
Cullen wearily shook his head. “Now I know why we’re here.”
“Yeah,” Owen said tightly. “Something went wrong. Where is Orrin, Callie?”
She licked her lips and covertly slid her gaze to the door and Wyatt.
It was Natalie who stepped in. “We don’t know. The mission went off without a problem. He and his men landed in Delaware at Dover Air Force Base.”
“The plane that was to bring them back to Texas waited over an hour,” Callie said, her eyes full of sadness. “That’s when I called the base. They found the bodies of all six of Orrin’s men. They’d been shot execution style.”
“Shit,” Cullen mumbled, running a hand through his short hair.
Callie got to her feet. “That shouldn’t have happened. Your father handpicked those men. They are the elite of all the special forces.”
“Where was the mission?” Wyatt asked from the porch.
There was a long pause from Callie. Once more, Natalie stepped in. “Russia.”
Owen wanted to demand to be told how Natalie was involved, but that would have to wait for the moment. But not for too long. He met Wyatt’s gaze through the screen door before he turned to Callie. “Have you heard from our father?”
“No.” She put her hands on her jean-clad hips and took a deep breath.
“We believe he was taken,” Natalie said.
Owen nodded. “Otherwise, they would’ve left his body. What was the assignment?”
Callie’s gaze quickly slid to Owen. “A new biochemical created for the Russian military called Ragnarok.”
“Dad retrieved it?” Cullen asked.
Callie looked at each of them before she said, “Yeah. Along with the formula.”
“That’s enough to kill for,” Wyatt stated.
Owen turned his head to look at the two bullet holes in the wall of the formal living room. “The Russians killed Virgil and Charlotte.”
“The only reason for them to do that is if they have Dad, and he’s not talking,” Cullen said.
Wyatt snorted. “He hid the bioweapon. That’s the reason we’ve not found Orrin’s body and why the Russians came here.”
“Every government has bioweapons. What’s so important about this one?” Owen had hoped distance would help the tension between Wyatt and their father. Obviously it had been wishful thinking.
Callie shrugged. “I don’t know, but there’s something different about it.”
“We need to know what that is,” Cullen stated.
Wyatt gave a nod of agreement.
“If it were just Ragnarok our government wanted, we wouldn’t have been returned here. Dad is the other reason we were brought home.” Owen clenched his jaw. “Our government wants us to find him.”
Cullen crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ll find Dad and the fuckers who did this.”
“Actually, your orders are to locate and bring the formula to DC. I think bringing you home was to show you what we’re up against,” Callie said and held out a piece of paper written in a code.
Cullen grabbed the paper while Owen looked over Cullen’s shoulder to read it. He recognized it as the code his father had created and taught them years ago. Callie already decoded it, writing the message below.
“Son of a bitch,” Cullen muttered.
Owen read the message twice. It wasn’t the first time the government had put an item before a person’s life. But he wasn’t going to do this without finding his father, as well. Orders be damned. “Looks like we’re going on a mission.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking about finding that formula,” Cullen said. “It’s better left hidden, just as Dad wanted.”
Owen slid his gaze to Wyatt, knowing what he was about to say wouldn’t sit well with his older brother. “Ragnarok could be anywhere. There’s only one person who knows the location. We’re going to find Dad.”