Chapter 8
“You could make a stand here,” Carl said.
Wyatt stopping making the bullets and looked over at him. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think that’s wise.”
“Why? Because you’re worried about me getting hurt?” Carl made a sound in the back of his throat. “Son, I was in Vietnam. I served three tours and have multiple scars to prove how easy it is for a bullet or shrapnel to find you. Think about Callie.”
It was all Wyatt did think about. Even when she wasn’t near, his thoughts constantly drifted to her.
“We could make a helluva stand here,” Carl said.
Wyatt thought about the small cabin. It was even more remote than Carl’s house, which would keep any innocents from being hit. Even with all the traps he’d set, it was nothing compared to what Carl had.
Just as Wyatt was about to agree to his offer, Callie came up the stairs with several bags of food in her hands. Their eyes met. He set aside his work and turned the stool to face her.
“What is it?” he asked.
She shrugged indifferently. “Nothing. I’ve been getting food. I also grabbed a few of the burner phones, Carl.”
Wyatt started to argue, but stopped at the last second.
If he told her that he could see the anger in her eyes, she’d inform him that he didn’t know her.
There was no way he could tell her that he knew her better than he knew himself, that she’d been with him every step of the way through all their years apart.
“You look pissed,” Carl said after he glanced her way.
Callie flashed him a fake smile. “Not at all.”
There was only one thing that could rile her in such a way—her family. Wyatt thought back over the evening. The Reeds hadn’t been anywhere near her physically, but they could’ve gotten to her in other ways.
Obviously, his little talk with Melvin hadn’t done any good. Wyatt was going to have to follow through with his threat. Breaking the asswipe’s wrist was just the thing.
Carl finished making the last bullet in the box and faced Callie. “I told Wyatt y’all should stay here. You’d have an unlimited supply of weapons, ammo, and food. Not to mention the fortification.”
“Wyatt has done a great job securing the place we’ve chosen. We know it. It’s better if we return,” she said.
Carl shook his head, smoothing a hand down his beard. “Think about this, Callie.”
“I am. I have.” Her gaze swung to Wyatt. “We need to return home.”
Home. He knew she meant it as the place they’d been staying, but for some reason, hearing her say it in the same sentence as mention of him sent a bolt of longing so strong, so pure running through him, that if he hadn’t been sitting, his knees would’ve buckled.
She raised a brow. “Agreed?”
He merely nodded, unable to find words since he was still dealing with the unwanted feelings.
After Callie walked to the car with the bags, Wyatt turned back to the table, only to find Carl staring at him intensely. “What is it?” Wyatt asked.
Carl blew out a loud breath. “If I have to say it, then you’re dumber than I thought.”
“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“The hell you don’t, son.” Carl glanced out the door to Callie. “You’ve got it so bad for her, you can’t see straight. What I don’t understand is why you don’t just tell her.”
The reasons ran through Wyatt’s head, but there were too many to name. “It’s . . . complicated.”
“Bullshit. Love is always complicated. What you need to ask yourself is if you can live without her. If you can’t, then you’ve gotta do something.”
“I screwed it up years ago. There’s no getting past what I did.”
Carl returned to his work. “Sounds like you’ve got a problem then.”
For the next hour, they worked as Carl shared stories about Orrin, with Callie chiming in every so often. Wyatt hadn’t wanted to hear any of it at first, but it was hard to ignore the deep respect and friendship Carl had for Orrin.
So, Wyatt grudgingly listened. By the time the work ended, he’d learned much about his father that he hadn’t known. It made Wyatt wish he didn’t hold such anger for his father because they had much in common.
With a farewell wave to Carl—and a promise to return soon—Wyatt pointed Mercy back in the direction of the cabin. He glanced over at Callie, who had rolled down her window and was still waving at Carl.
Only when he was out of sight did she roll up the window. Wyatt had gotten to see another side of her, as well. She’d shown that she had earned Carl’s respect from her work with Orrin.
“I know you didn’t want to hear those stories about your father, but I couldn’t exactly tell Carl to stop,” she said.
Wyatt pulled out onto the road. “If Carl knows who I am, then he knows the rift between Orrin and me. He talked about my father on purpose.”
“They were good stories.”
He saw her smile out of the corner of his eye. Many of Carl’s retellings had involved Callie. It was a jab at Wyatt. To show that Callie loved Orrin, and that his father was a good man.
“I’m glad you found a place at the ranch,” Wyatt said.
She leaned her head back. “Me, too. I honestly didn’t think anything could touch the ranch again. But then, I never thought a group like the Saints could exist, much less target us.”
“We have a chance to fix this.”
Her head swung to him. “Fix it? What do you mean?”
“If anyone but Orrin had accepted the assignment, we wouldn’t know about the Saints or Ragnarok.”
“We still don’t know what the bioweapon does.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he insisted. “My point is that Orrin was smart enough to know something was wrong after they left Russia. Otherwise, he’d never have sent the weapon to you.”
She shoved her hair away from her face. “You make it sound like you’re glad it was Orrin.”
“I am.” He hadn’t realized it until now with all the information they had, but he recognized that between him, his brothers, and his father, they could strike a lethal blow to the Saints.
Callie laughed softly. “That’s something I never thought I’d hear you say. Wait.” The smile faded, replaced by a glare. “Do you mean you’re glad it was Orrin because he was kidnapped and beaten? Because if you did, that’s jus—”
“No,” he said over her. “That’s not what I meant. I might hold anger toward my father, but even I know how good he is at his job. I’ve had years to hear it from my superiors.”
“Oh. Well. That’s good to know.”
“How insistent was Hewett that Orrin take the mission to Russia?”
She scratched her chin as she thought. “Mitch just sent the one encrypted email, though he did call me the day before Orrin agreed to do it to see which direction Orrin was swaying.”
“Did you tell him?” Wyatt questioned.
“No. I work for Orrin, not Hewett.”
Wyatt expected nothing less from her. “You said that you suspected Hewett wanted Orrin specifically for the assignment.”
“It was just the way Mitch spoke. It was nothing he said specifically. Just a gut feeling I had,” she said with a lift of her shoulders.
“In our line of work, trusting your gut could save your life.”
“Then I should’ve said something to Orrin about it.”
Wyatt shook his head and glanced at her. “It wouldn’t have done anything but push my father to take the mission to see what was going on.”
“Does it bother you?”
It was his turn to give her a frown. “What?”
“That I’m so close to Orrin?”
Wyatt slowed the car in front of a stop sign before pulling away. “Why should that be a problem?”
“He’s your father.”
“It’s a fact I can’t change. Another fact is that he’s responsible for my mother’s death.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“I sure as shit don’t have any other person to pin it on.”
Callie turned her head to look out the side window. “There is so much I could tell you about Orrin to change your mind.”
“I suspect this is when you start?”
“No,” she declared without looking his way. “You wouldn’t really hear me anyway. You’ve made up your mind, and once you do that, there’s no changing it.”
He knew she alluded to when he broke it off between them. It was true, once he made a decision, he didn’t change his mind. What she didn’t know was that it took him a long time to come to such verdicts because he looked at every angle.
Which was why he was so certain when he finally did make his choice.
She suddenly looked his way. “No. I am going to tell you something. I don’t care if you don’t believe it. You should know.”
“Then tell me.”
“Orrin never stopped looking into Melanie’s murder.”
Wyatt cut her a dubious look. “And in all these years, he found nothing?”
“Ugh,” she ground out angrily. “You make me so furious.”
“Because the truth hurts?”
“Because you’re an ass. He got close several times with leads he uncovered, but each time, someone or something put a halt to it. Everyone who once helped him no longer would have anything to do with Melanie’s murder. No one.”
Wyatt stared at the dark road as the headlights lit the way. Her words troubled him more than he wanted to admit.
“You know what else?” she asked. “He could never find out who hindered his investigations. There was never a name he could go to, nobody to confront.”
“That sounds suspicious.”
“You think?” she asked sarcastically. “What else is suspicious, is that we discovered that he had gotten close because he would be given orders that put him in the direct line of fire.”
Now that didn’t sit well with Wyatt at all. “Is that why he retired from the Navy?”
“It’s one of the main reasons, yes. It gave him time to dig into things more, but even more doors were closed against him. He got nowhere. But the point is that he kept trying.”
They were approaching the cabin, so Wyatt slowed the car. When he put the vehicle in park, Callie reached over and turned off the engine, taking the keys.
He looked at her, seeing the fire in her blue eyes, the same heat that told him she was ready to take on the world. She wasn’t finished, so he remained to hear what else she had to say.
“You’ve never been in love. You don’t know how Orrin felt to have the woman who bore his children, the woman he’d made a life with, the woman who was the other half of his soul taken from him.
” She paused, her eyes welling with tears.
“Do you know that he never went on a single date after your mother? He’s never even looked at another woman.
Because he holds her in his heart still.
If you think he doesn’t care about Melanie’s murder or you, then you’re an idiot. ”
She got out of the car and stormed into the house. Wyatt watched her go, her words ringing in his head. The distance he’d put between him and Orrin meant that he knew nothing of his father.
It came as a shock to hear that Orrin hadn’t found another woman. And Callie would know. She spent the most time with him.
Wyatt closed his eyes, thinking of his mother. She didn’t deserve to die so horribly. It was even worse that no one had been brought to justice for the deed.
Somehow, it all pointed back to Orrin—of that he was certain. It didn’t matter how much his father looked into the killing or how he pined for Melanie. The murder was still unsolved.
Until that changed, Wyatt would continue to blame Orrin.