Chapter 32
“Callie?”
She blinked and looked over at Natalie, who was staring at her. “Yeah?”
“You okay?”
“Sure.”
Natalie raised a light brown brow. “You sure? Because I’ve said your name five times before you heard me.”
“I’m just thinking about the upcoming battle.” It was a lie. A boldface, outright lie. Her thoughts were centered smack dab on Wyatt Loughman.
Her stomach churned viciously. She knew that feeling. The one that said she’d done or said something she shouldn’t. The feeling that alerted her that she’d messed up royally.
Or was it just wishful thinking.
Wyatt’s kiss had sent her heart soaring. The same feeling of freedom and love that she recognized all too well from once before. Except she wasn’t the same girl as before—nor would she be discarded so easily.
She wanted to be the one to let him know that she didn’t need him, that he could leave any time, and she would be fine with it. It all went to plan. Even his reaction.
Yet it all felt so . . . wrong.
It was everything she could do not to cry. Her heart actually hurt, as if she could feel it slowly breaking into a million pieces.
“Callie? What is it?” Natalie pressed.
She shook her head, refusing to put her emotions into words. “In Orrin’s office, there is a folder with Wyatt’s name on it in the bottom right desk drawer. Inside the file is a piece of paper with the names of his team members. I need it.”
Natalie hurried to do as asked and returned with the paper. “Do you think they’re with the Saints?”
“I’m not going to take any chances.”
“It’s not like there will be something that says any of the men are Saints.”
Callie shrugged as she typed. “I know, but the more I know about their home lives, family, and such, the better we’ll be able to know them.”
“Because you don’t trust Wyatt?”
She stopped typing and looked into Natalie’s green eyes. “I trust him completely. It’s everyone else that hasn’t sided with us I’m wary of.”
“I wish Orrin, Mia, and Cullen were here.”
“Me, too.” Despite the knowledge that Orrin was alive, Callie still wanted to see him, to hug him and feel for herself that he was hale and whole.
The closer the Delta Force team got to the barn, the more frantic Callie’s fingers moved over the keys. She looked up one team member after the other, scanning information and pictures as she looked for anything she saw as a weakness that could be exploited by the Saints.
As she read the files, she realized each of the men was more like Wyatt than she expected.
Men with little to no families, lethal combat skills, and all of them with numerous commendations and medals for acts of valor and heroism that the public would never hear about because of classified missions.
She was about to give up on finding anything useful when she saw something that caught her attention. Her heart plummeted to her feet.
“Wyatt,” she said into the microphone that led to his COM. “We might have a problem. Danny Mazza.”
“What about him?” Wyatt whispered.
She licked her lips. “I looked into your team. I couldn’t find anything that would cause me to think the Saints might try to use any of them until I found that a young girl from Kentucky just filed papers with the military stating that Danny is the father of her child.”
“He’s not dating anyone,” Wyatt said.
“It was a one-night stand.”
There was a beat of silence before she heard him murmur, “They could use her against Danny. Fuck.”
“Nice work, Callie,” Maks said through the COMs.
She wished she were up there with Wyatt to look each of the Delta Force members in the eye. After everything their group had been through and survived, it wouldn’t be right for the Saints to get to them through Wyatt’s team.
But it was a distinct possibility.
“I think I might throw up,” Natalie said as she plopped down on a chair. “This constant state of my nerves being twisted as we try to guess what the Saints might do is horrible.”
“Which is why they have to be ended.”
Natalie gaped at her. “You sound just like Owen.”
“You don’t want them gone?”
“Oh, please,” Natalie said with an irritated expression.
“Those assholes put a hit on me. Of course, I want them gone, but you can’t just take out a group like this in a day, a week, or even a month.
Callie, this takes years, with a group big enough to make waves against the Saints.
So far, it’s just nine people against thousands or more. ”
Callie winced at the pull in her side. “Every uprising had to start somewhere. It was just a handful of people who stood against the British that began the American Revolution.”
“I’m going to fight against the Saints,” Natalie said. “I’m just saying that it isn’t going to be easy.”
“Nothing worthwhile ever is.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Callie thought of Wyatt.
She wanted to be with him, to feel his presence beside her. To look into his gold eyes and see the determination and grit that made him who he was.
Natalie got to her feet. “What else can I do?”
Callie heard Wyatt greet his team. As she listened to them, she pointed to the back room full of tech gear. “There is a small device on the upper rack to the left. Bring it to me.”
“What does this do?” Natalie asked as she handed it over.
Callie smiled. “It’ll disrupt communications for the Saints.”
“And us?”
Her grin faded. “And us.”
For the next hour, Callie listened to Wyatt with his team, Maks, and Owen plan how they were going to defend the ranch. Wyatt was spacing the men from his team at wide distances to cover every angle.
She waited until he’d gone over the skirmishes each of the Loughmans had with the Saints before she said, “I have a jammer ready to use to disrupt the Saints communications, but it will also end ours.”
“It’ll be a last resort,” Owen said.
“Sacagawea.”
With that one word from Wyatt, she knew it was the code word for her to use the jammer. “Understood.”
Maks’s whisper came over the COMs, “Got it.”
No sooner had that been taken care of than Wyatt gave his team the channel for their COMs. Now everything she said, the entire Delta Force team would hear.
“Say hello to Callie, men,” Wyatt said through the COMs. “She’s at a remote location, monitoring our communications and the cameras hidden around the ranch.”
A myriad of greetings came at her. Callie put a smile in her voice as she said, “We’re happy you’ve come to help.”
“Nowhere I’d rather be,” came a deep voice. “I’m Bobby Jennings, the only one Wyatt doesn’t have command over.”
Callie hurried and pulled up the picture of Bobby. He was about Wyatt’s age with deep laugh lines around his eyes. “Wyatt believes he commands everyone,” she said.
“Damn. She knows you well,” Bobby said to Wyatt.
She couldn’t help but smile. She wanted to like all the men, to trust them as Wyatt did. But she couldn’t. Not when so many lives were at stake.
“Well, Callie,” Bobby said through the COM. “Just so you know, we’re epic at ass-kicking, and we plan to do a lot of that today. Especially with Ahmadi’s men.”
Another voice came through the line. “How is it we’ve never heard of these Saints?”
“Because they’re a secret organization, Danny,” Wyatt said.
Danny. He’d mentioned the name for her so she could recognize the voice. With a swipe of a finger, Callie had his file pulled up. She looked into his young face and eyes hardened by war and killing.
“We’ve been betrayed several times by people we thought we could trust but who were really Saints,” Owen said.
Bobby asked, “Despite that, you called us in, Wyatt?”
“My aunt and uncle were murdered by this group, Natalie had a hit put out on her, Cullen and Mia were run off a mountain, and Callie was nearly killed by them. They will stop at nothing to take us out,” Wyatt explained.
“Why?” came another voice.
Callie hoped Wyatt would tell her who it was. Being stuck down in the base was annoying, but she recognized she would only be a hindrance topside.
There was a beat of silence before Owen said, “Our father was sent to steal a bioweapon from Russia. It wasn’t until he returned and was kidnapped that we discovered the Saints were behind it. They want the bioweapon for themselves.”
“We know the Saints have infiltrated our government as well as Russia and Columbia,” Wyatt said.
Maks then spoke up. “It’s best to assume that they’re all over the world. We’ve learned that most times, a Saint was standing right next to us and we didn’t know it.”
“You think one of us could be a part of this?” Bobby asked.
Callie was about to answer when Wyatt said, “No.”
“Good, because I’m ready to get rolling on this.” Bobby laughed loudly. “Let’s get set up, men.”
Callie looked to another monitor to see the men stealthily exit the barn and take their positions. Her head turned at the sound of the base door opening.
When she saw Owen, she almost didn’t contain her disappointment. Her injury kept her sitting while Natalie gathered a few more weapons and headed back up with Owen.
Normally, Callie liked the silence of the base when she had it to herself. But now it was a reminder of her predicament and the situation they were in.
She glanced at the stairs and saw a pair of boots. Her heart kicked up, thinking it was Wyatt. Then Maks’s face came into view.
“Not who you wanted, huh?” he said with a grin after taking out his COM.
Callie shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” He walked to stand beside her. “If you want Wyatt, tell him.”
“Why would I do that?”
Maks’s bright blue eyes held her gaze. “Because you’re in love with him.”
“It didn’t matter before. It won’t matter now.”
“That’s probably true. Wyatt is a warrior. It’s because of men like him that people in this country can take freedom for granted. He’s meant to fight evil.”
She looked down at her hands. “You’re trying to tell me that I could never hold him and that I shouldn’t try.”
“I’m trying to tell you who he is, but I think you already knew that.”
“I have. From the very beginning.”
Maks sighed. “I don’t think anyone knows him like you do.”
“Every time I think I know him, I realize that I don’t. When he walked away, he left everything behind. His memories, his family, his friends, and most especially me.”
“I thought Wyatt said you were smart.”
She gave him a hard look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If you really think Wyatt left you behind, you’re very wrong.”
“Until a week ago, it had been years since I last saw him. He doesn’t care.”
“If he didn’t care, why did he keep tabs on your family to make sure they left you alone? Why would he visit your family to ensure they didn’t overstep all those years?”
Chills raced over her as it dawned on her just what Wyatt had done. For her.
“Yeah,” Maks said as he gave her a sad smile and turned to walk to the stairs. “I was with him a couple of times when he got those calls. You’re the only thing that he held onto, Callie. Why do you think he did that? There’s only one reason.”
Because Wyatt loved her.