9. Caleb
NINE
Caleb
The shower ran so hot it stung.
I stood under it longer than I needed to, water pounding the back of my neck, steam fogging the mirror in the small bathroom. I’d meant to take five minutes—wash, change, get to the Cave. Instead, I rested a hand on the tile, letting the warmth ease the stiffness in my shoulders.
Forty-eight hours of adrenaline and almost no sleep had become even more when I didn’t really leave in the middle of the night after the Novak kiss thing.
Neither had Novak, but he’d stayed out in his car for the longest time, staring at the building, until he’d come inside and now hovered close by.
I’d decided to stay around until Ezra and Seth caught up on some sleep, researching what I could on the bits they’d given me.
Then I sat with them at the kitchen table for nearly an hour, mapping what they remembered of the Ridge while Mickey pretended not to listen from the doorway and Novak was just behind me.
Fences. Dogs. Watch towers. The underground room.
Every detail was another piece of something ugly I needed to dismantle.
I’d finally gotten home, and my head should have been full of what I could do next.
Instead, my focus kept sliding back to the parking lot in the early hours of this morning.
To Novak.
I’d spent the entire day trying not to think about him.
Which meant, obviously, that I could do nothing but think about him.
For a second, I caught the look on his face before the kiss—not the control, not the calculation, but something quieter, almost uncertain—and it hit harder than anything else.
Then the kiss itself had been an attack, not soft, but a physical mark he’d left on me.
So now, I couldn’t get him out of my head.
I’d dealt with dangerous men my entire career. The problem was that some part of me wanted to understand Novak and discover what made him tick. Why did he stare at me? What did he want from me? I was curt with him, rude, dismissive, but for some reason he gravitated my way.
Only last week we’d run a simple infiltration op. No blood, no bodies, just getting inside a corporate office after hours so I could place two bugs and mirror a server. Novak wasn’t even assigned to that part of the job. His role was perimeter security with Killian.
Except when I headed inside, he was there, too.
Not interfering but not helping either.
I’d caught him twice in the reflection of the glass walls while I worked, standing back in the shadows with that same fixed attention he always seemed to give me.
When Id’ finished and headed out, he’d fallen in behind me without a word, escorting me back through the building like some silent, heavily armed chaperone.
And when we’d reached the street, and I peeled off toward the van, he followed me there, too.
Didn’t speak or explain, and I’d been so damn aware of him in all the best and worst ways.
I dragged a hand over my face, water streaming off my chin.
“Jesus,” I muttered under my breath.
I shoved my wet hair out of my eyes and braced both hands on the wall. The tile was slick beneath my palms.
The problem wasn’t the kiss.
The problem was the way my brain kept replaying the seconds before it—the way he’d stepped in close, and the words.
“No one else touches you.”
My chest tightened.
That should have pissed me off more than it did.
No, I didn’t have a boyfriend, partner, friend with benefits, or even random hookups, but the Cave was all-consuming, and there were people out there who needed our help.
I didn’t have time for all the kissing and flirting that seemed to take up way too much of both Killian and Levi’s time since they’d met their men.
I was sick of the territorial bullshit from a man who cut people apart for a living.
“No one else touches you.”
Fuck. That growl. The glint in his eye, the way I knew if anyone touched me, he’d be there insisting forcefully that they shouldn’t.
Heat coiled low in my gut, sharp and unwelcome. I swore under my breath and squeezed my eyes shut.
“This is fucking stupid.”
I leaned my forehead against the tile, breathing hard. The image of Novak’s face wouldn’t go away—dark eyes steady, unblinking, the calm certainty in everything he did.
Deadly competent and locked onto me. My body reacted to that the same way it reacted to danger.
The realization made my pulse jump again, and the sick part was that the pulse spike wasn’t fear.
I felt the tension snap the rest of the way, my cock so hard I couldn’t ignore it.
Wrapping my hand around the rigid length, an image of Novak gripping my shoulder, kissing me, pushing me back against a wall, owning me, and I was coming so hard I rested against the tile, staring down as the shower washed the evidence of whatever the hell was going on with me clean away.
My chest still felt tight.
Not relief. Not really.
Just the same restless energy sitting under my skin.
I shook my head once and reached for the shampoo.
When I was clean, I shut off the water, grabbed a towel, and forced my brain back where it belonged.
Work. I’d called a Cave meeting, and I had a new case to present to an already overstretched team.
Killian was the last to arrive, and it was only when he and Levi took their seats, with Sonya perched on her desk, that I started.
Tablet in hand, I organized the intel on the main screen.
“Primary site is called The Ridge,” I said. “North of the state line. Former logging land. Approximate acreage unknown. Former military site, decommissioned now, but with an underground facility—concrete reinforced.”
Killian leaned back, arms folded. Sonya was already taking notes. Levi didn’t move. We all started when the elevator security chimed and saw Frank and fuck… Novak… enter and go through security.
“Who gave Novak clearance?”
“That would be me,” Levi said, and tipped his chin, daring me to ask him why we let a psychopath into our safe space.
“He’s not Cave,” I said flatly. “He’s a contractor.”
Levi leaned back in his chair. “Doc trusts him.”
“He doesn’t get to sit in on planning,” I shot back. “He cleans up after.”
Levi’s voice hardened. “He’s saved Doc more than once.”
“That doesn’t make him team.”
Killian exhaled slowly. “Can we focus?”
Levi didn’t break eye contact. “He’s not just a contractor,” he said with patience.
“And I want this to stay in the Cave,” I replied.
“It is,” Levi said. “Which means we protect our own.”
I didn’t need protection from anyone. I had military training, I didn’t want or need protection from someone who would stab me in the eye if he was told to, rather than have my back.
The two men entered, Frank chatting about coffee and then apologizing loudly for being late.
Something about the freeway and some manic drivers, although I’d been in a car with the man, and he was lethal on the open road.
He sat down after passing out yet more donuts—as an ex-cop, he was leaning hard into the cliché, although I forgave him when he placed my usual order dripping with chocolate and sprinkles on my desk.
Novak stepped inside, calm and focused, meeting my gaze without flinching before sliding into the chair by my desk.
My stupid brain immediately supplied the memory of rain, heat, and the kiss.
“Novak, this is a closed?—”
“I’m here for Ezra and Seth,” Novak said, and I couldn’t argue with that. After all, they wouldn’t have even be alive if not for him.
Killian cleared his throat. “Are the remaining siblings caught in a survivalist situation, or a cult?”
“Survivalist officially, religion plays a part, a strong part. The leader goes by Father Michael, but his real name is Michael Jennet. A couple of the other identifiers the kids gave me run hot on drug dealing and trafficking, which puts this on the Doc side of the board.” I gestured at the board, as if that justified taking on a case in a different state, well outside our capacity to handle.
I waited for someone to mention it, but no one said a word.
I cleared my throat. “There are over thirty people on-site, with rotational guards and two elevated watch points. The perimeter patrol now includes the older brother, Noah, who is fourteen. When buyers came looking for kids, they wanted two brothers, which is why they took Ezra and Seth.” Levi shook his head, and Killian’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“There’s also a sister, Noah’s twin, in what they call Covenant House for processing, and she’s pregnant…
” I paused. The boys’ descriptions of the screaming and visiting men sounded much worse, but I didn’t need to describe it; everyone here already understood what I wasn’t saying.
Silence.
“I’m doing this,” I said, in summary, or a plea.
Levi exhaled and nodded. “What’s your objective?”
“Confirm layout. Neutralize perimeter without lethal engagement.” I glanced at Novak, who was watching me. My body reacted before my brain did, heat curling low in my gut again. I hated that his beautiful silver gaze didn’t waver, didn’t flare, didn’t react—just fixed and measuring.
Wait. The fuck? His eyes aren’t beautiful.
They were filled with deadly focus, and he was empty of emotion and compassion, and he killed without remorse, and all the other fucking things I needed to remember.
Novak shifted in his chair, drawing my attention, the way it had in the parking lot when he stepped too close, and I forced myself to turn back to the map.
Don’t think about that weird as fuck kiss.
I yanked my wayward thoughts back to the question. “I’ll extract both siblings and gather evidence for federal follow-up.”
“ Without lethal engagement?” Levi repeated and glanced at Novak, who hadn’t moved a muscle
“If this escalates, it could turn into Waco and become a prolonged siege.” I kept my voice flat. “I’ll carry out a one-person extraction, and?—”
“I’m going with you,” Novak said, without inflection, and I knew there would be no argument. His gaze was fixed on me again, and I shook my head.
“This is a targeted extraction, in a place that is run as a religious commune. It requires precision, and we’re not going in there to wipe them out.”
He raised an eyebrow, and I ignored him and instead focused on the rest of the legitimate and non-psychopathic, kissing-me-inappropriately asshole, Cave team.
“I’ve tracked down a place about five miles out, which has a panic room in the basement, old-style CIA for off-site situations, hence the compound, which is also former government owned.
I’ll get set up near there and always stay on comms. I’ll still be working remotely, but I’m going alone until I’ve gathered enough intel to call in backup. ”
Killian exchanged a glance with Levi and Sonya, and all three nodded. “You’ll have all the resources you need, but we don’t do anything alone, and you have to agree to taking backup,” he gestured at Novak. “You have your volunteer.”