Chapter 28
CALLIE
Fuck. I needed to think. Why wouldn’t my mind work?
“Breathe.” Hawk took the phone and brought it to his ear, barking out questions that almost made me feel bad for the woman on the other end.
Almost.
Heat swirled in my chest and spread out, turning cold as it reached my extremities. They’d let someone check Cody out. My teeth sawed back and forth.
“How did this happen?” Hawk’s voice had gone low and deadly.
Colt stood beside me, his face completely empty. The sight of it twisted my stomach. I’d expected rage. I knew how to handle that. What was this look? It was almost like he’d been waiting for the moment when it all fell apart and now hated himself for expecting the worst.
Oh, wait. Maybe that was me projecting onto him.
Then again, we were enough alike that we might be thinking the same thing. Breathe. Just breathe. I could do that. I had to do that. I couldn’t help save Cody if I stopped breathing.
“Pulling traffic cam footage.” Diesel grabbed Hawk’s laptop and pulled it toward him. His fingers flew over the keys, the rapid tap, tap creating little jolts that encouraged me to lean over his shoulder.
Images flashed over the screen. Diesel examined them too quickly for my liking, but he must’ve known what to look for and how to discard the unnecessary pieces.
What could I do to help? My breath hitched, the air stopping in my throat when it tightened. I had one more ace up my sleeve, someone I hadn’t mentioned to anyone. Ever.
Mason Hart.
Diesel tapped the back of my hand. “Do you know him?” He pointed at the computer screen, where a wide angle shot of a man in a thick coat carried Cody toward a dark SUV.
Teachers’ cars were parked behind the vehicle, and no one drove past. I checked the time stamp, noting it happened right before I’d gotten the call from the front office.
I shook my head. “No.”
The man moved with an unhurried stride, not looking left or right. Confident. Like he had nothing to worry about. Cody looked up at the man, his expression confused but trusting.
“Damn him.” My hands curled into fists in my lap. I shoved to my feet and held out my hand to Hawk. “I need my phone.”
He pressed it into my palm. “We’ll get him back.”
“I know we will. I’m going to help make sure of that.” I swallowed all the anxiety and met Hawk’s gaze. “There’s one more thing you don’t know, and I don’t have time to explain.” I tapped open my contacts and scrolled to the one that read “Dipshit” and tapped.
Colt peered over my shoulder. “This can’t be good.”
Hawk’s expression didn’t change as much as his eyes shifted into that calculated look.
Questions flickered but went unasked. How long had I had this contact?
Why hadn’t I ever mentioned him? What else was I holding back?
I let him run with the questions that I’d have been asking in his place.
I didn’t have time or the mental energy to manage his reaction.
“I couldn’t exactly put his contact name down as Supervisory Special Agent Mason Hart.” I pressed my fingertips into my eyes and took a steadying breath as the phone rang. “Short version. I gave him just enough evidence to make a case against Wade without getting me killed. He owes me a favor.”
Colt squeezed my shoulder. “That’s my girl.” He still wore the blank expression, but a tremor shook his fingers where they gripped my collarbone. “It’s going to be okay.”
I nodded because he almost made it sound like a question and we both needed reassurance.
Mason answered with a gruff, “This better be good” and I almost dropped to the floor as relief slid between the grip of agonizing fear.
“I’m calling in my favor. I need a digital recovery. Right now. No questions and no delays.”
“Damn it, Callie. I can’t just drop everything.”
“You promised.” I straightened my spine and put every ounce of anger into my voice. “You swore on your life, Hart. Now pull through for me or so help me, I’ll make your life so fucking miserable you won’t ever sleep again.”
He huffed into the phone. “Fine. Give me two hours.”
I ended the call and rubbed both hands down my face before facing the three men eyeing me with a mixture of surprise and a hell of a lot of approval.
“We need the phone.” Colt held my hand between both of his. “We’ll go with you to get it.”
“Won’t have to go very far.” I couldn’t help smirking.
Hawk’s eyebrows rose in a silent question.
Understanding dawned on Diesel first, and he smiled up at me, a rough laugh rasping out. “You hid it here.”
“The fuck you did.” Colt’s grip tightened. “Where?”
I rolled my wrist and flicked my fingers toward the shop. “I need permission to access it.”
“Fuck.” The single word tore out of Hawk with enough righteous indignation I almost smiled. “Access granted.”
I led the way to the shop, bypassing the bay and going straight into the office where Diesel and I had fucked once upon a time.
I hadn’t been in this room in years, but it looked exactly the same.
Same desk. Same filing cabinet with the dented corner.
Same brown water stain on the ceiling tile above the window like in my bedroom.
Some things didn’t change, and I almost found that comforting.
The smell of oil and machinery helped loosen the bands around my chest, but nothing was going to eliminate the fear until we ended this once and for all and I held Cody in my arms.
Pulling my keys from my pocket, I flipped open the tiny screwdriver on my multitool and worked the screws loose on the vent behind the desk.
Anticipation built in the air. I heard their silent questions. Would it still be there after all this time? What if someone had found it in my absence. I removed the last screw, took off the cover, and set it aside.
Colt bent down to stare into the void, and his expression shuttered. “It’s not there.”
“Oh, really?” I shook my head at him. “I’m not a novice at hiding things, you know.
” I rested on my stomach and reached into the hole, using my fingertips to push aside a false wall I’d built into the right hand side of the vent.
Another closed panel met my grasp, and I unscrewed it through touch.
Hawk squatted on his heels and watched me, that curious expression heating my body.
“I always knew you were hiding shit from us. Didn’t expect you to hide it right under our noses. ”
“I couldn’t keep it with me.” Did I tell them the whole truth for once?
Could I let myself be vulnerable with them?
I needed to try. “This was the safest place I’d ever been.
I knew that even after I left, no one would be bothering your shit.
” I twisted the last screw and popped off the second wall.
Another twist and my fingertips grazed the plastic bag I’d wrapped around the phone to protect it. “Got it.”
“That’s my girl.” Diesel held out his hand to help me to my feet.
“I’ll put everything back.” Colt took the screwdriver from me and tapped it against his palm. “We’re going to get him back. Safe.”
“Yes, we will.” I brushed dust and drywall powder from my arms. “Make sure to clean up the floor so no one notices.” I pointed at the dust littering a small section in front of the vent. “Never know when you might need a hidey hole.”
“Boss, got a driver at the gate.” The masculine voice crackled from the radio at Hawk’s shoulder. “Says his name is Hart.”
Hawk checked the video feed on his phone, then showed it to me. “That him?”
“Yes.” A little older, a little rounder in the middle but still wearing a fuck off expression and looking more capable than any police I’d ever met.
Hawk clicked the button on the radio. “Show him to the house.”
I stuffed the phone in my pocket and led the way to the living area. Hawk cleared the house with a jerk of his head, and within fifteen minutes Hart had a laptop set up with my phone attached. “We’re doing this all legal and shit.” He tapped on the keyboard.
“You can use anything you find.” I hovered near his shoulder, resisting the urge to bite my nails to nubs. I gave him the login in information and waited.
Colt paced behind us, hands locked behind his head and his chin tipped toward the ceiling. The cold blankness had worn off. Thank goodness. I preferred this version, even if the pacing annoyed the hell out of me.
“Got it.” Hart tapped a button and images filled the screen. “Making copies for myself and backing them up to the cloud. You have access?” He looked over at Diesel, who nodded and pulled his computer closer.
“Sorting out a timeline.” Diesel touched the screen, moving pictures around with a drag of his finger.
He stared without blinking, his attention completely locked on the problem and how to reach an acceptable solution.
My stomach heaved. I’d spent so long trying to make these not exist. So much time invested in trying to forget that part of my life, and now it had all dragged me back and threatened to drown me.
Hawk moved behind me, stopping to stare over Diesel’s shoulder.
“These routes.” He pointed at the screen without touching it.
“Three of these corridor markers are still active. I’ve seen two of those in use in the last three months.
” Tension knotted his shoulders, and he drummed a single finger on the back of Diesel’s chair.
“Okay. Here’s the plan. We build a replica that looks enough like the original that it passes an initial assessment.
” He glanced at me. “You remember enough about it to do that?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We’ll use real information, names and routes from the original document, and seed it with false trails. Routes that don’t exist. Fake names. Nothing too obvious. Throw in some routes that take them past cameras with law enforcement presence.”
Hart crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. “That’s workable from a warrant perspective. If they act on falsified information that they’ve verified against real intel, they confirm the real intel.”
Colt stopped pacing. “And Cody?”
“Cody is the meet condition.” Hawk looked at me, holding my gaze.
“They want the ledger. We want Cody. They took him for this reason. The trade happens in person, which means we meet them at a location we’ve already mapped, with exits we control and a recovery line that doesn’t require them to know our backup plan. ”
“Wade will want to run the meet himself.” He might not be behind this all the way, but he’d always craved power.
He wouldn’t be able to resist one more shot at me.
“He’ll want to feel like he’s in control.
He always needs to feel like he’s the one in charge of a transaction.
And he’ll try to backstab us. He’ll try to hide Cody to get more from me. ”
Hawk’s eyes turned flat and eerily cold. “Arrogant men make predictable choices. Diesel will track down where they took Cody. We’ll make sure he’s with us.”
I picked up the phone still attached to Hart’s computer and turned it over in my hands.
So many years of uncertainty and unreliability.
So many sleepless nights and terror for Cody’s sake.
It was all about to come to an end, one way or the other.
I ran my thumb over the crack in the screen and set it down on the desk while pulling out my new phone and bringing up the unknown number that had turned out to be Wade.
I typed out a short text to Wade: We have what you want.
Keep Cody safe and let me meet you with Diesel along for the exchange.
Hawk read it over my shoulder and rattled off an address. I added it to the text and hit send.
Three dots appeared almost immediately, followed by a single word: When?
“Tomorrow night.” Hawk met my surprised gasp with an embrace. “I know. It sounds like forever, but we need twenty-four hours to secure the location. If we push for tonight, they’ll have the upper hand. We have a lot to do, and we can’t rush making the replica.”
I knew he was right, but I still hated it. How could I possibly leave my son with those monsters for a full day? A rushed extraction that went wrong put him more at risk. I pressed my forehead against Hawk’s shoulder and breathed, accepting the truth before I straightened.
“I still need to lock down Cody’s location.” Diesel hadn’t looked up from his computer, but his presence filled the room when he held out a hand and squeezed my wrist.
“Okay.” I typed out the date and time and sent it to Wade. “Let’s get this done.”