by Wade, Maddie
What made them all the same, was the look she saw in their eyes. They had seen things, possibly even done things that nobody else but small group of people had ever done or gone through. It was that which made her trust them.
“Well, I’ve been modelling since high school. I travel a lot. I eat like a rabbit which I hate, and I rarely see my family. That kind of sounds ungrateful. What I mean is, I’m lucky. I have more money than I need, I see the world, and I wear the best designer clothes.”
“No, you meant the first one. The other was bullshit you roll out, so you don’t come across as a bitch.”
“Roz!” Pax and Evelyn both admonished her with a hard look.
“What? I just call it as I see it.”
Callie watched the three, and it hit her for the first time this stranger was right. She did say those things, so she didn’t sound ungrateful, but the truth was, she did hate salad, she wanted to stay in one place for more than two weeks, and to see her parents for Christmas.
“No, she’s right. I do say those things, so I don’t look like a bitch.”
“Why hide how you feel?” Pax asked gently.
“I have the life girls dream of. I’ve watched girls literally starve themselves to death to get where I am, and yet for me, it came easy.”
“But you don’t like it now?”
Evelyn handed her a mug of coffee as they moved to the couches. Callie sat and thought about the question. Did she still like modelling? It allowed her opportunities that she would never have had otherwise but did she love it? The answer was no. She was tired and ready to do something else. For the first time, she wanted to share her secret project with these three women she’d just met, and yet who seemed to know her already.
“No, I’m tired of travelling. I want to eat bacon sandwiches and cupcakes when I like without the glare of those around me or the paparazzi taking pictures and judging my food belly. I want to do something for someone else other than me.”
“Firstly, I don’t believe you only do things for you. Reid has excellent taste and wouldn’t be so taken with you if you were a selfish bitch.”
Evelyn nodded as Pax spoke.
“Second, it doesn’t make you a bitch to want something different. We’ve all been there, and life isn’t that simple. What you’re going through with this stalker means you’re re-evaluating things and what’s important.”
“I guess,” Callie replied.
“No, Pax is right. You get one life, and you need to make it count. I spent too long believing I didn’t deserve a good life and I nearly lost the one good thing I ever had. Don’t do the same.” Roz’s eyes were passionate as she spoke, and Callie could see the pain behind her words.
“Why are you helping me? You don’t know me.” Callie couldn’t fathom these strangers wanting to help her.
“Because you mean something to Reid and Reid is family to me,” Pax replied, and the others nodded.
Callie smiled, at the thought she meant something to the incredible man who was protecting her. “You think?”
Roz rolled her eyes, and Pax snorted, while Evelyn laughed. “Oh, sugar, he’s head over ass for you. He just doesn’t know it yet, and for the record, so are you.” Evelyn spoke with a Southern accent, and Callie blinked at the transformation in her voice.
“Now, enough boring stuff.” Roz leaned in closer a wicked grin on her face. “What’s Reid like in the sack?”
Callie let out a laugh she felt in her toes. In a matter of an hour, she seemed to have found her girl squad, a group of women who got her for her, and she liked it. In fact, she loved it.
Chapter Thirteen
Reid settled back against the chair, his arms crossed over his chest, tension in his muscled shoulders as he waited for Jack to start the meeting. They were waiting on Lopez to finish a call and then he could get moving on this case.
Everything about it was personal. The fact Callie was involved, Gunner’s involvement in all of it. Anger surged in his belly. It wasn’t helped by the guilt he was carrying because he hadn’t spoken to Clay yet. His desire for Callie had him questioning every ounce of restraint he thought he had.
The woman was like his personal Kryptonite, but even that thought which should have made him angry, made him smile. She did that, she made him smile, made him happy, and if he didn’t know better, he’d say he was half in love with his sunshine. That was crazy, though, who fell in love after only a couple of weeks?
His eyes immediately flew to Alex who was seated opposite him next to Jack. No, he and Evelyn had a long history dating back years. Next, they went to Blake. He and Pax had been quick but surely not only a month?
The door behind him opened and Lopez strode in, a stack of print outs in his hand. He set them down beside Jack, who scanned them as the residual chatter in the room died down. Every member of Eidolon was in the building apart from Mitch who was still in London—the amount of skill and deadly killers in the room was unheard of.
Jack looked up, his face an ice-cold mask of determination. “I have some information that Lopez has just confirmed for me. It seems Gunner has a disabled sister.” A whispered murmur went around the men, surprise evident among them. Gunner had never talked about a sister.
“He never mentioned her to any of us, and she wasn’t found in any of his background checks. Why he never said anything, we don’t know. The reason we didn’t find her is that she has a different surname to Gunner, and lives in Iceland near his maternal grandmother’s home in a care facility.”
This was all interesting but what relevance did it have? Reid knew it had to have some or Jack wouldn’t waste his time on it.
“Her name is Milla Karvelsdottir, and she has severe brain damage, which means she has no motor skills to speak of and has to have twenty-four-hour care. Four months ago, Milla disappeared from the care facility she was in without warning, and no missing person report was ever filed. Her whereabouts are still unknown, and her grandmother refuses to discuss it with anyone. The authorities haven’t become involved, and the papers haven’t run anything on the story.”
“You think she’s why Gunner turned on us?” Decker asked.
Jack tipped his head and shrugged. “You’re the profiler here, why don’t you tell me?”
Decker was silent for a beat and Reid could swear he heard the gears turning in his head. “I think whoever is behind this is possibly using Gunner’s sister as leverage to force Gunner to do what they want. There are several unknown factors—including his relationship with his sister and why he kept her a secret. Overall, though, I find this scenario easier to swallow than him turning on us for no good reason.”
“If that’s the case, why didn’t he come to us?” Liam folded his arms over the back of the chair he was straddling. He’d taken Gunner’s betrayal hard and seemed less inclined to give him an out.
“I don’t know, which is why we need to find him and ask.” Jack speared Reid with a look. “We have a few threads to pull, not least of which is Callie’s stalker. I believe it’s linked to Gunner. So this is what I need. Blake and Waggs, I want you to go to Iceland and find out everything you can about Milla Karvelsdottir. I want to know how she was injured, who visited her, why the grandmother is so tight-lipped. All of it.” He turned to Decker. “You and Liam are going to do a snatch and grab of Jolie McConnell. Bring her to the bunker. I’m done fucking around, and she knows something, I can feel it.”
“Wow, we’re opening up the bunker now?” Reid asked.
“Yes, as I said, I’m done fucking around with this. I want answers, and I want them now.” Jack was practically humming with anger, and Reid wondered what had kicked him up a notch.
“Reid, you stay close to Callie. Monitor every call she has. I know she means something to you, so I don’t need to drive this home, but I don’t want a dead fucking supermodel on my hands.”
“Nobody will touch her on my watch.”
Blake snorted. “Except you, ya dirty dog.”
Reid bit
back his smile and glared at Blake. “Fuck off, nothing’s happened.” Yet, he mentally added.
Blake waved his phone. “Pax, Siren, and Roz are with her right now. Do you really think we aren’t getting regular updates on what you’ve been doing?” Blake chuckled, and Reid called his bluff.
“Don’t know what you mean.”
“Right, if you’re finished, get to work. I want us to meet up here tomorrow morning at six am so that we can talk to McConnell. All except Blake and Waggs. You have a flight to Iceland in three hours so get your asses moving.”
The men began to move out, a sense of purpose filling their movements that hadn’t been there until now. Answers were just out of reach, and they all needed them soon.
Reid headed for the locker room to pick up some equipment he kept there. He wanted to put a tap on Callie’s phone—with her consent, of course. He would never betray her trust by going behind her back. He tensed when his phone rang, his mind instantly worrying about Callie. The relief was short-lived when he saw it was Clay. Now was his chance to speak with his friend about everything. Including the fact Callie was in danger because of him.
“Hey, buddy.”
“Reid, sorry I missed your calls. Is everything okay?”
Reid heard the exhaustion and worry in his friend’s voice and hated he was about to add anger to the mix. “Yeah, just wanted to give you an update. Did you finish the job?” He was stalling, and he knew it.
“All done, another asshole is off the streets for a while. How’s Callie?”
“She’s great. I brought her to Hereford where we have more protection and back-up. We’re working the case from here and London.”
“All of you?” Clay asked, surprised.
“Yeah, it seems this might be linked to some trouble the team is having internally. I can’t say what, but the entire team is working this now.”
“Is she safe?”
“Never been safer, man. You know I’d cut off my left nut before I’d let anything happen to her.”
Clay laughed. “I’ll cut off the other if you touch her.”
Reid’s gut filled with bile at his friend’s innocent threat—at least until he knew the truth. The silence down the line must have tipped Clay off.
“Reid, tell me you haven’t fucked my baby sister.”
He could hear the warning in his best friend’s tone and was glad that at least he could answer that honestly. “No, I haven’t had sex with Callie.”
“But you want too.”
“Fuck, Clay, it ain’t like that. I like her, I like her a lot.”
“And I like Nutella but only in short bursts, and not every day. We both know you don’t do relationships, and I don’t want her getting hurt when you realise you can’t do long term.”
“What if I can?”
“What are you saying, Reid? You want to marry my sister?”
Reid pushed his fingers through his hair in frustration. “No, I’m not saying that but one day? Maybe. I don’t know. All I know is like her a lot and want to see if this can be more. For the first time in my life, I want more. She’s different, Clay. I don’t just want something physical, I want to make her laugh, hear about her day. Walk the damn dog with her.”
His candour must have gotten through to Clay. “Wow. I have to say I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Neither was I, but it’s the truth.”
“If you hurt her, there will be no place on earth I won’t find you.”
“If I hurt her, you won’t have to look for me.”
“Fine. I have some leave due, expect a visit soon.”
“Be good to see you, man.”
“Now, tell me about the investigation so far—or at least what you can.”
Just like that, Clay trusted him with a woman he loved. Him, a man with no history of relationships. His own father had run out on his wife and kids and his job, which put her at risk. Reid didn’t know what he’d done to have Clay in his life, but he thanked the day he’d met him.
Reid filled him in, and Clay asked to be kept up to date and promised a visit very soon. He finished by saying he was going to call Callie next.
Reid ended the call as Blake stepped into the room. “You ready for the cold, darkness of Iceland?”
“Yeah, man, Iceland is beautiful, but I’m more ready to find out what the fuck is going on with Gunner.”
“You think he was blackmailed like Decker suggested?”
Blake shrugged. “Don’t know but I want to find out. If he betrayed us for his sister, it makes it easier to swallow, but either way, he betrayed us so I’m not sure it makes much difference.”
“True dat.”
“So, you and Callie getting on well?” Blake waggled his eyebrows and smirked.
“I like her and just finished telling my best friend, who is also her brother, I do.”
“Ouch, how did he take it?”
“Surprisingly well, although he threatened to cut my balls off if I hurt her.”
“Standard but you won’t hurt her.”
Reid cocked his head to the side as he regarded Blake. “How can you know that?”
Blake shoved a few things in a bag and zipped it. “Because you look at her like I look at Grace. I’d rather die than hurt her, and that’s what I see when you look at Callie.”
“When did you see us together?”
“Yesterday as you were leaving. I was pulling in, and the look on your face said it all. You love her.”
“No.” The denial was quick, perhaps too quick.
Blake capped him on the shoulder. “Deny it all you want; it won’t do you any good.”
“It’s too soon to know that.”
“I knew I loved Grace in Monaco. I was just too stupid to admit to myself.”
“That soon?”
“Yep, when you know you know.”
Reid stood and slammed his locker door shut. “Maybe for you but not for someone like me whose father didn’t bother sticking around and abandoned his mom and sisters.”
“Reid, don’t let ignorant shit like that thought cloud your judgement. I never met your father, but I’ve met your mom and sisters. They love you, and they know how much you love them. Having a life that doesn’t revolve around them doesn’t mean you abandoned them. You went to every hospital appointment your sister had, and last year you saw your family more than I saw mine. Does that sound like a man who walked out on his family?” Blake squeezed his shoulder. “I don’t know where you got that idea from, but it’s whacked. You’re a good family man, Reid, and Callie would be lucky to have you. Having said that, she’s way out of your ugly assed league.”
Reid chuckled. “That she is.”
He didn’t say more, needing to process what Blake had said. He instead thought about what the day held for him and Callie as he fought the grin on his face as he drove back towards his sunshine.
Chapter Fourteen
He watched from the corner of the street as Mitch entered the police station, his head on a swivel. Always waiting for the threat that would take them down. Gunner had never ever believed he’d be that threat. That he’d be the enemy they feared, the traitor they all hated.
His gut churned in anger and bitterness towards the man who’d put him in this position. The same man he was on his way to meet with information that would weaken his old Eidolon colleagues—no, they’d been so much more than that. They had been his friends and a family unit who’d accepted him.
Now he was their enemy—the man who would get them all killed. Regret filled him as he thought about everything he’d walked away from. Turning his back on those men had been the single hardest thing he’d ever done. But choice had been taken from him when he’d taken the phone call that changed everything and now, he had to live with it.
Now he had to keep the one person who meant anything to him safe. It was his duty, but more than that, he owed her everything. She’d paid for his mistake, and now it was time for him to repay the debt he’d owed for mor
e than two decades.
To do that, he’d need to harden his heart and forget the loyalties and friendships he’d forged and become the cold-hearted killer they all thought he already was.
He stepped from the shadows, knowing they’d never recognise him. With his shoulders hunched and his face clean-shaven, he was a different man than the one they called the Viking. He moved quickly between the tourists that ambled along the pavement. His destination was a short walk away from the bustle of the streets. Gunner slipped into a side alley and saw the large man at the entrance of the strip club that was really just a front for the man who now owned him.
The large, bald man gave him a chin lift in acknowledgement and let him in. He was carrying his firearm and three knives, but he knew inside this place it wouldn’t matter. His life meant nothing to these men, they’d kill him—not before he managed to kill a few of theirs—but kill him they would.
The thought held more appeal than living the life he’d been forced into. The only reason he didn’t try and kill them now was that he knew it would all be for nothing. No, his only choice was to see this through until the bitter end and wait for his moment to bring justice to the man he hated with a living breathing menace.
As he moved further inside the dimly lit room, he could barely make out a sorry-looking girl/child who was obviously drugged dancing for the leering men who wouldn’t think twice about raping and killing her for their own sick enjoyment. His hands itched to break their necks but he couldn’t.
A small man with hard, dead eyes approached him, and Gunner slowed.
“You’re late,” he said with an Italian accent.
“I got caught up on the tube. It was too dangerous to drive.”
The man nodded and opened the door behind him.
It was time, he’d stalled long enough. Behind that door lay his fate, a bloody fate of betrayal. He swallowed the sigh and his anger at being pushed into this position. Perhaps he was always meant to end this way. Hurting people he cared for seemed to be what he did best. For a short while he’d made a difference. He’d tried to redeem his ugly soul for the damage he’d caused, but now it was over.