That didn’t bode well.“What’s wrong?”
She circled the war room in stewing silence before planting herself at the head of the table.She dropped into the leather chair and tapped her fingernails on the smooth wood.“You have dug yourself into quite the shithole, haven’t you, Hale?”
He rocked onto his heels and shoved his hands into his pants pockets.“The Molotov cocktail was messy.I didn’t see it coming.Chew my ass out for that.Fine.But Dominic’s not messy, and it doesn’t make sense.So, I don’t think I’m in a hole.I think we have a different angle to consider.”
“Agreed, but that’s not what I’m talking about.”Her sharp look could have cut glass.“And you know it.”
“I don’t know—”
“Do not fucking lie to me.”She pointed vaguely behind her as if he were supposed to read her mind.
Grace.
Well, hell.That surfaced faster than he had anticipated.Callum moved to the window, ordering every muscle in his body to stand down and at least pretend that Vivian’s scrutiny didn’t have him on high alert.
The window overlooked the large driveway and smooth asphalt where they parked.The gang was all here.He hadn’t thought twice about why they had all been called in.Unease knotted in his gut.Had they been brought in because of Grace?Or worse, because ofhimand Grace.Dean was always in, but the whole team?Vivian couldn’t possibly know the lines Callum had already crossed and was desperate to cross again.
He turned to face Vivian.“What are you getting at?”
“You told me there’s nothing between you and Grace Willoughby.”
“There wasn’t.”
“Wasn’t, Hale, orisn’t?”
He threaded his fingers into his hair, then ran a hand over his face.“To be honest—”
“Jesus fuck.Yeah.Do that.Be honest.”
“I don’t know.”
Vivian slapped the table.“It has not even been a week, and you somehow managed to sweet talk that poor woman into bed?I thought better of you.”
He couldn’t form thoughts.Finally, he shook himself out of the disbelief.“It’s been a wild few days, and I didn’tsweet talk her.”He tossed out his hands.“Grace isn’t some poor helpless woman that I’ve conned into my bed, not that it’s any of your business.”
“You’re wrong there.”
“It’s more complicated than I realized, but you can take your fuckboy accusations and shove ’em.”
“More complicated than you realized?Yeah, me too.Me fuckin’ too.”She leaned back in her chair and concentrated on him as though calculating quantum physics.She pinched the bridge of her nose, gave a frustrated shake of her head, and straightened.“I gotta believe you’re doing what you think is right.Hell, you threw your entire career awaybecauseyou only do what you believe is right.”
Just the mention of him refusing orders reverberated in his head like she’d smacked a goddamn gong.Without even closing his eyes, he saw that woman and child through the crosshairs of his scope.He could hear the barking orders in his earpiece.Take the shot.Take the goddamn shot.Finish the job.
Those orders would replay for the rest of his life, no matter if he was wide awake or reliving hell in his nightmares.His fists balled again.Vivian might know, but she didn’t understand.He wanted to shout that he hadn’t thrown away his career.Itabandoned him.Hell, he wanted to tell Vivian never to mention it again, but all he could do was stand there.
“That’s why we hired you, and that’s why I’m putting my blind faith in you.You do the right thing.”
Did he?He didn’t pull the trigger, but that didn’t save the woman and child.As quickly as he refused, he was relieved of duty, and someone else carried out what he still believed were illegal and immoral orders.Doing the right thing meant more than refusing.Didn’t it?He didn’t know what else he would have done, but it still fuckin’ haunted him.
Vivian tapped her nails on the table again—one, two, three taps.Never more.Never less.
“Grace is in a precarious position,” Vivian lowered her voice, “and you’re the save-the-day hero.”
“I’m not—”
She held up a hand.“Anything that she thinks or feels, orthinksshe thinks or feels, is compromised.Hell, you’re not special, Hale.I could probably say the same thing for any of her…” Vivian pursed her lips.“…liaisons that she’s had since she assumed a new life.”
His jaw clenched.The casual comparison of his situation with Grace to anything she had in the past rubbed him the wrong way, not to mention that she hadn’t dated while she’d been hiding.“Grace and I have a history that goes back decades.”
