“A lot less than I wanted by this point.I can’t backtrack how Dominic spoofed Mari Willoughby’s phone number, only that it was spoofed.”
The shadows of doubt jumped for more attention.“How’s that possible?”
“I only have one answer, and it fucking sucks: I don’t know.”
A heavy weight pressed against his shoulders.“Where does that leave us?”
“Nowhere good yet.Hey, I have another call coming in that I have to take.”Dean ended the call as abruptly as he had started it.
When was the last time Dean hadn’t been able to trace a simple phone number or track down a location?In the few months Callum had been with Titan?Never.He tried to remind himself that this wasn’t the Army with unlimited government resources.The private sector didn’t have the same rules in play though, with more leeway and less bureaucracy.
His ears perked.Callum turned as Grace paused at the mouth of the hall.
“Hey.”Her hair hung loose on her shoulders.She rested against the wall and let it take her weight as though her body was too heavy to hold upright.“I couldn’t fall back asleep and decided to get dressed.”
She walked to him like a woman on a mission and wrapped her hands behind his neck.His heart stuttered.Her warm softness pressed against him, and every part of him hardened.Grace pushed onto her tiptoes.Her lips grazed his neck, and prickles of awareness burst over his skin.“I like waking up next to you.”
Fuck… so did he.
Callum curved his arms around her back and belted her body to his.She smelled like sweet summer, and breathing her in was enough to make him forget what they were doing.He needed to pull away and update her on Dean’s phone call.But he didn’t want to.
“I like sleeping next to you.”He tightened his grip on her.“And everything that leads to sleeping next to you.”
A stain of color warmed her cheeks as his hands ran over her hips.
“Everything to do with being with you.”She was his.Did she get that?He said it, showed it, and wanted to figure out more ways to prove it.
Grace peered up at him.
“You’re mine.All mine.”Such simple words.They still didn’t convey what he meant.
He kissed her.A tiny moan purred from deep within her.They had years to make up for the time they missed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Severaldayshadpassedsince they arrived at the safe house, and Callum still had no actionable intelligence on Dominic.Grace’s meeting with the attorney had been delayed until today, and he couldn’t believe they would go in blind.
He felt her tracking him.He dropped their duffel bags by the front door.He didn’t know where they would be tonight, but it was finally time to say goodbye to their fisherman’s lodge.“What’s wrong?”
“For all the time we’ve spent in bed, or you have talked with your people and planned for today, we haven’t talked aboutafter.”
He smiled.Callum had a plan.
He’d had it for days and had tried his damnedest to give her the answers in every possible way without talking about specifics.That would come tonight, wherever they ended up, and involved something like a celebratory dinner, giving her that requested fuck-against-the-wall, then again in bed until he had told her everything.
That he loved her.
That he’d follow her to the ends of the earth.
That she could call the shots with how and when and where they would live their lives, because his only answer would be abso-fuckin’-lutely.
All she needed to do was wait five hours for a meeting to learn what needed learning, so they could start their future without uncertainties.“Let’s get through today, and then we will talk until you’re sick of hearing my voice.”
Her eyebrows lifted.“Yeah?”
“Yeah, babe.”He sidled close to her and laid his hands on her hips, bringing her close.“I don’t want your ex-husband hanging over our heads.I want to hear from the AG’s office.I want to know what we’re dealing with.I want everything on the table.With that, and with you and me.Does that make sense?”He pulled her close—
The kitchen window cracked.The glass shattered.The whiz of a bullet split the air and tore into the wall behind where Grace had just been standing.He tackled her to the ground as his cell phone rang.
