Richard opened his mouth before closing it again. Eventually, he shook his head, sighing through the motion. “I suppose it’s too much for me to hope you would have come when you made it clear your loyalties lie elsewhere at themoment.”
“Father—” Jamie began, anger a slow burn beneathhisskin.
“I didn’t say that to start a fight. It’s simply the truth of themoment.”
Jamie swallowed the argument resting on the tip of his tongue. He wasn’t sure what to make of his father’s attitude, when before, Jamie’s decisions were always cause for afight.
Richard rubbed tiredly at his face, shoulders slumping in exhaustion. There was no one to see him at less than his best except for Jamie, but if he was hoping to be soothed, he’d answered thewrongcall.
“You were right,” Richard said, the words coming out slow and even, almost as if he had practiced them. “I should have canceled therally.”
Jamie knew there were so many ways he could respond to that confession, so many words crowding his thoughts. But the shape of the syllables felt flat on his tongue, so Jamie didn’t give voice to the bone-deep anger and disgust he’d done a good job of hidingsofar.
In the end, all he could think about was that tired little girl, asking why she couldn’t leave, while her mother grieved for her before dying. The way her pulse had beat against his fingers until itdidn’t.
Five years old and she never got the chance togrowold.
Jamie cut theuplink.
He closed his eyes and dug the heels of his palms against them, clenching his teeth so hard his jaw clicked at the hinge. He fought back the sting of tears with long practice. When he regained his composure, Jamie initiated an uplink with a number he’d never had to calluntilnow.
Captain Matthew Gailani answered almost immediately, blinking in surprise on the holoscreen. Jamie figured he must have caught the other man at home for him to have access to video soquickly.
“Callahan,” Matthew said, smoothing one hand over the bedhead he wassporting.
“Gailani. Glad to see you’re stillStateside.”
“We’re out of rotation for the next couple of weeks. News streams are reporting the mess in Boston is under control and taken care of. You aren’t calling for my team through unofficial channels,areyou?”
“No, I’m calling for mine. Are you doing anythingtoday?”
“Nothing I can’tcancel.”
“Good. Our debrief will hopefully not take most of the day. When we’re finished, I’ll shoot you a message, but I need you to go to Katie’s apartment and be there for her when shearrives.”
Matthew frowned, blue-green eyes worried in his darkly tanned face. “Is she allright?”
Jamie chose his words carefully, because he’d seen the way Katie had looked after turning off the last child’s mind. “It was a rough mission. She could use thecompany.”
“Areyousure?”
“You think Idon’tknow what my second-in-commandneeds?”
Matthew shook his head. “I’m not questioning that. I’ll bethere.”
“She give you heraccesscode?”
Matthew hesitated a moment beforesaying, “Yes.”
Jamie drummed his fingers against the computer screen embedded in the desktop, ignoring the bursts of light from command prompts that appeared and disappeared where his fingertipstouched.
“You’re good for her, far as I can tell. I trust Katie’s judgment, so I won’t tell you not to hurt her, because she’s more than capable of dealing with you if you try. But you should know I have no qualms about making your life a living hell ifyoudo.”
“Shovel-talk noted,” Matthew said a little wryly. “She mentioned you’d get around to it at some point. Don’t worry, Callahan. I’ll be at her apartment when she getsthere.”
“Good. Andthankyou.”
Matthew smiled a bit before the line cut off. Jamie rubbed the back of his hand over the itch on his face, the bullet graze nearly healed thanks to a quick-heal patch Trevor had slapped on it during the flight back to base. The new skin pulled tightly every time he spoke, but there was no getting around the discomfort until he showed up in Medical. Which wouldn’t happen until after debrief, something he knew he couldn’t put off anylonger.
