She didn’t back down. “You think if Will is involved, I shouldn’t be there?”
“That’s exactly what I think.”
Her eyes flashed. “You won’t sideline me.”
Cal’s voice cut through. “You’re not going.”
She stiffened, staring at Wyatt.
“Stay.” Wyatt touched her hand.
She studied him as if she wanted to argue further, but bit her lip. “You’ll tell me everything?”
“Yes.” He didn’t break eye contact as she nodded. Something eased in his chest because that mattered as he released her hand.
Cal checked his phone again. “I’ll line up a meet. We move smart.”
Wyatt nodded, but his mind wasn’t on Driscoll. It wasn’t even on Will Thomas. It was on the word Dallas and not yet. He slipped the coin back into his pocket. Suddenly this wasn’t just about fire. It was about how much ground he was willing to lose.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WYATT
The fuel yard smelled like rust and old petroleum, the stale industrial scent of a place that had seen too many shortcuts and not enough oversight. Wyatt sat in the passenger seat of Cal’s truck, binoculars resting low against his chest as he tracked the movement near the abandoned storage tanks. Driscoll leaned against a stack of cracked pallets, the cigarette glowing between his fingers as if he had nowhere else in the world he needed to be.
“Lazy,” Wyatt muttered.
“Comfortable.” Cal corrected from the driver’s seat. “Men like him don’t feel watched.”
Wyatt didn’t respond as his eyes scanned the perimeter, tracking shadows, angles, and sightlines the same way years of operations had trained him to do.No second vehicle, no unusual movement. There was just heat shimmering off the asphalt and a cloud of flies.
“You thinking about the suspect?” Cal asked casually.
“Yes.”
“You’re not.” Wyatt lowered the binoculars, but Cal didn’t look at him. “Letty,” Cal said.
Wyatt’s jaw ticked. “She’s part of the case.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Silence stretched as Wyatt rolled the silver dollar across his knuckles without looking down. “I think Banner knows her sister,” he said finally.
Cal hummed. “I’ll bite. Who’s her sister?”
“Olivia, James Callahan’s widow.”
“Never met her, but I know there was drama.”
Wyatt continued. “I knew her when she was married to him. She and Banner had a brief thing a few years ago. Said she was… complicated.”
Cal raised and lowered his shoulders. “Women usually are.”
“She’s in Dallas,” Wyatt said.
“That what she told you?”
“Not directly.”I eavesdropped on Letty.
