What did James have as his wallpaper? She’d seen it, surely, but in the dark of the hotel room, she couldn’t recall. Would it be a picture with his brothers? Or maybe, like hers, an image of his now-hometown?
As she pondered the possibilities, then pondered why she found the question so interesting, the screen flickered back to dark mode. The sudden absence of the glare shot through her like a light switch, both blinding and illuminating.
Bringing the device back to life, she tapped a couple of buttons, and in seconds, the call connected, the digital ringing of the phone discordant in the muted sounds of her room.
“Daph,” Callie answered.
“I need to be there with him,” she said without preamble. She didn’t want him to face his past alone. She might not be one of his brothers, but she was important to him. Maybe important enough to remind him of everything he’d built, every connection he’d forged in his life. An anchor to the life he had the courage to create when his siblings would, without question, be intent on dragging him back into the darkness.
Callie sighed. “You’ve spent time with all sorts of interesting people, including spies and cops and Special Forces folks. I’ll give you that, Daph. But this isn’t a research project. These are real people with real guns who will really kill you.”
“If Gabe was walking into a room to confront his mother and father, would you want to sit that out? Or would you want to be by his side?” Gabe’s mother had abandoned him and his brother to their alcoholic, abusive father at a young age. He’d stepped in to protect and care for his brother, taking more than a few hits, both physical and emotional, along the way.
Her sister didn’t respond right away, and Daphne remained silent. She wanted to put forth more reasons—there were severalas to why James shouldn’t be alone—but she’d long ago learned that Callie needed time to think. And the more Daphne talked, the less time Callie had to think.
“It’s interesting that you compared your relationship with Lovell to my relationship with myhusband.”
“It is, but I’m not going to examine that right now,” she countered. Of course, her sister pulled at the one thread Daphne hadn’t considered when she’d spoken. She’d been impulsive in her approach, but didn’t regret it. Not if it got Callie’s attention.
“How do you propose for this to come about?” Callie said.
Daphne glared at her phone. Callie was the smartest person she knew; surely she had an idea or two. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not privy to how these things work. Maybe the same way you got James in? Bring me on as a consultant to HICC, then farm me out to the FBI?”
Callie chuckled. “As brilliant and as talented as you are, I don’t think you’d pass even the most basic requirements we have for our operatives.”
“Rude,” Daphne said, but couldn’t help an answering laugh.
“Accurate,” Callie countered, then followed the statement with a sigh. “I understand why this is important to you, I really do. But making it happen is a whole other ball of yarn.”
“He shouldn’t be alone,” Daphne said. The idea had come swift and unformed moments ago, but as she talked with her sister, it solidified into something real and urgent. “He’s strong, Callie. So strong. And getting tossed back into his past won’t break him, I’m not worried about that. Well, not much. But he doesn’tneedto do this alone. He has people who love and care for him now, people who not only can, but will, stand beside him.”
“Are you one of them?”
Daphne didn’t pretend not to grasp what her sister really wanted to know. “It’s too early to talk about love between thetwo of us. Hell, I’ve never been in love before, not the romantic kind, so what do I even know about it? But I’m not shutting down the possibility that there could be a future, a real one. A good one.”
“The label feels awkward, but the feelings feel right?”
Daphne considered those words. She hadn’t thought about her feelings for James in that way—or in any way, really, other than to acknowledge she had them. But the question rang true: Saying she loved James felt clumsy and uncomfortable. But picturing them together in a year or two or more? That didn’t feel so difficult.
“Maybe,” she said, wanting to roll that thought around in her head a little more before committing.
“It will be dangerous, Daph.”
“I know.”
“He won’t like it.”
“Not at first,” she said. “But when it’s over, and he’s had a chance to calm down, he’ll appreciate it. Appreciate that he wasn’t alone.”
“These men are a little protective of their women. You might be underestimating how long it will take him to calm down.”
Daphne smiled. “Probably. Fear will do that to people. But I have faith I can convince him to move on to the appreciation phase reasonably quickly.” Or, if not, she had a pretty good idea of how James would want to work out his fear and frustration, and she had no problem with that approach.
“I don’t want to know,” her sister said.
Daphne laughed. “You already know, you just don’t want to talk about it.”
Callie huffed. “Fact.” She paused, then sighed. “Superman will be there in forty-five minutes to pick you up.”
