Page 24 of Hero's Heart

Theo was saying something to Marissa, but Callum tuned it out as he felt the heat of a bullet grazing his arm, the sting sharp but manageable. “Fuck.”

“You hit?” Bear asked, returning fire.

“It’s fine. But let’s get the hell out of here.”

They retreated farther toward the tunnel’s exit, their movements synchronized, firing more rapidly just to give them a chance of getting out. Theo was frantically whispering something to Marissa, but Callum couldn’t work it out over the gunfire.

“Get them to the vehicle!” he yelled into the comms. “We’ll meet you there.” He and Bear would be much faster than the women.

If they could make it out of this damned tunnel.

“Callum, we’re out, but we have a problem.” Theo’s voice was distinct a couple minutes later.

“Just get the women out.”

Callum didn’t wait for a response. He and Bear both sprinted to the end of the tunnel, panting as they emerged into the woods. He scanned the area quickly, his heart pounding. Marissa was there, down on the ground, clutching a tree and sobbing. Theo was standing over her looking like he was about to lose his shit. Given that the kid was one of the most even-keeled people Callum had ever met, that said a lot.

But Sloane was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s your sister?” Callum demanded, assessing the situation in just a second.

“I don’t know!” she wailed. “I told her to keep going forward, but she took some side tunnel instead. She ran away from me. I tried to get her to come back, but with all the smoke and noise, we got confused.”

Callum’s jaw clenched, the anger rising like a tidal wave. “Stay here,” he snapped, turning back toward the tunnel.

Bear grabbed his arm, face grim. “We can’t go back. We don’t have the ammo.”

“Don’t get us all killed for her,” Marissa whined. “This is all her fault anyway.”

Callum’s fists clenched at his sides. Every instinct screamed at him to charge back into the tunnel, to find Sloane and bring her out. But logic cut through the haze of fury.

Like it or not, Bear was right. If they went back right now, none of them would make it out alive.

He turned away from the tunnel, his chest heavy with guilt. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 9

Callum’s knuckles whitened around the steering wheel in the piece-of-shit vehicle they’d chosen because it would blend in with other vehicles in the area. The dense forest of the Moldovan countryside blurred past, skeletal branches clawing at the horizon barely visible in the moonlight, but he couldn’t care less about any of it.

They’d only gone a couple miles, but every second they moved away from the farmhouse compound made Callum feel more sick. He shouldn’t have left. He’d never left somebody behind in a situation like this.

All he could see were those blue eyes staring out at him in relief when he’d said they were getting both women out.

Only for Callum to be proved a liar.

Marissa sat in the passenger seat, sobbing into her manicured hands, her nails flashing with every dramatic swipe at her tear-streaked face. Theo and Bear were crammed into the back, Theo glaring at Marissa while Bear methodically studied his pistol. Probably wishing he had one more round to use on Marissa.

Callum pressed the button on his phone to dial Dustin’s number and put it on speaker. That son of a bitch had some explaining to do.

“Webb. Didn’t expect to hear from you before the drop. Don’t you have prepar?—”

“You fucking bastard.” Callum didn’t let him finish. “What the hell is going on here, Dustin?”

“Excuse you?”

“We’ve got Marissa Getty here in the car.”

“What?! Did the drop get rescheduled? Why wasn’t I notif?—”

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