Page 25 of Hero's Heart

Callum cut him off, glancing in the rearview mirror. No headlights of other cars following them so far. That was good. “We obtained other intel at the last minute and went into the compound and got Marissa out ourselves.”

There was a beat of silence. Then Dustin exploded. “You fucking didwhat?”

“We got her out. She’s safe and relatively unharmed.” Callum glanced over as Marissa let out an indignant sob, which he ignored. She could walk, could talk, had no noticeable bruises or injuries. In terms of overall outcome, she was fucking fine.

Whereas her sister—half sister, whatever—was still back in the Kozaks’ clutches. A fact which didn’t seem to faze Marissa at all.

“You had one fucking job, Webb,” Dustin fairly screeched. “That was to go to the meeting point, hand over the money, and deliver Marissa back to her family. Going into enemy territory for some type of misguided rescue attempt was not part of the deal. You were outside the bounds of your contract?—”

“Well, now you get the packageandthe money. You’re welcome.” Callum had no idea why Dustin was pissed that they’d just saved his client half a million dollars, but he didn’t care. “The bigger question is, why the fuck didn’t you tell us there was a second daughter involved?”

“Because it was none of your goddamned business!” Callum gripped the steering wheel tighter and clenched his jaw at Dustin’s fury.

What the actual fuck was going on here?The man should not be mad.

Dustin took a deep breath, obviously trying to get ahold of himself. “Bring the women to the agreed-upon location. Just try to follow instructions this time.”

“We only have Marissa. We didn’t get Sloane out.” Callum said the words through clenched teeth.

“What?”

“Sloane somehow”—he shot a glare over at Marissa again—“got separated in the fray.”

“So, you have Marissa but not Sloane.”

Was that relief in the man’s tone?

“Affirmative.” Callum hit the brakes as they rounded a sharp corner, the vehicle skidding briefly before gripping the gravel again. He took a calming breath, though it did nothing to quell the fire raging inside him.

“Then keep going. Get the fuck out of there and get Marissa to the safe zone. Getty was…negotiating separately for the release of Sloane.”

“You need to send a team in right damn now, Dustin. Things have gone to shit, and the Kozaks may decide to kill the other Getty girl now rather than risk further negotiations. I know you have to have contacts in the general area. Hell, get us some weapons, and we’ll go back in ourselves.” He already liked the idea of that. “Yeah, we’ll stash Marissa somewhere safe and go back for Sloane. We’re close, and we’re already familiar with the compound.”

Marissa whimpered beside him, leaning to clutch at his arm. “Callum, please don’t leave me! They’ll kill you and find me! Wehave to keep going—just get me to safety. My father will take care of the rest.”

Callum shook her off, his jaw tightening. “You sit there and be quiet before I toss your ass out. Everybody in this car knows you did something to Sloane and that’s why she’s not here.”

Marissa’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air, her glossy eyes darting away.

Callum hadn’t known his statement was true, but he did now.What the hell?

“Callum, you are, under no goddamn circumstances, to go back for Sloane!” Dustin yelled.

“That better be because you’ve got a team ready to move in and don’t want me to accidentally get shot.”

“It’s because I want you to do your job and let me do mine.”

Callum eased his foot off the gas. “Tell me you have somebody going in there to get her, Dustin. You know Sloane’s chances of survival have dropped significantly now.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Callum slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. “Maybe if we’d known we were dealing with two sisters, we would’ve made different choices. You shouldn’t have kept that info from us.”

“You’re on a need-to-know basis, Webb, and you didn’t need to know this.”

Callum met Bear’s eyes in the rearview mirror. The younger man shook his head. He knew what Callum did.

This shit stank to high heaven.They just didn’t know exactly why.

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