Page 26 of Catching Fire

By the time Seline was finally falling asleep, midnight had passed. Still, she felt much safer with Kalan in the room across from her. He was great protection even if he didn’t want her. She was feeling deep sleep finally take hold when the phone rang. With sleepy fingers, she reached out and picked it up without thinking.

But her phone didn’t light up. There was an odd echo and the ringtone was coming from somewhere else. Had that been the BRK?

That at least startled her enough to wake up. When she listened, she heard the echo stop and Kalan’s confused voice say, “Hello?”

Either he’d gotten a call in the middle of the night at the same minute she did, or someone was calling them both.

Now she scrambled to hit the button on her phone. “Hello?”

She connected into the three-way call and Agent Watson was already speaking. Seline’s breath hitched though she lied and told herself there was no reason to be concerned. The BRK had called her, but clearly the FBI was on top of it.

“Seline.” Watson said only her name as a greeting, and there was an edge to it that Seline didn't like. Without waiting, Watson asked, “Is Balero in the house with you?”

Seline was on her feet, rushing to the bedroom door. She threw it open wide to see Kalan standing there in just his boxer briefs, but the expression on his face was as disturbed as she felt.

She looked to him as if to ask,Why would Marina be here?

But the impact of the question only hit her as Kalan answered for the both of them. “No, she’s not here.”

Chapter Sixteen

Kalan looked to Seline, but she only stared back at him.Where was Marina and why was the FBI asking them if she was here?

Kalan found his voice before she did and offered a quick, “We'll check.”

If Marina Balero was in the house, they didn't already know it—which was problematic in the first place. He was starting to put a few of the pieces together and none of the answers were good.

“Hold on.” Kalan switched his phone to speaker and used the clip on the back to attach it to his underwear. There was no time to put on clothes. Even Seline was in her drawstring pajama pants and a small top. At any other time, he would have made a move or told her she looked amazing. Right now, she looked afraid and determined at the same time.

She ducked back into her room and emerged with a nine-millimeter in her hand. He would have asked if she knew how to use it, but it was clear by the way she held it that she did.

He ducked back into his own room for his own firearm thinking,Well, doesn't that just say it all? We got a middle of the night phone call from the FBI and we both reached for our guns …

“Start upstairs,” Seline told him, her self-assurance radiating through the hallway. Before he could respond, she’d ducked back into her own room, calling first, “Clear!” then “Closet—clear,” reminding him that he had to check every available space. In his room, he also looked under the bed for good measure. When he emerged into the hallway, he found that Seline had already checked the other room up here.

Together, they headed down the stairs, quietly treading the steps in their bare feet, as if they hadn’t already alerted anyone in the house by yelling.

“Marina?” he called out, then changed to “Wendy?”

He continued to call out as Seline reported to Agent Watson, “She's not upstairs. We're heading to the lower floor. We'll let you know as we go.”

In that moment, Kalan’s respect for her grew exponentially. He’d understood she was something special but from the determined look on her face to the way she walked and held the gun aimed downward and ready she was ready to face all comers. She was trained and rational. In contrast, he was just a dude with some firearm training.

Downstairs, she cleared twice as many rooms as he did. Watching her, he picked up tips or was reminded of tactics that he already knew. She entered each room by standing at the side of the doorway and leading with the barrel of the gun. Seline did a quick glance with one eye to see into the room without becoming a target for a shooter on the other side.

He had not expected this of the chemist. Tonight, she looked like a soldier.

“She's not here,” Seline announced to the phone as the two of them met back up in the living room. Smart as always, she’d not turned on the lights.

“Is there access under the house?” Agent Watson asked.

Kalan remembered that Maggie had trouble with a cellar but he looked to Seline for answers about her own house.

She spoke loudly for both him and Agent Watson still coming over the speaker now at his hip. “There is a crawl space. I have to go outside to get to it. Do you need me to check?”

Kalan was impressed with her cold responses. They’d both been afraid when they first realized what the call was about, but now Seline had been switched toon.

“No,do notleave the house. Our agents are already on the way.” Watson made it clear that she thought ‘outside’ might be dangerous. Did she think Sanders was still around? “Can you show them how to get into the crawlspace when they get there?”

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