Page 31 of Callahan's Haven

Okay, that effectively answered her question.

It was bad.

“But, you say it’s supposed to be over soon. Right?”

Cal nodded, his jaw working. “Friday.”

“So, after Friday, everything goes back to normal?” Normal being a relative term since she still had to deal with the fallout from Brayden’s attack.

Normal also meaning Cal would be gone.

“What…” Oh, God. Her heart sank while her pulse raced. “Hope and Destiny,” she said, sitting up straight and grabbing his arm. The panic rising in her voice mirrored the fear taking hold of her. “Are they in danger?” If something happened to her friends because of her, she’d never forgive herself.

Cal shook his head and took the trembling hand squeezing his arm, rubbing his thumb over the back of it. “No. Nothing points to that. We’re—” He tilted his head and frowned, his gaze going distant before he gave her a quick glance. “Give me a second,” he told her, letting go of her hand.

She followed his stare through the windshield, which was the only glass not tinted almost black on the whole vehicle, to a large van sitting across the parking lot

“No, not you.”

Was he talking to himself? She drew her eyebrows together and slowly turned her head back to him.

“No, it would takemuchlonger than a second.” He let out what she could only call a sigh of exasperation and shook his head. “Uh huh. You’re hilarious.” He paused for several seconds before nodding, saying, “Yeah. Give me fifteen minutes, and don’t—” He grimaced. “Asshole.”

“Sorry about that,” he said, looking back at her.

Haven glanced back out the windshield. “Please tell me you’re somehow talking to someone in the van.”

“Hmm?” He glanced out the windshield and then back at her with a slight smile. “Yeah. It’s just Garrett. He keeps us in communication with each other.” He turned his head and pointed at his ear and the tip of an almost invisible earpiece.

Heat suffused her face. “He hasn’t been listening to us all this time, has he?” She covered her hot cheeks with her hands while he shook his head. “Oh, God…and last night.”

“No,” he told her, waving his hand up and down in a calming motion. “I was on my own last night, and today I told him to cut my communications while we talked.” His grin wasn’t as reassuring as he probably thought it was. “No one has heard anything.”

Several deep, calming breaths later she dropped her hands. “Okay. Good.” A thought occurred to her and she narrowed her gaze out the window. “What else does he do in there?”

She looked back at him when he didn’t immediately answer. For the first time since they’d been talking, Cal looked uncomfortable. “He watches. We all do.”

“You watch…” There had to be more to it than that. “Watch what?”

The look he gave her was almost humorous. Hedidn’twant to tell her, which told her whatever it was he had to say wasn’t going to make her happy. “We have surveillance cameras monitoring you.”

“You’re monitoring me,” she said, her voice flat. Her eyes went wide. Had he seen her naked? “Do you have cameras in my room?” She may have yelled that last part.

“No, not in your room,” he said in a rush. In the next few seconds, her temper grew hotter incrementally with each place he told her theydidhave cameras. “But we do have them in the library, your classrooms, and outside those same buildings”

“And? I sense an and.”

“And the halls of and outside your dorm. Along with audio.”

So, that explained the campus maintenance crew she’d noticed everywhere she went a couple of weeks ago. This just kept getting worse and worse. The knowledge she’d had strangers watching her and listening in on her conversations practically everywhere she went had her skeeved out. She tilted her head in question. “What about Friday night?”

He shrugged. “I was watching from behind the house with some specialized portable equipment.” He had the nerve to let out a short laugh. “Nice ass-kicking job, by the way.”

She narrowed her gaze on him to keep from smiling. What was wrong with her that his smile had her turning to mush? The man was two steps above a Peeping Tom and shestillhad the urge to rip is clothes off.

She might be able to give him a break since he was only following her father’s orders. And since Cal and his teamwereformer Marines under his command, it was a foregone conclusion they would have doneanythingnecessary to make sure those orders were carried out.

She turned her attention to where her fingers picked at her jeans. But would thatwhatever necessarything include kissing her and pretending they were a couple? The possibility made sense, but she didn’t like it.

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