Page 63 of Come Back to Me

“What the hell’s Colt playing at?”

“He doesn’t see any more of a risk than usual. She isn’t the first high-profile person we’ve had staying with us. I-I guess because we’ve never been discovered, he feels safe.”

“The world is never safe.”

His focus sharpens. “From one paranoid person to another, that’s hella deep.”

Maybe.

It also changes the tenor of why I came to his room.

“You still have Tee’s location?”

“Why?”

I scowl at him. “Because there’s some asshole ex who might want to use her as a bargaining chip to get his wife back?”

His eyes flare wide. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, oh,shit. If you’d warned me, we could have taken precautions already!”

It’s tough sometimes to remember that Callan’s still a kid. He’s so fucking smart, and the weight of the universe lives rent free on his shoulders, but he’s not a pro at this.

Whatever he’s learned comes from books, and as helpful as that is, he’s still naïve.

To be honest, I want to keep him that way.

He’s already too burdened by the bullshit from our childhood. The last thing I want is to make things worse.

But Colt? He has zero excuses. I’m going to tear him a new one the second I lay eyes on him. Not just for keeping me in the dark, but for thinking our eighteen-year-old brother could handle managing the ranch’s security on his own.

When my phone dings, he murmurs, “I sent it to you. It won’t be what you’re used to. I kinda cloned it.”

“Thank you.” My lips purse because that’s probably illegal,butit’s the least of my worries. “I want you to brief me tomorrow on the entire situation. From where the cameras are positioned to what security guards are stationed where. I want to know every fucking thing about this ranch and its security, Callan, you copy?”

His mouth works, and I’m a hair away from steamrolling over his complaint before he sags, his eyes drifting to a close for a millisecond before he nods at me.

Thatis when I realize Callan is relieved.

“I’ll get everything ready,” he says, voice eager.

The urge to drag him into a hug is strong, but I settle for moving deeper into his room so I can clap a hand on his shoulder and squeeze.

“I’ll take over from here, Cal. You’ve done a great job so far, though.”

“You haven’t seen my setup yet,” he points out, but fuck, his voice is shy.

Shame for letting him bear this weight for so damn long hits me, but I shove it aside because it won’t get us anywhere. “I know you, kid. You don’t half-ass anything.”

He’s beaming when I leave, not because of the compliment, but because the weight’s off him and onto someone he trusts.

Hell, I could handle this shit in my sleep, but there’s no denying that everything shifts when it’s personal.

I grab my cell and check out Tee’s current position, then I go to my room and quickly shower and change.

There’s no time to waste, but every step of my journey, I check her position and find she’s right where she was last—some bar in the center of the city.

For all that she’s safe in a crowd, I rush and use my pickup to drive back to Saskatoon.

---