Page 50 of Callen's Captive
There was a note of loss there that she hadn’t heard from him before, even when he’d spoken of his sister. “He’ll understand, whatever it is. True friends forgive.”
“Have you forgiven Janie for not telling you her secret?”
“Yes, but that’s different. I don’t have the option of ever seeing her again.”
Callen pulled her close against his chest, right where she wanted to be, but said nothing as he watched the rain. His emotions were all over the place today, but that was understandable. He was worried about his pack.
“I’m right here, if you want to talk about whatever happened between you and Blade. Maybe it’s not as bad as you think.”
Her shifter of few words remained silent, not that she expected him to say much. She got the impression he didn’t like burdening others, or maybe it was just her.
She settled in against him in silence, trying to see the beauty in the storm as he did. He smelled wonderful. Familiar, like home, but better, because home had never been a place she cared to be. Callen smelled like some place safe and warm, like a promise. One that never broke, never shattered. Except he was breaking it. Callen would be leaving her soon.
Maybe she should give in to desire for once. At least Callen wouldn’t use her. There were no insincere promises to stay together forever. He planned to leave, and they both knew it.
Kate started caressing his right thigh until his hand stilled her. He got off the cot and stood in the doorway, staring off into the distance.
She sighed. He had said he wanted her. Want and need, still two different things. She and Callen simply weren’t meant to be together.
“When are you leaving?”
“Before dawn. I don’t want to be seen on the plateau.”
“If you want to find me again, Callen, talk to Anna. I set up a code with her. She knows how and where to leave messages for me. I check those accounts periodically.”
He whipped around, his face twisted with torment. “If? Hell, Kate, I don’t want to leave you. How could you think that?”
* * *
CALLEN
She seriously thought he wanted to go. If he had any other way of warning Damien about the upcoming attack, he’d do so, but he didn’t. Damn it, she still refused to come with him. Now she was sitting there on the cot, as gorgeous as ever, her face showing no emotion, making her hard to read.
Callen leaned against the open door. The rain was coming down in sheets now.
“You’re leaving,” she said as she sat forward on the cot. “I know you don’t have a choice, but I also know it gives you a convenient out.”
“An out? From what?”
“Your promise.” She swung those long shapely legs of hers off the cot. “It’s okay, Callen, I’m not mad. I never expected you to stay long in the first place. It’s how things are, that’s all.”
He closed his eyes, searching for strength. How often had people walked away from her that she had never believed him in the first place? She believed she couldn’t rely on others, that should couldn’t count onhim. By leaving, he was proving her right. Then again, this was Kate, a woman who didn’t make anything easy. If a person wanted her trust, they had to earn it. If they wanted her love, well, they damn well better fight for it because she had a ten-foot concrete wall with barbed wire around her heart.
He would fight for her. Always.
Once he warned his pack, Callen was definitely coming back for her. The part he hadn’t figured out was how to protect her while he was gone.
“I guess you didn’t hear anything I said earlier. About wanting you. Come with me, Kate, long enough for me to deliver a message, and then we’ll return here if you still want.”
“You’re not going to stay to defend your pack?”
“If it’s the only way I can convince you to come with me, then no. I’ll deliver the message, and then we’ll leave. Damien has a lot of well-trained fighters. He’ll never miss me.”
Without warning, she pressed herself to his back, her slender arms coiled around his chest. He placed his hand over hers, interlocking their fingers.
“I can’t believe you’d do that for me.”
As he turned, he sifted his fingers through her hand and then down along her jawbone. “I’d do anything for you.”
