Page 89 of Callen's Captive
“Hisword? At least he’s never lied to me.”
“Oh, he has. You just don’t know it yet. There’s a reason he’s letting us go, and it’s going to bite us in the ass, eventually.”
Callen spoke with a coldness to his voice that made her want to slap him and yell at him for making her believe in him, for making her trust him. She tried to push the pain aside long enough to get some answers, to give him one last opportunity to. . . She didn’t know what she expected or even hoped he would do at this point, but she wouldn’t hide from the truth. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
Callen placed his foot behind him, flat against a tree, while he crossed his arms and leaned back. She’d seen this stance before, when they’d first met, and it didn’t bode well for the conversation. He’d closed himself off to her.
“You’re worse than Briggs,” she yelled, anger pushing the blood through her arteries at an alarming rate. She waited, praying Callen would defend himself or try to convince her that he wasn’t the evil person that Drake—no, not Drake. . . that Callen’s own actions—made him out to be. He juststoodthere, tight-lipped and casual, as if he didn’t care what she thought. Maybe he didn’t.
“At least Briggs was upfront about who he is,” she added, regretting the words the second they left her mouth. She had no right comparing him to that psychopath, but she was mad at Callen for lying to her and now—for treating her as if she meant nothing to him.
“Who’s Briggs?” Blade asked, but Callen threw him a warning look. She could see it now, why so many feared Callen, all except Blade, apparently. He brushed off Callen’s attitude as if Callen were simply giving him the middle finger, nothing worse.
“Seriously, who’s Briggs?”
“The WSSO enforcer who carved Callen up and tortured him.”
“The third man who beat Anna and got away,” Callen added, his eyes fully focused on Kate now.
“I hope you killed the mother-fucker.” Blade’s face was as stone-cold as Callen’s now.
“Been busy. It’s on my to-do list.”
“Just another murder, then, right, Callen?” Kate said in disbelief. The conversation had turned surreal. He was talking about adding Brigg’s murder to a to-do list like some would add cleaning out the gutters to their list of chores around the house. She wanted to see Briggs dead for what he’d done to Callen, but the way Callen casually discussed murdering him terrified her.
Callen averted his eyes, focusing on the forest, Blade, anything but her. Was that it then? He’d written her off? That’s when Callen bent down and lifted Blade over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry.
“Why isn’t he walking?” she asked as she slipped her bag onto her shoulders and fell in step behind Callen.
“He,” Blade said, pointing to himself. “would prefer to be addressed directly and not talked around as ifheweren’t here.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. Now answer me. I don’t think I can stand any more surprises today.”
“Funny, given how I can’t stand.”
She paled. “Oh my God.”
“Relax, Kate. It was a joke. As for why Mr. Tall Dark and Silent here is carrying me, I damaged my spine. Can’t feel my legs.”
“Oh.” She fell quiet for a minute. This was serious, and here she’d been fighting with Callen in front of Blade without any consideration to the fact that the shifter was injured. “Shouldn’t you lay flat until we can arrange to airlift you out of here or something? Maybe I should go back and ask Drake for help.”
“NO!” both shifters said at the same time.
“Geez, I just thought—”
“My wolf will heal me,” Blade cut her off. “But it’s going to take time. We need to get away from Drake before he changes his mind and decides to serve me up to the bears. We’re heading to where Anna is.”
“How far?”
“Ten, twelve miles.”
That was a lot of hiking through rough terrain. Was Callen going to carry him the entire way? She wasn’t going to question them though. They seemed to be in agreement as to what they were doing.
* * *
CALLEN
Callen listened to the casual talk between Blade and Kate. They’d been talking for hours about everything from how he met Anna to the best ingredients for lasagna. Callen hadn’t even known Kate liked lasagna, let alone that she preferred meatless and not too much ricotta in it. It was a meaningless fact in the grand scheme of things, but he wanted to be the one she told those little tidbits to.
