Page 26 of Callen's Captive
Calm or not, she wasn’t going to let him push her away, not after all they’d been through today. When she inspected the wound, he flinched.
“What happened?”
“A bullet. Through and through, but it’s healing. It’s a bit tender.”
She led him to the side of the unit where he slumped along the wall until he was sitting on the cement floor. With a single tug of her hand, he pulled her into his lap. Yesterday she would have fought him, arguing that she didn’t know him. Right now, though, the only place she wanted to be was where she was, in his lap, with his arms holding her tight, making her feel as if everything would be all right, even when she knew better.
* * *
CALLEN
After leading the mercenaries on a five-mile chase through town and into the woods where he finally lost him, Callen then had to skirt most of the city to ensure he didn’t lead them back to Kate. The injury wasn’t bad and would be completely healed by morning. He’d been fortunate it was a through and through, but that fact didn’t seem to go over well with Kate. She was already showing signs of stress, including how cold her body was.
“That passport, everything they burned, was yours?” he asked as he dragged a log over and lowered the unit’s door. The log kept the door propped open enough to allow for some airflow while keeping out the cold wind. He’d warm Kate soon enough.
“This is one of several safe houses I have. I had everything I needed here, including a motorcycle, to continue on to Canada.”
“How did they know about it?”
She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. For a moment he thought she’d fallen asleep, given how quiet she was, but her eyes were wide open and staring at the slur on the wall. Hell, he probably should take her elsewhere, except this storage facility was out of the way and as private as they’d find, and he really needed the downtime. The WSSO had already come and gone. They wouldn’t come back here.
“Princess?”
“I heard you. I’m thinking.”
“That’s what worries me.”
She sat up and raised a brow.
Yeah, his Kate was a thinker, a planner, everything he wasn’t, at least not to the same degree. “You. Thinking, planning. It seems like you’re always one step ahead of me.”
“The WSSO seems to be two steps ahead of me lately. I think they finally hired a hacker of their own and he or she is digging up everything they can on me. Except for stealing their money, I deal in cash only to reduce my digital footprint. But they still found my stash.”
“I’m guessing that means your other safe houses are compromised as well.”
“Probably.” She rolled her head, surveying the empty unit and all her burnt belongings. “I know all their facilities, and the codes to get into them, even the small ones. That print shop we were in was one of them. I didn’t think they’d look for us there, but I’m not so sure now. I got rid of my phone a few weeks ago. I felt like I was being watched. It’s possible they identified me earlier than I realized, and they were pinging my phone to see where I’ve been. Going anywhere I’ve been for the last two months is a bad idea right now.
He pulled her down to lay her head on his lap. As he ran his hand down her arm, lightly caressing her, his wolf howled inside. It was a low howl, a possessive howl. He was getting too close to her, letting his wolf get attached when in all likelihood once he got her out of Riverview, she’d run from him. This trial run of theirs wasn’t going so well, and she’d start to view him as a liability soon enough.
“What am I going to do, Callen?”
“First, you can start thinking in terms of ‘we’ and not ‘I’.”
“You still want to get mixed up in this?”
It didn’t matter what she was mixed up in; he wasn’t leaving her side. He didn’t need to consult his wolf to know he agreed.
“I go where you go.” He stroked her hair, wondering what it would have been like if they had met under normal circumstances. Would she have trusted him as quickly? Or would she have run from him the second she realized he was a shifter?
“You’re a man of few words, but they’re all the right ones.”
Then why did he sense a hesitation in her? “Something else bothering you?” he asked as his fingers trailed down soft skin.
“I still don’t understand why you’re here, why you’re helping me.”
He let his thumb glide over her collarbone. Even that small touch, feeling the heat of her skin against his, calmed him and his wolf who was as taxed as he was. They both needed rest, as did Kate.
“Not everything in life is complicated. You need my help. Isn’t that reason enough?”
