Page 76 of Matthew
She looked up. “Okay, lay it on me.”
He nodded once. “The guy Rosie passed the note to? Dylan Marks. He works for a small courier outfit that contracts with FieldSource. Local, no criminal record, nothing that raised alarms.”
Callie frowned. “Then what’s the issue?”
“He’s been rotated off that delivery route. Quietly. No warning. Hasn’t been back since.”
Her brow furrowed. “So, either Rosie asked him for something, and it flagged somewhere, or someone wanted him gone.”
She exhaled slowly, tension creeping into her shoulders.
“There’s more,” Matthew said, dropping into a seat beside her. “Based on the truck’s timing the other morning, I think someone knew exactly where that box had been unloaded.”
“You think someone inside FieldSource tipped them off?”
“Maybe. Or someone’s feeding intel from the outside. Either way, the truck wouldn’t show up for fun. They came to retrieve. They waited until first light—less traffic, fewer eyes.”
Callie crossed her arms. “But they didn’t know it had been moved.”
He shook his head. “Nope. We got lucky. And I think they figured it out too late.”
Her mouth twisted into a thoughtful frown. “It had to be someone who’s either worked with Ellis before or has access to delivery manifests. The timing was too precise to be random.”
Matthew nodded, admiring her quick analysis. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
They sat in silence for a few seconds, the air between them thick with implications.
She leaned back, arms still crossed, her gaze thoughtful. “So…anything else I should know?”
Matthew hesitated, watching her carefully. “Why does that feel like a trap?”
Instead of answering, Callie reached behind her on the bench and retrieved the familiar black flashlight, holding it out in silent incrimination.
“Think you forgot something,” she said, one brow lifting. “Or was this part of your secret surveillance gear?”
His lips quirked. Then he scratched his temple and exhaled. “Looks that way.”
Callie tilted her head, her voice softer now. “Have you been sleeping out here?”
He didn’t dodge it. “Yeah.”
Her brows lifted, but there was no judgment in her expression, only quiet surprise and something else he couldn’t quite name.
“For how long?” she asked.
“Couple nights,” he admitted. “Didn’t want you out here alone. And I figured if I told you, you’d either drag a sleeping bag out and join me or try to stop me.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head slowly. “Okay, fair.”
That earned a ghost of a smile from him. “I needed to be sure we weren’t missing something. If anything happened to you—”
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” she said firmly. “Because you’re here.”
That settled between them, quiet but full of meaning. He hadn’t realized how damn much he needed to hear that.
She leaned back, one foot propped on the edge of the bench. “You’re kind of ridiculous, you know that?”
“Comes with the job.”
