Page 96 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

Kaleb and I had moved his vehicle to the front of the hospital, and we were waiting for the nurse to bring Shelby down in a wheelchair.

Since Kaleb had asked me to come with him to the lobby to wait, I’d known I was going to get some questions that I didn’t want to answer the moment we’d sat down.

I hadn’t explained to Shelby yet exactly what had happened. Her medical condition took priority, and I’d simply asked her to tell her family that the FBI had come to the rescue until I could explain.

She’d trusted me enough to do that, and everyone had bought it. Nobody had asked a lot of questions because they thought it might upset Shelby.

Well, everyone had bought that explanationexceptKaleb.

He’d been shooting me skeptical glances since he’d first arrived at the hospital.

Chase had called him, and he’d been there in the emergency room soon after the helicopter had landed. He’d left to shower and sleep, but he hadn’t been gone long.

My old friend had practically dragged me to a gurney to get my wound treated, so he knew that I’d been shot.

Somehow, I needed to contain that information. The hospital had been satisfied because the FBI had shown up to talk to me. They’d simply done their job in the busy ER and let the authorities deal with the criminal part.

I wasn’t sure how Marshall did it, but he’d assured me that this incident wasn’t going to expose Last Hope’s operations.

The guy had some powerful friends that neither I—nor anyone in Last Hope—knew about if he could cover up the fact that we’d gone in and rescued Shelby before the rest of the calvary had moved in.

“Look,” Kaleb said when I remained silent. “I trust you, which is why I haven’t said a word to my family about my suspicions or that bullet wound. I’m just damn grateful that Shelby is going to be okay. But you can’t blame me for asking questions about exactly how that happened. I love her, Wyatt. She’s like a sister to me, and I don’t buy the story about the FBI saving her?”

I let out a long breath. I didn’t want to lie to one of my oldest friends. “I’d appreciate it if you kept the bullet wound to yourself,” I said gruffly. “I got it after I pulled Shelby out of that cabin. I had help. You met Brock briefly, and you know that Chase was here. I sent them away before the rest of your family got here to avoid the questions about why they were here in the first place. I can’t tell you all of it, but it’s not because I don’t trust you. It’s just better if you don’t know everything, and it’s complicated.”

“Does this complicated situation have anything to do with how you apparently knew exactly where Shelby was and who took her when nobody else knew?” Kaleb questioned stoically.

I nodded as I looked around to make sure no one had entered the empty space we were taking up in the lobby. “Yes. We have access to some intel that most law enforcements agencies don’t.”

“When you saywe,I’m assuming that includes Chase and your other special forces friends, too?” he questioned.

“Yes,” I admitted quietly.

“Government work?” he grilled me.

“Not exactly,” I said evasively. “Let’s just say that we use the skills we acquired to help people who are in bad situations. And in order to keep helping people, we have to keep our involvement a secret or we’re done. We don’t usually get involved with anything on US soil or anything that’s being handled by US authorities. Shelby’s case was different. If we hadn’t gotten involved, she would have been dead by now because nobody local was taking her disappearance seriously. It was also safer for us to take her out covertly before the feds came in. You saw what happened when the FBI moved in. This asshole was insane, and I have no doubt he would have killed Shelby before he killed himself. He wouldn’t have let her live, Kaleb.”

Kaleb and his family now knew the basics about who the perpetrator was and why he’d done it. They also knew that Young was dead and that he’d never threaten Shelby again.

“Everything you’ve just told me will always stay just between the two of us,” Kaleb replied. “I don’t need to know everything else because I don’t want to jeopardize whatever you’re doing. The rest of my family will never know. I don’t doubt that you’re saving other people’s lives. I know you, Wyatt. You might act like a hard-ass, but doing something good for people in secret is right up your alley. I’m just not exactly sure how to thank you for what you did, especially since I was the asshole who caused it to happen in the first place. I should have trusted your instincts and not let her out of my sight, even if it was just for a few minutes. Now that we know that Shelby’s going to be okay, my brothers and I are going to find a way to get our small police department better equipped to handle something like this. I thought she was safer here, but I was wrong.”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t your fault. Hell, I don’t think anyone could have foreseen just how crazy this asshole was, Kaleb. I am obsessed about Shelby’s safety, and I’m not sure that obsession is going to get any better after this.”

I’d come way too close to losing her, and even though Young was dead, I couldn’t forget how vulnerable she’d been to a fucking serial killer.

“She’s stubborn,” Kaleb warned.

“I’m well aware of that,” I said drily.

“Take care of her, Wyatt,” Kaleb advised grimly. “She may not always show it because of her past, but her heart can still get broken, and she cares about you.”

I shot him an irritated glance. “Did it ever occur to you that she could dump me.”

“Nope,” Kaleb quipped. “I know Shelby. She wouldn’t still be at your place if she didn’t want to be there and if she wasn’t serious about your relationship. She’s crazy about you, Wyatt. It’s obvious. At least it’s obvious to the people who love her.”

Yeah, well, Kaleb obviously didn’t know about what had happened before she left for Montana, and I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. “I feel the same way about her,” I confessed. “And the last thing I plan on doing is breaking her heart. I’m more afraid that she’ll get sick of my ornery ass and leave.”

“She won’t,” Kaleb said confidently. “She has a lot of practice dealing with obstinate jerks, and she still loves all three of us.”

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