In her defense, Brielle had been forced into helping Yegor. Her brother, Julian, was a dumbass of cosmic proportions and had gotten himself into serious trouble with the psychopath. Working for Yegor had been the only way to save her sibling. The stuff she’d done had been regrettable for sure, but in the end, she’d done it to save her brother. Caleb could definitely understand making bad choices. Hell, he was the frigging poster child for it.
“How could you possibly know anything about the weapons stolen from Incirlik?” Forrest asked, doubt and distrust dripping off every word. “And more importantly, what would you want in exchange for the information you have? Because I think we all know you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t expecting something in return.”
Caleb winced at how bluntly Forrest had put that. But honestly, the guy probably wasn’t wrong. Brielle had helped them take down Yegor and his goons. She simply hadn’t done it out of the goodness of her heart. STAT had wanted to lock her and her brother away and leverage her gifts to find other supernaturals to work for them. She used her knowledge of Yegor and his plans to negotiate her way out of the situation. Making deals when lives were on the line might be a bit cold-blooded, but Caleb could definitely understand making the best out of the cards you were dealt. It was how he’d gotten himself out of prison and into STAT.
Brielle ignored Forrest’s question and moved over to take a seat in the chair directly across the table from Caleb. He thought she said something about how long and tiring the flight from Quebec had been, but he had to admit he wasn’t paying that much attention. Instead, he was focused on what it was like having the gorgeous French woman this close to him again.
In the days just before the mission in Calais, Caleb had been sure there was something between him and Brielle. A spark. He’d caught her looking his way more than a few times, her expression openly intrigued. And she hadn’t looked away when he’d gazed right back. The sexual chemistry had been palpable enough for even Caleb to pick up on it, and he’d been sure they would end up in bed sooner rather than later.
But then he’d come back after the mission was over to discover that Brielle and her brother had disappeared and that no one had a clue where they’d gone. He guessed Quebec was the answer to that mystery.
“To be honest, I didn’t know the weapons had been stolen from Incirlik,” Brielle said, casually leaning back in her chair. “Though now that you mention it, that does make complete sense. And as far as what I want for helping you, I’m sure this won’t be a shock to anyone, but Julian is in trouble again. I’ll help you find your missing nukes if you help me find my missing brother.”
There were a few snorts of disgust from around the table, but at the same time, Caleb knew that every one of his teammates understood exactly what Brielle was doing and probably would have done the same thing in a similar situation. Of course, he doubted that any of them had a family member who could get themselves in trouble with the regularity Julian seemed to manage. The guy was a screwup of major proportions.
“Why don’t you tell us about your brother,” Jake asked softly. “and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Brielle regarded Jake for a moment and then looked at everyone else around the table. Her gaze settled on Caleb again. Finally, after a few moments of hesitation, she seemed to come to some kind of decision.
“Julian called two nights ago,” she said, then shrugged her slim shoulders. “Well, two and a half nights ago, with the time change between here and Quebec, I guess. Anyway, it was late. I’m not even sure why I answered the phone, other than the fact that I hadn’t seen or heard from Julian in a few weeks.”
“He moved to Quebec with you?” Caleb asked, his normally nonexistent social side suggesting he should probably at least act like he cared about her brother if he ever hoped she’d give him the time of day.
Brielle nodded. “Yeah. Not that he stayed there very long. About a week after we got there, he said something about meeting up with some new friends and never came back. When the phone rang in the middle of the night like that, I knew it was him.”
“What did he say?” Jake prompted.
“‘I’m in trouble again,’” Brielle said softly, her brow furrowing a little. “Those were the first words out of his mouth. Not Bonjour or How have you been? No, he only called to let me know he needed me to save his butt again. You wouldn’t believe how much I wanted to hang up on him.”
Caleb was tempted to ask why she hadn’t but stopped himself. His teammates probably weren’t interested in hearing about Brielle’s problems. He was kind of shocked to realize that he was. Caring about other people—especially people he didn’t know all that well—wasn’t his thing. Before he could think too much about that epiphany, her lightly accented voice broke him out of his reveries.
“I knew it was bad because Julian was whispering, like he was afraid of someone hearing him,” Brielle added. “He said he’d gotten a job he thought would pay him well only to discover he’d gotten in way over his head.”
“Did he say who hired him?” Harley asked.
She shook her head, her silky bangs parting slightly to give him a peek at her perfect brows. Damn, he’d always been a sucker for long hair and bangs.
“No,” she said. “I asked him, but he started rambling about people hiring him because of his drug contacts in Turkey and his ability to get large shipments in and out of the country. At first, I thought that’s what he’d done—gotten involved in another drug operation there—but then he started to freak out about these people planning to hit an American base to steal some nukes. Julian wanted me to know he’d tried to back out, but that wasn’t an option. I told him to get away from them, but he said it was too late for that. He said I was the only one who could help him.”
Brielle seemed like she was on the verge of tears, and it was all Caleb could do not to each across the table and take her hand, try to offer some kind of support. Which baffled the crap out of him, since it had been a frigging lifetime since he’d cared about anyone enough to even consider doing something like that.
“There was more, right?” Sawyer pushed from his seat next to Harley. “He mentioned a name or something or where they were taking the weapons, maybe? I mean, at least tell us that he gave you some idea of what they were planning to do with the bloody things.”
She shook her head again. “He might have been ready to tell me more, but then he said that someone was coming and that he couldn’t let them catch him on the phone. The only thing he was able to say before hanging up was the word Surinda. Then we were disconnected. I tried to call and text him back a dozen times since then, but the number is no longer in service.”
“Surinda?” Jake echoed with a frown. “Does that word mean anything to you? Maybe it’s code for something?”