“Why me?”
“Because you’re a man of honour.”
“And are you a man of honour?”
The man looked pensive for a second, his shoulders tensing just the slightest bit before he replied. “I was once.”
The man spun then, walking to the door before Jack stopped him. “Two things.”
The man turned and smiled a humourless smile. “You have a hole in your security, and you can call me Bás.”
With that, he turned and walked away. Jack went straight to the monitor and accessed every camera he could until he found Bás walking out the front door. Jack had no doubt he hadn’t entered that way.
“Alex, get in here,” Jack bellowed and his second came rushing in. “We have a big fucking problem.”
Alex was calm, hands on his hips as he waited for instruction.
“Get the entire fucking team in here now.”
Something in his tone seemed to emanate the seriousness of the situation because Alex moved to do as asked without question.
Jack looked back to the monitor, wondering at the man he’d just encountered. It was hard to figure out whose side he was on, likely his own.
For the first time since Gunner had turned on them, Jack wondered if he could take a deep breath without the weight of guilt almost crushing him. He also decided a K9 unit was long overdue at Eidolon.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Callie glared daggers at her former agent as she sat in a cold empty room in what looked like the office of a warehouse. The smell of decay and mould permeated the air, and she shivered as she heard a mouse scurry—at least she hoped it was a mouse—across the floor. Sophia was leaning against a worn wooden desk, her appearance as impeccable as if she’d just walked off the catwalk herself.
The woman was striking and had a curvaceous figure she envied, but as Callie kept her eyes on her, she realised Sophia’s beauty was only skin deep and didn’t reach the vital heart of the woman. She hurt that a woman she’d trusted had betrayed her in such a way.
“Why are you doing this?” Callie watched as Sophia’s expression clouded for a second before a wall came down and her face tightened in hatred.
Callie flinched as she stepped forward quickly and hated that she’d shown any emotion, but it wasn’t far from her mind that this woman had most likely killed Tina.
“You have no idea what it’s like to want something and never get it.” Sophia paced slowly, the gun ever-present in her hand, forcing Callie to keep her eyes on her.
“I do know.” Callie hated that her voice shook with fear and cleared her throat to try and eliminate her fright.
Sophia swung her gaze to her, and the hatred was so intense it was impossible to comprehend she’d never seen it before. “What do you know? Do you know what it is to always be second best? Do you know what it is to care for someone who thinks you’re not good enough, not pretty enough, not thin enough?”
Callie’s mind whirled at Sophia’s words. Had she been hiding her hatred the entire time she’d worked for her? “I know what it’s like to want to be normal and not be.”
“You have no idea what normal is. You have beauty. You have money, fame, and you’re seen,” Sophia finished on an angry rant.
“I may have those things, but I’ve never treated people with anything but kindness, and if I did hurt or wrong you in some way, then I wish you’d said something. I thought we were friends. I looked up to you. Sophia, you’re the woman who’d carved her own path, made a name for herself in a tough industry all while caring for the models she represented.” Callie meant every word but she didn’t think she’d got through to Sophia.
“I worked hard, I worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and still, it wasn’t enough.”
Callie shook her head, not quite understanding. “Not enough for who?”
Sophia cast her a hate-filled look before she walked towards the desk again and picked up a phone. Callie assumed she was checking for messages.
“See, you don’t even know he exists, you’re too self-involved even to notice the way he looks at you with longing. A look I’d kill to receive, and yet it goes unnoticed by the great Calista Lundholm.”
Callie’s fear receded as anger took over. She knew she wasn’t perfect, but she wasn’t self-involved, and she did care about people. “Listen, I have no idea who you’re talking about, nor do I care at this point. I just want to know why you killed Tina.”
The fabric of Sophia’s jacket brushed against Callie as she walked around the back of the chair, her hand trailing over her shoulders in a way that was more threatening than the gun she held.
“Your little maid found me in your apartment and threatened to go to the police. I couldn’t allow that to happen, so she had to die.”
“I don’t understand, Tina knew self-defence, you would never have been able to over-power her?”
“A gun in the face is a powerful incentive to do as you’re told.”
“Why were you inside my apartment?”
Sophia laughed without humour. “I needed to make sure you were suitably frightened, or I wouldn’t get paid.”
“Paid?”
“Ah, yes, my little Callie.” Sophia stroked a finger over her cheek, causing Callie to pull away and Sophia laughed. “It turns out I’m not the only one who wants you dead. I was approached to frighten you and deliver you to my employer. They offered me more money than I could ever need, so it was as if all my dreams had come true.”
Callie had no idea who the other person was, but her gut told her it had something to do with Reid. At the thought of him, she closed her eyes, not wanting Sophia to have that.
Her Reid, the man she loved with all her heart. He would come for her; she knew it like she knew her own name. He would come, and that terrified her almost as much as dying at this woman’s hands because she knew he’d risk himself to save her.
Yet, what else could she do except pray he was safe and that whoever was behind this wasn’t as good as Reid and his friends at what they did? She needed to get more information or at least something to share with Reid. “How did you know where I was?” It had been bothering her since Sophia had found her.
“Let’s just say an intermediary also has a task here, and he knows your boyfriend very well.”
Callie gave that some thought and wondered if it was what Reid had referred too when he’d said they had other things happening. She’d tuck that knowledge away for now and pray she got the chance to tell him.
“What will you do with me now?” Callie wanted to distract herself and asking questions had proved prudent, especially as Sophia seemed so keen to share.
“I’ll collect my money and hand you and your boyfriend over to the man who wants you both dead.” Sophia rechecked her phone and Callie saw a slight frown marring her features. Perhaps things weren’t going as planned, that could be good for her.
“Reid won’t fall for your tricks.”
Sophia walked a few feet away before her lips twisted in a cruel smile. “Oh, he will. He will come, and he will die.”
“No!” Callie yelled and began to buck and fight to get free, hating that good men could die because of her.