And that would have been that. She would have disappeared from his life forever. And Thorpe realized, if that had happened, she would have been his biggest regret, too. He already had so many of them. Was he prepared to add her to the list?
“The second Callie called you to meet her, you should have let me know. You should have told me where she was, what was going on—”
“She begged me. I promised not to call you until we met and I heard her out. Once I had, I understood why she was adamant about not risking you, so I promised not to say anything. And she was right; everyone who knew her would assume she’d come to you with her problems. She usually does.”
Thorpe still didn’t like it. “How would you feel if Tara came to me wanting to escape danger, and refused to involve you even for your own good?”
“It’s different. She’s my wife.”
“It’s not different. If Xander knew how I felt about her, I guarantee you did.” He cursed. “We’ll talk more about this later. Where can we find Elijah?”
Logan rattled off the address, then sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. In your shoes, I’d be pissed, too. I did what I thought was best with the information I had. I’ll stall her paperwork and tell Elijah to hang on to her until you can get there. Then you can decide the best course of action.”
“Thanks,” Sean said into the phone. “We’ll call you again from the road with disposable numbers. Neither of us are taking our phones.”
“Check.”
Thorpe ended the call, barely resisting the urge to throw his cell across the room and smash it into pieces. Instead, he locked the device into one of his desk drawers so only Axel could access it, then looked at his rival for Callie’s affection and his new partner in her retrieval. “I want to get to Callie as quickly as we can. I won’t rest again until I see her.”
“I feel the same. Let’s go.”
***
DAWN had inched up over the horizon a few hours ago, and they were in the armpit of Texas, somewhere between Dallas and Amarillo. Mile after mile of boring highway rolled by with nothing but small Texas towns to see, and the drive seemed interminable. He and Sean had passed the hours with a fast-food breakfast sandwich, several cups of coffee, and absolute silence. Yesterday’s clothes felt gritty and stiff. But none of that mattered now. Thorpe could only pray that no one had recognized Callie and that she remained out of harm’s way.
Beside him, Sean’s eyes drooped like he still had a tinge of an Ambien hangover. But he continued to stare at the road as if it would somehow bring Callie back to him.
“If you want to sleep, go ahead. I got it,” Thorpe said, breaking the tense hush.
Sean shook his dark head. “I’ve been on stakeouts in the past and had to go two or three days without much sleep, so I’ve been more tired.”
He should probably just shut up, but they’d lost all radio reception some time ago, unless one counted the classic country twang station, which he didn’t. To say the drive was stressful and boring was as obvious as calling the sky blue.
“Your sleep deprivation isn’t going to help us find her any faster,” Thorpe pointed out.
“Right now, I’m not sure I could nod off for any reason. We’ve got hours, maybe days, before we catch up to Callie. If I closed my eyes now, I’d just dwell on how disturbed I am that she believes I’m out to kill her.”
“What else did you expect her to think after she realized you lied?”
“I understand logically. How many dirtbags have hunted her in the past, right? Her wariness has probably saved her more than once.” A pained frown consumed the other man’s face, full of deep lines and silent restraint. Callie’s belief that Sean was capable of hurting her was clearly shredding his guts. “But I wouldn’t tell Callie that I loved her if I’d just planned on ending her.”
Mackenzie’s tone asked why the girl couldn’t see that. The man might have spewed a lot of crap in the past, but unfortunately Thorpe had no doubt his feelings were genuine.
“Or turning her in for the money?”
“Never.”
“When did she become more than a case to you?” Thorpe wasn’t interested in having a touchy-feely conversation, but it would both fill the long drive and tell him how much he could trust the guy.
Sean shrugged. “I think before I even met her. Callie was never a name in a file for me. From the moment this case came my way, I wanted to understand what made her tick. I kept thinking how damn hard it would be to lose your mother as a little girl, then so violently lose everyone else you loved before really growing up.”
“And then have to run for your life and be forced to leave everyone you came to care about again and again.”
“Yeah.” Sean stewed for a minute. “Her circumstances hit me hard. I didn’t know my parents too well, but my grandparents raised me. When they died . . .” He let out a long breath. “That was damn hard. They taught me how to love and the value of family. Anyway, I felt for Callie. But the moment I met her . . . f**k, I knew I was toast.”
Thorpe gripped the steering wheel tighter, stunned by Sean’s simple honesty. He understood closeness and love. Thorpe had been avoiding those for so many years, he’d forgotten what it was like to truly let anyone inside his heart—until Callie had bulldozed his protective walls and dug her way in without even knowing it. She’d quickly taken root, a weed he couldn’t bring himself to pull. If he managed to find her, could he open enough to be the man, the lover, she needed?
According to most people in his past, he didn’t have a prayer in hell.