Calum’s Contact Read online

  Books in This Series:

  Damon’s Deal, Book 1

  Wade’s War, Book 2

  Gage’s Goal, Book 3

  Calum’s Contact, Book 4

  Rick’s Road, Book 5

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  About Rick’s Road

  Excerpt from Magnus: Shadow Recon

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  Welcome to a brand-new series from USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer, where dark-ops SEALs have special senses and skills, needed to solve intrigue, betrayal, and … murder. A series with all the elements you’ve come to love, plus so much more, … including psychics!

  As his career path led him into more and more danger, Calum made a decision to keep his family safe, even if it meant he would be alone in the world. But when his wife and son are kidnapped and dumped almost into his very own secret headquarters, Calum knows his safeguards haven’t been enough.

  Mariana didn’t like Calum’s decision from years ago but finally understood after her and her son are rescued from kidnappers, and she saw the dangerous level of his work. However, having him once again in her life, their family whole again, she’s not willing to let him go. Not this time. If the danger would continue, … surely they were safer at his side.

  Calum’s abilities at an all-time low, his friends and fellow teammates injured and struggling, Calum knows he must be there for the team. Yet protecting his family comes first. But, if they don’t get to the bottom of the chaos that’s his current life, … no one is safe.

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  Prologue

  Calum Lancashire walked unsteadily forward, as he entered the temporary headquarters for Terk’s team here in Manchester, England. Terk was here, giving freely of his energy, and, with every step that Calum took, he was getting stronger. He was using a cane, something that he’d never used in his life, and it was hard—damn hard, in fact. It was awkward and debilitating, but, hey, he was finally upright. Nothing worse than not being on his feet. He smiled at Terk. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” Terk asked.

  “For keeping me alive, for one. For keeping Mariana alive, for two. And for saving my kid.”

  “For that, you’re very welcome,” Terk replied. “We have a lot to catch up on. You’re way behind on the news.”

  “Where are they?”

  “They’re down the hall here just a bit,” he stated. “Can you make it?”

  “Of course I’ll make it.” When they opened the door, Cal heard a gasp, and he stepped inside. There was Mariana, standing beside a double bed that contained his son, four-year-old Little Calum. Cal opened his arms, and Mariana raced forward.

  “I’ll leave you three alone. Cal, we’ll meet up later,” Terk said, turning to leave.

  After he left the room, but still in the hallway as he could be heard talking to someone, Mariana whispered to her husband, “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know.”

  “I got it,” he murmured. “I tried to tell you.”

  “And now I get it.” She shook her head. “It was terrible, absolutely terrible, but we’re safe, and now I have you back.” She squeezed him hard.

  He held her close, his face buried in her beautiful soft blond hair. She always smelled like the scent of roses, and yet she swore she never used any perfume. Maybe it was a whiff of her shampoo? He didn’t know, but it was stunning, and it brought back so many memories that the tears choked the back of his throat. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he whispered, “and I’m so damn sorry that you and our son got caught up in this nightmare.”

  She shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said quietly. “I get it. I mean, I really do understand now.”

  He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have to get it.” He groaned. “At least they didn’t hurt you two, thank God.”

  “No, but Little Calum is quite traumatized,” she noted, “and I’ve had a hard time getting him to sleep.”

  “We’ll find a safe place for you two, until this is over.”

  She pulled back ever-so-slightly, then looked up at him. “The kidnappers did mention a name. Rulrul,” she murmured. “I don’t know who that is but—”

  At that, Terk stepped forward. “What, do you mean, Rulrul? What did they say?”

  “Something like, ‘Rulrul won’t like this. He doesn’t like involving kids or women.’ But apparently it was a necessary tactic that they felt they had to employ.”

  “Now that’s interesting,” Terk replied. “Did you hear a last name or anything about a location?”

  “Something to do with overseas, I think. I thought he meant Asia, but I don’t really know.”

  “Did they say anything about the government? Or anything about being paid?”

  “I overheard all kinds of bits and pieces,” she noted. “It’s obvious that they didn’t worry about whether I heard or not,” she murmured, “but it was pretty rough to make out words.”

  “Take your time. If you remember something later, no matter how insignificant, let us know,” Terk replied. “I’m glad you remembered the name Rulrul.”

  “I only wish I had more, but I’m not sure that does any good.”

  “It does. Believe me. All intel does.” Terk gave her a bright smile.

  She held herself close against Cal.

  He just wanted to hold her and to squeeze her tight. He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I promise we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he told her, “and nobody will hurt Little Calum anymore. I’m so sorry.”

  She looked up at him, smiled, and murmured, “I know, and you aren’t to blame. And maybe it’s better in a way because now I understand why you walked away. I knew that you were concerned about danger to us, but I underestimated what that really meant and never expected to have it so forcibly shown to me.”

  “And it shouldn’t have been,” he snapped in a rough voice. Then he looked over at Terk.

  She shook her head. “It’s not Terk’s fault.”

  “No, it’s not,” Calum said, “but you can bet we’re all after answers. Real and final answers.”

  She stopped a moment, then smiled. “Sean.”

  Both men looked at her, with quizzical expressions.

  “Sean,” she repeated. “One of the men they were talking with was Sean.”

  “Any idea in what capacity?” Terk asked.

  “No, but I think he was the one who said something about Calum won’t be happy.”

  “So, Rulrul won’t be happy, and Calum won’t be happy.”

  “I think Sean is the one who arranged for us to get picked up,” she murmured. “I could be wrong though. … I don’t really know. It was mentioned just in passing, as they were leaving, and one of the guys was speaking to the other one. The one guy said, ‘Sean, this is your deal.’ So I presumed the other guy was Sean. He laughed and said, ‘Yeah, old Calum won’t be happy with me.’ Oh wait.” She stopped, then looked at the two men. “Then Sean said something about it being a damn fine time for it. Something like, ‘I’ve been waiting forever.’ Does any of that make sense?”

  At that, Calum stiffened and pulled her tightly into his arms again, holding her close. He looked at Terk over the top of her head. “That can’t be S
ean Calvert, can it?”

  “I suggest we find out,” Terk stated quietly. “Sean has been after you for a long time.”

  She pulled back, looked up at her husband.

  He faced her and explained, “His life is a mess, and he’s always blamed me for it. It could explain him grabbing you and our son.”

  “Did you do something to him?” she asked.

  He immediately shook his head. “No, but a guy like that is just looking for excuses. He’s glommed onto me as his enemy, and that’s all he cared about. We were on friendly terms at one time.”

  She winced. “I’m sorry. That sounds pretty rough. For you and him.”

  “It was very rough for him apparently,” Calum noted. “I’ve received threats from him over the years, and I’ve told him several times that I had nothing to do with his problems.”

  “But, like you said, he doesn’t want to listen.”

  “Right, he doesn’t want to listen at all,” he added. “And obviously he has let that hate boil over to something completely out of hand, and he’s not prepared to even consider the truth anymore.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Yet he sounded normal, looked normal, if normal is a term applied here.”

  He gave her a description of a man about five-eleven, with curly blond hair and a suntan, like a surfer.

  She nodded slowly. “Yeah, exactly.”

  “Good,” he confirmed, “at least now I know who it is. This time we’ll have a meet-up that only one of us will walk away from.”

  “Then it damn well better be you,” she cried out.

  “I didn’t come this far to lose you and Little Calum now.” He smiled. “I worked really hard to survive that blast, and I have no intention of you losing me either, but I do intend to stop somebody who has such a hate-on for me that he’ll continue to be a threat to us.” He paused. “This is well past the point of normal behavior, and I had nothing to do with everything that’s gone wrong in his life,” he murmured. “It’s well past time for him to understand it.” And, with that, he leaned over, kissed her gently. “Besides, I have to keep you guys safe. And I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  She threw her arms around him. “I know you will. You’re not to blame for any of this, but please don’t do anything stupid.”

  “I won’t do anything stupid.” Yet he felt his own temper still simmering. “But you can sure as hell bet that I won’t let myself off as easily as you let me off.”

  She winced. “I knew you would take it the wrong way, if I told you anything.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “We’re at the point in time now where there’s literally no going back. We have to get to the bottom of everything and stop this, Sean included. We’ve had a ton of our people attacked, and some didn’t survive,” he added quietly. “We all have families, and we all want to make sure everything’s good.”

  “I get it,” she agreed. “So go off and do your thing.”

  He smiled. “I wanted to just stay here and be with you for a little bit.” But he caught sight of Terk, who shook his head.

  “As much as that would be nice,” Terk said, “it’s not to be. We’ll bring you up to date, and we need to hunt down Sean, before he causes any more trouble.” And, with that, Terk left, clearly expecting Calum to follow.

  The thing was, he would. Terk had been there for Calum every step of the way, and Cal would be there for Terk now. All Calum had to do was make sure that his team hunted down Sean and took out these assholes. And then go back after the other members of his team who were still comatose. Calum would do what he could to help pull them back out, just as Terk had pulled Cal out.

  It was a terrible half-living state to be in, particularly for those with their kinds of abilities, used to pushing their bodies and their minds to the fullest extent, all in the protection of others. He kissed his wife gently once more. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

  She smiled, then nodded. “Go on. I know you have to, and it’s fine. Just make sure you come home at the end of the day.” And, with that, she stepped back and gave him a tentative wave. He walked over and kissed the sleeping child on the forehead, whispering in his ear. Then Cal headed out to follow Terk.

  Chapter 1

  Calum hated the fact that Mariana and his son were here. Yet he wanted to clutch the two of them close and never let them go.

  He adored her, for God’s sake, but a lot was going on. The fact that she was here to be with him was amazing, and he wanted every moment he could get with her, but the fact that she had been kidnapped, put in a lethal situation, only proved he’d been right to leave them behind so many years ago. He didn’t want his family in jeopardy for another second because of the work Cal did, because of these assholes that Terk’s team encountered too often, and everything that had happened recently was driving him mad.

  He wanted a target to look for, someone he could blame, and a solution he could work toward, but, at the moment, just nothing fell in place, with no way to get anywhere closer to Sean and the guys that had blown up Terk’s team.

  Terk obviously understood what the hell Cal was going through, as he looked over at Calum. “We can’t have you going on too many road trips,” he murmured. “We must keep everybody here safe, but have you done any energy sessions to see if anybody out of Iran is still alive?”

  Calum frowned. “Back to Iran? I thought we were discussing Sean Calvert.”

  “We are,” Terk agreed, “but I need you to keep an eye on Iran as well. It keeps popping up all over our intel.”

  Cal frowned. “Huh. I was pretty sure that was a done deal.”

  “We all were pretty sure it was a done deal,” Terk noted, “but it doesn’t look like it is.”

  “That’s not good,” he replied. “That was a major op for many reasons.”

  “I know.” Terk nodded. “It makes me sick to think that we may have missed one person, and that mistake could end up costing us our lives.”

  “You mean, like it hasn’t already cost us?” Calum stated, half bitterly.

  “I get that you’re upset about Mariana,” he murmured. “I wasn’t even aware that you were still together.”

  “I know”—he shrugged—“I basically kept them out of everything.”

  “And that’s your prerogative,” Terk noted. “We don’t have to share all our personal and private information.”

  “No, we don’t,” Calum agreed, “but I do know how much difference it makes to the team as a whole if we aren’t keeping secrets.”

  “Now that’s true.” Terk gave him a half smile.

  “Damon filled me in on Celia.”

  At that, Terk’s smile fell away, and he gave a clipped nod. “And we have no idea what the hell happened there either.”

  “But we will,” he promised.

  Terk once again stared at him. “We will. I was just hoping that it wasn’t even part of the equation.”

  “Of course not,” Calum stated. “I do think that you were planning to go to Texas, where she was dumped, says something.”

  “And what about that she’s carrying my child?” he asked bitterly.

  At that, Calum hesitated, then asked, “You’re sure?”

  “As sure as I can be without a DNA test,” Terk replied, his voice low.

  “Of course,” Calum acknowledged, “and that’s what they’re counting on, isn’t it? That you would know, with our particular skills, and that you would go there and save her.”

  “Well, it’s not that we don’t do that on a regular basis,” Terk replied, “which means they also know all about us in every way.” He shrugged. “Which I was assuming to begin with. So somebody has been tapping our lines or somebody inside the department has been passing over information, whether knowingly or not.” He shook his head. “Bob was one of the defense department guys, and they took him out at the same time as the attacks on the rest of us.”

  “Weeding us out to focus on something more tangible, I suppose,” Calum noted. “La
st I heard, Sean was in the Netherlands.” He looked at Terk. “If too many of us gather here, we’ll draw attention.”

  “I know,” Terk stated. “We’re trying to find another location.”

  “Good,” he noted. “With all of us in one corner like this, if we get taken out, it’ll take all of us out.”

  “Again, I know,” Terk muttered. “We’re still looking at options.”

  “There aren’t very many buildings that can shield our energy usage, and we need that to give us an additional layer of security, especially now that we have family left behind, when we go on ops.” Calum sighed. “I don’t suppose you want me to physically head to the Netherlands to track down Sean, especially not alone.”

  “No, I don’t want you going, especially not alone. With half of us still down, I need you to do a little remote viewing first, see if you can confirm anything at all from Iran.”

  “I can do that now.” Calum looked around. “Do we have a room or a secure place where we can do our energy work?”

  “Yeah.” Terk nodded. “I have two rooms that I have been working in.”

  “Okay, let me take a look at them.” With that, they walked out of the main computer area and headed down to where Terk did his special work. “This might work,” Calum noted, as he stood in the first room. “Interesting noise barriers.”

  “I know, but we don’t have a whole lot of options.”

  “We never do,” Cal muttered. “Okay, leave me alone here for a little bit, and I’ll see if I can make anything activate.”

  “And remember. It’s always about not getting tracked.” Terk’s tone was bitter.

  Calum was a bit offended that Terk felt he had to tell him that.

  Terk immediately added, “No offense meant. However, after the blast, everyone’s skills have taken a hit. So I’d rather say something twice than not mention something that may have been wiped out of our memory banks by that attack.”

  Cal slowly nodded. “I know. The stakes have never been higher, … not when my family is now here.” He frowned. “This isn’t a great place for a kid.”