Calum’s Contact Read online

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Wade noted.

  “No, we don’t, but it sure is suspicious,” Damon stated.

  “Okay, so where are we going then?” Calum asked.

  “To check on an address registered to Sean Calvert’s father.”

  Calum looked at him, startled. “Wow. How come I didn’t get any intel on that?”

  “Because we were doing the briefing while you were recharging with your family.”

  “Ah, shit. Okay, so you want to bring me up to date then?”

  Damon and Wade quickly told Cal what they had unearthed about this Sean Calvert guy from the Netherlands, having relocated to Belgium, then to England where his father had property.

  “Interesting,” Cal said. “Anybody question why England was a location for these guys?”

  “Probably the tax laws or something,” Damon replied, sounding a bit coy. “We also knew of quite a hub of terrorist activity in England for a while, and they’re getting harder and harder to ferret out and track. They are spreading like the Hydra heads—cut one off, and two spring back. We take one out, only to find a bunch of others.”

  “I know, right?” Cal nodded. “We’ve sure seen that happen a few times. And in pretty short order.”

  “Yeah,” Wade added, “but these terrorists are tenacious. We finally get the head of one group cut off and get them down for a while, and then they pop back up, just as ugly again.”

  “So this address, it looks like an empty property?” Damon guessed.

  “I can check out the address beforehand and see,” Calum stated.

  “Can you do it on the fly?” Damon asked.

  “Well, not nearly as well as I used to travel on the ethers, but I am getting things back stronger and stronger.”

  “Welcome to the club, though we’re all making progress it seems,” Wade noted.

  “Terk also mentioned that being with your family would do that faster for you than anything.” Damon cocked an eyebrow to Cal.

  “Turns out he’s right about that, as much as I hate to admit it,” Cal confirmed. “She grounds me in a way I hadn’t really noticed before, but now that I need that grounding, it’s really obvious.” He hesitated for a moment, then went on tentatively. “She also said something in passing about the way Terk has been communicating with her.”

  At that, Wade and Damon both froze.

  “Do you think she can communicate telepathically with him?” Damon asked Cal.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and talk to her about it,” Cal replied, “but it wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “Interesting,” Wade murmured. “You know what? I guess it would make sense that we’re each collecting women who understand the challenges we have with our special skills alone, as well as the risky work we do.”

  “And potentially have some of their own needs or challenges at the same time,” Damon added.

  “Well, it would be good if we did,” Cal murmured, “if you think about it. … Any more action at the government level?”

  “No, though we have Lorelei here now, who is still working for them. They think she’s at a hotel,” Damon shared. “She just changed hotels again, saying she was trying to find one at a better price. They’ve asked her what her long-term plans are, and she says at the moment she doesn’t have any. Of course she’s working here, trying to track the allegiances in the US black ops areas, seeing who with connections is currently for or against us.”

  “Can she find out any of that?”

  “We’re hoping so,” Wade murmured. “She is definitely trying.”

  “We can’t ask any more than that,” Cal stated, “because this is one hell of a mess.”

  “It is, but we’re getting somewhere, so hold on to that thought, and we’ll be fine.” Damon slapped him on the shoulder, as they all climbed into one of Terk’s vehicles.

  Cal smiled at their optimism. Just then he settled back into the seat, eyes closed for a moment. “The house is not vacant, by the way.”

  “I was just getting a heat signature off it myself,” Damon confirmed. “I’m not very good at what you do, and, of course, I’ve been spreading my energy trying to protect the base and take some of the pressure off Terk.”

  “And you need to keep doing that too,” both of the other men told him in unison.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not risking anybody’s life by doing this,” Damon murmured. “I’m just trying to operate at some level in a way that will give us more options.”

  “Well, I’m driving,” Wade stated. “So you keep an eye out for signatures.”

  “Working on it,” Damon murmured. “So far I’m not seeing anything recognizable.”

  “It doesn’t mean you won’t,” Wade warned.

  “Nope, it doesn’t mean I won’t.”

  As soon as they were only a few blocks away from Sean’s house, Wade slowed down. “I’ll do one pass.”

  “Good,” Cal murmured. “I am definitely reading people are there.”

  “More than one heat signature?”

  “I’ll go in,” Calum stated decisively, watching for any opposition from his team. The others shared a look but nodded, letting him travel the ethers. And he knew that was just a sign of where things were at right now. They had to work solo at times; there were no other options. They didn’t have enough people to keep all this going. And the team members who were now conscious and on their feet? Well, they were all working at around half capacity.

  With a sigh, Cal closed his eyes and let his energy drift toward the house, seeking the heat signatures. As he pushed forward, he sensed more and more inside.

  “There might be just one,” he offered, after a moment. Frowning, he shook his head. “I’ll revise that. There is one, but I don’t think he’s alive. His signature is too cool.”

  “Shit,” Damon replied. “Do you know how many buildings we’ve been into the last few days? How many people we found? Nothing but dead bodies.” He groaned.

  “You sure a live one is still in there?” Wade asked Cal.

  “I can take another look, but it’s kind of difficult …” And he stopped. “You know what? … Give me a sec.” Calum was sweating like crazy in just seconds, probably due to moving too fast on the psychic plane. “There might be one who is alive, but he’s not moving. It’s like he’s right beside the dead body.” At that, they looked at each other. “He is at the dead body. They’re both together, but I’m not sure what he’s doing.”

  “He could be searching it for something.”

  “He could be doing all kinds of stuff. We just don’t have enough information to know.”

  With that, Wade parked and they all got out of the vehicle.

  As soon as they stopped to check their surroundings cautiously, Cal said, “I need to go in again, now that we are closer.”

  “Are you sure about that, Cal?” Damon asked. “Don’t use up all your energy too soon.”

  Cal stopped, looked at his partners. “We never used to hesitate like this before.”

  “Yeah, it’s a new thing,” Damon replied. “It comes with being hunted and attacked, having our team taken down.”

  Calum looked far ahead, using his extra senses. “We were always safe before,” he reminded them.

  They nodded. “It was just a question, Cal,” Damon replied. “Don’t make it more than that.”

  “Right, okay. So, yes, I’m sure. One live body right at the dead one,” and they exchanged a glance, as Calum took a step.

  “So what is your plan?” Damon asked Cal.

  “I’ll meet you in”—he looked at his watch—“say, twenty minutes.”

  “And you’re going into the main house?” Wade asked, for confirmation.

  Cal nodded. “Not this way. An entrance is around back, so I’m heading there.” And, with that, he took off.

  Chapter 3

  Mariana waited as long as she could, and then, when there was nothing more for her to do, she got up and walked over to Terk. She needed something to keep herself busy, but, for now, she needed to keep Little Calum engaged. “Is there any chance of a laptop or TV or something Little Calum could watch?”

  Terk looked at her and then nodded. “Yep, and paper and pens and coloring books. I collected all that kid-friendly stuff too,” he noted, “and you can make me a list of what else you want.”

  She sat down with Little Calum and together they wrote a list of things that they wanted. She looked over at Terk. “Can we go back to the apartment I rented and get anything?”

  “Absolutely not,” he said. “You need to stay put. We’ll reconsider that option in a day or two, as we free up some manpower. It might be Merk who does that.”

  She frowned, nodded. “Merk is here?” she asked.

  Terk asked, “Do you know him?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “Not as well as I would like to obviously, but I have had some exposure.”

  “Exposure, huh?”

  She shrugged. “Yeah, that’s one of the things that I need to talk to Cal about, and I just haven’t had a chance.”

  “Meaning?”

  She lowered her voice. “Meaning that, some of the things Cal does, I think I was—” She stopped.

  “Go on.”

  “I think I was being linked in somehow.” Terk slowly sat back and stared at her. Terk was confused now, and she shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain that.”

  “Well, I suggest you try a little bit more because that was a very strange comment.”

  She winced. “I know, and he probably wouldn’t appreciate it, but I haven’t had a chance to discuss it with him. I thought you knew. At first, it was nothing. I thought maybe I was just imagining things. Then, out of the blue, I would hear more of his voice. Then
it was a lot. Now it just seems like I’m much more connected to Cal than I ever thought I was.”

  “And is that good or bad? How do you feel about it? What is your sense of it?” Terk asked, looking at her seriously.

  She stared at him. “How do I answer that? You always talk in circles.”

  “Not always.”

  “Yes, always. … It’s like you only let us have half the information.”

  “Well, Mariana, that’s because I usually only have half the information,” he replied calmly.

  “Is it really that bad?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, it’s really that bad. Sometimes I get a little bit more, and sometimes I don’t.”

  She raised both hands, exasperated. “How can you operate successfully then?”

  “Sometimes we don’t,” he admitted. “Sometimes it’s a regular shit storm.”

  She winced. “Like the attack on the team?”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “But, in all fairness, the team had been disbanded. We were just about done and were saying goodbye, when everything blew up.”

  “And what exactly was it that blew up?”

  “It was like a percussion bomb in all our heads,” he described. “Everybody was joking and having fun, and, the next thing I knew, they were all collapsed.”

  “And yet you weren’t as badly affected.”

  He shook his head. “No, I wasn’t.”

  There was something more to that story, but she knew Terk wasn’t quite ready to tell her. “Fine, and ever since, … ever since Cal became conscious again, it’s like I can read his thoughts. And I know that would not make him happy.”

  Terk stared at her in surprise. “Can you read anybody else’s thoughts?” Terk’s gaze narrowed on her.

  “A connection of sorts—like when you told me things about Merk. Do you mean really read your thoughts? Then no. You’re impossible anyway.” At that, Tasha snorted, and Mariana realized they had everybody’s attention. She looked over at them and frowned. “Sorry, I figured that if Cal knew, it would make our relationship easier, but I don’t know that it makes it any easier at all.”

  “Believe me. Almost everybody here has some weird gift going on,” Tasha confirmed. “Turns out you’re not all that unusual.” She shrugged. “Let’s just say that Damon and I are getting closer than I ever thought was possible.”

  “Same here with me and Gage,” Lorelei agreed, from the table off to the side.

  At that, Sophia nodded. “I’ve wondered if it’s a side effect of Wade’s injuries or something.” She looked from one woman to the other.

  Terk took in all the women with one frowning sweep. “Let me get this straight. All four of you have now got some new connection to the men in your lives?” As one, they all nodded. “Wow.” Terk stared at them each. “I didn’t see that coming at all. I’ll need more details on all this, in order to figure out just what’s going on.”

  “Does it matter?” Tasha asked quietly. “The fact is, we are much more connected to our guys but also to the other men on this team. Yes, that definitely changes the dynamic.”

  “It absolutely does change the dynamic,” Terk agreed. “The how and why of it though? I can’t tell you at this point, and it’s too early to have any idea if it’s good, bad, or ugly. Because it’s already happened, it doesn’t really matter. But at least you are developing some deeper connections with your partners.”

  They all laughed at what was a long speech for this quiet, quirky man they all had come to adore.

  “Well, that was my attitude. It’s already there, so no need to fuss about it.” Tasha was taking it pretty lightly, and she looked over at Mariana. “Does it bother you?”

  “Bother me? No. It’s …” She frowned for a moment. “You know what? Honestly it’s kind of nice. It makes me feel closer to him. It makes me feel like I haven’t been cast out in the world on my own.”

  The others winced.

  “Yeah, I don’t think I’d take that kindly either,” Lorelei murmured.

  “Yes, but it’s not so different to your situation, is it?”

  “No, well, yes. … I don’t know. I really don’t know. I mean, obviously in our cases, all of our cases, the men chose our safety over theirs.”

  Terk immediately shook his head. “No, you can’t just put it down to that. It’s about the safety of the entire team because, if one of us is compromised, then all of us are compromised. The fact of the matter is, if you’re reading their thoughts and have some kind of a connection,” Terk explained, “whenever they’re compromised, you are now as well.”

  “That would go along well with the way I’m feeling,” Tasha admitted.

  “I’ll give this some consideration,” Terk replied thoughtfully.

  “Not too much,” Lorelei said cheerfully, “because I, for one, don’t mind it. I like being connected on this level with Gage.”

  “I get it,” Terk noted. “I’ve just never heard of it before.”

  At that, Tasha laughed. “But, then again, all of this is so new. And so much of what we have learned over time was never heard of before either.”

  He smiled at her. “I agree, but you might not want to tell them all at once.”

  Lorelei looked at Terk in surprise, then nodded. Tasha knew them well, as did Sophia by now.

  “The team will adapt just fine in the end,” Terk added. “As a matter of fact, this could probably make things easier on them in many ways. But it’ll still be a bit of a shock.”

  Lorelei laughed. “I can hold off for a bit.” Tasha and Sophia were on the same page, then Lorelei looked over at Mariana. “And what about you?”

  “It would be hard not to tell him,” she admitted slowly. “I can hold off too for a little bit, but I do feel like it’s part of the larger conversations that Cal and I need to have.”

  “That’s understandable, especially since your family has only just been reunited,” Lorelei noted. “How about if you have that conversation with Calum, and, once you do, you can tell us how it went? Then we’ll all figure out how we’ll handle it going forward.”

  With that, Mariana laughed. “So I get to be the guinea pig,” she teased.

  The other women immediately nodded, with smiles all around. “Absolutely.”

  Terk started to laugh. “I don’t think it’s a problem in any way. Honestly, I think the men will be delighted, but it’s something they haven’t considered. I can tell you that we have all discussed the possibility, so I don’t think they’ll be upset.”

  “Yeah, but thinking they won’t be upset and having them actually not be upset are two very different things,” Mariana noted. “I already feel like I’m only here because the kidnapping blew up in my face, so I don’t really want to do anything to rock the boat. At the same time, I’m really not prepared to walk away and to divide our family anymore.”

  “You shouldn’t have to,” Tasha stated immediately.

  Mariana smiled at her. “Thank you for that.”

  Terk just rolled his eyes. “Okay, ladies. I get that this is a bonding moment, but let’s not forget the men are out there on a mission.”

  At that, everybody returned to their work.

  “We’ve got one heat signature in the building,” Tasha noted. “And now a second one just joined it.”

  “Yeah, that second one”—Mariana pointing to the other one on the screen, as she stood off to the side, “that one’s Calum.”

  Terk looked at her in shock, and she shrugged. “I can hear his thoughts. He’s approaching the person in front, and he can see him bending over a deceased body on the floor,” she explained, her eyes closed. “Cal has his gun at the ready, and he’s wondering …” When she opened her eyes, all of them were staring at her. She shrugged. “What? You guys think you’re the only ones who can do this shit?”

  “Have you ever had the ability to do this before?” Terk was shocked at her demonstration, even though she’d told him about her ability to connect to Calum.

  “It’s not an ability, not in a learned sense,” she replied. “My grandmother would have called it the sight. It just seems to be really strong whenever I feel close to Calum.”

  “That’s because he has it too,” Terk noted quietly.