Dangerous Secrets: Callaghan Brothers, Book 1 (26 page)

Still, she wasn’t sure she was ready to leave the warmth and security of her cozy new home.  She’d had no reason to venture outside thus far, afraid that if she did, she would inadvertently draw attention to her hiding place.  That was something she definitely did not want to do.  She was tired of running, of pretending.  And she
really
didn’t want to cross paths with any more damn Callaghans.

She was still pretty pissed at herself for naively believing that the universe was finally cutting her a break, putting her in the right place and the right time.  It had been so easy, too easy, to see the hand of Fate in the events of the last few weeks:  the car trouble that put her at Jake’s doorstep, the Homecoming rush and the fact that Jake’s regular tender had left him in a lurch, Kane’s fortuitous arrival at the Gas and Go.

Yeah, she was an idiot.  They’d had an agenda all along, always one step ahead of her, and she had been too blinded by a bit of kindness to pick up on it.  Damn it!  How could she have been so stupid?  How had she not seen it?  When the three of them had stood together in Kane’s cabin, it was impossible not to see the family resemblance. 

Taryn shook off those thoughts.  Live and learn, right?  Now she was smarter, wiser.  What was done was done, and dwelling on it wasn’t going to ingrain the lessons she’d learned any deeper than they already were.

Taryn traversed through the underground tunnels to where a small Jeep had been stashed, taking deep breaths to calm herself as she went.  Just keep your head down and get it done, she said to herself.  With her loose, baggy men’s clothes, glasses, and baseball cap, she would hardly draw any admiring looks.

She travelled methodically from place to place, acquiring everything she needed.  She figured she had to do this a few more times to be fully stocked for a long winter.  Today was a test run.  If all went well, she would return next week and the week after that until her task was complete.  Then she would settle in for a long, peaceful hibernation.

Though she received a few mildly curious glances, no one appeared to pay her any unusual attention. There was one close call when she could have sworn she spotted Shane parked across the street from the small mom-and-pop grocery store, but he didn’t give her a second glance.

Taryn allowed herself her first full breath when she returned safely to her little nest and began to unload.  The first wave of dizziness hit her rather suddenly, and she was forced to sit down for a while.  It passed after a few minutes, and she felt fine again.  Chalking it up to the anxiety of the day, she finished unpacking the goods.  Unusually tired, she made herself some soup and went straight to bed, glad that she didn’t have to answer to anyone or make excuses.

Another two weeks passed without incident.  Taryn was completing her third journey into the small town at the base of the mountains.  Other than feeling unusually tired, she felt fine.  Despite the fact that she was going to bed early and sleeping late, she still found herself nodding off in the afternoon. 

She supposed that’s what happened when you had nothing to do and nowhere to be.  Even the smallest tasks seemed to wear her out.  After returning from her trip, she only unpacked the perishables, not having the energy to do the rest.  She curled up on the sofa under a down comforter and drifted off.

Taryn’s awakening was a rude one.  She barely made it to the bathroom before violently dispersing the remnants of her much-earlier breakfast.  Oh, great, she thought, laying her overheated cheek against the cool porcelain.  The flu.  At least she thought it was.  The only other time she could remember being sick was when she had that awful pneumonia under Gavin’s care.  She prayed she was not coming down with that again, but if she was, at least she had already picked up plenty of OTC medicines and a substantial supply of canned chicken broth. 

Several days later, Taryn was quite sure she never wanted to be sick again.  Everything she tried to eat came right back up again.  She was so tired that she often just curled up on the bathroom floor with a pillow and a blanket rather than make the impossible journey out to the couch or, God forbid, the bed.  She’d just be back in here again soon anyway.

* * *

“A
nother assignment, Dad?” asked Ian as Jack Callaghan carried the duffel bag across the kitchen and proceeded through the back door.  The old man seemed to be taking off every few days or so.  This time he’d been back less than a day, and now he was turning right around and heading out again. 

Jack grunted in response, neither a confirmation nor a denial.   

Reluctantly, they had returned to Pine Ridge in four-man shifts to keep the bar running, run intel, and gather as much information as possible.  Kane remained at the cabin with the others, keeping a lookout for Taryn in the small town that catered to the few who made that area their home.  After a couple of weeks had passed with no sightings, however, they feared that she was long gone.  It didn’t stop them from searching, though.  They
would
find her.  The only questions were where and in what condition.

Jake poured another cup of coffee and spoke aloud the same words that had been rattling around in Ian’s mind:  “He’s up to something.” 

The old man had been very distracted lately - when he was around.  Sometimes one of them would interrupt soft, guarded conversations between him and Michael.  Michael, too, was looking more somber than usual these days.

“Think it’s got something to do with Taryn?”  Ian asked as their father and brother conversed alongside their big black Expedition.  He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the look on Michael’s face grew darker by the minute. 

Michael entered the kitchen, shot Jake a displeased look, then took the stairs two at a time, returning less than a minute later with a duffel of his own and his oversized med bag.  Jake blocked his path.  “What’s going on, Mick?”

Michael’s lips formed a thin line, his eyes flicking to where their father waited outside.  The look Michael gave him spoke volumes.  “Stay tight, Jake.  Got it?” 

Without another word, Michael stepped around him and joined their father at the truck.  Moments later they were gone.

Michael’s warning to remain close and available sent his worry up another few notches.  “Son of a bitch!” Jake hissed, banging his fist down hard on the table.  “He’s known where she is all along.”

“How?” Ian wanted to know.

“I don’t know.”  Jake was angry with himself for not realizing it sooner.  Jack Callaghan would never have been so complacent if Taryn had really disappeared.  He wouldn’t have left the mountain without her.  As it was, he’d been conspicuously distant from the rest of them.   If they hadn’t had their collective heads up their asses, spending every spare moment checking satellite images and taking turns searching the mountains, they would have seen it.

Nothing should have surprised him when it came to his father.  The old man had more tricks up his sleeve than all of them combined.  Except Michael was involved now, and for the first time since she’d disappeared, Jake had seen genuine concern on his father’s face.

Jake knew Ian had probably reached the same conclusion when he asked, “Think we should follow?”

That was exactly what Jake wanted to do.  He trusted his family with his life, and Taryn’s. They would never allow anything to happen to her.  But she was
his
woman.  He knew this as certainly as he knew his own name.  As much as he trusted his family, he needed to be there to see for himself that she was alright.

A single nod, and they were in motion, securing the Pub and on the road within ten minutes.

Several moments passed in silence.  “Think she’s okay?” Ian finally asked. 

“She has to be,” Jake answered, refusing to think about Michael holding that bag.  Because that was the only answer he was capable of accepting.

* * *

M
ichael navigated the Expedition up the interstate.  Jack Callaghan had spoken very little, his attention fixed on the small rectangular device in his hands.  His fingers touched the screen now and then, his scowl deepening each time.  Michael knew better than to question him.  He’d know what he needed to when the time was right.  But when his father started muttering oaths in Irish under his breath, his gut tightened.

Jack pulled out another mobile and pressed a button.  “Kane.”  There was a sense of urgency to his voice that hadn’t been there earlier.  “I’m sending you coordinates.  Speed is priority, stealth secondary.”  He tapped a few more spots on the screen and exhaled forcefully.

“Perimeter’s been breached,” Jack told Michael grimly.  “They’ve found her.”

Michael’s foot pressed down harder on the accelerator.  “Any movement within?”  He knew that Jack had been carefully monitoring the situation inside and outside of Charlie’s safe haven.  The movement inside the facility, which he tracked with the chip in Taryn’s cross, hadn’t moved for more hours than he was comfortable with.  Something was terribly wrong.  Jack shook his head.

With another brief call, Shane and Kieran were en route as well, already nearby in the small town, keeping a lookout for Taryn and for any sign of non-locals.  The Callaghans were well known up in the area, enough to be a part of the local network.  Earlier in the week, a man claiming to be a hunter had arrived and was asking some unusual questions.  They’d been on high alert ever since.

“You going to call Jake in?” Michael asked when his father put the phone down.

Jack smirked.  “No need.  They’re two minutes behind us.”

T
he soft chime signaling that someone had tripped the hidden boundary wires tolled throughout the underground rooms.  With substantial effort, Taryn opened her eyes and tried to push herself away from the gloriously cool tile on the bathroom floor, dragging herself to the monitors.  How long had the alarm been sounding?

She squinted, rubbing her eyes several times in an attempt to focus.  There – unnatural shadows, moving so slowly they were barely perceptible.  Not a hunter, then.  At least not the usual kind. 
Damn
.

As quickly as she dared, she ensured the access tunnels were sealed, then proceeded to assemble a cache of weapons in the little control room, just in case.  The timing sucked.  Physically, she felt like crap, and mentally, she wasn’t faring much better.  Even after nearly two months, the betrayal still left a bitter taste in her mouth.  Damn those Callaghans for getting under her skin, and damn her for allowing it to happen.  Years of living under the radar, all shot to hell with a crooked grin and a flash of the most amazing blue eyes she’d ever seen.

Looking back now, it was so obvious.  Jake was much more than a bartender, as was his whole family.  On the surface, they all held respectable jobs.  But nature didn’t just make men like that to sit back and live normal, boring lives.   Each of them was too strong, too powerful.  They were good men, but inherently lethal. 

Ironically enough, Kane had come the closest to actual honesty.  He had told her that he was a mercenary, though that didn’t quite ring true either.  For as much of a badass as Kane made himself out to be, she couldn’t see him taking on anything but noble causes.  Not that the others had lied, exactly.  They were guilty of sins of omission, more like.

Taryn shook her head, trying to dispel the dizziness that plagued her, made worse each time she imagined their probing stares or the silent, graceful way in which they moved.  They were all like that, which should have tipped her off.  And when they were together?  It had a synergistic effect, each making the others stronger, until the whole became so much more than any one of them alone. 

We only wanted to help you.
  Ian’s words echoed through her head.  Goddammit.  Goddamn
them
for almost making her believe someone could.

Another alarm sounded, ringing softly and harmonizing with the first.  Taryn checked the location and frowned.  Two trips, different locations.  That was not good.

Taryn rubbed her fingers along the small gun in her palm.  She kept it turned away from her, towards the door, in case she passed out again.  She might not survive, but she wasn’t going to make it easy.

* * *

“H
e’s using some kind of sensor,” Kane reported quietly, the intruder locked in his sights.  His voice was no louder than the softest breeze, but clearly audible through the high-tech ear pieces Ian had customized for them.  The rest of the team – his brothers – were listening intently.

The man was dressed in dark camouflage and moved as if he’d definitely had some training.  He kept to the shadows, his movements slow and controlled so as not to draw attention to himself. 

“Probably trying to find the hot spots so he can identify an entrance,” Ian responded, and their resolve tightened.  Not everyone had access to that kind of technology. 

“I want him alive,” Jake growled.  “Disable the motherfucker, but no one kills him but me.”

Kane’s aim lowered from the trespasser’s head to another, less critical area.  Just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, the man disappeared right before his eyes.

“Fuck.  He’s in.”  Kane let a string of curses fly.  He was moving even as he spoke. 

* * *

T
he alarms went silent and Taryn was suddenly cast in total darkness.  She took a deep breath, fighting against the panic that threatened to overtake her.  The move wasn’t totally unexpected; it’s what she would have done.  Locating and powering down the generator, disabling any and all of the electronic safeguards – that was Terrorist 101 stuff. 

Someone had gained entrance, was now physically inside the hideaway.   It was the only way they could have reached the power source.  But where were they now?  Without the monitors, she would have to rely on her other senses.

Ah, she thought, who was she kidding?  Weak as a pup, she didn’t have a chance of sneaking out to one of the exits without being detected.  Her balance was off, she was dizzy as hell, and her head was pounding as if someone was repeatedly taking a mallet to it.  It wasn’t exactly the best time to match wits with a crazed lunatic, but when had life ever been fair?  Her entire family had been brutally murdered in front of her eyes, then she’d been held captive and abused for six months.  She’d caught a break when Charlie took her in, but then he’d gotten cancer and she’d had to watch him die a slow and painful death.  Then she met the man of her dreams, and ...