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Chapter 26
It was a subdued group who met in Patricia, Ryan and Elle’s suite. The knowledge of Ed’s betrayal was written in the red-rimmed eyes and shocked expressions of everyone present. None of them understood it. Julia doubted they ever would.
She stared out of the living room window, which looked out onto a close-up section of pristine Incan wall, and wondered what they were going to do next. They’d run out of options. And that meant Alice had run out of time. For someone who normally had a head full of ideas, her brain was horribly quiet.
A knock at the door drew everyone’s attention, and Joe pulled the gun from his shoulder holster before looking through the peephole.
“It’s Callum.” He holstered the gun and opened the door.
Julia was surprised when Callum rolled into the room in a wheelchair, but she wasn’t shocked. Everyone knew Callum had prosthetic legs. The fact they hadn’t seen him in a chair before now was the part that was strange.
“We meeting, then?” he snapped as he rolled over to the window.
Julia automatically recoiled from his abrasive attitude. The fury emanating from him was almost tangible, and the room was suddenly thick with it. Her skin began to prickle, and without realising that she was even doing it, she took a step towards the bedroom and her escape.
“Everybody up to speed on what happened with Ed?” Callum said.
“Yeah.” Ryan grabbed one of the seats at the dining table. As usual, there was a tray of food in front of him, but he didn’t touch it. Instead, he kept a wary eye on Callum.
Julia scanned the people in the room and realised they were all acting the same way, watching Callum as though he were a bomb about to go off. She caught Joe’s eyes from across the room and felt as though he could see inside of her. She watched as he noted her hands wrapped in the strap of her bag, and the distance she’d covered towards the bedroom. Julia lowered her eyes. She couldn’t watch him and see the moment he realised that nothing had changed with her. She was still as much of a freak as she’d been when they first met.
“What’s done is done,” Callum barked. “We need to move on. If you can’t do that, tell me now.” His voice was a steel blade slicing through the air. There was silence. “Okay, in that case, what’s the situation at the last hotel?”
“I did some recon,” Ryan said. “Esteban’s got men watching the place.”
Julia studied her boss. He was coiled tight enough to snap. She glanced down at the beige alpaca wool blanket covering the space where his legs should have been, and it hit her—he was scared. Scared of what they would think of him. Scared they would think him incapable. A wave of empathy rocked her. She knew how that felt. She dealt with it every day. People thinking she was less than normal because she behaved in ways they couldn’t comprehend. Her heart ached for him, even as she readied to run at the first sign of an explosion.
“Julia,” Callum snapped, making her freeze in place.
A low growling noise came from Joe. Julia’s eyes shot to his, only to see him glaring at Callum. Her warrior was ready to take on the boss for scaring her. Her heart reached for him at the sight.
“Yes?” she whispered to Callum.
“I spoke to the concierge. He needs clothing and shoe sizes for everyone and he’ll kit us out for the rest of the trip. Toiletries too. Take care of it.”
“Yes, sir.” She flushed again at calling him sir, and before she could stop herself, she was looking at Joe for reassurance.
He was still glaring at Callum. “Tone,” Joe said. “Wind it back.”
The glare Callum gave him in answer was enough to make every hair on her body stand on end. Julia backed up against the wall and inched towards the bedroom. Emotion was pressing in on her. The lights in the room were too bright. The air was too prickly. It hurt to breathe in the tension. Everything within her screamed to run. To hide. To become invisible until the danger passed.
“Is Esteban in Cusco?” Callum asked Elle.
“Yes. He arrived about an hour ago. He’s staying in a villa he owns on the edge of town.”
“You’re sure?” There was a dark, rumbling fury in the question.
Elle didn’t flinch. “There are a lot of cameras in Cusco and I’ve managed to get him on several. I picked him up at the airport when he first arrived. He came in on a private plane with a mini army. I counted seven men travelling with him, with more waiting at the airport and at his house. About thirty in total.”
Callum caught Joe’s eye. “If Esteban is in Cusco, and he brought some of his men with him, then we have an opportunity.”
“You want to go in tonight,” Joe said evenly.
Which meant Joe was going into danger again. Julia felt dizzy at the thought, and placed her palm on the cool wall behind her to steady herself. Joe was calm, controlled, capable. This was what he did. He would always be running into danger and leaving her to wonder if he’d make it out unharmed. If he’d come back at all.
If this thing between them, this wildfire of a connection, had a future, it would mean she was always going to say goodbye to Joe and would always be waiting to see if he came back in one piece. She wasn’t sure she could handle a life lived that way.
“Lake has a team on standby in Lima. If I contact them, we can meet up in the town where they’re holding Alice and get her out. But it has to be tonight. This is our best opportunity. They have less men guarding her.” Callum looked at each of them, daring them to disagree. No one did. The weight of the situation wasn’t lost on any of them.
