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“Fine.” She was worn out by everything, including Callum. “The loan shark paid me a visit today. He wants the balance of what’s owed to him by the weekend. Or…” Her eyes went wide. There were things Callum really didn’t need to know, and tiredness was making her talk without thinking. She hurried on, hoping he didn’t notice the slip. “One of his guys, Ray, reinforced the message with his fist. So there you have it. Can I shower now?”
“Or what? You started to say something and stopped. Tell me the rest. Now.”
Isobel almost went breathless at the sight of him. This was the Callum who’d fought circles around the guy outside her house. This Call
um was brutal, deadly and unstoppable. And although she knew he’d never hurt her—not physically, anyway—she also knew he would never stop until he got what he wanted.
“If I don’t have the money, I get to repay the loan on my back.” There. She’d said it. She’d even said it as evenly as possible, in the hope she wouldn’t betray just how horrifying that thought was.
Callum stilled and his fingers tightened at her nape. “Name. I need his name.”
“Eddie Granger.”
“Home base?”
“He works out of Glasgow.”
Callum nodded. Curtly. As though making a decision. “He won’t be a problem for you again. Him or this Ray guy.”
He dropped his hand and turned to leave. Isobel reached out for him, grasping his bicep. When he looked back, she could see the barely-contained rage burning deep inside of him.
“You can’t kill him. They’ll put you in jail.” She was terrified that was exactly what he had planned. “I don’t want you getting into trouble because of me.”
His face softened slightly. “I know other ways to deal with this. Trust me.” He glanced at her belly. “It’s the least I can do. Now get showered and catch some sleep. Use one of the bedrooms in the basement. They’re more secure. I’ve taken the middle one, but the other two are there for you and the kids. I’ll talk to you later.”
Isobel wanted to ask him what he planned to do, but he was already gone, leaving her shivering at the loss of his heat.
CHAPTER 16
FOR SOME REASON, RACHEL HAD arranged a flight to Scotland for the middle of the night. Elle thought it was because she was just as eager to get there and get Callum back to the office as the rest of them. They arrived at Campbeltown airport as the sun came up, stopped briefly at a little café so Ryan wouldn’t turn feral and eat the rest of the team, and then drove straight to Arness. Since there was no sign of Callum, Elle bypassed his alarm and they made themselves at home in his house. The general consensus was that if he called for their help, he’d expect them to move in with him anyway.
Yeah, Elle was pretty sure that was going to go down well with Callum when he returned.
“This place might as well be a cell in a monastery,” Megan said as she dumped her holdall on Callum’s kitchen table. “There’s no evidence that anybody lives here.”
“I don’t think they call the rooms in a monastery cells.” Elle swept Megan’s bag onto the floor and set up her laptop in its place. Elle didn’t care how Callum lived. All she cared about was that he was still alive. For a while there, she wasn’t sure that would be the case.
“They do. I saw it on TV. They call them cells because living in them is a prison sentence,” Megan said as she started opening and shutting Callum’s kitchen cupboards.
“I can’t stay here,” Rachel announced as she strode into the room. Her Gucci bag was slung over her arm and her feet were shod in her usual red-soled pumps. With her sleek auburn hair, Chanel suit and Rolex watch, she looked so completely out of place that it wasn’t hard to agree with her.
“There’s a tent in the garage.” Megan gave her an evil smile. “You could always pitch it in the backyard.”
“I don’t mean in this house, although that too. I mean Arness. It has all of five houses and one shop. We might as well be in stranded in Greenland.”
“Greenland?” Elle said.
“There’s nothing there either,” Rachel said. “I mean, have you ever met anyone from Greenland? Ever? No. That’s because there’s nothing there. Nothing.”
“Feel free to leave, then,” Megan said. “We’ll manage fine without your brand of encouragement.”
Rachel pointed a talon at Megan. “Remind me why I haven’t fired you? Again?”
“Please.” Megan rolled her eyes. “You were fired along with me. If you didn’t have the money, and the balls, to buy into the company, you wouldn’t be here either. Plus”—Megan flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder—“I like to think of myself as the positive force that balances your influence on the planet. The angel to your devil. The yin to your yang. The antimatter to your matter. The world needs both of us. If we separate, bad things will happen. Mark my words.”
“Oh, for the love of Prada,” Rachel muttered. “I don’t have time for this. We actually have real, paying clients that need our attention. Callum asked for one person and some of Elle’s time. Why are we all here?”
Elle let out a sigh. Rachel knew damn well why they were there. She’d even insisted on coming and leaving Joe and Julia in charge of the London office. Rachel had said that she was the only person able to deal with Callum’s temper, and they needed her to get the job done quickly. She’d even gone so far as to hire a private plane to get them to Campbeltown airport in record time. Although Elle was certain if Rachel was quizzed about her generosity, she’d have some other horrible reason why she had to do it. The woman was an alligator—she did everything she could to protect her soft underbelly, even if that meant snapping at everyone around her.
