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“Clam.” Sophie was fed up playing and had decided to harass Callum instead. He looked down at her and seemed a little bewildered at her sparkly purple clothes.
“Unicorns?” he muttered with a shake of his head when he saw the pattern covering her jeans.
Sophie was undeterred by his attitude. She lifted her arms in the air. “Up.”
Without hesitation, he bent and picked her up. But Sophie wasn’t satisfied sitting in his arms. She shouted, “Up,” again and climbed onto his shoulders, managing to kick him in the face and yank handfuls of hair as she went. Callum frowned, but he was gentle with Sophie, patiently letting her climb all over him. Once she’d settled on his shoulders, Callum held her feet to steady her, as he very obviously ignored the smiles his team were desperately trying to hide.
Isobel felt a warm rush in the region of her heart and glanced at Jack, who was sitting at the table eating a bag of crisps. The sight of utter wonder on his face as he looked at Callum made Isobel tear up. With a sniff, she went back to making the coffee.
“Nice handcuffs,” Ryan said as he sat down. He put a bag of cookies on the table in front of him and pulled them closer when Jack reached for them. “Mine.”
“David,” Elle said. “A gift from his visit last night.”
“Kinky visit.” Ryan looked at Isobel. “Can I say kinky with the kids in the room?”
“Who you calling a kid?” Jack snatched the bag of cookies from Ryan, making him lunge after it.
“Will you act your age for five bloody minutes?” Callum snapped at Ryan. “David is the least of our problems. Lake came up blank on our guy being a government operative. Nobody’s missing an undercover agent. There are no rumours or whispers coming from any of his contacts, and he has some heavyweight contacts.”
“Does that mean dead dude was a bad dude?” Jack said with sugar around his mouth.
“Aye.” Callum frowned at Jack. “Have some orange juice with all that sugar. Get a bloody vitamin into you.”
Megan made a suspicious coughing sound and appeared overly innocent when Callum glared at her.
“Here you go.” Isobel put a glass of juice in front of Jack, who downed it in one long swallow.
“Where’s the gear you picked up from Jack’s friend?” Callum asked Ryan.
“We just got here. Can’t a man have some food first?” He dumped a black leather sports bag in the middle of the table.
“You look at this already?” Callum asked Ryan.
“A glance. We were in a hurry. But I saw enough to worry,” Ryan said as Dimitri upended the contents of the bag onto the table.
Callum turned to stone as he surveyed the contents of the bag. Isobel came to stand beside him.
“What are these things?” She pointed at some black devices that looked like headphones, but weren’t. She knew—they’d tried to get them to work.
“Throat microphones.” Callum picked up one of the four sets. “Used by the military, law enforcement, mercenaries. The sensors are placed against the throat and they can pick up even the quietest whisper. It’s the way a team can communicate without making noise.”
“Oh.” Isobel stepped closer to him, wanting to feel the reassurance of his heat and strength.
Elle held up a strip of plastic with things welded onto it and wires jutting out. “This looks like it’s part of a communications system. Might be related to the piece you found at the pawnbroker.”
“These are detonators.” Dimitri picked up one of the long metal rods with wire connections on one end.
“Like for bombs?” Isobel wrapped a hand around Callum’s forearm and held on tight.
He tugged his arm away from her, and for a second she felt a surge of pain at the rejection, then he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his side. Right there. In front of everyone. She tried not to blush, but it was hard, and she wasn’t sure she succeeded. Callum, meanwhile, ignored everyone else and carried on poking through the pile of odds and ends.
“Can you get prints off these, Elle?” Callum said.
Elle shook her head. “I’ll try, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
Dimitri shoved some wires over to look underneath, and stilled. “Is that what I think it is, Elle?”
Isobel leaned in to see what he was talking about. There was a tiny glass cylinder, with wires and metal inside it, stuck to the back of some tape that was around one of the wires.
