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.

“Why are we here? Because,” Megan enunciated her words, “we care about Callum and want him to come back to London.”

Rachel shook her head as though mystified, before sitting beside Elle. She crossed her long legs and drummed her red nails on the table. “Where is he, anyway?”

“I don’t know. He disabled the cameras after he spoke to me.” Elle’s fingers flew over her keyboard, but she paused to look out the window. There was still smoke drifting in the distance. “Anybody else notice the burned-out house on the way here? That didn’t have anything to do with Callum, did it?”

“Nope, that was a gas accident,” Megan said. “I made Dimitri stop the car and ask the cops. Faulty gas bottle. Thankfully, the family were away at the time.”

“Is this the wall where Callum had sex?” Ryan called from the hall. “I think we should put up a plaque or something to commemorate it for him.”

“Will that boy ever grow up?” Rachel sneered.

“That boy is the same age as you,” Elle said.

“Yes, but I’m decades older when it comes to maturity,” Rachel said.

Elle couldn’t argue with that. “I have more information on Isobel.”

“Let’s hear it.” Dimitri followed Ryan into the room. “Make coffee while you’re over there, will you, babe?” Dimitri said to Megan.

“Do I look like your servant?” Megan’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m your wife, not your slave. Make your own damn coffee.”

“Baby,” Dimitri crooned. “You make better coffee. And if you do it for me, I’ll do that other thing for you later.”

Megan clapped her hands and beamed at him. “Really?”

“Promise.” Dimitri pressed a hand over his heart solemnly.

“Then you get coffee.” She blew him a kiss before she reached for the coffee pot.

“Before anyone makes the mistake of asking what they’re talking about,” Rachel said, “know that I forbid it.”

“We don’t need to ask.” Ryan’s eyes were on Elle’s laptop. “It’s sex. They’re all about the sex. They don’t think about anything else.”

“Hey,” Megan said. “We’re newlyweds. It’s our right.”

“Yeah, but does it have to happen right under our noses?” Ryan grumbled.

“You’re just jealous,” Megan said.

“As much fun as is it to listen to you bicker like children,” Elle said, “I have news on Isobel. As far as I can tell, she’s clean. No run-ins with the police, no parking tickets, nothing. She does, however, have sucky taste in men. She left school at fifteen because she got pregnant and the boyfriend did a runner on her. She hasn’t heard of him since, which isn’t surprising, since he OD’d in Edinburgh six years ago—heroin. Her second attempt at happy-ever-after ended miserably too, but this time she made it to the altar before she got pregnant. Unfortunately, this guy was worse than the last. He ran out on her as soon as the baby was born.”

“What a dick,” Ryan muttered.

There was general agreement before Elle brought up the rest of the report. “The husband filed for divorce from Glasgow and hasn’t been back to Arness since. But, and this is where it gets really nasty, he didn’t tell the rest of the world that he wasn’t married to Isobel anymore. So when he borrowed money from his friendly neighbourhood loan shark, he made certain the guy knew Isobel was good for repayments. And then, guess what? He suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.”

“Leaving Isobel with the debt,” Megan said in disgust.

“How much are we talking?” Dimitri asked.

“Thirty-four thousand pounds, give or take a few hundred,” Elle said.

“That’s a lot of money for a woman like Isobel,” Rachel said.

“That’s a lot of money for everyone except you, Rachel,” Ryan said.

Rachel’s eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth, no doubt to spew acid all over Ryan, but Elle got in first.

“The point is,” she said, “the ex, Robert Argyle—not his real name, by the way—has disappeared and the loan shark is making regular visits to Isobel to extract payment.”

“We need to find this arsehole and make him repay his own debt,” Ryan said.

“Yeah,” Elle said to Ryan, “but as much as I’d like to make Isobel’s ex pay his own debt, we can’t. I managed to track him down. He’s currently serving fifteen years at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Armed robbery. I thought I had bad taste in men, but Isobel takes first prize. She’s attracted to serious losers.”

“And Callum,” Megan said. “He isn’t a loser, he’s just…”

“Lost?” Elle said.

“Suicidal?” Dimitri said.

“Seriously bad-tempered?” Ryan said.

“A coward who ran away from his responsibilities?” Rachel said.

“Standing right here,” Callum said.

All heads snapped to the doorway where Callum was standing, his arms crossed over his usual Henley, and his face in his usual scowl. Elle had never seen a better sight.

“Hi, boss.” Elle grinned.

“Nice place,” Megan said chirpily. “Minimalistic. But nice.”

Callum frowned at them. “Don’t you know how to knock?”

“We did. You didn’t answer,” Megan said. “Where were you, anyway? We’ve been right through the house.”

“Basement. And keep the noise down. Isobel and the kids are still asleep down there.”

The team shared a look.

“Uh, Callum, why do you have them in the basement when the bedrooms are up here?” Megan said, and then looked horrified. “Serial killers use basements. Please tell me that isn’t your killing ground? You haven’t been torturing kids down there, have you?”

“Babe,” Dimitri said with a shake of his head. “Ignore her,” he said to Callum. “Too much TV.”

“There are bedrooms down there?” Elle said. “I wondered what was behind the security access. I thought weapons. Just sayin’, if I’d had more time, I would have totally cracked that lock.”

“Good to know.” Callum leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb.

“It also explains why we don’t have any footage of you sleeping,” Elle said. “I was worried about that at first, then I thought you were camping outside.”

Callum just stared at her.

“PTSD.” Elle shrugged. The explanation made perfect sense to her. She’d even read up on the condition. If Callum had been sleeping outside, it wouldn’t have surprised her. She’d always thought he was untamed and belonged with the animals. “I thought maybe being inside made it hard to sleep.”

“Betty said someone told her I sleep in the nude,” Callum said.

Megan put up a hand. “That would have been me. I just wanted to shut her up.”

“Yeah, but it kind of backfired,” Ryan said. “She wanted to make more money, and thought watching you in the buff was a way to do it. She was mad when she couldn’t get it on camera.”

Callum zeroed in on Ryan and the room temperature dropped a few degrees. Elle shivered and was glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of that look. Ryan didn’t seem fazed. Either that or he was too focused on the doughnuts he’d picked up in Campbeltown to care.

“Explain,” Callum barked.

“She had someone hook up the live feed to her house and she’s been charging the old folk to watch,” Ryan said. “Lake only found out about it yesterday after a rumour went around town that Betty was showing live porn in exchange for pie and cake.” He pointed a doughnut at Callum. “She told Lake she wants to be thrown up against a wall.”

Callum didn’t move an inch, apart from the tiny muscle in the corner of his jaw that throbbed.

“Somebody should lob her at a wall. I hope you shut that crap down.” Callum’s voice was low and even, a sure sign he was about to blow.

For once, Ryan seemed to notice something other than food. “You did when you ripped out the cameras.”

There was silence. Callum stared at Ryan with a look that said he had better do something fast.

Ryan got the message. He stood, fishing his phone from his pocket. “I’ll get Lake onto it now. Make sure Betty didn’t save any footage or anything.”

The twitch in Callum’s jaw became more pronounced as Ryan left the room. He turned to Rachel. “Why are you all here? I only asked for one backup person. That’s what I’m paying for.”

“You aren’t paying for anything. Suggesting it is, frankly, insulting.” Rachel got to her feet. “You asked for help and you’re going to get it. Joe and Julia would have been here too, but we needed someone to look after the office.”

“I voted for Rachel,” Megan said, “but she overruled me. Something about wanting to keep an eye on the plane she was paying for. Honestly, you blow up one itsy-bitsy plane and you never hear the end of it.”

Rachel carried on talking as though Megan was invisible. “Once we’re finished here, we plan to drag your miserable, self-pitying behind back to London so you can fix the mess you left in your wake, when you ran away like a hysterical pre-schooler.”

“Subtle,” Megan coughed into her hand before attempting to look innocent.

For a second, Elle could have sworn she saw the walls undulate with the tension in the room. She waited for Callum to start shouting about how he didn’t need their help and how they should get lost. She could almost hear him saying, “Never darken my doorstep again.” But instead of shouting, there was silence. Heavy, uncomfortable silence.

And then a tiny voice piped up. “Clam?”

Every set of eyes in the room focused on the little girl who’d appeared at Callum’s feet. She wore a giraffe onesie and had a matching stuffed toy clutched to her chest. With the other hand, she rubbed at an eye. She was the most adorable thing Elle had ever seen and made her want to rush back to London and return with her own giraffe onesie so they would match.

“What?” Callum said gruffly. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

The girl shrugged and then held her arms up to Callum, obviously expecting him to lift her. The shock in the room was clear. Everyone waiting to see what he would do. For a second Callum looked completely bewildered, before his face turned carefully blank. He made no move for the child. And she was having none of it.

“Clam, up,” she demanded.

With an irritated growl, Callum bent and scooped the girl up. She burrowed against his chest and watched them all with big eyes. Callum was tense, his movements stiff. It was clear he wasn’t quite sure how to hold her. Eventually, he gave her back an awkward pat.

“I’m taking Sophie back to her mum. We’ll talk later. You can use any of the rooms up here.” Callum turned towards the door, but Sophie sat back and pointed at the table.

“Doughnuts!”

With a growl, Callum made a detour to the table. He lowered the child so she could grab a doughnut and then he strode for the door. Sophie grinned at them as she bit into the powdery treat.

“Did that just happen?” Megan stared after them.

“Wow,” Elle said.

“I think our boy is ready to come back,” Dimitri said. “I’m so proud. I almost have a tear in my eye.”

“Oh for the love of Prada,” Rachel said. “He picked up a child, he didn’t cure cancer.”

“Hey,” Ryan said as he came back into the room. “Who ate my doughnuts?”