Isobel made a little whining sound and wrapped her arms around herself. Jack sat up straight, ready to protect his mother. From what, Callum didn’t know. He did know that he couldn’t stand watching her shoulders hunch, as though she was trying to curl in on herself.
“Come here,” he muttered, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
He was surprised when she didn’t put up any resistance, and even more surprised when Jack didn’t object. Instead, the boy studied Callum and his mum for a minute before turning his attention back to the group.
When Callum looked at his team, they were uniformly trying not to smile. Well, apart from Rachel. Rachel was studying her manicure and looking thoroughly bored.
“Clam!” Another piece of paper was thrust up at him, and he added it to his growing pile of scribble art.
“So,” Megan said, “we’ve got an unknown dead guy, who’s obviously a criminal, but we don’t know what kind. We also don’t know where he’s from or who he was working with. We have a whole bunch of surveillance equipment that was smuggled into the country a month ago. And we have part of a missile guidance system.” She looked at each of them. “You all thinking terrorist? Because I’m totally thinking terrorist.”
“Me too!” Jack grinned.
“Totally terrorist,” Elle said.
“Definitely,” Ryan added.
Callum held up the hand that wasn’t around Isobel’s shoulders. “No jumping to conclusions. We follow the evidence and see where it leads.”
“Now I’m thinking CSI,” Megan said with a grin.
“Ryan, see if you can get anything from that SAM tech,” Callum ordered.
“Yes, boss.” Ryan saluted.
Callum ran a hand over his face. “Rachel, set up a timeline.”
That made her sit up straight. “Why me? Why can’t one of the minions do it?”
“Because Julia isn’t here and you’re the only other one with project management experience,” Callum said. If he’d still been a partner at Benson Security, he would have told her to suck it up, rather than explaining himself.
“Okay,” she said begrudgingly, “but only this once, and I’m not doing it until I’ve arranged some decent accommodation. There are no hotels in town. Actually, there’s no town in this town. It’s only a few houses, a garage and a shop. How do people live like this?
“Yeah,” Ryan said. “How do people live without their servants running around after them? What do they eat when there’s no caviar? Oh, the agony of the underclass…”
“Clam!” Sophie thrust another piece of art at him. Callum took it without even registering; his focus was on Ryan and Rachel and their new weird dynamic.
“Why don’t you do what you do best and go eat something?” Rachel said. “Maybe you could hang out at McDonald’s for the rest of the day and let the adults get on with things here. I can even give you some pocket money to spend while you’re there.”
Ryan glared at her, and the two of them seemed locked in some sort of stare-down.
“Should we do something,” Jack whispered to Callum, “or are we waiting for their laser vision to kick in and for them to melt each other’s heads?”
To his surprise, Callum had to fight a smile. “Cut it out, you two.”
Ryan gave Rachel one last glare before turning to Callum. “I’m glad you’re back. I seriously can’t take any more of Cruella.”
“I’m not back.” Sure, he needed their help on this one thing, but that didn’t change anything else. “I sold my share of the business.”
“No, you didn’t.” Rachel flicked some imaginary lint from her black suit pants. “Your partners decided your decision wasn’t made when you were in your right mind, so we didn’t buy you out.”
Callum wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “You did what?”
“Okay, that’s my cue to leave.” Ryan scooped the small black box from the table and fled the room.
“Take me with you,” Megan called after him.
Callum ignored them both. “Explain,” he demanded of Rachel.