Rage (Benson Security 3)

“There’s nothing to explain. You’re still a partner.” Rachel lifted her mug of coffee and toasted. “We saved you from yourself. You’re welcome.”

Callum felt his left eye begin to twitch, a reaction he’d developed the day he’d met Rachel. A soft hand curved around his forearm, and he looked down to find Isobel smiling at him.

“They were just doing what they thought was in your best interests,” she said softly.

He wasn’t so sure about that.

“Of course we were.” Rachel had the hearing of a hawk when she felt like it. “We need you back at the office. The children”—she waved a hand at the rest of the team—“are driving me insane.”

“We love you too, Rach,” Megan said. “Although, to be fair, Callum, things have degenerated since you left. There’s no one to monitor the bickering, and now we’re getting on each other’s nerves and everybody’s being really bitchy.” She wagged her finger at Rachel and Callum. “That’s what happens when the parent leaves the kids alone without proper supervision.”

Jack barked out a laugh and shrugged when Callum glared at him. For one heady second, Callum wondered if this was what it felt like to be the parent of a teen. The feeling passed just as fast as it had hit him, and Callum moved quickly along.

“I’ve missed this,” Elle said. “I’m really glad you’re back.”

“We’ll see about that,” Callum muttered.

“Clam!” Sophie shouted, and held up more art.

CHAPTER 18

“ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW what you’re doing?” Agnes said as she reached for the chocolate chip cookie

s in the middle of the small dining table.

Isobel burst out laughing. It became a little hysterical. Of course she didn’t know what she was doing. Her whole life was one huge, out-of-control mess.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Agnes said before biting into her cookie.

They were sitting in the small apartment in Callum’s basement because the house above them had been turned into “operation command”. All day long, people had been rushing about, whispering into phones, tapping at keyboards, plotting world domination. Who knew what they were doing? All Isobel knew for sure was that she’d been the catalyst for all this drama, and now she was only in the way. Taking her kids, she’d retreated downstairs, and had been grateful when her sisters arrived.

They’d turned up armed with clothes for all of them and an activity set for Sophie. Sophie wasn’t interested in the set, even though it was packed with her beloved stickers. She was currently raiding all of the cupboards in the house to find treasure. Ten minutes earlier, she’d appeared in the basement wearing a motorcycle helmet and carrying a large sieve. She was in her happy zone.

Jack, meanwhile, had hit it off with Ryan. Even though there was at least twelve years between the two of them, they’d bonded over their bottomless stomachs and a love of video games. They were sitting on the couch in the living room area playing Mortal Kombat on the PlayStation under Callum’s TV. Everyone else was upstairs.

“So this is the famous bunker.” Donna was wide-eyed as she looked around the basement flat.

“He doesn’t like calling it a bunker.” Isobel shook her head at how ludicrous her life had become that those words should come out of her mouth. “He lives between here and the house upstairs.”

“I thought old man McKay never got around to finishing this place,” Donna said.

“Callum finished it. I think it was a sentimental thing because his granddad started it.”

Agnes stopped eating. “He finished off the bunker for sentimental reasons? Do you even realise how weird that is?”

Yep, she did. Isobel was also aware that, seeing as her house blew up, the only roof she had over her head at the moment was the floor of the house above her.

“What happens if the bad guys come back and blow up this house?” Mairi asked as she texted one of her online boyfriends. “Do you guys just get buried alive down here?”

Oh my goodness…

The thought was enough to make Isobel nauseated. She turned to the sofa. “Ryan? Is there another way out of this bunker?”

“Granny flat,” Ryan said, his eyes still glued to the screen and his thumbs hammering at his controller. “Callum doesn’t like it being called a bunker. He thinks it makes him seem like a weirdo hermit. Whereas a granny flat that is hidden under the house and has a steel-reinforced door makes perfect sense to him.”

Mairi grunted, still texting. “Maybe you’ll get a straight answer if you throw him a cookie.”

Yep, they all had Ryan’s number, and they’d only known him a few hours.