Liam's Witness Protection (Man on a Mission 4)

The sheriff moved until he could reach out and shake Cate’s hand. “Glad you made it safely,” was all he said. Then he glanced at Liam. “So you found the place without any trouble?”

Liam caught Cate’s eye, and she knew from his expression he had no intention of telling the sheriff about the two false turns he’d made on the way here, and would prefer she not say anything either. She smiled a little at that. She was starting to read Liam, and she liked that idea. She liked it a lot.

* * *

An hour later Callahan rose from the kitchen table where he’d been discussing the situation with Cate, making sure she knew everything he had planned. He pushed in the paddle-back chair, settled his hat on his head and turned to Liam, leaning against the kitchen sink. “I had the propane tank topped off, and stocked the cabinets with enough nonperishable provisions to last a month. But now that the generator’s going, I’ll bring up milk and eggs and a few other perishables you might need when I come tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll check on you at least twice a day. But I don’t want to set a pattern someone might get curious about, so I’ll vary my times.”

“Okay by me,” Liam said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“Your cell phone will work up here, but coverage can be a little spotty. It works better outside the cabin than inside—just giving you a heads-up. You’ve got all my numbers, so don’t hesitate to call if you need me...but I don’t think you will. I think you’re safe here because no one knows where you are except Nick D’Arcy and me.” He glanced at Cate, then seemed to reach some kind of decision, because he turned back to Liam and said, “I’ve got some stuff in the back of my SUV to rig an extra security system for you, just in case. It’s worked before. But you need to know the location of each trap I set on your perimeter, and how to avoid them. So you’d better come with me.”

Liam nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.” He looked at Cate. “Stay inside for now, okay? I’ll be back in a little while.”

Callahan didn’t say a word until they reached his SUV, parked next to Liam’s. He pulled out coils of rope and wire, several of which he handed to Liam before looping some across his own shoulders. Then he grabbed a box containing what looked to be nothing more than odds and ends, and said totally out of the blue, “Your sister saved my life, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Liam knew the bare fact, but little more than that.

“She took a bullet for me and almost died because of it.” Callahan shook his head, admiration coloring his next words. “She’s a hell of an agent.”

“Yeah, I know that, too.”

“I owe her. So whatever you do, don’t get yourself killed on this op, okay?” Callahan started walking back toward the cabin without waiting for a response. “I’d never be able to look your sister in the eye again if I let her brother get killed.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

Callahan grunted. “Nick asked me to keep Cate safe until the trial, and I will. He also mentioned you were going to hang around for a bit.”

“How the hell did he know that? I wasn’t even sure myself until this morning.”

Callahan laughed, softening his saturnine face. “He’s omniscient, didn’t you know?”

“Keira and Cody call him Baker Street. McKinnon, too. Sherlock Holmes, you know? But D’Arcy told me maintaining that reputation takes constant vigilance, and even with that he slips up every now and then.”

Grimly serious all at once, Callahan said, “Don’t I know it.” Then he relaxed...or what passed for relaxation for him. “But I’d never bet against him. There’s only a handful of men I trust, and he’s three of them,” Callahan joked. He stopped just outside the clearing and dumped the box he was carrying on the ground, then slipped a coil of rope and one of wire off his shoulder and laid them beside the box. He moved around the clearing’s perimeter, then stopped again and dropped the same two coils. Liam followed him. Eventually, when Callahan had dropped his last coils, he took the ones Liam carried, and completed his circuit.

“Special ops?” Liam asked Callahan, his respect for the man growing by the minute.

“A lifetime ago, but yeah. Some things you never forget. You were in the Corps, too, weren’t you? McKinnon told me all you Joneses were, including your sister.”

“Yeah, but I was just a run-of-the-mill marine. I wasn’t special ops.”

Callahan bent over and dug into the box he’d left at the first drop. “No such thing as a run-of-the-mill marine,” he said flatly as he started forming the first of his traps. “You either are a marine...or you aren’t. Period. End of discussion.”