Moments later, he sat beside Callie, who remained nestled against Thorpe, and combed his fingers through her silky hair. “I need to say a couple of things.”
Thorpe tensed. “Shoot.”
“First, we have to figure out who’s after Callie and why. My money is still on whoever had her family offed.”
“Mine, too.”
“Which means we have to dig deeper into Callie’s background. We’ll have to ask her questions when she wakes up.”
“Oh, she’ll love that,” Thorpe drawled.
“I’m sure. But as painful as she may find the mental jaunt through her past, I think it’s important. There’s no way she doesn’t know something. It may just take the right questions for her to remember it. Once we figure everything out, we’ll go from there.”
“Don’t you think she’s tried this a million times?” Thorpe looked up at him as if he was stating the obvious.
Maybe he was.
Sean shrugged. “I’m hoping that more heads are better than one. We can’t fail to try just because she hasn’t succeeded on her own. I’ve been studying this case for close to a year. I’ll have a better idea of the questions that need to be asked. Maybe that will make a difference.”
“Maybe.” Thorpe shrugged.
“I didn’t say it would be overnight. In fact, I’m betting it won’t be. But however long it takes, I’m in this for the duration.”
“Because you love her?”
Nodding, Sean held out his hand for the tequila. Without displacing Callie, Thorpe rolled over and plucked up the bottle from the floor, passing it over her supine form.
“Same as you.” Sean took a long swallow of the clear liquid from the bottle they shared.
Thorpe didn’t comment directly. “I’m not sure if she’s ready for either of us to feel that way. She doesn’t know how to let herself be loved because she never really has been.”
Sean didn’t even have to think about that. “As a woman? No.”
“I’d love a piece of that Holden pecker who tried to sell her out for cash as a teenager. I’d wring his fucking neck.”
“Actually, I’d like to get way more creative,” Sean mused. “I’d rip his throat out through his asshole after I’ve carved out his spine with a screwdriver and gouged out his eyes with a spork.”
“Remind me not to piss you off.” Thorpe looked both horrified and suitably impressed.
Sean smiled. “As long as Callie comes first, we won’t have a problem. She needs that. Based on her file, I think the only person, besides us, who openly loved Callie was her mother.”
“She was only six when the woman died.” Dismay spread across Thorpe’s face.
“Exactly.” Sean took another long swig of booze. “She and her sister had more of a mother-daughter relationship. By all accounts, she really loved Charlotte, but when the girl hit twelve, she started rebelling and they’d been having major arguments about her behavior.” He paused. “According to the autopsy, Charlotte was nine weeks pregnant when she died.”
“At fourteen? I know that happens, but . . .” Shock sent Thorpe’s brows into a frown. “Do you think Callie knew?”
“Only she can answer that. Lots of speculation about who fathered Charlotte’s baby . . .”
Thorpe’s frown became a scowl. “You think it was Callie’s prick of a boyfriend?”
“Holden apparently spent a lot of time at their house, and he was obviously an unscrupulous bastard. I’d say anything is possible.”
Thorpe ruffled a hand through his mussed hair. “Son of a bitch. If that’s the case, it could be another reason she doesn’t trust well. Being betrayed by her boyfriend and her sister at such a young age would be harsh.”
“It wasn’t as if she could rely on her father, either. My information says that, after her mother died, he left the girls’ care to hired help and began hanging out with people willing to take his money, primarily medical researchers. Seems he became obsessed with discovering the cure for cancer in his late wife’s name.”
“Oh hell.” Thorpe shook his head. “The girls were so young. They had lost a mother. They needed reassurance, guidance, and love. No wonder Callie wanted to run away from home and believed the first guy with a stiff dick who claimed to love her. She learned her lesson the hard way. How the hell is she supposed to recover from that while running for her damn life?”
“I’m not sure she has. I’ve tried to heal her as much as I could, but as you know, it’s a big fucking job.” Sean sighed. “She needs constants, people she can count on without fail.”
That thought seemed to sober Thorpe even more. “You’re right.”
“So if you want to head back to Dominion, tell me now. I’ll get you to land after sunrise. As long as you keep your mouth shut, I’ll understand.”
“What? I haven’t come this far to bail now. I won’t abandon Callie. Axel can manage Dominion without me. Lots of folks there will help. And Sweet Pea might seem like the most submissive creature ever, but she can run that place like a drill instructor when she has to.”
Relief flooded Sean’s system. They both agreed that Callie had to come first. They might not have a lot in common, but they shared that belief. Now the conversation got tricky . . .
“Good. I’ve been thinking about this. I need your help with Callie. Sometimes you’re the only person who can reach her.” Sean sighed and tried to figure out how to say all the other things crowding his head. He should probably have a bit of sleep and a stiff cup of coffee before he even tried, but time wasn’t on their side. Once Callie woke, they’d have a fight on their hands. The dust between he and Thorpe had to be settled now.
“I’m here for her, whatever she needs.”
“Even if that’s both of us?”
Thorpe hesitated. “What do you mean?”
“She’ll probably need us both to protect her from whoever is searching for her,” Sean began. “I think it’s safe to assume that if they killed her family and took a shot at her, they want her dead, too. The more people she has watching her back, the safer she’ll be.”
“Agreed.”
“And you know how secretive she’s always been—for good reason. But if we’re going to pry her open so she’ll tell us about her past, we’re going to have to earn her trust. I’ll need your steady hand.”
Thorpe sat up and peered across the darkness at him. “Meaning?”
“After months of giving her my cover story, her trust in me is shaky at best right now. We can’t wait to grow it again before we find out what she knows. We need that info now.” Thorpe didn’t answer, but Sean could see the man’s mind turning. “You know I’m right.”
“Yeah.” Thorpe swallowed.
“Just like you know where I’m going with this, man. This woman has never had what she needs. As a little girl, she needed a mother, but hers died of cancer. As a teenager, she needed the support of her family, but her father was too distant, while her sister probably stabbed her in the back. She needed to finish growing up in a safe environment . . . and you know how that story goes. Now Callie needs us for more than protection. She needs us to finally make her whole.”
“Jesus . . .” Thorpe blew out a breath and raked a hand through his hair.
Sean pressed on. “You said yourself that I lacked the knowledge to properly guide her. But you don’t. She trusts you. And she loves you, too.”
Thorpe didn’t say a word at first, just held out his hand for the bottle. Sean passed it back, watching the other man guzzle down more tequila as he, no doubt, turned over all the possibilities in his head.
“I’d ask if you’re fucking serious, but you obviously are.” He shook his head of mussed hair. “I don’t recommend inviting me inside your picket fence, Mackenzie. I’m not good for her.”
That assertion was ridiculous. He and Callie fit together perfectly.