Read Apprehended (Amber Alert Series Book 3) Online
Authors: Sara Schoen
A few days after Callum told me to straighten up, he split up our group so that Audrey could go to classes and have someone near her at all times. Callum was at her apartment watching it while Darrell and Jason were watching Audrey during her time on campus. That left me still searching for answers with Abby and Kate, and still not getting as far as we wanted or needed to. There were no answers to what we were looking for, there was something that was under his behavior, something that was bothering me.
His mistake.
Callum and his team had profiled that the man wouldn't make a mistake unless we wanted us to see it. So why had he made a mistake and taken the wrong Audrey? It didn't make any sense to me, and when I voiced it to the team they agreed. He had made a fatal mistake, one that led us to him, and could risk whatever plan he had created. So the question became, was it just a simple mistake, or had he done it on purpose?
"Sure, boss, no problem," I heard Kate say, breaking me from my thoughts as she hung up the cell phone and let out a heavy sigh. "I've never seen Callum so worked up. He has never been like this before, especially making us feel as if we aren't working hard enough. He knows we are doing everything we can, but for some reason it's not enough for him right now,” Kate sighed as she put her head in her hands momentarily. "I've never seen him like this," she repeated, "and I've worked with him for almost five years."
Abby glanced between me and her teammate, curious on what to say. Kate was taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. To me it was clear that she didn't enjoy being yelled at, or having people think she wasn't working hard enough. She had such a serious
aura
around her, but that was so people would take her seriously, deep down she was as sensitive as anyone else. She sighed heavily, as Abby placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. I watched as the sigh seemed to take out all the tension in her body.
"What do you think is wrong with him?" I asked, hoping to keep Kate talking a little longer. I wanted to know why exactly Callum didn't like me, or why he was so unhappy all the time, but I had to do it in a sneaky way. I wouldn't be able to do it with the men, I tried, but they were tight lipped and I failed to get anything out of them. I was praying to get something out the girls in the group, otherwise I would be stuck and I would have more questions than answers on both cases.
"We don't know," Abby admitted with a sigh. "We've had other kidnapping cases, almost twenty in about five years together, but I've never seen him like this," Abby stated as she moved a stack of papers out of her way and moved a new stack in front of her.
"What's he normally like then? All I've seen is how he is now. I didn't know he was ever any other way," I said, trying to create a reason to why I was curious so they wouldn't get suspicious. I was sure it showed though, because I rarely brought him up. I just hoped that they chalked it up to me being naturally curious since I did get a lot of Callum’s anger most of the time. It would only be natural that I wonder why he's suddenly angry if I was getting the brunt of his anger.
"He's usually calm and very pleasant to be around, but there's just something about this case that has him wound up. He is yelling more, he's barely around us, and he's distant when he is; it's just not like him. Normally he's so overprotective that Abby and I are never together without one of the boys just in case our unknown subject looks to interject himself into the case," Kate stated with a shoulder shrug.
"Why is he overprotective of you guys?" I asked curiously. Both of the women would be able to handle themselves without any problems. They were trained to shoot and probably to fight as well, so why does he feel the need to protect them so heavily?
"Well he doesn't just protect us. He protects his entire team like that. He doesn't have any family anymore, his parents died when he was a teenager and his sister just passed away in a car accident a few years ago. We are all he has," Kate answered.
"He doesn't have a wife or a girlfriend either," Abby added. "So normally he's protective over us because to him we are his family and his friends. He always makes sure that there's another person with us, we don't go anywhere alone, and he's usually calling in to check on us every once in a while, but now nothing. Unless he wants to yell at us for not having any answers for him. It's not him just checking in anymore," Abby sighed and let the frown fall onto her lips.
"He calls you while on cases?"
"Yes, usually, but just not for this one. He's just distant and we can't get through to him. He wouldn't normally have a problem with a new person either, he's normally so patient with new people. I'm sorry he's so focused on you for some reason. You seem to just be the main focus of his anger and we don't really understand why."
"Now that you mention it, Callum was a lot nicer to me when we first met and he asked me to join the case, but ever since I came he's so angry at me all the time it seems," I said as I recalled how pleasant and charming he had been with me. I remembered getting lost in his blue eyes and watching his smile, he had been breathtakingly handsome, but if this was how he acted I could see why he didn't have a girlfriend or a wife.
"Which is why it's so strange for him to act this way, because he's been so polite and understanding ever since he lost his old team," Abby stated as she slapped a file close and looked at me curiously. "Maybe that's why you're such a main focus, you remind him of how he was when he lost them."
"What do you mean he lost his old team?"
"We aren't really supposed to talk about it," Abby said with a worried glance in Kate's direction. I could see the exchange on their faces as they tried to figure out what to say. They knew they weren't supposed to talk about it, but I could see that there was something they wanted to say.
"We aren't supposed to talk about a lot of things, Abby, but that's never stopped us before," Kate stated with an eye roll. "We can't just pick and choose, plus she should know why he's so angry with her."
"You tell her then, I won't be the one to do it," Abby stated forcefully, with a 'humph' for emphasis that she meant what she said.
"He lost his old team about six or seven years ago on a case. He doesn't really like to talk about it, but from what I know he got reckless, only got himself out before the bomb exploded and the rest of his team died, because he thought he could handle it on his own. He realized that he couldn’t disarm it, and radioed as he was leaving, but by that time it was too late. Since then he's blamed himself because he thinks he was selfish, he didn’t think about the team as a whole and tried to stop it alone, but anyone else would have done the same thing. It's not really his fault, it’s the person that put that bomb in the building, but he blames himself," Kate said with a shoulder shrug as if she didn't understand why.
"Because he didn't radio them right when he found it?"
"He did, he said he found something, but he was so focused on trying to disarm it that he didn’t mention the bomb until it was too late, but he was the closest to an exit. If you looked over the blue prints of the building you'd see he was the closest to a way out. He radioed them while he was leaving. He did what he was supposed to, but he still doesn't think he did enough. If he had radioed it in when he first saw it, then maybe it could have changed what happened, but the building was packed with people. The rest of the team members were in different areas of the building, some in the basement with no way out. He had to try to disarm it, it would have saved so many lives, but by the time the bomb went off a few moments later, the team was still inside, Callum was on the street, and then there was nothing, but rubble."
"He doesn't like to talk about it much," Abby stated as she took a few more moments to stretch out before sitting back down in her chair and trying to find any answer to this individual's plans.
"I can see why," I said as an idea started to form in my head. Abby had said that Callum was probably upset at me because I reminded him of how he used to be. He used to be selfish, as he so quaintly put it, but soon Callum and I would have an understanding. I knew about his past, and now we were on an even playing field. I knew exactly how to make him stop so that he would no longer ridicule me for my actions. He was clearly confused and wound up for some reason because of this case, and while I couldn't do anything about that I could make him see how he was treating me wasn't fair. He wouldn't see that; he would see that the reason he hated me so much was because he used to be just like me.
A selfish, self-protecting young FBI agent, but we had the ability to change, together.
I stopped outside our set-aside office which now only had Callum in it while the others were out watching Audrey. I had noticed that Callum kept me in the building, never sending me out with the teams or anywhere near Audrey. He must have thought I would be too distracted and would be a danger to everyone around us, but I would show him that I could be just like him if he gave me half a chance.
As I walked into the office, which Callum had taken with files upon files of paper work and reports from the kidnappings, as if we were going to find something new by looking at it for the seventeenth time, Callum’s head shot up. When he caught sight of my cheeky smile one of his eyebrows raised while the other lowered, causing one eye to close slightly to complete his confused expression. It must be obvious that I avoided him, he was shocked that I had willingly stepped into the same room he was in.
"What do you want, Jessi, I'm busy."
"I just have a question for you," I stated as I flipped open the file. I didn't miss the heavy groan that escaped his lips, but I chose to ignore him completely because soon his mood would change. I would need to be on my toes for it, because I knew he would only get angrier. "What's it like knowing that if you had called in that bomb a little bit earlier you could have saved some of your team?" I asked. I knew that it was below the belt, and downright disrespectful, but I was going to make a point whether it hurt him or not to hear it.
His head shot up and his eyes narrowed at me in pure anger. "How do you know about that?"
I chose to ignore him again, "You radioed to tell them that there was a bomb, and you ran out as you did it. Do you seriously think you were in the wrong for that? Can you seriously blame yourself for that? You did what you were supposed to, you said you found it, tried to disarm it, when you couldn’t you told them and left. There's nothing wrong with it, but here you are still blaming yourself as if you killed them."
"You don't have any idea what you're talking about, Jessi! Give me the file," he yelled, shooting up from his seat and reaching across the table to attempt to take the file from my hands. I took a few steps back to get out of his reach and continued to read.
"You did what you were supposed to do, but there just wasn't enough time left on that bomb was there?" I asked rhetorically as he attempted to steal the file from my hands once again. "You stated that there was only about a minute, maybe a little more, on the timer when you first got there. You were the closest to the exit, Callum," I said as I slapped down the building plans in front of him. There were large X's over where each person from his team was around the moment he called in and started to escape. "Of course you got out! There was an exit right next to you. You warned them, and they stayed behind to get as many people out as they could. They all could have gotten out, but wanted to save others, just like you tried to do by disarming it."
"I don't need to see this again, Jessi!" he yelled as he tore the paper to shreds. I silently hoped that somewhere they had made a copy. I tried to play it cool, but honestly I was getting more nervous the angrier he got. I thought that he would calm down eventually. I had attempted to profile him and saw this conversation going a totally different route. Having the facts put out in front of him should have made him see that he did all he could, that it was out of his hands, or so I thought.
I knew he would be angry with me at first, but I thought he would calm down. His protective nature over his team should have calmed him down when he realized he was getting upset with me, but it never occurred to me that technically I wasn't a part of his team. His protective nature didn't fall on me, I always brought out his anger and now I was just making it worse. It made me curious if he'd ever realize that I was trying to help him, but when I took a mental step back I was just trying to help myself. I cringed slightly—Callum was right, I was selfish. I wanted him to see that we were the same, but that wouldn’t help him, it would only help me.
"You were after a guy that you profiled as suicidal. He had completed his mission and now he had to die so that he wouldn't be taken in. It was going to happen you profiled it!"
"That's why it's my fault! I figured it out, and we still went in there"
"No it's not, Callum! You weren't team leader at the time," I retorted. "Aiden was team leader at the time, it was his call to go in! You can't blame yourself it wasn't your call! You guys worked as a team and figured it out for themselves that it was worth the risk. Just like I'm doing now to force you to see this! You were young, and just because this happened doesn't make it your fault."
"How about you get to the point of this, Jessi? What's the real reason you're here talking to me about this? Because I know it's not because you care, you've proven that already. Just tell me and get out, I don't need my past dragged up and analyzed by a...a—” he started, clearly trying to figure out what to say to me.
"A what? What do you really want to say, Callum?" I pushed.
"I don't need my past analyzed by a novice analyst that is so selfish she pulls punches like this to get others to cooperate with her. You take no care of anyone else’s feelings, you don't take into account their aspects, you can't even handle the criticism I give you to improve, and when I refuse to put you in the field you do this. This isn't the right behavior for an FBI agent, Jessi, and you have to know that. It's ridiculous that it's come to this! How can you honestly stand there and think this is how you should handle it?"
"If this is the only way to get you to see that you were just like me at one point! You were young and wanted to prove yourself. I know that I can do a good job if you let me!"
"Well it's not happening now!"
"Why not? What is your problem with me, Callum, seriously? Just tell me what I did to make you so angry with me. You used to be so pleasant, even charming when we first met, but maybe that's because you just wanted me to trust you and help you with this case, and if that's the reason then you're still just as selfish as you were when you first started. You haven't changed!"
"Then you won't change either," Callum retorted. "If I was how you were and I haven't changed, then what hope is there for you to change? As for why I hate you, look at how you're acting! This is childish, irresponsible, and imprudent on your part. I thought you were different!"
"What's it matter if I was different?" I asked, throwing my arms up into the air in frustration.
"Nothing," he said quickly. "You do not have the right to drag up my past, you don't have the right to make judgments on what I did, and you certainly don't have a right to be a part of this investigation!"
"What are you saying?"
"I want you to go back to Virginia, better yet, go home. Go back to South Carolina, and don't come back into my life. I clearly made a mistake asking you to join this case, and to come into my life. I want you out of it now. I have no idea what I was thinking asking you to come," he huffed out as he plucked the file from my hands and sat back down.
"What are you talking about?" I asked in a confused daze. This conversation had gone a totally different direction than anticipated. I have no idea what I was thinking when I got that file out of storage, but I apparently wasn't thinking clearly.
I heard Callum sigh heavily, before looking up at me with an annoyed expression. "Well I guess since you're leaving, and I won't be seeing you again I guess there's no harm in telling you. I found you attractive when we first met, I wanted you to work with the team so that I could get to know you better. Then I figured out what kind of person you are. I don't like it, and now I would like you to leave and not return. Goodbye, Jessi."
"What did you just say?"
"I said nothing, now leave. I will tell the police commander to have someone take you to the airport."
"You found me attractive?" I asked curiously, and shocked honestly. Even when people found me attractive, once they figured out who I was they typically took off running, but he knew who I was and then found me attractive. That was a new idea to me, and I honestly was thrilled by it, but now I realized that my personality lacked a lot since that's what drove him away.
I had found him attractive too, while his personality lacked in some cases, but that completely cut me off. Maybe I did remind him of himself, and I failed when he tried to get me to change. Maybe he was just pushing me to get me to learn, but I took it the wrong way and saw it as him not having faith in me.
"Callum," I said softly, my voice dropping as I realized my mistake. "I had no right to drag up your past. I just wanted you to see that it wasn't your fault and that—”
"Stop, Jessi," he stated, interrupting me, but I didn't stop.
"You needed to see that you have changed, and that you can't keep blaming yourself."
"Jessi, stop!"
"You've become team leader and these people look up to you, but you're nowhere with them now and I realize that's because of me. I've let you down, but please don't be upset with them! It's my fault; don't cut yourself off from them please. I know I let you down because I didn't live up to expectations, but Callum you're cutting ties with them. They feel as if you don't care anymore. They see that you're angry and that you're losing focus. Don't let me change that!"
"Just stop!"
"You can't let me change that or they could end up like your last team. This man will kill to get to Audrey. She is who he wants, and the more they protect her the angrier he will get! You have to protect them again or they could die too!"
"Get out, get out, get out!" Callum yelled as he swiped the files off the desk in pure anger. I stood stunned for a few moments still trying to process what just happened. Although when his blue eyes met mine, I felt an icy chill race down my back. Without another moment of hesitation I walked briskly out of the room, leaving Callum there to cool off.
What had I done now?
I thought to myself. I was going to have to go home, what was I thinking that was going to change? I thought I had read him accurately, but he was right, I was a novice that was acting like a child and now I suffered the consequences for it. I was going home, I clearly need time away from this job.
But I wasn't going to get it.