Page 20 of Reid

“Who?”

“Mitch couldn’t tell. He’s called the police and is waiting for them at the scene. As soon as he knows anything, he’ll call us.”

“Bono?”

“No sign of him.” He wasn’t about to lie and give her false hope.

He watched her swallow and blink back the tears in her eyes and wanted to kiss every single one of them away.

“Does he have a chip, sunshine?”

Her eyes moved back to his face and he didn’t like the pallor of her skin one bit. He tightened his hold and she leaned against him, allowing him to give her comfort, just not the kind he wanted to give her.

“Yes, he does.”

Reid took out his phone and dialled. “Will, yeah I need a favour.”

“Sure, what is it?” his friend and in some ways boss asked.

Will was the co-owner of Eidolon but was just the money side of things. Operationally it was all Jack. The brothers stayed out of each other’s way. Their relationship had been strained at best for years, but it was now working out with the help of Will’s woman, Aubrey.

“We just got back from Europe and found a dead body in Callie’s apartment.”

“Fuck, is Callie okay?”

Reid looked down at her as she worried her hands in her lap. “She will be. But her dog is missing. He has a chip. Is there any way you can get a lock on it?”

“What is his registered name?”

“Hang on.” He took the phone away and covered the mic. “What’s Bono registered under, sunshine?”

“Bono’s Pride.”

He smiled at that, realising the name was a homage to U2. The woman also had excellent taste in bands. Another thing to add the ever-growing list of reasons he liked her.

He conveyed the name to Will who said he’d do what he could and call them back as soon as he could.

Liam looked in the rear view mirror as they crossed the bridge towards Hammersmith Hospital. “You have a plan?”

“We need to head somewhere Callie is safe and we can regroup.”

“Got it, know just the place.”

Reid nodded trusting his friend and teammate to take them somewhere this sick prick couldn’t find her. He needed to up his game and catch this fucker but so far they’d found diddly to give them any clue who it might be.

He again looked at the quiet woman in his arms and marvelled at the way she was holding it together. He knew the stalker had been on her mind and hated that she was now looking at people with suspicion. Hated even more that he was going to have to dig more information out of her.

This simple protection and security review for a friend had ended very differently than he’d expected. It was now a full-on hunt for a killer. With that in mind he knew he needed to bring Jack up to date. Technically, they were all on Eidolon’s dime and he couldn’t expect Jack to let the others work this for free. He had no intention of going anywhere but he had to be fair.

Liam pulled onto the private drive leading to a house in the suburbs of West Ealing. It was a white, detached, period property with bay windows.

He shut off the engine and turned around to face them. “This my cousins place, he’s on his second deployment in Somalia. We can crash here until we decide how to move forward.”

“Thank you,” Callie said as she pulled out of Reid’s arms, instantly making him want to pull her back into them.

With regret Reid moved from the car and held the door for Callie. Liam ran ahead and opened the front door with his key. Shielding her body from anyone watching the house he followed her inside.

The house was pleasantly well presented and modern inside. The walls were mainly off white, with pale grey painted doors and dark wood floors. Directly off the entrance way was a living room with a large sectional couch in dark purple and a massive flat screen TV. The kitchen was further down the hallway and was done in pale cream gloss cabinets with the same dark wood flooring.