Dangerous Pursuit (OSI Dark Ops #3)

CHAPTER FIVE

“After you, m’lady.” Calliope’s dad held open the door to Doc Willoughby’s office and made a sweeping gesture with his arm.

“Why, thank you, kind sir.” She stepped through the door, and he followed.

They were both acting as if nothing was wrong, and she hoped it was true.

Her dad had held up his end of their bargain and had gone in to see Doc a few days ago. That exam resulted in him having to go to a specialist for a CT scan of his lungs. They were here today to get the results.

“Good morning, Gabriel.” Nurse Nancy smiled, and a beautiful blush spread over her cheeks. “It is so good to see you, Calliope.” She stood and came around from behind the counter to give her a big hug.

“You, too,” she said.

“I’ll let Doc know y’all are here.” Nancy went back to her desk and lifted the phone from its cradle .

She had been with Doc for eons and basically kept his practice running. She and Calliope’s mom were friends, right up until she took off. After that, she had nothing but contempt for Claire Daniels for leaving her family behind without so much as a backwards glance. A sentiment shared by most everyone in their small community.

Growing up, whenever Calliope had questions about girl stuff, she knew she could go to Nancy for answers and advice. She’d even helped Calliope pick out her first training bra.

“I’ll bring ’em right back.” Nancy hung up the phone. “Doc would like to see you in his office.”

“His office?” Calliope gave her dad a quick look.

“Now don’t start worrying already.” He gave her a small, reassuring smile and a wink.

Everyone in town knew Doc only ever met with people in his office when he had something serious to discuss. Otherwise, he’d just take them into an exam room.

Nancy tapped her knuckle on the office door and swung it open.

“Thank you, Nancy.” Doc Willoughby waited until they entered his office, and she shut the door. “Welcome back, girl.” She got a hug from him, then he held his hand out toward the chairs in front of his desk. “Please, have a seat.”

He circled around behind his big desk, and they all settled into their chairs .

“I’m going to get right to it.” He propped his reader glasses on the end of his nose, opened a manila folder filled with papers, and looked at Calliope and her dad over the top of the lenses. “The CT scan shows a small mass on your right lung about the size of a quarter.”

Doc slid an X-ray from the file and walked over to one of those light box things mounted on his wall. He tucked the edge of the scan under the lip, flipped a switch, and the light blinked on.

“This is your right lung”—he tapped the image—“and this is the area of concern.” He made a circular motion around a white area with the tip of his pen.

“Is it cancer?” Her dad’s voice was so calm and clear.

No one’s voice should be that composed when saying that word. Just hearing the c -word freaked Calliope out, but she tamped down her worry for later, when she was alone.

“We won’t know what we’re dealing with until we do a biopsy.” He flipped off the light, grabbed the image, and moved back to his desk. “If you’ve got time, we can take care of that right now.”

“What does a biopsy entail?” Calliope tried to mirror her dad’s calm, but when he reached over and laid his hand over her bouncing knee, she knew she’d failed.

“I’ll apply a local anesthesia, then I’ll make a small nick in the skin to insert a needle like this one.” He held up a syringe with a long, scary-looking needle attached. “I’ll use ultrasound to guide me to the mass, and, once there, I’ll take two or three small samples.” He set the syringe down and flipped the folder shut. “You think you’re up for that today, Jacob?”

“Let’s get it done.” Her dad rubbed his hands up and down the thighs of his jeans.

“Okay, I’ve just got a few questions before we proceed.” Doc asked whether her dad had taken any aspirin in the past week, whether he’d drunk any alcohol within the previous twenty-four hours.

“Nope, I haven’t had either of those,” her dad said.

“What’s the recovery like?” If necessary, Calliope would contact Cole about extending her vacation.

“I suggest your dad take it easy for a day or two and change the bandages every so often.” Doc slipped his glasses off, dropped them and his pen on his desk, then sat back. “Jacob, you might experience a bit of discomfort, but we can treat that with pain meds if it gets too bad.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” He thumped his palms on the arm of the chair and stood. “Well, let’s get this done.”

“All right.” Doc rolled his chair back, stood, and walked over to open his office door. “Why don’t you head on into exam room two. Nancy’s busy at the front desk, so I’ll have my other nurse prep everything, and we’ll meet you in there shortly.”

“Okay, we’ll see you in there.” Calliope stood and started across the hall .

Her dad put a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face him.

“Actually, honey, why don’t you go hang out with Nancy,” he said.

She gave him a long look and realized he was worried about her reaction to seeing him go through that.

“Sure, Dad. It’ll be nice to catch up with her.”

“Thanks, honey.” He pulled her in for a hug and whispered, “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

“Of course, it is.” Calliope squeezed her arms around his waist, then released him. “How about after this, we go to the Creamery? I think we could both use a double scoop of our favorite ice cream in a waffle cone.”

“You’re on.” He kissed her forehead and disappeared into the exam room.

Calliope inhaled a deep breath, released it, and opened the door that led to the reception area.

Nancy was on the phone, so she perused the selection of magazines. When she couldn’t find anything newer than five years old, she opted to pull up a book on her phone. She was reading Jack Carr’s latest thriller and couldn’t wait to get back to it. She loved the honor and warrior attitude of his James Reece character. She’d gotten her love of books from her dad.

Her gaze lifted to the door leading back to the exam rooms, and she wondered if she should’ve insisted on being in the room. Nah, she’d done the right thing by leaving him be. Her dad was tough and proud, traits he’d passed on to his daughter. Like him, she’d hate to have someone hovering and fretting over her.

“He’s in good hands, honey.” Nancy’s comforting voice carried across the waiting room area. It was the same voice she’d used when Calliope called her crying after getting her very first period.

“Thank you.” She swallowed against the apprehension clogging her throat. “For everything. And I truly mean everything .”

“Aw, sweetie, it was my extreme pleasure.” A ringing phone interrupted their sentimental exchange. “Excuse me just a sec.” She answered the phone. “Dr. Willoughby’s office.”

Calliope returned to her book and was immediately captured by the fast-paced action. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there before the door opened and her dad and Doc walked up to her.

“How did it go?” Calliope stood, slipped her phone in her pocket, and joined them at the counter.

“Great.” Her dad smiled. “Didn’t feel a thing.”

“That may be, but I want you to take it easy for the rest of the day.” Doc set his hand on her dad’s shoulder. “If you change your mind about those pain meds, you let me know. I’ll have Nancy call in a prescription for you.”

She’d learned from a lifetime living with Jacob Daniels that he would choose to take a couple of acetaminophens and tough it out before taking any kind of prescription painkiller.

“I should have the results of the biopsy in about a week and will give you a call.” Doc handed her dad’s file to Nancy.

“A week?” Calliope asked. “That long?”

“That’s pretty standard for this kind of thing.” He patted her arm. “Try not to worry until we have a reason to, okay?”

Easier said than done.

“Okay.” She nodded.

“Thanks, Doc.” Her dad extended his hand.

“You’re welcome.” They shook hands. “I’ll talk to you soon.” Doc walked back toward the exam rooms and out of sight.

“How ’bout that ice cream?” Her dad looped his arm over Calliope’s shoulder.

“Let’s do it.” She wrapped her arm around his lower back, careful to avoid his incision, and they headed outside. “It’s a beautiful day.” She looked up at her first-ever hero. “You up for a walk?”

“Callie.” He stopped and moved in front of her. “The procedure was no big deal.” He lifted his shirt to show her the small patch of gauze covering the incision. “Heck, I’ve cut myself worse than that working on my old truck.” He held her upper arms and bent his knees so he could look into her eyes. “I’m fine. Okay?”

“Okay.” She looped her arm through his and started down the sidewalk toward the ice cream shop. “So, I guess that means you’re well enough to pay for our ice cream then?”

“You bet.” His deep, throaty chuckle lightened her mood.

Her phone vibrated in her back pocket. She tugged it free and was surprised to see Cole’s name on the screen.

“Excuse me for sec, Dad.” She tapped the screen. “Hey, Cole.”

“Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt your time off,” he said.

“No worries. What’s up?” He would never call her during her vacation unless it was extremely important.

“I can’t really go into it over an unsecured line, but we have an urgent situation that requires our team’s expertise. This matter is of great personal interest to OSI’s leadership.”

Oh, shit.

“Everything okay, Callie?” Her dad set his hand gently on her shoulder.

She gave him a small smile. “It’s just a work thing, dad. Nothing to worry about.”

“Shit, I hesitated to call you, but I knew you’d be pissed if I didn’t give you the option to be a part of it.” Cole was probably one of the most intense, intimidating humans she’d ever met, but he also had a soft side that snuck through sometimes, especially around his wife and baby boy.

“No, you were right to call me.” Her mind raced. “My secure phone is back at the house. We’ll head back there, and I’ll call you in about fifteen or twenty minutes. Will that work?”

“You bet. I’ll talk to you soon.” He ended the call.

“Sounded pretty serious.” Her dad turned and started back toward Doc’s parking lot. “We’d better get you home so you can find out what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Dad.” She pushed a button on the fob to unlock her truck. “Rain check on the ice cream?”

“You bet. Besides, your granddad would be pretty mad if we didn’t invite him along.”

“Oh, most definitely, he would be.” Calliope started to follow him around to his side to help him up.

“Stop right there.” He held up his hand. “I can damn well climb into the truck by myself.”

“Sorry.” She climbed up and slid behind the wheel, pressed a button on the dash, and the big V8 engine rumbled to life.

Her dad grimaced with discomfort when he reached over his shoulder for the seat belt. Once it was clicked in place, she pulled out of the lot and headed home.

Just under twenty minutes later, they pulled up next to the house and parked. She shut off the engine and jumped down .

“I’m going to get my book and read out on the porch.” Her dad circled around the back end of the truck. “That way, you’ll have some privacy for your call.”

“You sure you don’t mind?” They made their way up the steps and into the house. The screen door slapped shut behind them.

“Nah, it’s just what the doctor ordered.” He headed toward the kitchen to get his book off the table.

“I’ll be in my room if you need anything.” She hurried down the short hallway and shut herself in her bedroom. She dragged her portable safe from beneath the bed and tapped in the code. She lifted the lid and grabbed the secure cell phone from where it lay next to her Glock.

She sat on the edge of her bed, scrolled to Cole’s contact information, and called him back.

“Hey, Calliope. Thanks for calling back so quickly.” A door closed in the background. “We have a critical situation in Colombia that holds a great deal of personal interest for the O’Hallerans.”

Her heart slammed against her chest.

“Is it Lucas?” She kept her voice level, hiding her concern.

She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

“Yes,” Cole said. “We feel there is a high likelihood he’s gotten himself into something bigger than he can handle on his own. ”

“What the hell did that knucklehead do?” She’d gotten the distinct impression Lucas was the kind of guy who would avoid responsibility or trouble of any kind. “He seemed pretty chill when we got that helo from him. Then again, I was only around him for a few minutes.”

“It would be unwise to judge that book by its cover. Lucas has some pretty heavy, very bad stuff in his past,” he said. “Suffice to say, the guy you met at the airfield is not who or what you think he is.”

Mysterious much?

“But that’s not our only reason for going down there.” Cole provided her with a brief situation report. “We’ve received reliable intel that Rafael Triano is bringing in a group of twenty-nine young women and girls, ranging in age from eleven to twenty-two. They’ll be arriving at the Puerto de Santa Marta sometime in the next few days. That’s only thirty or so miles from where Lucas lives. They’re coming in from Cameroon aboard the container ship Blue Navigator. ”

“Son of a bitch.” Calliope hated traffickers with the burning intensity of a thousand suns.

“Son of a bitch is exactly right.” He filled her in on the rest of the operation.

It sounded intense, and the jungle location was right in her wheelhouse. Damn, she hated the thought of missing it, but her dad’s situation pricked at her conscience, though she opted not to lay that on Cole .

“I know you’ve waited a long time for this leave, so don’t feel like you have to be a part of this,” Cole continued. “Viking will be on the op, and we can make that work.”

Viking, Golden Bailey, was the other sniper on their team, and he was one of the nicest people she’d ever met in her twenty-nine years on the planet. At six feet eight, Viking was a giant of a man, and the only time she’d ever heard him cuss was when he was beating the shit out of the guy who went after his girlfriend, now fiancée, Marigold. That had been a textbook case of fucking around and finding out.

“When do you need my answer?” She thought about her dad and his looming test results.

“We’re wheels up tomorrow night at twenty-three hundred hours. Hang on a sec.” His voice was muffled, as if he had his hand over the phone. “Mason said it’ll take about two and a half hours to get down to your area, which means we can be at that little airstrip near your place around zero one-thirty hours.”

Mason could fly anything with rotors or wings, and his hand-to-hand combat skills were deadly as hell.

“Okay, I need to deal with a couple of things here, then I’ll let you know.” Calliope’s mind ran through all of the options.

“Look, Calliope, I want you to know that there’s no wrong answer here.” Cole was the coolest boss ever.

“I understand. ”

“Good. Talk to you soon.” Cole ended the call.

Calliope secured the phone, then headed out to the front porch.

“Everything all right?” Her dad looked up from his book.

“The team’s headed out on a mission.” She lowered herself onto the porch swing and set it to swinging with a gentle push of her foot.

“You’re going, right?” Her dad grabbed the old receipt he used as a bookmark and closed the thick book with a thump .

She shrugged and stared off into the woods.

“Callie,” he gently scolded, “you can’t let what’s going on with me stop you from being a part of something important.”

“What’s going on with you is important, too, Dad.” What if she left and the test results came back saying the mass was cancerous?

Her granddad came around the corner of the house carrying a fishing pole.

“How did things go at Doc Willoughby’s?” He held his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun and looked up at them on the porch. “Uh-oh, those are some pretty long faces.”

He leaned his fishing pole against the handrail and jogged up the steps .

“Well?” He propped his hands on his narrow hips and looked back and forth between them.

Calliope’s dad filled him in on their meeting with the doctor and the biopsy.

“Did he seem concerned?” Her granddad moved to sit in the rocker next to her dad.

“Nah, not really.” Her dad set his book on the table between their chairs and deftly shifted the focus to her. “Calliope’s boss called her about an assignment their team’s headed out on soon.”

“You’re going, aren’t ya?” Her granddad zeroed in on her.

“How can I leave without knowing what’s going on with Dad?” She hadn’t meant to raise her voice, but she couldn’t seem to help it. “What if …” She lowered her voice. “What if it’s cancer?”

“If it is, then I’ll deal with it.” Her dad gave her a long look. “Honey, you can’t let the unknown keep you from doin’ your job.” He pushed up from his chair. “I’m going to go get me some of that iced tea in the fridge. Can I get y’all some?”

“I think that’ll hit the spot just right,” her granddad said.

“Sure, Dad,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Comin’ right up.” The screen door screeched when he pulled it open, then slapped shut behind him.

That sound always transported her back in time to her childhood .

Calliope watched him disappear into the house.

Her granddad’s callused hand curled over hers on her lap, and she turned to face him.

“Your dad’s right, Callie Girl. You have a gift, and your team needs you.” He patted her hand and shoved up from his chair. “I’m gonna go grab my pipe.”

Gabriel Daniels leaned down, placed a quick kiss to the top of her head, and went inside.

Calliope thought about what her granddad said, then pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Cole’s number.

Apparently, she was headed to Colombia.