very sticky,” Gina said as she ducked into the bath room.
“I’ll start making my own calls.” Jammer dialed the director. At least this time he wasn’t waking him up. Stanford answered on the first ring. “Yes,” he said.
“I have a major problem.”
“What is it?”
“My weapons have been seized by the U.S. Navy. I have a warehouse in San Diego housing the bulk of the shipment. All of it is scheduled to be flown out tomorrow. Unfortunately, there was a fluke incident at the airport and SEALs entered my plane instead of the decoy one they were training with. They ended up confiscating both planes.”
“Let me do some digging. Sit tight and I will get back to you. I know someone over in the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms department. He should be aware of what is happening.”
“We can’t afford to have this deal go south. We’ll lose Fuentes, and three years of hard work will go down the drain.”
“We’re not going to lose him. I guarantee you that much. I’ll do everything in my power to get you access to the base, but you’ll have to figure out how to get those weapons out. I can even supply you with some people to help if that’s necessary.”
“Thank you. That will help.”
“And the Watchdog agent?”
“I suspect she’s on the phone with her boss right now.”
“That’s good. We’ll both have strings to pull, and believe me, Gillian has a lot of pull. I’ll get back to you before the hour is out.”
“I’ll be waiting for your phone call.”
Gina-aka Callie Carpenter-exited the bathroom looking delectable and smelling delicious.
When Jammer went past her, he gave her a quick kiss on the mouth. He couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. She only knew him as an arms dealer. There would come a time when he would reveal to her who he really was and why he had done what he had, but that wasn’t now.
She was already turning away and dialing her phone. He went inside the bathroom and took a quick shower, washing off the sticky grape juice and the grime of the day.
After this was all over, he would lose this place that he had called home for three years. Losing Callie would be hard enough. Losing the winery would be almost as difficult. He loved it with a passion.
When the DEA had purchased this property for his cover, Jammer was at first amused. He was told that he could either use it as a base of operations, live there when not on business, or grow grapes and make wine. The last of those choices would solidify his cover.
But now that his cover was blown he had to assume a new identity. When Fuentes found out who the Ghost really was, he would be livid. The man had too much pride not to come after Jammer, whether he was in prison or not. Fuentes would be sure to murder anyone Jammer held dear. That was why he had to disappear-and he had to go alone.
He exited the bathroom, but Callie wasn’t in the room. He got dressed and went looking for her.
She was outside, pacing and talking on the phone. So he let her be. When his stomach rumbled, he decided that preparing a meal would be both a stress reliever and alleviate their hunger.
He pulled some ingredients out of the fridge and set them on the counter. He rubbed two bass fillets with olive oil and seasoning, stuffing them with sliced onions and oregano sprigs and tying them with string.
Sliding them into the oven, he moved on to the Mediterranean-inspired salad made up of garlic, anchovy paste, olive oil, grape and cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives from Spain, sun-dried tomatoes and chopped oregano.
By the time Callie came back into the kitchen, the fish was almost done and the salad was chilling in the fridge.
“Wow, that smells heavenly and I’m starving. What are you making?”
“Roasted black sea bass with tomato and olive salad.”
He started to set the table and Callie put down her phone to help.
“How did it go?” Jammer asked.
“I’m getting my gear delivered here in about two hours, and contracted four people to back us up. I also got the base plans and the rotation schedule for the guards. It’s best to use a water egress rather than a frontal assault. I’ve secured boats and scuba equipment,” Callie replied, arranging forks and knives.
“You do have yourself some nice contacts.”
She shot him a look. “Hey, I’m not just a pretty face.”
He chuckled and got a stab of pain thinking that he would never get a chance to find out all he could about Callie Carpenter. It was a complicated mess. Drew Miller was marrying Callie’s sister, Allie Carpenter, and he and Miller hadn’t parted on the best of terms. The DEA had helped her brother, Max, disappear along with Rio Marshall for their own protection. It was one of the demands he’d put to Stanford in exchange for completing the mission with Fuentes. So now that both of them were out of danger, all he had to do was worry about Callie getting on Fuentes’s radar.
He’d done his best in the three years he’d played this low-life arms dealer to keep people out of harm’s way and still obtain his objective.
“You sound like you know your way around a military base,” Jammer said.
“You could say that. I was a military brat when I was a kid, so I know the ropes,” Callie replied.
The oven timer went off. Jammer went over and took out the fish. He set the fillets on plates, then added the salad.
Callie seated herself, and Jammer set her plate down in front of her.
She breathed in the sizzling fish’s aroma. As soon as Jammer took a chair and poured the wine, she dug in.
He would never get tired of watching her, especially with that expression of pure rapture on her face.
“Where did you learn to cook this way?” she asked between bites.
Sick of ducking questions and offering half-truths, Jammer said softly, “My mother. She was a master in the kitchen. We ate like this every night.”
“That must have been fantastic.”
“It was. She was a stay-at-home mom, and all my friends were jealous when I told them that when I got home from school, my mom would have something waiting for me. It was either pizza bagels, hot soup on a cold day or my favorite chocolate-chip cookies still warm from the oven.”
He looked up at Callie and she had stopped eating. He knew she realized that he was telling her an actual piece of his life. Just as he had when she’d asked about the book in the library and he’d talked about his father.
He smiled wistfully. “I guess we were spoiled.”
“You were blessed,” she said. “Truly.”
He nodded, his throat tight. It pained him that she would never get a chance to meet his parents and that they wouldn’t get the chance to meet her.
He ached that he would have to change his life again, become someone else and sacrifice this woman who meant more to him than any woman had in his life.
She reached over and covered his hand with hers. “I was lucky, too. Very lucky with my parents.”
“Are they disappointed in what you do?”
“They don’t know what I do, Jammer, and I like it that way. They wouldn’t approve, but I have to live my life the way I see fit.”
He realized that she wasn’t talking about Gina Callahan, but Callie Carpenter. Of course, being a black ops agent, Callie wouldn’t be able to tell her parents what she did for a living.
“What would you do if you could do anything you wanted?”
“I’ve thought about that often. After all, being an arms dealer is already starting to get old. I think I’d go to law school.”
Jammer laughed so hard he choked.
She had to slap him on the back and get him a glass of water.
“I know,” she said with amusement in her voice. “It’s an odd choice.”
He also realized that it was Callie who would become the lawyer, and she’d be a great one. She was smart and
