“I’m sorry, Callie.”
She jerked her head upright at the sound of her name-her real name-on his lips. Fear twisted through her, that she might finally be at the mercy of Jammer. This time he knew she had every intention of betraying him.
“You know who I am?”
“I always have. From the very beginning, I knew everything.”
“How is that possible?”
He turned around and slipped a gun into his waistband at the small of his back.
“You have someone on the inside,” she said.
“You could say that.”
Suddenly she realized who he was-the undercover DEA agent! “All this time I’ve been chasing you and you’ve been on our side all along. Three years of my life have just been rendered meaningless.”
“No, they haven’t, Callie. You and the other agencies protected my every step.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You built my cover by making me notorious. It brought me to the attention of Fuentes-my ultimate goal. So nothing you did was meaningless. Every action was a stepping-stone to justice.”
She couldn’t argue with his logic, and it did give her satisfaction that she had helped to keep this man safe. “Gillian’s going to be so pissed.”
“I’m sure a lot of government agencies will.” He came back over to the chair. “It has to be this way. I can’t be distracted. Do you understand?”
“No. I’m a black ops government agent. I can help you. Now uncuff me!” Relief gave way to anger that Jammer would leave her here in the room while he went out into serious danger.
He shook his head and headed for the door. Callie called to him in the only name she knew. “Jammer!”
He spun around and came back to the chair. He knelt in front of her, his face twisted with emotion. “For once, just this once, I want you to call me by my real name.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. “What is your real name?”
She watched him blink quickly, as if he was afraid to take his eyes off her for even a fraction of a second. “It’s Shane, Callie. Shane McMasters.”
“Shane McMasters is dead,” she said bluntly, as if he was playing her. But then she saw the truth in his eyes. He drifted away from her in body and mind, losing himself in a past that haunted his eyes, even now.
“I was. I was a ghost until you opened that hotel room door in Paris. Then I started to live again. I became whole again.”
All the emotion she’d contained in her burst free. “Let me go. Don’t go out there by yourself. Shane, please don’t do this.”
“I have to! For my fellow agents who were ambushed by that butcher. He left us for dead. Now he’s going to answer for those murders and all his other crimes.”
Callie just stared at him, at the wild gleam of pain in his eyes, the muscles and tendons that stood out in his neck, the heavy rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
He took a badge out of the bag and rubbed the DEA letters with his thumb. When he looked up at her, tears glistened in his eyes. They slipped down his cheeks. She reached out and cupped his jaw. He pressed his forehead to hers. The tears she’d been holding back for so long spilled over and down her own cheeks, mingling with his.
His hand closed around her wrist, as if she was his only anchor. “I love you, Callie.”
A sob caught in her throat, his admission slamming into her with actual force. “Oh God, Shane. I love you, too. So don’t do this to me. Don’t make me wait here not knowing, not being able to help the man I love. I’ll never forgive you for this.”
Through her tears she watched him struggle with her words.
“I know, but you’ll be alive,” he said.
He pulled out of her embrace, even as she tried to hold on, to get through to him.
“I’ve got to go.”
“You’ll come back to get me. Say that you will.”
“I won’t. Someone will come to release you. I promise that. But we can’t be together.”
“Why not?”
“During the trial I’ll be in protective custody. After that, I have to disappear. Fuentes won’t rest until he finds me, kills me and everyone I love.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“And give up your family? Everyone and everything you know?” Anguish laced his voice. “No. I can’t ask that of you. I had to do it and it rips my heart out to know that my sister, Rio, thinks I’ve been dead for three years.”
“No,” Callie said softly, but the thought of leaving her family-Allie and Max and her parents-was unbearable. But never to see Jam…Shane again was crushing her heart.
“I love you so much, Callie.”
“Shane, no, please don’t leave. Please uncuff me.”
But he turned, set what looked like the cuff key on the nightstand and walked out of the room. Callie sat there in silence as his footsteps retreated down the hall. Her heart was breaking into little pieces. If anything happened to him, how could she go on? Now that he had revealed his true identity, now that they could really be together, the promise of spending a lifetime with him was something she wanted more than anything.
She pulled at the cuff frantically. Got up and tried to drag the chair, but it wouldn’t budge. Then she heard the doorknob turning and she stiffened. If that was him coming back, she was going to kick his ass.
But Leila slipped inside and rushed over to her. “I wondered what happened to you. Did he leave you here for that bastard Fuentes?”
“No, he’s undercover DEA.”
“What?
“He left the key on the nightstand,” Callie said urgently.
Leila rushed over to the stand and grabbed the key, unlocking the cuffs.
As soon as Callie was free, she went for the gun she’d concealed in her bag. Cocking it and chambering a bullet, she said, “Let’s go.”
They rushed out the door and down the hall. “This way,” Leila said.
Callie followed her through the dining room and into the kitchen. They slipped out the back door and saw Fuentes and several men in green uniforms near an open box of the surface-to-air missiles that Callie had flown to Colombia.
They were laughing and talking like old friends. Shane was walking toward them. Several men with automatic weapons milled about, looking bored.
Callie took a moment to really study the area. She caught glimpses of men in the jungle, but only because she was searching for them.
“The cavalry is here,” Leila said softly, “Don’t worry.”
They moved around the house, and managed to slip up behind the leaders without being detected by using one of the vehicles as cover.
“Ah, here is the Ghost’s man. When will your boss be here?” he asked jovially.
“Eduardo, he’s already here.”
Eduardo looked around. “But I do not see him,
“No, it’s no joke. I’m the Ghost.”
“You? What is this!”
“I’ve used the Ghost as a cover for three years, building my reputation, garnering your interest solely for the purpose of providing this large shipment for you.”
“Because you want to work for me?”
Shane laughed and Callie’s heart constricted. God, she loved him.
“No. I don’t want work for you, you fuck. My real name is Shane McMasters. You left me and five dead DEA agents to rot in the jungle.”
