Chapter 70 CALLUM AND REEVES ALONE

Chapter 70 CALLUM AND REEVES ALONE
CALLUM'S POV

I sat in my car in the estate driveway with my phone in my hand and the car engine off.

The morning sun was grey outside the windscreen. The kind of grey that did not look like it was going to change into anything better anytime soon.

I scrolled through my call log until I found Reeves's number and pressed call.

He picked up on the second ring.

"Mr. Blackthorn." He did not sound surprised to hear from me. "I wondered how long after the group call it would take."

"I need to know the exit strategy." I kept my eyes on the estate gates in front of me. "All of it. Not the version you gave Nova that was designed to make her feel like the situation is controlled."

"The situation is controlled, Mr Blackthorn." He said, still sounding sure.

"Reeves." I put my elbow on the door and pressed two fingers against my temple. "I have read enough contracts in my life to know when someone is giving me the summary version because they think the full version will cause problems. Give me the full version."

There was a moment on his end.

"We'll have four agents inside the Meridian Club before Miss Sinclair arrives." Reeves moved around on his end, a chair, something shifting. "Two positioned in the main dining area with a direct line of sight to the private room corridor. One at the bar. One near the service entrance at the back."

"How long from the moment something goes wrong to the moment they reach her."

"The private dining room is forty seconds from the main floor on a clear path."

"And if the path is not clear."

"That's what the service entrance agent is for." Reeves did not hesitate on that. "We have the club's full floor plan. We've walked it twice this week. There is no position inside that room that does not have a covered exit route."

I looked at the gates.

"Castellano's security." I kept my voice level. "He will bring people."

"We know his usual details." Reeves moved again. "Two personal security, both of whom will be managed before they become a problem."

"Managed how."

"The kind of management that means they won't be in a position to complicate anything." He stopped. "Mr. Blackthorn, I have been building this case for eight months. I am not walking Miss Sinclair into that room without every contingency covered. What I need from you is to trust that and keep yourself and your brother from doing anything that signals to Castellano that Saturday is anything other than exactly what he planned."

I looked at my phone in my hand.

"There's something else." I sat back in my seat. "Something you said to Nova this morning. Castellano will be reasonable and patient and he'll make his offer feel logical." I paused. "You said that's more dangerous than a threat."

"It is."

"Which means there's a version of Saturday where Nova sits across from him and starts questioning herself." I kept my eyes on the gates. "I need to know what happens in that version."

Reeves was quiet for a moment.

"Miss Sinclair has been managing Matthias Hale across dinner tables for weeks without breaking." His voice shifted slightly.

"She documented every question he asked, every redirect he tried, every moment he circled back to the storage unit. She did all of that while maintaining a completely convincing surface." He paused. "I am not worried about Nova Sinclair questioning herself in that room, Mr. Blackthorn. I think you should consider not being worried about it either."

I looked at the gates.

He was right. I knew he was right.

That was not actually what I was calling about and we both knew it.

"My predecessor spoke to Isabella Sinclair eight years ago." Reeves said it before I could find a way to say anything else.

"Before the meeting she had planned. Someone on his team asked her the same questions you're asking me right now." He stopped.

"She answered them the same way Nova answered them this morning. She knew the risks and she was going in anyway because it was the right thing and because she had run out of other options." A moment. "The difference between then and now is that this time we are ready. This time the case is built. This time nobody is walking into that room alone."

I sat with that for a moment.

The estate gates in front of me were not moving.

"Thank you." I kept my voice level.

"Mr. Blackthorn." Reeves stopped me before I could end the call. "Be at the estate Saturday afternoon when my people arrive to fit the wire. Nova will need both of you in that house before she leaves."

The call ended and I dropped the phone on my lap.

This whole decision just seems to make me uncomfortable. What if something goes wrong? What if Nova gets hurt? What if Reeves' men arrive late?

Shit! I needed to get my act together.

I sat in the car with the phone in my lap and looked at the gates and thought about Isabella Sinclair sitting across from someone eight years ago asking the same questions and getting the same answers and walking in anyway.

And then I thought about Nova at that kitchen table with her hand flat over that card and her jaw set and that look in her eyes that I had been watching since she was sixteen years old and had never once been able to talk her out of anything once it was already decided.

My phone buzzed on my lap.

I looked down at it.

A text from Jasmine: The Harrington counter documents just came in Sir. Page seven. You need to see it before anyone else does.

I looked at the estate behind me in the rearview mirror.

Then I started the engine, driving out of the estate.