Chapter 32

Sebastian

W e pull up in front of the cabin, cautiously park the car to the side, and glance around. We wait a few minutes to see if someone will come out to investigate the strange vehicle. This was the route we chose, the ‘I’m lost in the backwoods’ bit. After a few minutes, we are met with only silence.

I’ve been reluctant about coming here with Callie, but I have to give her the respect she deserves. She’s not weak, and she’s too damn stubborn to hang back. Nobody comes out of the cabin, so I’m feeling a little more confident that the place is vacant.

It doesn't make sense. Why would Gabriel have coordinates in a notebook that he kept under lock and key for it to just be an empty cabin in the middle of the woods? There has to be some other importance to this place. We have to be careful it’s not some sort of trap. The entire place could be rigged to explode; we just don’t know.

"I'm going in first," Callie says, and we all turn to glare at her. That wasn't the plan.

"Do you really think that's a good idea, princess? We don't know what we're walking into," Barrett tries to pacify her.

"It's not happening," I say, and her eyes narrow in defiance.

"I know it wasn't the plan, but my gut instinct is telling me I need to go in first. You three follow me. I know Rogue, and I know my father. This cabin means something. He kept it a secret for a reason."

"If I knew you were going to try and fuck up the plan again, I would have left you at home with Natasha. This isn't how we work our jobs, Callie," I tell her, growing increasingly annoyed, considering we're still sitting here out in the open for anyone to come at us.

"I don't care. I'm going in first." She pushes the door of the car open before I can engage the lock and starts walking toward the front door.

"Stop," I say as I push my door open and run up to her to grab her arm.

She pulls it free from me and glares at me. "You have to trust me on this. Let me go in first, you next, and then Barrett and Ky. I'm the heir to Rogue. Nobody is going to hurt me if I walk through those doors because everyone knows who I am, even if I don’t know them."

"She does kind of have a point," Kyler says.

"This isn't the time or place for you to be a pushover and defend her, Ky," I say, determined to get her back in the car. This isn't going down the way it's supposed to. It's too risky, and someone is going to end up hurt. I can't lose any of them.

While I'm focused on Kyler, I turn back to see Callie walk off and is now only a few feet away from the front door. I try to close the distance, but she reaches the handle and turns it, pushing the door open before I can get to her.

I have no choice but to follow her lead, staying right next to her with my gun drawn and Barrett and Ky close behind. We step inside and hear people talking upstairs. I shake my head at Callie, warning her to not be stupid and draw attention to us. Like the brat she is, she doesn't listen.

"Hello," she calls out, not moving further than just inside the door.

I glance around, and the guys freeze behind me, completely shocked that she just alerted them to our presence. My heart slams in my chest, and all I can do is watch as three men make their way down the staircase in front of us. Callie asked me to trust her, and while I didn't want to, I have no choice now. If I start shooting, I have no clue how many other people will come running to aid them.

The men stop at the bottom of the staircase and eye us up. A set of eyes land on the gun I have outstretched, and I tense. What are they waiting for? Why aren't they fighting us?

"Mrs. Michaels?" one of them asks her tentatively, and I don't miss the way her body tenses up.

"Please, call me Callie." She smiles.

"Mrs. Michaels," the dickhead says, ignoring her request. I don't know why she thought this was a good idea. "Why are you here? We were under the impression that the only person who knows the location of this cabin outside of the team who stays here is the leader of Rogue. "

She straightens her spine and looks straight into the eyes of the guy who is challenging her. "I believe I told you to call me Callie, and I will not be disrespected. I'm here because my father is dead. You are aware that I am his successor? I'm here for a reason, and I'm fairly certain you all already know what that is."

The men look at one another quizzingly as though they can hardly believe she's telling the truth. I know the doubt they have is likely due to the fact that she is a woman. Rogue has never had a woman as a leader, and they still don't, but with any luck, they will go along with her story, and these fucks won't know the difference before we kill them.

"Callie," another man says hesitantly, "if it were true that your father is dead, we would have been notified. There are procedures that must be followed. You can't just show up here like this, and with guns pointed at us, nonetheless. Who are these men with you?"

Callie turns to look at me, silently asking me to continue following her lead. "Sebastian, lower your gun." I hesitate before reluctantly listening. "This is my personal team," she continues. "As you are aware from my father, you never know who you can and cannot trust. Sebastian and Kyler are my bodyguards. Barrett has his own specific skill set, one that Soren shared. With Soren missing, I had to replace him."

"Mrs. Micha-" the dickhead tries again.

"If you disrespect me again, I will shoot you right between those beady eyes. I'm not going to repeat myself." She pulls a gun out of her waistband and points it directly at his forehead.

Who the fuck gave her a gun? The dickhead’s eyes go wide, and he holds up his hands in defense.

"Barrett, pull up the video of my father in the basement," she says, not even bothering to look back at him.

Within seconds, he places the phone in her hand with the image of Gabriel strung up and Damien standing in front of him, holding the knife that he picked up off the floor. These men don't know Damien simply picked up the knife. To anyone who wasn't there to experience the glorious death of Gabriel themselves, it would look as though Damien was the one standing there torturing him.

"My father, your previous leader, was brutally murdered by the man you keep referring to as my husband. Rogue is mine. This cabin is mine. You are under my strict order now, and I am here to acquire what my father placed here to ensure things stay on track."

I have to give her credit for how smart she's playing this. She is going off of the pure fact that these men have been here at the cabin and have no idea what's going on at Rogue outside of the fact that she was married. She told us the wedding was a mandatory event. Everyone would have been in attendance, these men likely included. If their sole job is to watch whatever is in this cabin, they would have left immediately after the wedding to come back here and await instruction. Clearly, they were never notified of Gabriel's death or funeral, which would make sense if their orders came directly from Gabriel .

The men hesitate again and look at one another, questioning whether or not they can trust her. She decides enough is enough. The gun she holds moves quickly to the right, and before any of us have time to react, she shoots one of the three men in the kneecap. He screams and falls to the ground, gripping his wound.

That was the hottest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I raise my gun to back her up, and Barrett and Kyler quickly follow suit. The remaining two uninjured men reach into their waistbands and pull out their own guns, pointing them in our direction while the third cries out in pain on the ground. Nobody else comes out at the sound of the gunshot, which is a good thing. At least we know there are only three of them here for now.

"Put your fucking guns down. If I wanted him dead, I would have aimed higher," she grits out, and they slowly lower their weapons. "Are we done with the theatrics now?"

"Yes, ma'am," the dickhead says, quickly changing tune.

"Well then, you know what I'm here for," she challenges.

I have to hold back the urge to laugh. She doesn't even know what she's here for, but she is sure as fuck playing it off differently. I'm not sure if I'm going to punish her or reward her once all is said and done for going directly against what we had planned.

The two non-injured men tuck their guns back into their waistbands and walk toward the living room of the small cabin. I can tell they still don't fully trust her yet based on their body language. They stop in the middle of the living room and stare at her as if they are expecting something from her. I don't like this, and I'm right back on edge.

Callie picks up on the fact that they don't plan on moving any further than the middle of the room. She glances around at the wood walls before her eyes stop on a painting on the far right side of the room. She narrows her eyes and walks toward it.

What is she doing?

She pushes the painting to the side and reveals a wall safe with a keypad. Clearly, we don't know the combination for it, so we wait to see if one of the men types it in for her, but they don't. They simply stand there waiting for what she does next. Callie takes a deep breath and steps forward, entering a series of numbers.

The air in the room shifts as we wait for the telltale sign of whether or not the numbers are correct. My heart slams in my chest with each button she presses. Finally, she enters the last number, and there is a clicking noise. My eyes flutter shut for a moment of relief when she pulls open the safe.

All I can see from this angle are the several stacks of cash inside. Callie's hand reaches inside to pull out a small flash drive before turning to hold it up to show us. Barrett walks over to grab it from her.

Callie turns back to the safe and reaches in to grab something else—a yellow folder with a name written on the top. It's too far for me to make out the name, but I can tell it means something to her. I step forward to take it from her and notice it says 'Stone.’ I wonder if this is about her biological parents. She reaches in to grab one last thing before closing the safe and turns to look at us.

A key dangles from her fingers, and her eyes meet the dickheads. "Take me to the room this belongs to."

It's a bold assumption that the key unlocks something here. If she's wrong, it will give us away. It's like she didn't think it through before she opened up her damn mouth. The dickhead narrows his eyes, waiting to see what she will do before he turns to walk down a small hallway off of the living room. We pass a bathroom to our left and stop in front of the next door. I look to the right to see another small hallway that passes under the stairs with a door on the other side.

"What's over there?" I ask.

"That's the master bedroom. It's where Gabriel stayed when he was here."

"How often did he come here?" Callie asks, leaning forward to push the key into the door to our left.

"To my knowledge, he has never slept here. I wasn't always assigned to the cabin, though. He could have stayed here prior to the group of us taking over."

Callie turns the handle, and my hand goes to the butt of my gun, holding it just in case I need to pull it out to quickly defend us. When the door creaks open, and we all funnel inside. I’m shocked by the rows of silver filing cabinets lining the entirety of the room. Each one of them is noted with a letter, and Callie walks over to pull one of them open to reveal yellow folders similar to the one she found in the safe. I watch her grab one to inspect its contents.

The letter on the front of this cabinet is E, and the folder is noted 'Evans.’ She flips it open to reveal a small photo of a man and a few pieces of paper. I hear her sigh before closing the folder, placing it back into the cabinet, and closing the door. Apparently, she doesn't need to see any more to discern what this room's about. The fact that I don't have all the details keeps me on edge, though.

"Anything else I need to know about?" she asks the quiet one, and he shakes his head no.

This one seems more timid than the others. I almost feel bad that I have to kill him because he seems like he doesn't even want to be here to begin with. Mercy will only end badly for us, especially where Rogue is concerned.

"Who else knows this is here?" she glares at the dickhead.

"Nobody, ma'am. This cabin is for use by the leader and his, um, their team only. The only people who know about this place are the people inside the cabin.”

Perfect, I think, and I lift my gun and shoot him directly in the head. A half second later, the other guy is on the ground from Barrett’s bullet, and Kyler is out the door to take down the one we left by the stairs.

Just like that, I take the first real breath I've taken since we pulled up to this place. We still need to be careful, but I believe what the men said. I don't think anyone in Rogue has any idea this exists.

I look up at Callie and close the distance between us, my hand immediately finding her throat as I push her back against one of the tall cabinets. "Don't ever pull that kind of shit again. We all could have died."

"It was fine," she grits out, struggling to breathe. Her hands push against my chest, nails digging into my skin through the fabric of my shirt. "Get the fuck off of me."

"Enough," Barrett says, grabbing me by the back of the neck and pulling me from her. I push his hand away, and he scoffs.

"We have shit to do. Keep your emotions under control. We're still on the job," Barrett tells me, and he's right; I need to get myself under control. I'll deal with Callie when we get back home.