Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Liddy shivered in the car, waiting for Callum to come back outside from the church salon.

He'd gone in by himself for two reasons. He was the only one who could speak Spanish and, this way, Liddy could watch the door in case Sergio somehow spotted Callum before Callum saw him.

Not that she wanted to confront the creep herself.

Nervous energy made her want to bounce her legs, but she knew she was still reeling from the effects of that hug. That hadn't been like the kiss he'd given her to pretend they were dating. They didn't have to fake anything here.

And what I felt was the furthest thing from fake imaginable.

She'd wanted to kiss him. So badly.

She was probably just out of it. And tired. Jet lag was wearing at her again, and outside of the fruit they'd bought at the market this morning, she hadn't eaten. She still had fruit in her backpack, in fact, but she was craving something more.

I'm hangry. I have to be. Why else would I be thinking I might be feeling something for Callum ?

She wished she had her cell phone. She really, really needed to talk to Elle. Hell, she wished someone other than Kyle knew about this mess she was in. Kyle and Liddy did not talk about relationships or sex, except superficially. That was what her big sister was for.

Kyle had told her to be careful, and he was right. If anyone had told her forty-eight hours ago that she would wander around the countryside of Costa Rica with Callum, sharing some of her deepest and most personal secrets, she would have laughed and bet good money that it wouldn't happen.

This wasn't a stranger she was talking about—it was her boss. If anyone even suspected she'd been flirting with him, she would lose the respect of some of her coworkers. Last year, an intern had started with the company—a gorgeous, busty blonde named Amanda who spent a few weeks working closely under Callum.

When the rumor had started that she was sleeping with Callum, she became the girl who was "shagging her way to the top" and a pariah.

Amanda had quit a week later.

And while these were all things she should have considered before she'd accepted Callum's ludicrous proposal, she was only thinking about them now because she'd felt something when he'd touched her.

The door to the church salon opened, and Liddy straightened, her hand inching closer to the door handle.

Callum came out, a plate in one hand, punch cup in the other.

She gave him a quizzical look as he climbed inside the car. A couple of pastries were on the plate, as well as a slice of cake.

"You were . . . eating?" What the what?

"It's a . . . Latina thing. Short story is, here's some food if you want it. The cake is amazing. The pastries are meat empanadas—sort of like a Cornish pastry." He set the cup in the cupholder. "And this is Coke."

She examined them and then took one. "It's a good thing I've lived in London for the past couple of years because savory pies are so not an American thing." She took a bite, not even caring about how good it was, her hunger overtaking her. Though, to be fair, it was fantastic . "Okay, tell me about Sergio."

Callum started the car. "He's not there."

The food sank to her stomach like a rock. "What?"

Callum set his hand on the shifter, looking over his shoulder as he backed away from the curb. "But I know where he's heading."

She dropped her chin. "You might have started with that."

"I might have," he said with a ghost of a smile on his lips. "But it would have made my success less drawn out."

She shook her head, slugging his arm. Then she returned to the food. "How on earth did you find that out?"

Callum shrugged. "I just showed up, pretended I belonged there. Went up to a bloke about our age and talked for a while. I'm certain this bloke kept hoping someone would remind him of my name because he tried to play it off like he remembered me. Eventually, I asked him if he knew if Sergio had come. The party was just big enough that I blended but small enough that my guess that the younger crowd might know each other helped me."

"So he knew him?" Liddy tried not to think about how nauseating doing what Callum had done was to her. If the roles had been reversed, she would have probably frozen at the doorway and learned nothing.

Callum nodded and pulled out onto the street. "He said Sergio had already left. That he's taking a tour up to Arenal for the next couple of days and had to cut out early from the party."

"Wait—what? He really is a tour guide? What else did you find out?"

"Not much. I didn't want to seem overly suspicious, though it occurred to me at one point that maybe a blunt approach might be more effective. But if I had tried that and it backfired, I wouldn't have found out anything."

"But . . ." She didn't want to seem ungrateful.

But that's not a lot to go on.

They knew he was going to the Arenal Volcano—which was a large area, according to the guidebooks she'd looked at. Who knew where he would be? Searching for him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. And Sergio definitely wouldn't have the wedding dress with him if he was guiding a tour. So even if they found him, it might still be days before they could get the dress back—if they were lucky.

"How are we going to find him?" she finally asked, her excitement level waning.

"I have no idea." Callum rubbed his eyes, his face appearing drawn. He's probably just as tired as I am. "But it's something."

Liddy finished the rest of the empanada in silence, her stomach churning. Something. Next to nothing. "So are we going to Arenal?"

Callum frowned at her. "No, I thought we'd go back to the hotel. Figure out our next steps and get some sleep." He cleared his throat. "If Sergio is taking a tour group to Arenal today, he's probably going to be there for at least a good portion of tomorrow, if not more. It's about three hours from here on a winding, mountainous road that takes tour buses forever. Any tour leaving tonight would get there past sunset, so I doubt they'd leave the area again right away."

"And how many tours do you think go out there daily?"

"Dozens," he answered soberly.

"Callum, the only thing we have on our side right now is time. How long does it take to get from the beach back to Arenal?"

"Probably three or four hours."

"Right. So if we leave tomorrow morning, we might come in a day late and a dollar short again. We should go there tonight. In the meantime, if you'll lend me your phone, I'll start googling the name Sergio and tour guides and Costa Rica and see what I can find."

Callum turned his head slowly toward her, then pulled back toward another curb. "Are you mad?"

Oh, I should have expected this.

"What, are you dying to get back to your comfortable floor?"

"No. But I am—" Callum ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm tired, Liddy. It's been a lot the past couple of days. We don't have a plan or a place to stay in La Fortuna—that's the town where Arenal is located. If we drive straight through, we'll be there by like eight. I don't have my laptop or my mobile phone charger, and I need to get some work done—which I already told you. We have no clothes or even toothbrushes. We can't keep going like this without some plan."

"And we can't just afford to lose whatever we gained by coming here today—which isn't really that much."

Crap. I didn't mean to sound like such a bitch.

Callum frowned. "Not much is still better than nothing."

"Look, I'm sorry. You're right. You're tired, and so am I. It's been a long day. I haven't eaten that much except fruit and empanadas and this cake." She took a bite, then her eyes widened. God, that's incredible. "What the hell do they put in these cakes? Crack? That's insanely good."

"I told you." He smirked.

"But seriously, Callum, I'm not trying to be ungrateful. I just . . . don't want to give up now. I know it's nuts. And, honestly, I know you don't do ‘nuts.' I don't really do nuts. But somehow, it's been working for us the last two days. So maybe we should keep going and see where this takes us."

Strangely, even though she'd been talking about the situation with Sergio and the dress, she couldn't help but feel an energized subtext to her own words.

Let's see where this goes between us.

Callum gave her a grudging look. "Fine. But I'm stopping somewhere for a proper meal at some point." He dug out his phone and unlocked it, then held it out to her. "Don't use all the battery. We're already down to one phone between the two of us, and we need my GPS."

Liddy had already opened the browser. Thank God.

She hadn't realized how much she missed being plugged in until she'd been forced to go without. "If it's all right, I'm going to call Elle real quick. Tell her we won't be back tonight."

"Sure, but I don't have Elle's phone number stored in my contacts."

Her thumb froze over the touchpad. Dammit.

Callum raised a brow. "You don't know your own sister's phone number?"

"Does anyone memorize numbers anymore?" She scowled.

"I know my sister's."

"I doubt your sister had to change her phone number on account of being internationally famous," Liddy shot back. "What about Quinn?"

"He's in there somewhere."

Liddy typed in her brother-in-law's name and then dialed. He answered after the first ring. "Cal, where are you?"

"Actually, it's Liddy. I lost my phone yesterday, so I'm borrowing his. Is Elle around?"

"No, but she's been looking for you. Your mother has been, too. Kyle said you had some sort of trip planned today. A couple's horse-riding adventure?"

"Yeah . . ." Liddy darted a glance at Callum. She hated to lie to Quinn. He was one of the sweetest guys she'd met. But she couldn't start telling everyone the truth, no matter how much she trusted them. "It's been great. But we've zipped on over to see Arenal Volcano, and hopefully, we'll be back sometime tomorrow. I just wanted to let you guys know."

"That sounds fun. Erhm—just . . . be careful, of course. And we'll see you when you get back."

Is Quinn upset?

He said nothing, and she didn't want to ask.

Liddy had promised to run interference for Elle, after all. Help her find a caterer. Shit. But Taryn and Hunter should be there by now. They would help.

She didn't want to dwell on it, but guilt pooled in her throat regardless.

She quickly googled the most reasonable search she could come up with: "Sergio guide Costa Rican tours Arenal." As the search came up, Callum pulled the car over again.

"What is it now?"

"A pulperia. I'm going to grab some water bottles for the road, maybe some snacks, and some toothbrushes and toothpaste while I'm at it. Want anything else?"

She shook her head. "I'm good."

He was gone a moment later, and she watched as he crossed the street and went up to the window on the side of a building. Unlike the other convenience store, this one didn't have an obvious entrance, and he started talking to a lady at the window instead. The rain continued, and Callum ducked closer to the building to stay out of a stream of rainwater from the roof.

She glanced back at the search results.

Sergio is more common of a name than I realized. She even found a Costa Rican tour company titled after some guy named Sergio, but it wasn't the one she was looking for.

She rubbed her eyes, a wave of tiredness hitting her. Was she being too demanding?

A notification popped in from the top of the screen.

Isla: All right, I've given you enough time to call me back. What the hell is going on?

Liddy pushed the notification away, trying not to snoop, and went back to the browser. Another one dinged almost immediately.

Isla: If you hate this woman, why are you pretending you're dating?

This time, Liddy stared at the words, unable to tear her eyes away.

"Hate this woman?" she whispered, her heart giving a throb.

Clearly, Callum had had enough time to tell her something.

Including the fact that he hates me.

Tears stung her eyes, her throat tightening.

Why should this hurt? I would have said the same thing two days ago.

Exactly. Two days ago.

Not today, after they'd been through?—

The door to the car squeaked open, and Liddy swiped the notification away, her cheeks burning. Callum sat and slipped a small, red-striped bag into the back seat. He glanced at her as he started the car. "You okay?"

"Yeah—" Liddy swallowed hard, not wanting the tears prickling in her eyes to spill out and give her away. "I'm just . . . tired, too. Probably not feeling so well on account of that pepper. Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just go back to the hotel."

"After I bought you a toothbrush and everything?" Callum grinned, then let out a slow sigh. "No, you're right. Finding Sergio is important, and this feels like the wiser thing to do. And I have earned the damn holiday. Camden Enterprises won't collapse without me. Maybe I need something—or someone—to force me into poking my head above the surface occasionally."

She stared at the browser on his phone, her breath still shallow, trying to recover.

I knew he hated me. This isn't anything new.

She just hadn't known he was so good at pretending.

Or maybe she did. Maybe that was what had bothered her all along about Callum. How he could so easily go from charming and flirtatious to cold and indifferent—like the first day she'd met him. She'd never been able to reconcile his two sides. The past two days had made her think that maybe her first impression had been the right one after all, but—no—this was all the confirmation she needed.

He's an exceptional liar when it's convenient.

It's probably what makes him such a cutthroat businessman.

"Fine, whatever you want to do," she whispered. She scrolled mindlessly as one of her tears hit the screen, unable to process the words from the search result.

Callum glanced over again and saw her crying. "Liddy, it's going to be okay. I promise. You know, Google searching might get us further than you expect. We should have probably tried to do that but, to tell you the truth, I wasn't convinced that anything Sergio told you, including his name, was true. And honestly, I doubt he has the dress with him, especially if it's a hiking tour. But...we can try."

I have to stop thinking about that text from Isla.

Lydia winced. "God, what if that's true, though? Who knows, you could have walked into that baptism party and asked for Sergio and—just look at these search results. ‘Sergio is the BEST.' There are tons of guys named Sergio, probably."

She held the phone out to him in frustration.

Callum's eyes flicked to the screen and then he did a double take. "Wait a second. Isn't that him?"

Liddy yanked the phone back toward herself. She'd inadvertently hit the "images" results when she'd turned the phone over and . . . there he is.

Sergio's handsome face smiled back from a photo, a snapshot taken by some tourist who had posted it to a review site, a parrot on his arm.

Holy shit.

She clicked the review for a company called Aventuras y Escapes: Adventures and Escapes, Costa Rican Private Tours.

Her fingers tightened around the phone.

"Oh my gosh." Glee pushed its way through her misery as she looked back at Callum. "I can't believe it. I can't believe it actually worked. Or that he told me so many true things about himself."

Callum threw his head back and laughed. "He's got to be the dumbest thief in history."

"This is unbelievable." She stared at the picture. "What do I do now? We know the name of the company he works for."

"Call them. I'll talk to someone there if they're open and see if we can't get a better idea of the itinerary for the trip Sergio's leading right now. Maybe we can say we missed the tour bus and are trying to catch up or something."

For the first time, this ridiculous plan seemed to be sort of brilliant.

If it had been anyone but Callum, Lydia would have wanted to hug him again.

But it was Callum Scott. A man who was excellent at pretending and lying.

A man who hates you.

Lesson learned: guard your heart and that way, it won't ever be broken .