28. Liam

“What the hell does she mean she quits?!”

This early in the morning, I was expecting to be neck deep buried in paperwork from the layers, not an email from Callie stating that she was handing in her resignation.

How? Why? This didn’t make any sense. Yesterday, when she came to the office and we had some fun in the bathroom, we parted on good terms. I thought she was on good terms with everyone, but seemingly, there was something I’d missed.

“She quits,” Sawyer said quietly, standing by the window and staring out over the city as it woke up under the warming sun.

“I know she quit,” I snapped. “But I don’t understand why she quit. What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.” Sawyer didn’t even turn to look at me. He kept staring out over the city, motionless.

“You must have done something because I didn’t do anything.” I paused and reread her email once more. “At least, I don’t think I did anything. She was happy. Didn’t she seem happy to you?”

“She seemed…” Sawyer sighed deeply and turned to face me. “I think we have been distracted. With the patent, the business, and now this lawsuit. I think we overlooked something important and now Callie is gone.”

“Not gone,” I said in disbelief. “She just quit. But she’s not gone… right?” She wouldn’t leave us, would she? The company I could maybe understand with how tense things had been. This lawsuit didn’t exactly evoke confidence in our abilities but relationship-wise, things had been good.

I was confident they had.

Glancing over my shoulder, I looked through the glass to Marie, sitting at Callie’s desk with her face buried in her tablet, focused entirely on her cartoons. She adored Callie as much as I did. If Callie really had left, how was I going to break that news to her?

I had taken a risk introducing them properly but at the time it felt right. Everything about Callie felt right. How could she just be… gone?

“I think she’s trying to leave,” Sawyer said, crossing over to his desk. In one smooth motion, he picked up his suit jacket and slid it on. “But I’m not going to let her.”

A bead of hope rose up in my chest, so I focused on it rather than the budding upset that was knotting just under my ribs. We were losing the patent, and I didn’t want to lose Callie, either. She was the one normal thing in my life that was bright and warm.

I needed her. I loved her.

“What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to find her,” Sawyer said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it should be, but my mind was still entangled with lawsuits, lawyers and theft. “I have to find her. She was struggling. I saw it and I accepted her excuses because I was distracted. I should have pressed deeper. I should have made her tell me the truth.”

His voice tilted slightly and one hand curled into a fist. It struck me then, what Sawyer really meant. He liked her. He liked her a lot and he was punishing himself for not paying closer attention.

“You like her,” I said slowly. “She’s not just fun for you. You actually like her.”

Sawyer rolled his eyes. “So do you, or you wouldn’t be standing here fretting that you brought a woman into your daughter’s life who you want to keep around.”

He was so direct and on point that it almost took my breath away. It was too easy to forget just how observant Sawyer would be when he wanted to be. So, we both liked her—more than liked it. Knowing I might not see her ever again made my chest ache like something heavy was weighing down my ribcage.

“So, we’re going to get her.”

“We are? But we have a call with the lawyers in twent?—”

“Liam.” Sawyer moved in front of me and fixed me with his calming stare. “Do you want to stay here and chat with lawyers, or do you want to come with me to find Callie and sort this bullshit once and for all.”

“Callie,” I answered immediately. “But I have Marie with me. I won’t just abandon her.”

“Bring her.” Sawyer moved to the door. “It might help. The more people Callie sees that love her, the better chance we might have at getting to the truth.”

“Okay. I’ll call Bianca. Whatever’s going on, Callie wants us to help her for a reason.”

“A good place to start.” Sawyer strode out of his office and right to Callie’s desk while I pulled out my phone and dialed Bianca’s number. I watched Marie lift her head and beam up at her Uncle, then she slid from the chair and set her tablet down while nodding vigorously.

Unfortunately, Bianca didn’t answer by the time we reached the elevator, so I sent her a text instead, asking her if we could meet because it was urgent.

By the time we reached the ground floor, Bianca replied with an apology that she had been showering when I called, so she had been unable to answer.

“Uncle Sawyer?” Marie said, gripping his hand and swinging it back and forth as we walked.

“Yes, my dear?”

“Do you think it’s possible for elephants to fly?”

“Fly?”

“Yeah, they have those massive ears and bumblebees can fly with a big butt so why can’t elephants?” Marie asked innocently.

I snorted with amusement, halfway through typing out a reply to Bianca when I walked into Sawyer’s back. Grunting, I stumbled backward and bit back a curse that rose.

“Sawyer?”

Peering around his shoulder, my chest squeezed once more. Kane stood in front of us, a black sedan parked behind him. I hadn’t given him much thought about it with how quickly we left the office, but he had been included in the email. It was only right that he was concerned, too.

“Sawyer.” Kane’s eyes darted down to Marie, and suddenly, I was extra relieved that she was there. They wouldn’t get into a pissing contest in front of my daughter.

“Kane.”

“You both got the email, I trust?” Kane”s words had a slight hint of nerves as if he was expecting to be sent away. If it was any other situation, then maybe he would be, but that would be too selfish of us. Callie cared for Kane, and we couldn’t dictate that for her.

“We did,” I answered before Sawyer could sarcastically add anything. “We’re going to meet Bianca so we can find out what’s going on.”

“Callie needs help!” Marie declared, utterly oblivious to the tension between all three of us. “Are you coming too?”

Kane lifted his gaze to Sawyer with a silent question in his dark eyes. I held my breath, praying Sawyer wouldn’t let his ego get in the way this time.

“Yes,” Sawyer answered eventually. “Kane is coming too.”

“We can take my care.” Kane suddenly snapped into action and opened the door of the sedan behind him. “Just tell the driver where you want to go.”

I flashed him a small smile as I slipped past him and reeled off the address of Bianca’s veterinary clinic. She’d asked to meet us there and I’d agreed since it wasn’t far away.

The tension in the car was thick like smog, even with Marie humming to herself as she played with the window controls. I kept one eye on her to make sure no tiny fingers got stuck where they shouldn’t.

“Do we know what’s happened?” Kane asked, sitting poker straight with his hands on his knees. There was a nice dark bruise on his jaw from Sawyer’s fist yesterday.

“No,” Sawyer replied. “We have the email, that’s it. In fact I…” Sawyer sighed softly. “I take the blame. I knew she wasn’t telling me the truth but I didn’t push it because I was distracted. I thought that it would last until after we sorted out this patent thing and then I could confront her but I… I was wrong.”

“Did I hear that right?” I scoffed softly. “Sawyer admits he’s wrong?”

Sawyer flashed me a withering look.

“I… think we may all be a little wrong and to blame,” Kane said softly. “I actually came here with two intentions. The first was Callie, of course. And the second was…” Kane paused and glanced at Callie.

“It’s alright,” I assured him, moving one hand to Marie’s leg. “I’ll tell you to shut it if I think this is leaving child-appropriate territory.”

“Well, I did some digging into the countersuit filed by PRISM. I know a lot of information was lost during the initial reactions but after I left yesterday, I went through it all with a fine tooth comb and I noticed something pretty glaring.”

Sawyer watched silently, waiting for Kane to continue.

“PRISM is suing us with the wrong patent.”

My brow shot upwards. “What?”

“PRISM is using the old patent, the one that we ultimately abandoned due to its similarity with something already on the market. So, whoever leaked the patent to PRISM leaked our old files of the abandoned project, not the current ones that we actually filed.”

Sawyer’s brow twitched. “That is… unexpected. Do the lawyers know?”

“Yes.” Kane nodded. “I informed them as soon as I worked it out and before I went to bed, I heard that the case is being thrown out. PRISM is going to look incredibly stupid but not only that, they’ll now face a lawsuit from the original company behind the patent they’re claiming is theirs.”

“So, let me get this straight. PRISM got their hands on a patent they thought was ours, lied and claimed it for themselves, and tried to sue us. They failed because that patent has nothing to do with us. And now they’ll get sued by the original owner of that patent instead?”

“Yes,” Kane snorted softly and a small smile teased at the corner of his mouth. “And while PRISM is caught up in that mess, we’ll be able to get our patent secured and on the market hassle free.”

Sawyer remained silent, his brows pinched together as he was deep in thought. He didn’t react, not even when Kane still called the deal our patent and there was a hopeful note that since it was clear neither of them was the rat, maybe the deal was still on.

“Someone stole the old files,” Sawyer mused. “Isn’t that something?”

Arriving at the vet clinging, I spotted Bianca on the steps. Her face was drawn, and her eyes heavy when she stood up to greet us. Keeping Marie’s hand in mine, I flashed her a smile.

“Marie, this is Callie’s friend Bianca.”

“Hi!” Marie waved energetically and a small smile appeared on Bianca’s face.

“Hiya, it’s nice to meet you. Sorry, I didn’t expect all of you.” She smoothed her hands over her jeans and glanced between all four of us. “Wow.”

“Have you seen Callie this morning?” Sawyer asked, stepping closer to her.

“No. I stayed at her place last night but she was gone when I woke up. She’d left a note for me though, telling me that Kane would get me my job back.”

“Me?” Kane lifted his brow, moving around me. “How would I be able to do that?”

“I…” Bianca’s hands came together at her abdomen and she twisted her fingers together. “I was fired yesterday after complaints from a client that I had been mistreating their animal. Which, I swear on my life, isn’t true. I love the animals here and I would never harm them.”

Sawyer and I exchanged a glance as Kane moved closer to Bianca. What does this have to do with Callie? I had a distinct feeling that a piece of the puzzle was just out of sight.

“What are you thinking?” I asked Sawyer in a low voice as we followed Bianca and Kane inside.

“I think we’ve been blind,” Sawyer replied. “I think… I took Callie for granted and didn’t press hard enough because part of me was certain that there’d be no going back once I crossed that line. I would have to admit I’m in love with her and I wasn’t ready to do that. So I kept her at arm”s length and now…”

That was probably the most open I had ever heard Sawyer so I clutched his shoulder with my free hand and gave him a strong smile.

“It’s okay. We’ll get to the bottom of this and we will help Callie with whatever this really is. And then things will be good.”

“You’re always so positive.”

“Of course I am,” I chuckled. “Have you seen you and Kane? Someone needs to break up the angst.”

“This is the report?” Kane asked, standing on the other side of the counter with a file in his hand. Bianca stood on one side of him, nodding, while a man I presumed to be her boss stood on the other.

“Yes sir,” the man replied. “Everything is in there.”

Kane’s eyes skimmed down the sheets and then he froze.

“What is it?” Sawyer demanded immediately.

“Eli Talbot is the one claiming Bianca abused his dog?”

“Yes,” Bianca said. “But I swear, I’ve never hurt any animal.”

Eli? PRISM’s CEO kept his dog here?

I glanced at Sawyer, who looked at me at exactly the same time. My own thoughts were mirrored in his own eyes.

Why would Eli be here? Never mind Callie asking us all to come and help Bianca get her job back.

“I can tell you right now that it’s utter bullshit,” Kane snapped.

“Kane!” I barked, dragging Marie against my leg and covering her ears. “Language!”

“Sorry. This report is bogus. Any good lawyer would have your ass for unfair dismissal, you know that right?” Kane slapped the file against the boss’s chest.

Seeing his face crumple and hope light up Bianca’s eyes, it suddenly clicked in my mind.

Eli. Is that why Callie has been so weird? Eli has been skulking about in her circles?

Sawyer apparently reached the same conclusion as he stepped up and placed one hand down on the counter.

“Bianca.”

“Mhm?” She glanced up at him and nervously chewed her lower lip.

“Do you know who the friend is that paid for Callie’s mother’s medical treatment?”