…….
Where to start.
I was intrigued by this one, being about Caleb during his captivity and escape(?). We’ve been along for the ride with Micah and Alex during the search for Caleb in the last book but now we finally get to find out what actually happened to Caleb.
Alas.
It starts out with 17 year old Caleb meeting a 30-something Wolf and getting their flirt on. I like a good age gap romance, however a man in his 30s becoming obsessed with a literal minor is messed up.
And it is obsession.
Wolf meets Caleb super briefly, then can’t get him out of his mind, so he goes to check on him once and they end up spending an afternoon together, getting a meal.
That’s it.
Not even a full day’s worth of collective time together before Caleb is abducted.
Now, if you tell me a horny 17 year old believes he’s falling in love at first sight with a hot, built military man in his 30s who is nice to him, I have no trouble believing that. I’m sure many of us can remember some intense teenage crushes.
For Wolf though? That’s fucked up. Now he stares at pictures of this kid he barely spent any time with like “Hold on, baby. I’m coming for you”.
Yuck.
Wolf is old enough that Caleb could have been older too and still maintained the large age gap without so much ick. At least make him 19 or 20, Micah could be trying to convince him to go to college or something. Caleb has had a traumatic upbringing, it’s not unbelievable he’d take some time after high school feeling a bit untethered, older man comes along…
Or just have a platonic first meeting. Let Caleb admire ‘big, bad, Military Elite’ Wolf, have Wolf just think Caleb is a sweet kid and then have that admiration /develop/ during their time alone, during the rescue (and I honestly don’t think Wolf would have had sex with him mid-rescue if he’s a good man. That was a no for me too).
Wolf feeling responsible is more than enough motivation to hunt tirelessly for Caleb, you don’t need the creepy pedophilic (and nearly baseless) infatuation.
I know Dimitri is a ‘bad guy’ but he and Caleb have a better relationship because they’ve actually spent time together... I’m sad I didn’t get a redemption arc or undercover, also trying to bring down this trafficking ring, Russian agent Dimitri. He’s more likeable than Wolf so far.
After the rescue. Holy moly, Caleb acts like a little shit.
An untrained civilian, demanding to tag along on a military operation (with ‘secret’ teams like phoenix and infinity that he shouldn’t even know about, nonetheless) and he’s throwing a tantrum like Micah and Wolf are the ones being unreasonable?
And yes, he’s “legal” now but of course Micah is pissed off at Wolf and concerned about Caleb once he learns they’ve had sex. Caleb was abducted at 17 by a massive sex trafficking ring. Caleb literally hasn’t even gotten to go home yet, he’s still mid-rescue, really. He and Micah haven’t properly spoken, Micah doesn’t know how traumatized Caleb is (lbr, Caleb probably doesn’t even know how traumatized he is yet, he’s still in survival mode). Micah doesn’t know if his baby brother has been repeatedly sexually assaulted by his captors over the last year and a half and now he learns this man he trusted, a man nearly twice his little brother’s age, took advantage of Caleb during his rescue? Who wouldn’t be enraged?
The actual adults talking to each other after his tantrum like “wow, I’m so proud of him”…??????????
I’m sorry, I do not see that at all.
Pop that boy back to HQ for protection and get him a therapist, stat.
*sigh*
Suspension of disbelief just doesn’t work for me here. You can believe this is a secret group of super elite, highly trained military/ex-military, the best-of-the-best, experts in their fields,
or
you can believe they’ll just shrug and let someone’s traumatized kid brother join them on a dangerous mission to track down a psychopathic rapist murderer, but then you’d have to believe they’re kind of idiots. Both things can’t be true.
Wolf is for sure worse but this book had me disliking both MCs (and Rossi just gets progressively worse).