by Cynthia Eden
Holding Lacey, Dex raced for the back of the cabin. He knew there was another door back there. Another way out.
“Dex, talk to me!” Lacey raged. “Tell me what’s—”
The door wouldn’t open. Someone had nailed the fucker shut. He wants us forced out the front. Because their enemy had another plan of attack waiting near the front of the cabin? Because he’d left a deadly surprise there?
Not happening.
Dex kicked at the door. Once. Twice. He had to let Lacey go so that he could use all of his strength on that door. On the next kick, the door flew outward. He caught Lacey’s wrist. “Stay low and stay with me!”
“Why are you running out there?” Roman had surged toward them. “The shooter is waiting! We need to stay in here until your team arrives! I know you have a damn team out—”
“Get your ass out, too,” Dex thundered at him. “Because if we stay here, we’re dead.”
Roman shook his head.
Your choice. Dex focused beyond the back door. There was a line of trees about thirty yards from the rear of the cabin.
“Run like hell,” Dex ordered Lacey. “Don’t stop. Don’t look back.” He would draw the shooter’s fire. He would make himself the target so she could get clear.
“We’re safe here.” Roman lumbered closer. “Don’t you get that?”
“Not if there is a bomb here, jackass!” Not if the bastard left one here because he knew he could force us all into this cabin. Herding us. Like sheep. There was no time to waste. Dex ran out with Lacey. He wanted to hold her tight and never let go, but he needed to protect her. He needed to draw the fire if the shooter was still close.
Be gone. Larry said you were retreating. Fucking be gone.
Dex made sure that when Lacey left the cabin, he was beside her. He shielded her body as best he could.
“This doesn’t make sense! Why are you protecting me?” Her question huffed back at him.
He looked toward the tree line and saw the glint of light. A gun. Pointed at them.
***
The shooter’s breath slid out on a soft sigh. A change of position had been necessary when those prick agents of Dex’s had managed to return fire.
But this was better. This was perfect. Odds had been high that once he’d sought shelter in the cabin, Dex wouldn’t then immediately run back out the front door. No, a rear exit had been expected. The nails had even been put in the door so that Dex would think the intent was to force him out the front. Or to keep him in the cabin.
Wrong.
Dexter Ryan had been studied carefully. This plan was perfect.
Lacey was in the scope. So close.
Right to the heart.
The shooter squeezed the trigger.
***
Lacey didn’t have a chance to cry out. One moment, she caught the glint of light in the woods. And in the next—a fist punched her in the chest.
Her breath caught in her throat and the impact sent her staggering back. Her boots slipped over the snow, and she stumbled. She hit the ground and that fist kept burning against her. Her hands flew toward her chest.
“Lacey!” Dex was over her. Staring at her with wild eyes. “Oh, God, baby, you’re hit.”
Chapter Ten
Why was Dex looking so crazed? His eyes were wild and his face had contorted into lines of fury.
“Bullet…proof vest,” she gasped. He knew she was wearing one beneath the puffy coat. He’d insisted she wear the thing. Extremely grateful for that insistence right about now.
But he covered her chest with his fingers. “No! Don’t do this to me!” he roared.
Um, what?
His gaze cut to her face. “Play dead,” he whispered.
Again, what?
Footsteps scrambled near them. Her eyes drifted closed.
“She’s hit?” Roman’s voice, and he sounded gutted. Why would he be so upset by her wound? The man didn’t even know her.
“Stay the hell away from her or I will shoot you where you stand!”
She didn’t move.
“I didn’t do this! I wasn’t involved!” Roman’s voice was still all gutted and desperate. “I swear it!”
“I want a chopper here now,” Dex blasted. She knew he was talking in his comm link, and since she had her earpiece in place, too, she heard the reply.
“They’re en route now. I’m in the woods about twenty yards from you. Shooter is moving. Fuck. I’m so sorry, boss. Me and Taylor lost him for a second. We’ve got him now. Taking aim—”
A gunshot blasted.
Lacey didn’t move. Didn’t flinch.
“Stay the fuck back, Roman,” Dex warned. “You take one more step this way, and it will be your last. That gunshot was my team taking out the shooter.”
And, on cue, Lacey heard in her ear, “Shooter is down, but alive. Shit, Dex, you won’t believe this…it’s that sexy bodyguard of Roman’s.”
“Keep her alive,” Dex ordered. “Because I’m talking to her.” His hand was still on Lacey’s chest. His voice rose as he seemingly turned his attention back to Roman. “You didn’t have anything to do with Lacey getting shot, huh? Then why the hell is your bodyguard the one my men just caught in the woods? Why the hell is she the one who shot Lacey in the heart?”
“The heart? No, my God, no!”
His voice was broken. That made no sense. Roman sounded like he was shattering over her would-be death. And he’d just met her yesterday.
“Finally…found her…” Roman mumbled. Snow crunched beneath his feet.
“I told you to stay the hell back!” Dex snapped. “And I found her!”
“Finally found…my sister…and someone is taking her—”
Her eyes flew open. Her head whipped toward Roman. “What did you just call me?”
Roman gaped at her. “You’re…not shot?”
“Bulletproof vest.” Were there tears on his cheeks?
She felt callused fingertips slide over her jaw. Her head turned back toward Dex as he leaned over her.
“Lacey…” He breathed her name like a caress. “You can’t play dead very well, can you?”
“Why did he call me his sister?”
Dex’s expression hardened just as she heard the whir of approaching helicopter blades.
“Dex.” She said his name again, harder, rougher. “Why did he call me his sister?”
He swallowed. “Because that’s what you are, sweetheart. You’re Roman’s sister.”
***
She stared out of the suite’s window at the white snow, and Lacey rubbed her chest with slow, circular motions of her hand. Dex watched her in silence. She wasn’t yet aware that he’d entered the room, and he enjoyed drinking in the sight of her.
She’d been shot today. Even knowing that he’d insisted she wear the bulletproof vest, he’d nearly lost his mind when she fell. So much for locking down his emotions. When Lacey was around, his control was shit.
“Are you just going to stand there,” Lacey asked as she kept gazing out of the window, “or are you going to explain what the hell is going on?”
So she had known he was there. Her posture and her expression hadn’t changed at all when he’d slipped into their suite. It had been four hours since the hell scene at the cabin. Two of his team members were in the hospital. Luckily, the man and woman were both going to survive. Larry had managed to only get a deep graze on his leg before he’d taken out the shooter, so he was already back at the lodge.
As was their perp. Heather Madding was secured in the basement of the lodge. Except it wasn’t exactly a basement because this whole facility? It held plenty of secrets. And one of those secrets was that the basement floor could only be accessed with special clearance. If you had that clearance, then you’d discover a holding room, a cell, security equipment…basically, a CIA field office.
While Heather was in custody, he had eyes on her. Soon enough, she’d be transported. But that transport wouldn’t happen until Dex had his chance t
o question her again. During his first round of questioning, she’d refused to say a word to him.
But that would change. Especially when he let Roman have a run at his ex-bodyguard.
“Dex?” Lacey prompted.
Where to begin? “There’s a lot at play right now.”
Her shoulders squared.
“More than you can imagine,” he added carefully.
“I’ve got a pretty phenomenal imagination, thanks.” Her voice had gone arctic. Her head angled toward him and, yep, as he’d feared, her gaze was ice cold.
He felt the chill sweep over him even as he heard himself say, “I have orders, too, you know. You might think I’m the big boss at the CIA, but even I have to answer to someone.”
She laughed. The sound lacked the normal musical quality of her voice. “I don’t know that I believe that.”
His lips thinned. “Then do you believe that some things are class—”
Lacey held up one hand. “Don’t.” The word bit off. But not with anger. Anger he could handle. The word poured from her with pain wrapped tightly around it. “Don’t you dare stand there and tell me that you can’t tell me about my life because things are classified.”
“Baby…”
Wrong thing. Wrong thing to say.
Her eyes turned to slits as she stalked toward him. She wore jeans, black boots, and a long, white sweater. She looked like the most beautiful woman in the world to him but she looked at Dex…
As if he were a stranger.
She stopped right in front of him. “I am not your baby.”
But I want you to be. I want you to be so much, but I don’t get to say it. I don’t get to tell you how I really feel. I don’t get to tell you that I almost lost my mind when that bullet fired, and I saw you fall. I have to keep this stupid fucking mask in place and play the asshole when all I want to do is grab you, pull you close, and never, ever let go. “You’re my fiancée. Terms of endearment are expected between us.”
She yanked off the ring. Before she could throw it at him—and Dex knew that was exactly what she intended—his hand caught hers. His fingers wrapped around her hand as he forced her to keep the diamond ring cradled in her palm.
“It’s not over,” he told her softly. We’re not over. “You can’t give it back yet.” The fantasy had to last a little longer. Especially because he’d miscalculated.
“It’s over unless you tell me everything, and you tell me now.”
Would she walk away from him? Walk into danger? He couldn’t let that happen. “Fine. I think I know who killed your parents.”
Her eyes widened. “Then tell me. Don’t just—”
“Roman’s father.” Couldn’t she ever consider that maybe he didn’t want to tell her everything because the news would hurt her? Dammit, I hate her pain. Yet here he was, bringing that pain to her over and over again. “I believe that Roman’s father was responsible for their car crash.”
“What? Why? How—”
“His father and your mother had an affair. A very long affair.”
She shook her head. The denial was clear to see on her face. “No. My mom loved my father. He was a good man.”
“Yes, yes, he was a good man, and Roman’s father…” Your father, baby, your real father. “He wasn’t so good. He was a dangerous man who took what he wanted. He met your mother when she was a young dancer doing a tour in Europe. They…connected. And over the years, she kept coming back into his life.”
Once more, Lacey shook her head. “She wouldn’t do that.” Her voice had gone ragged.
“Maybe he kept pulling her back. He had a lot of power and influence.” People hadn’t exactly been known to say no to him. Until her mother. “But from what I can gather, shortly before the accident, she finally broke it off with him. Said she never wanted him in her life again.”
“From what you can gather.” She swallowed. “You mean with your network of spies and intel. You used them to find all of this information, and you kept it from me.”
Yes. He had. He was still keeping secrets from her. I don’t like hurting her. But she deserved as many truths as he could give her. “When he couldn’t convince your mother to leave her husband and come back for good, he was enraged.”
“So enraged he killed her?”
Tread carefully. “When your parents died, they were driving in your father’s car, weren’t they?”
“Y-yes.”
“Your mother wasn’t supposed to be there. She should have been out of town that day. Only your father should have been in the vehicle, but your mom returned home early to surprise him.”
Lacey’s lips parted, but she didn’t speak.
“Roman’s father paid someone to cut the brake lines in the car.”
“He wanted to kill my dad,” she whispered. Tears gleamed in her eyes.
“Kill him or hurt him. Instead, he wound up with a crash that killed them both.”
“You knew this from the beginning.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “You are a bastard, you know that?”
“I know.” He couldn’t look away from her tear-filled eyes. “Please, don’t cry.” The words tore from him. Gruff. Rough. “Please.” When had he ever used the word please with anyone but her? But Jesus, Lacey was crying, and he couldn’t handle it.
“You made me cry, you jerk!” She swiped her hand over her cheek. “You just stood there and told me that my mother had a lover who killed her and—”
“You wanted the truth. I’m trying to give it to you.” Because I want to give you everything. “I didn’t want to tell you right now. I wanted to wait, try to find a better time—a better way…You’re the one who insisted.”
“Don’t piss me off even more.” She sniffed. Another tear leaked from the corner of her eye.
Her tears were breaking him. She could have just taken her knife and plunged the blade into him, then twisted. He was pretty sure it would have felt the same. I hurt her. “I want to hold you.”
Her lips trembled. “Don’t say stuff you don’t mean to me.”
He wasn’t lying. “I thought you could tell when I was telling the truth.”
She wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze had turned away. Hell. As if she couldn’t stand the sight of him. Not like she’d be the first person to hate him. He tended to leave a path of hate in his wake. Kind of his thing.
But she mattered.
“I guess I didn’t know you as well as I thought,” Lacey mumbled. “And don’t I feel stupid? Here I was, thinking I could see the real you, but that was just another lie.”
You can see me.
She walked away from him. Raked a hand through her hair. “Why the hell does Roman think I’m his sister? That just makes—”
She stopped. Didn’t say the rest even though he knew she’d intended to say…
That just makes no sense.
Because she knew—deep down—that it did make sense. Dex had told Lacey that her mother had been involved with Roman’s father. That the affair had continued for years.
She turned back toward him. Slowly. “No?” A question. Almost a plea. “He’s wrong?” She was asking him to tell her it wasn’t true. He could see that. In response, he wanted to lie. He wanted to say anything necessary to take the pain from her eyes. He would do anything—
A knock sounded at the door. Not just a knock. Pounding. A fist slamming into the frame over and over again.
Lacey flinched.
“Dex!” Roman roared. “Open the door before I break it down!”
Dex didn’t move.
Lacey’s eyes darted to the door, then away. Her shoulders hunched. Lacey had seemed so strong to him. Her body was delicate, yes, but a strength had always burned from within her. In this moment, though, she appeared far too vulnerable. Almost breakable.
“I want to see her!” Roman snarled. His fist thudded into the door again.
Lacey shook her head no.
That was all Dex needed. “You can go into the bedroom, and I’ll tal
k to him.”
“I just—I can’t talk to him.” Another tear slipped down her cheek. “I’m not…” She bit her lower lip. Seemed to struggle for words. Then… “Dex, help me.”
He surged toward her.
A bitter laugh tore from her lips. “I can’t believe I said that! You aren’t helping me. You’ve been manipulating me from the beginning. You don’t care about me. You’ve screwed me over in more ways than—”
“I care about you more than I care about anything else in this world.” Absolute truth.
She was finally—finally—staring into his eyes. And he hoped that she could see the truth of his words. A truth that he was fully realizing.
The missions, the work, the agency—screw it all. When it came down to the job or to Lacey, he was picking Lacey. “I will never hurt you again.”
“I don’t believe you,” she whispered back.
He nodded. Her response hurt, but… “I’ll prove it.” His hands lifted. Hovered over her shoulders. “May I…touch you?”
“Open the fucking door!” It sounded like the wood was about to break.
There were agents outside of the door. Unfortunately, Dex needed Roman’s cooperation. So the agents were supposed to watch him, supposed to make sure he didn’t leave the premises, but there had been no rules about him not pounding the shit out of Dex’s door.
He’d have to go change that rule.
Once more, Lacey’s gaze flew to the door. “I’m afraid.”
His hands fisted. She hadn’t answered his question, and he damn well wouldn’t push her. “I’m not going to let him in. I’ll take care of him. You don’t have to see him until you’re ready.”
“He’s…my half-brother? You’re…you said my mom and his father had an affair for a long time so…my father is…” She didn’t finish.
He wouldn’t lie to her. “He’s not your half-brother.”
Her shoulders sagged. Relief flashed on her face. “I knew my dad was—”
“Baby, I am so sorry.” He was. He hated causing her pain. “Roman isn’t your half-brother. Not half anything. He is your brother. You share the same biological mother and father.”