by Cynthia Eden
Her brows lifted. “We do?”
“Um, I was thinking about something more...permanent.” A whole lot more permanent.
She shifted against him, pushing herself up so that she could gaze down at him. “That had better not be the drugs talking.”
A rough laugh escaped from him. That was his Gabrielle. Only she could get to him—could make him laugh, make him dream of a future. “It’s not. It’s me.” But then his gaze fell on the white box that was perched on the table near his bed. A small, square box.
The kind that usually stored jewelry.
Gabrielle followed his gaze. “Mercer brought that by for you. He said that he thought you’d be needing it.” Her fingers stroked his arm, an almost absent gesture. He loved her touches. Her caresses.
Loved her.
“His wounds weren’t nearly as bad as yours—no internal organs hit for him. He was cleared the next day, but you...” Her hand stilled on him. “You scared me.”
He caught her fingers, brought them to his lips and pressed a hard kiss to her knuckles. “I’ll do my...damnedest to never scare you again.” He only wanted to make her happy.
Some of the sadness eased from her eyes. “Rachel’s okay. She’s still here, and Dylan’s making sure that she gets plenty of rest.”
Cooper suspected that Dylan was too worried about Rachel to let her out of his sight.
The little matter of a life-or-death situation could sure change a man’s perspective.
It had certainly changed his.
Gabrielle climbed from the bed. She picked up the white box and handed it back to him.
Frowning, Cooper studied the box. He had no idea what Mercer could be giving to him. “About...our partnership,” Cooper began as he opened the box.
But then he fell silent.
A ring was inside the box.
Not just any ring. A ring with two diamonds, and a twisted band of gold.
“Cooper?”
“This...this was my grandmother’s ring.” The memory was there, in the back of his mind. His grandmother had visited him when he’d been a kid, maybe four or five, and he’d seen that ring. He’d played with it, tracing the diamonds and that braided twist while he’d sat in his grandmother’s lap. He’d never forgotten that ring.
Then his grandparents had died. His mother had died.
He’d never seen the ring again.
So what in the hell was Mercer doing with it?
“It wasn’t an enemy who took her.” Mercer’s words seemed to whisper through his mind. “Cancer did that. It came in an instant. It took her from me too soon. I blinked, and she was just—gone.”
His fingers closed around the ring. He saw the small note that had been folded and tucked in the bottom of the box.
Gabrielle was at his bedside, watching him silently.
I always want her at my side. Wherever I go, whatever I do, I want Gabrielle there.
He opened up that folded piece of paper. A brief note had been written there. Annalise would want you to give this to the woman you love.
That was all it said.
But then, those few words said everything.
“Cooper?”
He had to swallow twice in order to clear his throat. “I should...I should be on my knees for this.” He tried to climb out of the hospital bed.
Since he was still weak, he pretty much did fall to his knees.
Gabrielle grabbed him and staggered beneath his weight. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to...” He made it. His knees touched down. “Trying to ask you about our partnership. I told you, I want one...that lasts forever.” He lifted the ring toward her.
Her lips were parted. He waited for her to speak. Gabrielle always had plenty to say.
Only she wasn’t speaking at that moment.
And she was scaring him.
The man who’d never known fear was about to shake again.
“Gabrielle?” Cooper prompted.
She blinked. “Y-you were just shot.”
Cooper nodded.
“You’ve been unconscious for forty-eight hours.”
He didn’t know how long he’d been out. Cooper didn’t think it mattered.
“You wake up, and the first thing you do...” She swiped her hand over her cheek. Oh, wait, was she crying? He’d so messed up the proposal. “The first thing you do is ask me to marry you?”
Again, he nodded. “I love you.”
Her arms flew around his neck. “Forever,” she whispered in his ear.
He curled his arm around her. The IV jerked loose. So what? The pain means I’m alive—alive with the woman I love. “Forever,” he told her.
She kissed him.
He hoped that kiss meant yes.
Gabrielle slowly lifted her mouth from his. “I’ll take that new partnership.” She also took the ring. He helped slide it onto her ring finger. The diamonds gleamed.
A part of his past.
He looked into her eyes.
His future.
For a man who’d never looked beyond the next mission, life had sure changed. Because in that moment, when he gazed into Gabrielle’s eyes, Cooper saw every dream he’d ever had.
Love.
A family.
A real home.
Every single thing he wanted—it was right there.
He was going to grab tight to those dreams. No one—nothing—would ever take them away.
Cooper kissed Gabrielle once more, and he knew that he was tasting paradise.
Epilogue
“You can’t go in there!” Judith’s voice snapped. “Mercer is busy! He can’t be—”
His office door flew open.
Mercer leaned back in his seat and studied the man who’d just fought his way past Judith, Mercer’s determined assistant. Judith was currently glaring at Cooper Marshall.
Cooper was glaring at Mercer.
Ah, life was back to normal.
“It’s all right,” Mercer said as he waved Judith back. “I was planning to talk with him.”
Judith narrowed her eyes on Cooper. “You’ve made my list, Marshall.”
Cooper blinked at that. Surprise flashed briefly over his face.
“I won’t be forgetting this,” she added, then stalked away.
The door slammed behind her.
Mercer put his hands flat on the desk. “You’re looking better. For a while there, agent, I thought you weren’t as strong as I—”
“My mother had a brother,” Cooper cut through Mercer’s words. “She said that he was in the military. That he was a soldier who saved lives.”
Mercer’s fingers began to tap on the desk.
“She told me all kinds of stories about him when I was growing up. Stories that made me want to be like him. Hell, those stories are the reason I joined the service. I wanted to make a difference, just like he’d done.”
Mercer’s gaze swept over Cooper’s face. “You have.”
“My mother...she said her brother died.”
Mercer swallowed.
“But then...” Cooper looked out the window at the busy streets of D.C. “I died, too, didn’t I? I thought my ‘death’ was so I could help the EOD, but there was more to that, right? You were trying to cover my past, trying to protect me.”
“I don’t know what—”
“Your daughter has to be under constant guard because you don’t want your enemies getting to her. I figure all of those enemies would go after your nephew just as easily.”
Mercer’s fingers stopped tapping. “Yes, they would.”
Cooper nodded. “My mother...she sure loved her brother. At the end, she called for him.”
&nbs
p; Mercer’s eyes burned.
“Just so you know,” Cooper murmured. “She wanted Ben. Her big brother, Benjamin.”
Benjamin Marshall. He’d been that man, in another life. Long before he’d become Bruce Mercer.
“I loved her,” Mercer’s words were rough with emotion.
“I know you did.” Cooper took a step toward him. “You paid for my college. You’ve been the one in the background, all my life, watching me, haven’t you?”
“Not all your life. I wasn’t there when Annalise needed me most.” His shoulders hunched at the memory.
Cooper walked around the desk. He put his hand on Mercer’s shoulder. “My mother loved you,” he said again. “And she wouldn’t want you blaming yourself for the way things ended.”
Annalise had been good. Such an open heart, a warm smile. “You have her eyes,” Mercer whispered.
Cooper’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “I gave Gabrielle the ring.”
Mercer nodded. “Annalise...she would have liked Gabrielle.” He found that he could smile. “Gabrielle’s got a lot of fire in her. She’s not afraid of anything. Just like you.”
“Oh, I’m afraid,” Cooper surprised him by saying. “Because of Gabrielle, I’m terrified. I’m afraid that if I don’t grab on to her, if I don’t take my chance with her, I’ll lose out on the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
Mercer glanced up at him. “Hold her tight. Fight like hell for her, and never let your enemies get close.”
Cooper nodded. He lifted his hand and turned to walk away.
Mercer stood. The chair rolled back.
Cooper glanced over his shoulder.
“And...if you ever need me,” Mercer managed to say, “I’m here. I—I know I’m not much, not in terms of...” He trailed off because he didn’t know what to say.
Not in terms of family.
He’d been a shadow in Cooper’s life for so long. Mercer knew he didn’t have the right to ask for anything more.
Not that he could. Not really. He’d made sure that no one would ever be able to trace his blood link to Cooper. That protection was his gift to the man.
Not that he expected Cooper to believe that.
Not that he had the right to expect anything of Cooper Marshall.
But...Cooper hadn’t left yet.
“Gabrielle and I are talking about a wedding in the fall. We have to, uh, wait for her boss to get back in town.” Cooper’s lips twisted. “Seems someone sent Hugh to the Cayman Islands, and seeing as how he’s the one who will be giving away the bride, Gabrielle wants to make sure the guy’s back.”
“I can make sure of that,” Mercer promised softly.
Cooper nodded, but he still didn’t leave. “You know, when Gabrielle found out that I was an agent, she could’ve kicked me out of her life. Told me that I was a liar and just walked away from me.” He paused. “She didn’t. She gave me a second chance. She’s letting me prove myself to her. I’m going to show her that there’s a whole lot more to me than she thought.”
Mercer’s fingers had started to tap against the desktop once more.
“I believe in second chances,” Cooper said. “Deuce didn’t. I do.” Then he exhaled slowly. “So don’t make me regret this but...you’ll be invited to the wedding, too. I’d like to learn more about you. About the soldier my mom loved so much.”
Mercer’s hand lifted and rubbed against his chest. It wasn’t his new wound that was aching.
It was something that went much deeper.
“Maybe you can tell me about her, too,” Cooper continued softly. “Because I’d like to share those stories. I’ll have kids one day. They should know about her.”
“Yes,” Mercer’s voice was too rough. He couldn’t help that. “They should.”
One more nod and Cooper slipped away.
The door shut behind him.
Mercer closed his eyes for a moment. You have a good son, Annalise.
His eyes opened.
And I’ll damn well be worth the second chance that he’s giving me.
He’d prove himself to Cooper. After all, he’d never failed a mission. I won’t fail him.
A knock sounded at his door. “Mercer,” Judith called.
Judith hated using the intercom. It wasn’t personal enough for her.
She opened the door and poked her head inside. “Dylan Foxx is here to see you.” A pause, then, “He has an appointment.”
Mercer inclined his head. “Send him in.”
She turned away.
Speaking of missions...
Dylan Foxx stalked inside Mercer’s office. One glance and Mercer knew Dylan was different. Rachel’s attack had changed the man, just as Mercer had feared.
The news Mercer was about to give him wasn’t going to help the situation. In fact, it might just push Foxx over the edge.
Mercer motioned to the seat before him. “I’m afraid we have a problem,” he said, as Dylan sat down.
Dylan stared back at him.
“It’s seems Rachel Mancini’s past isn’t dead.”
The agent turned to stone before him.
“And if we don’t act to permanently bury that past, I’m afraid that Mancini will find herself in the crosshairs of a killer once more.”
A muscle jerked along Dylan’s jaw. “Tell me what I have to do.”
Yes, that had rather been the response that Mercer expected.
He leaned forward and got to work.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from SNOWED IN by Cassie Miles.
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Chapter One
“Slow down, Sarah. The drop on this side of the trail is killer.”
“It’s only sixteen feet.” Sarah Bentley paused to aim her flashlight beam over the edge where the light was swallowed by the dark of a cloudy, moonless night. With a shrug, she resumed walking, her boots crunching on the frozen snow. “I wouldn’t even call this a cliff. It’s a gradual drop-off. You’ve been on ski slopes that were steeper.”
“Not in the middle of the night,” her friend Emily Layton protested. “Not when I wasn’t wearing skis.”
This forest trail led from Bentley’s Bed-and-Breakfast past the drilling site for Hackman Oil, and it followed a relatively straight line, which meant it was the shortest distance between the two points. But shorter didn’t always mean faster. Sarah questioned the logic of taking this route. She halted on the path and turned to face her friend. “Why didn’t we drive?”
“The text message from BOOM said to use the trail.” Emily’s breath formed a frosty little cloud around her wide, usually smiling mouth. “Specifically. The trail.”
“I don’t take orders from those jerks.” She didn’t like BOOM, a radical environmentalist group prone to one stupid thing after another. “What kind of mess am I walking into?”
“I already told you.” Emily rolled her eyes and stamped her foot, acting more like a teenager than a twenty-eight-year-old woman who was about to be a bride. “I got a midnight text that said BOOM was going to send a message to Hackman Oil. They want me to join them and war
ned me to be quiet and take the forest trail. I needed you to show me the way.”
Sarah pulled on the earflaps of her knit wool cap. She remembered being wakened and putting on her snow pants and parka over her flannel pajamas, but the reason for this middle-of-the-night hike through the frigid February night was still hazy. As a professional innkeeper who had been running the B and B for five years on her own, she should have developed a knack for snapping wide-awake at a moment’s notice, but that talent had always eluded her.
Again, she wondered what she’d gotten herself into. Surely she hadn’t agreed to join forces with BOOM. “What kind of message?”
“A protest. I’m guessing that it’s something like spray painting graffiti on the sides of the trucks.”
“I don’t support the destruction of private property.” Vandalism was never a good solution. Jerks like the leaders of BOOM, which stood for Back Off Our Mountains, caused more problems than they solved.
“I don’t like it, either.” Emily tucked a blond tendril under her cap. “In fact, I’ve decided to quit BOOM.”
“That would make a lovely wedding present for your fiancé.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” she said. “You’re so funny.”
“I think I’ve heard him refer to BOOM. What did he call them?” Sarah couldn’t resist teasing. “Eco-idiots?”
“That was after they dressed up like wolverines to bring attention to that endangered species. Not their finest hour.”
“But very entertaining, especially the guy who got confused and dressed like Hugh Jackman in X-Men. Let me tell you, if Mr. Jackman was endangered, I’d get behind the protest.”
“Most of the time, Jeremy and I have a strict agree-to-disagree policy. We don’t discuss our causes.”
In light of their vast differences of opinion, that was a wise policy. In four days, free-spirited Emily would be getting married at Bentley’s B and B to her army ranger sweetheart, Jeremy Hamilton. Though their ideas might be volumes apart, Emily and Jeremy were on the same page when it came to their love. When they were together, they positively glowed. Sarah didn’t understand their relationship. It could be one of those opposites-attract things. Or it could be kismet. Or Jeremy could be terrific in bed.