by Cynthia Eden
Dylan’s hands had fisted.
“I was the one in the hospital, hooked to machines. So believe me, I know just how vicious the attack was.” She huffed out a breath. “And I know I survived. I’m back here, ready to work—”
“But you collapsed last night,” Mercer told her. His voice was soft, mild, and Dylan actually saw a hint of sympathy in the man’s normally cold gaze.
“A small bump on the head.” She waved it away. “I didn’t—”
“If you’d been fully recovered, you might not have needed a civilian to pick you up from the street.” Now the sympathy was gone from Mercer’s voice.
“But I—”
“Dylan was right. You’re not ready.”
Oh, hell.
Rachel’s head swiveled toward him. Her gaze—shocked, hurt—held his. “Dylan? You think I’m not ready for this?”
“Um, Agent Foxx is the one who told me that you needed to be transferred to desk duty for a few more weeks. Under the circumstances, I do think it’s for the best.”
Rachel shook her head.
Thomas glanced at Dylan, his gaze knowing.
Yes, I’m trying to protect her. I’ll do anything to keep her safe.
Even, as Rachel had said, pull rank.
Even hurt her. Because Dylan could tell Rachel was hurt. And furious.
Noelle shifted slightly, moving from her left foot to her right.
Dylan didn’t move at all. He couldn’t. Not with Rachel’s stark gaze on him.
“Don’t worry,” Mercer told Rachel. “You know Agent Foxx can handle this case. He’s been after Jack since long before you even joined the EOD. He’ll do what is necessary to bring the killer in, you can count on that.”
Rachel flinched. “What is necessary?”
No, oh, no, she’d better not be thinking—
“I think he already has,” Rachel murmured. Then she shook her head and faced Mercer once more. Her chin was up, her shoulders straight. “I want you to reconsider.” Just like that, the emotion was gone from her voice. She’d soldier on. That was Rachel. Always so strong. “I know Jack. I can—”
“Jack has taken the bait that Dylan provided. We’re confident that he will be apprehended soon.” Mercer was obviously finished with that discussion. “My assistant, Judith, will give you new orders, Agent Mancini.”
Rachel stiffened.
“But...” Again, a hint of sympathy flashed in Mercer’s eyes. “Perhaps you’d rather just take a few days off before starting your new assignment? You’ve been through quite a lot lately.”
She glanced down at her hands. “I joined the EOD because I wanted to make a difference in this world.”
“You have,” Mercer assured her. “But this particular case is over for you.” He straightened in his chair. “You’re dismissed now, Agent.”
“Yes,” Rachel murmured. “I guess I am.” She turned and headed for the door. She didn’t glance over at Dylan even though—damn it—he wanted her to look at him again.
She walked slowly. She kept her head up the whole way. Not bowed. Proud.
The door closed behind her.
Thomas exhaled slowly. “You didn’t ask for it, but I’m telling you all...that was the wrong move. That woman deserves to be on this case, she—”
“Jack isn’t going to hurt her.” Noelle advanced and took the chair that Rachel had vacated. “She won’t be his next target. He’s clearly shown us that he will protect her.” Her gaze cut to Dylan. “And he’ll eliminate the man who he views as taking Rachel from him.”
“You think you know the killers, don’t you?” A hard edge entered Thomas’s voice. “But what happens if you’re wrong? What if we don’t always act just like you think?”
We?
Dylan glanced toward Mercer and found that the EOD director was staring straight at him.
“Right about now,” Mercer murmured, “Rachel is discovering just what her desk duty entails.”
It wasn’t just about being pulled off the case. It was about Rachel being temporarily relocated to the EOD’s smaller facility in Atlanta.
She’d be safer there. Out of Jack’s sight.
“Are you quite certain,” Mercer asked Dylan quietly, “that move was the best one? Rachel Mancini isn’t the type of woman to cower in the corner when danger looms.”
No, she wasn’t. She was the type of woman who would risk her life. For me. Just like she’d put herself at risk when she rushed out of her apartment and insisted on coming with him to that meeting with Jack. She’d been so worried he was in danger.
She hadn’t thought about the risk to herself.
“It’s the only move that I have,” Dylan said.
Mercer inclined his head. “Then I hope you don’t live to regret it.”
* * *
RACHEL FELT AS if she were about to explode. Just breathing was an effort, and the pain—the betrayal—twisting inside her was like a red-hot poker in her stomach.
She waited in Dylan’s office. She knew he had to show up there as soon as he was finished with Mercer. A meeting that no longer included her since Dylan had had her removed from the case.
While I was stuck in the hospital. Now she knew exactly why he hadn’t stayed with her at the hospital. He’d been busy working to get her sent down to Atlanta.
The door opened with a squeak. Rachel was in Dylan’s chair. She pushed with her feet, making the chair roll so that she faced the door. And him.
I gave myself to you, Dylan. Why did you do this to me? Why?
He stared at her a moment. Then he stepped fully into the small office and shut the door behind him. “I guess you’ll be heading out soon. Your flight—”
“Is tomorrow,” Rachel managed to say in an almost normal voice. “Yes, that’s what I’ve been told.” She would not lose control in front of him. But she would get to the bottom of the mystery that was Dylan. Something that Mercer said kept nagging at her. “Thanks to you, of course.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “EOD agents get transferred to new assignments all the time. It’s part of life here, you know that.”
Seriously? He was trying to play that card?
They were alone. No eyes on them. No ears. So she said exactly what she was thinking. “We had sex, Dylan. It was supposed to mean something.” It had sure meant something to her.
He glanced away from her. “There’s us, Rachel, and then there’s the EOD. The missions we have to take... We both knew that when we crossed that particular line—”
“The line that made us lovers?”
“We wouldn’t be able to stay in the field together.”
Her breath caught. “You...told Mercer?”
“No.”
That was something.
“But the transfer was going to happen, no matter what.”
She wanted to shake him. This wasn’t the Dylan she knew. Rachel jumped to her feet. “Stop it!”
He blinked at her.
“What is going on with you? I thought... We work together, Dylan. You and I. There’s no one closer to me than you. There’s no one I trust like I do you.” But that trust was shaking. He’d requested she be sent away, even knowing how important this particular case was to her.
He didn’t respond. Damn him.
“Why are you on this case?” And it was back again, the twisting suspicion that Mercer had planted with his words.
He’s been after Jack since long before you even joined the EOD. He’ll do what is necessary to bring the killer in, you can count on that.
“I’m after him because the EOD wants the threat Jack poses to be eliminated.”
That answer sounded rehearsed. Like he was just spewing some line he’d been taught before. “When I first met you..
.you were hunting Jack then.”
His gaze slid back to hers.
She struggled to put the pieces of this puzzle together. She’d read all of the case files on Jack and she knew... “You’d been hunting him for six months before that. I remember reading it in the reports.”
He nodded. “So you know that I won’t stop until I—”
“Why were you the agent in charge back then? How’d you get landed with Jack’s case?”
He pushed back his shoulders. “Mercer assigned me to the case.”
Rachel had worked intimately with Dylan on so many cases, and because of that she knew him very well. She also knew all of his “tells”—the signs that he gave when he twisted the truth. Or when he just flat-out lied.
That shoulder rollback? He did it right before he lied.
“That’s not true.” Her head was aching again, but there was no way she was about to let that weakness show. “You...you requested to be on the assignment, didn’t you?” That was a pure hunch on her part.
But after a tense moment, Dylan nodded.
“Why?”
“Because he’s a dangerous man. Jack needs to be—”
“Stop it! Just tell me the truth.” She was almost begging him. And Rachel was so confused. Lost and confused because she’d thought they always had honesty between them.
Now she wasn’t sure what was happening or if they had anything between them. She exhaled slowly. “Why were you after him?”
His lips thinned. “Because he killed someone I knew.”
“Knew?” Rachel pressed. But she suddenly realized that maybe she didn’t want to hear this part. Because that poker was back in her gut, burning hotter than before.
“Shannon Morgan. She was his fourth victim. Shannon and I were...close.”
It hurt. So much that she retreated a step. “You were lovers.”
A grim nod was her answer.
He’d had lovers. Of course he had. She’d thought...just the other night...Rachel shook her head. “There’s more to this story.”
More that she just didn’t know.
He glanced down at the floor. “We talked about getting married.”
She grabbed the edge of the desk. He’d loved Shannon. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shook his head.
“Dylan—”
“Because they were together!” The words burst from him. Angry. Snarling.
Her hold on the desk tightened.
“Shannon and I...we talked about a future together. She knew what I wanted but she wasn’t ready to settle down. She met Jack. He seduced her, charmed her. She thought the guy actually cared about her.”
A dull ringing seemed to sound in her ears. “But he was just getting close to her because she was an assignment. The same way he got close to me.”
“She told me that she wanted to be with him. Her ‘Jack.’ She broke up with me. She went to be with him. And the next day, she was dead. He’d put a bullet in her heart and left his calling card in her hand.”
There was grief in his voice. Grief and fury.
Rachel realized where she fit into his equation then. “It was always personal for you. You wanted vengeance.”
“I wanted justice.”
She didn’t believe him. “You...you used me.” She’d never thought that someone else had been involved. When they were together...he’d said that it was just about her. About him.
But as soon as they’d realized that Jack was back in town, Dylan had been the one to push. He’d wanted them to play at being lovers, then to take it a step further...to be lovers.
“That’s why three years passed and you never so much as tried to kiss me.” She’d been blind. Trusting the wrong man, again.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He raked a hand over his face. “You’re tired. You need to rest before your flight.”
A flight she wasn’t taking.
“You got close to me because that made you close to Jack. You wanted his attention.” Judging by that bomb blast... “You got it.”
Dylan stalked toward the door. “I’ll get Thomas to take you back to your place. He’s going to have guard duty until your flight leaves tomorrow—”
“Do you still love her?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but the question whispered from her.
She saw his shoulders stiffen.
“This isn’t just about Shannon,” Dylan told her.
“No,” she agreed, sad now. Because she grieved for what could have been. “Because she’s gone, and I’m right here. Only you can’t even look at me.” That was fine. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to look at him right then. “Don’t worry about calling Thomas. I can find my own way out of here.”
He turned toward her. Rachel tried to shove past him.
He caught her and held her in a tight grip. She twisted her wrist. She’d break free easily enough. He wasn’t dealing with some—
“Don’t.” The word broke from him. Pain. Fury. Grief.
So much emotion, but Rachel didn’t think it was for her. It was for a woman long dead.
She’d read the file on Shannon Morgan. Shannon had been working at the Pentagon when she was killed. A woman with a bright future, plenty of friends...
The report never mentioned Dylan. Why? Because he’d been EOD? Had Mercer made sure that Dylan’s name stayed out of that nice, neat report?
“You know I wanted you.” His hold tightened on her. “You know I still want you.”
But he’d managed to keep that desire in check easily enough. Until he’d needed them to be lovers.
Now she knew why he’d reacted so strongly when she’d told him that she and Jack hadn’t been lovers.
Jack and Shannon had been.
“I thought I was so careful.” She wouldn’t let him see how much she hurt then. “But I guess we all make mistakes.” She just kept putting her trust in the wrong men.
“You didn’t make a mistake with me.”
He should try explaining that to the heart that felt as if it were breaking.
“When this is over,” Dylan said, giving a hard nod, “we’ll move forward. We can see where this relationship goes—”
She laughed then. The sound was bitter. Hollow.
Then she pulled her hand from his. “It’s not going anywhere. We are over, Dylan. No more being on a team. No more being lovers.”
He swallowed. “You’re angry. I get that—”
“No, you don’t. I thought you actually knew me, but I was so wrong about that. If you really knew me, you’d realize that angry doesn’t come close to how I feel.” There was too much pain for her to even touch the anger yet. “You’re looking for justice for a woman who’s dead. I wanted justice for myself.” Justice, not revenge. “And you took that away from me.” All of her training. All of her work. “You took it all from me.”
Then, because she would not break in front of him, Rachel headed for the door. With one foot in front of the other, she walked down the hallway. She went straight to Mercer’s office.
Mercer’s assistant, Judith, rose when Rachel approached. Judith’s pretty features slackened with worry. “Rachel, what’s wrong?”
Rachel just shook her head. “I have to see him.”
Judith was normally Mercer’s guard dog. If you didn’t have an appointment, she didn’t let you pass into his sanctum.
But Judith was also Rachel’s friend. She opened Mercer’s door.
Rachel slipped inside. Mercer glanced up, his face reflecting a flash of surprise. “Agent Mancini, what—”
“I’m done, Mercer.” She’d put three years of blood and sweat into the EOD. In return, she’d been shoved aside.
His eyelids flickered. “No, surely, you—”
“I’m out.” There wasn’t more for her to say. She wasn’t going to Atlanta. Wasn’t going to wait quietly down there and then get transferred back up to D.C. when Dylan thought it was safe enough for her to return.
She’d faced danger day-in and day-out. She’d risked her life time and time again.
No more.
“I deserve a life.” Not a lover who’d turn his back on her.
Then she gave one final nod to Mercer—and left.
* * *
DYLAN STARED DOWN at his clenched hands.
He’d hurt Rachel.
He’d wanted to protect her. To get her away from Jack.
She looked at me as if she didn’t know who I was. As if I was some kind of damn stranger...and not her lover.
Being with her...she’d overwhelmed him, driven him to the brink of sanity. The pleasure had been unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
He wanted her. Again and again and again.
And he’d almost gotten her killed.
He was the senior agent. He should have forced Rachel to stay in her apartment. But because it was her, because he couldn’t say no to her, he’d let her come with him. He’d been weak.
She’d almost been dead.
The phone on his desk rang, and he picked it up, his movements jerky. “Agent Foxx.”
“My office. Now.” He heard Mercer’s familiar snarl, then the call ended.
Dylan didn’t want to go into Mercer’s office. He wanted to find Rachel. To try and explain to her—
I want to stop Jack so that you’ll be safe. So that he won’t ever come near you again.
That explanation wasn’t good enough. She’d learned about his secrets. He knew that he should have told her before, but Jack was still an open wound for her. He just hadn’t wanted to hurt her any more.
But I did.
He’d never seen quite that look in Rachel’s eyes before.
He put down the phone and returned to Mercer’s office. Rachel was still in the building. He’d talk with Mercer and then he’d find her. There was plenty more to say between them.
He passed Judith’s desk. The woman’s glare seemed to burn his skin. Dylan paused. “Judith?”