Bulletproof & Locked, Loaded and SEALed

by Cynthia Eden

  She kept her eyes on Cale.

  Genevieve is dead. A hollow ache filled her chest. She’d lost someone else that she cared about. Sometimes she felt like she was cursed. Always meant to be on her own.

  Genevieve had deserved better than to die because she knew Cassidy.

  I should have gone to her. As soon as Genevieve had called her, Cassidy should have run to her.

  But she hadn’t.

  She’d been too busy keeping her secrets. How many lives would her secrets cost?

  “Th-the other agent,” Cassidy whispered as worry pulsed through her. “Drew Lancaster. How is he?” Be alive, be—

  “Lancaster’s fine. It takes more than a bullet to stop him.”

  But one slice of a knife had almost taken her out.

  “Cass.” He breathed her name like a caress. “What happened to your hands? Your knees?”

  She tried to smile for him. “I jumped out of the van.”

  His eyes widened.

  The pressure on her wound finally stopped. Cassidy pulled in a deep breath. “Get me out of here,” she whispered to Cale. “Please, just get me away from here.” Away from the death. Away from those bright white walls. Away from the nightmares that just wouldn’t stop.

  Cale stared into her eyes, then, after a brief moment, he nodded.

  Thank you.

  * * *

  “I NEED HELP!” His voice was high and shrill. Desperate. Angry. Pain-filled.

  Probably because his blood was pouring all over the back of the van.

  “Take me to a hospital!”

  That wasn’t going to happen—he should know better than to even ask for such a foolish thing. The EOD would already have eyes at all of the hospitals, waiting for a gunshot victim to be brought in.

  Cassidy had been surprising. She’d actually used her weapon, been ready to kill in order to survive.

  I didn’t think she had it in her.

  But perhaps Cassidy was like her father, after all. Mercer had never hesitated on a kill.

  No matter how many lives he destroyed.

  “Help me!” He was clutching his stomach, moaning. He could survive the wound provided that he got help soon enough. The blood flow could be staunched. He’d get stitched up.

  But he’d be weak.

  There wasn’t time for weakness. Already agents were probably tracking the vehicle. Those stupid cameras were everywhere in the U.S. Big Brother—Mercer—always watching.

  But the screaming man had to be dealt with. It was so hard to find good help these days. So hard…all of the best men in their team had died in Rio, courtesy of Cassidy and the EOD.

  “Please!” he gasped out.

  Fine. “I will help you.”

  He smiled. Finally stopped that pathetic begging. Good. His calm would make things easier.

  He didn’t see the gun—not until it was too late. By then, there was no time for any more pleas. No time to try to lunge away.

  The bullet hit him in the heart. A direct shot. Not sloppy aim. Cassidy had been sloppy.

  He fell back, his head slamming into the floor of the van.

  Injured, he’d been a liability. He would have kept demanding help, and if he’d gone to the hospital, then Mercer’s men would’ve had him.

  The injured man would have turned on his boss—it would only have been a matter of time. The loyal men had died in Rio. The others…they weren’t to be trusted. Used, but not trusted.

  The smell of his blood deepened in the air. Cassidy had bled in that van, too. Bled, pleaded.

  Escaped. Damn it.

  The hunt wasn’t over.

  Not yet.

  An eye for an eye.

  The scales were far from being balanced.

  The van was left just where it sat, its doors hanging open. Mercer could find the dead man inside. A dead man would tell him nothing.

  Cassidy would be in the hospital. Which one?

  Doesn’t matter. I’ll keep looking until I find you.

  Cassidy might have thought that she’d gotten away clean, that she could just disappear with her agent lover, but she was wrong.

  An eye for an eye.

  Cassidy was going to find out that there was no escaping from death.

  * * *

  SHE’D WANTED OUT of the hospital, but that wasn’t happening. Cale had agreed to take Cassidy away, but he had to make sure she was recovered enough first for the travel that he had in mind.

  The staff gave her a private room. Mercer sent guards for her, and Cale didn’t leave her for even a moment.

  She slept. He stood watch.

  Against those white sheets, she looked too pale and fragile. So very breakable.

  He wasn’t going to let her break.

  The door squeaked open behind him. He turned instantly, moving for the weapon that was still holstered beneath his shoulder. An instinctive response.

  But it was Dr. Tina Jamison who stood in the doorway. He frowned at her.

  Tina didn’t usually leave the EOD headquarters for a case. He’d actually only seen her in the field twice, both times to help wounded agents. She’d been scared each time, her hands trembling, but she’d gotten the job done.

  “Mercer. He wanted me to come in and make sure that Cassidy was all right.” She pushed the door closed behind her. “He also wanted me to check on you.”

  He was barely aware of his own wounds, some scratches and contusions from the blast. The docs at the hospital had patched him up, too, despite his protests.

  Tina headed toward the monitors on the right side of the bed.

  “The docs gave her a sedative to help her sleep.”

  Tina paused, then glanced back at him. “Is that what they told you?”

  He didn’t like her tone, not a bit. Suspicious now, he kept a wary eye on her.

  Tina reached for the clipboard. “It looks like she’ll be just fine.” She put the clipboard down and turned to face him. “Now let me check on you.”

  Cale grabbed the hand that lifted toward him. “What’s going on, Tina?”

  She glanced down at his hand. He felt the tremble that shook her. No, Tina didn’t like leaving the safety of her labs at the EOD. But she’d come there tonight, on Mercer’s order?

  Is that what they told you? Her words rang in his head again.

  “What’s going on?” He wanted to know. He and Tina hadn’t exactly gotten close during his time at the EOD. Tina and Sydney were tight, though, best friends from what he could tell.

  “I’m following orders,” Tina said. “We all have to follow orders, don’t we?”

  He was getting tired of the orders. Before he’d joined the EOD, he’d been a free agent working to help those who needed him. A mercenary? Maybe he hadn’t liked that title. Maybe he’d wanted to see what it would be like to be part of a team.

  And being a Shadow Agent did have its moments.

  But it could also—

  “If Cassidy was awake, she’d fight.”

  He almost missed Tina’s whispered words.

  But as they sank in, a cold fury spread within him. “What’s happening?” As if he didn’t already suspect—Mercer. The director was happening. His schemes and plans.

  “A transfer team is waiting outside. Since her location in D.C. has been compromised—” serious understatement “—Mercer wants her taken out of the city. When she wakes up, Cassidy will be far away.”

  He shook his head in denial. “Mercer didn’t tell me about any transfer. He didn’t—”

  “That’s because you’re not going with her.” Tina didn’t look him in the eye as she revealed this information.

  The hell he wasn’t.

  Tina stared at his neck. “He s
ays the threat to this asset is too strong. That she has to be relocated before her position can be compromised again.”

  This wasn’t happening. “You’re just going to take her while she’s unconscious? While she can’t say or do anything to stop you?”

  “It’s not me.” Her gaze flew back up to hold his. “You have to understand, Mercer is—”

  “Screw Mercer!”

  She flinched.

  No, he couldn’t take his fury out on Tina. He brushed by her and went back to the bed. “Get the IV out of her.”

  Tina didn’t move.

  “Get it out, Tina!” Because that IV was pumping the drugs into her body. Not to stabilize her, as he’d been told, but to keep her unconscious so that Mercer could whisk her away again.

  Cassidy’s weak voice whispered through his mind. Get me out of here. Had she made that plea because she knew what Mercer would do? Had he done that to her before?

  Probably.

  But he wasn’t doing it again.

  Cale heard the light shuffle of her footsteps as Tina inched closer to him. “If you go against Mercer, you know what will happen.”

  He could kiss his career in the EOD goodbye. Fine. Whatever. “It should be her choice.” That was exactly what it would be. She would be awake. Aware. Cassidy would be able to choose—the path Mercer wanted for her, or…

  Me.

  Because he could protect her. If she needed to get away from D.C., then he could make that happen. He already knew exactly where he wanted to take her.

  Home. Whiskey Ridge, Texas. The only home he’d ever known.

  “I—I—” Tina’s halting steps stopped. “He said she was in danger. That we had to move her.”

  And Tina was following orders, trying to protect a civilian.

  “Get the IV out of her.” Or he would. He just didn’t want to hurt Cassidy. But one way or another, that IV was coming out.

  He looked over his shoulder and leveled his stare on Tina. Waited. “It should be her choice. You know it, and I know it.”

  Tina gave a small nod.

  Then she reached for the IV.

  * * *

  GUNNER APPROACHED THE VAN slowly, his weapon up, two other EOD agents at his back. They’d kept regular law enforcement personnel in the background as much as possible—not like it had been easy to cover up the explosion in the park.

  The van’s back doors hung open, its cavernous interior dark.

  As the men closed in, one agent swept a light inside.

  The light fell on a dead body.

  Gunner’s eyes narrowed. Two shots. One had hit the man in the stomach. One had blasted right into his heart. From the look of the wounds, both had been administered at a very close range.

  Cassidy had told Cale that she shot her attacker—that she hit him once.

  Had she been mistaken, or had another scene played out here?

  His gaze searched the van. No driver. But someone had been behind the wheel while Cassidy had been held captive in the back.

  His stare returned to the body.

  Cassidy shot him in the stomach. That would make sense. The first bullet, ripping through him, gave Cassidy the precious moments that she’d needed to escape.

  But that wound hadn’t killed him.

  The wound to the heart had ended the man’s life.

  His partner shot him in the heart.

  It was the partner that they had to find.

  He turned away from the van and began to slowly scan the street. He was good at tracking, almost as good as his grandfather had been. He’d been trained on the reservation as a child, and when it came to hunting, he did the job well. Maybe too well.

  Gunner crept to the edge of the road. Let his light sweep over the grass.

  There. Bent grass, broken by feet running too quickly.

  He followed those telltale marks. The bent grass, the snapped twigs.

  The driver had come this way for a reason. He’d abandoned the van in that spot for a reason.

  A few more feet, and he found that reason.

  Tire tracks. A second vehicle had been stashed there.

  The killer was on the move again, and he could very well be closing in on Cassidy.

  * * *

  CASSIDY’S EYES SLOWLY opened, the green color muted, her gaze confused. “C-Cale?”

  He didn’t like the slur in her speech. He’d been right there, right beside her, and she’d been drugged.

  He couldn’t believe Mercer had been dumb enough to think that Cale would let her walk away. Or just be taken away.

  “What’s happening?” Cassidy asked as she tried to sit up.

  He put his arm around her, helping to steady her. He’d already dressed her—well, done his best, anyway—in jeans and a T-shirt that he’d gotten Tina to sneak up from the gift shop. “Mercer wants to take you out of D.C.” There was no time to sugarcoat. He figured they had all of about five minutes to get a plan in motion.

  Mercer moved fast.

  So did Cale.

  “Out of…” Cassidy put a hand to her head.

  “You have a choice to make.” He kept his voice steady. Kept his hand on her arm because she was weaving a bit on the bed. “Do you want to go with Mercer? He can put you on a plane and take you out of the city. You’ll be safe while the EOD hunts the people who took you.”

  She frowned at him. “Where’s the choice?” Her voice was a bit stronger. Good.

  “You can go where he sends you…or you can come with me. I can take you out of the city. I can keep you safe with me.”

  “Both options have me leaving,” Cassidy whispered.

  Yes, they did.

  But who she left with—

  “Going with Cale would be a mistake. He didn’t keep you safe before,” Mercer’s growling voice cut through the room as he stormed inside. He glared at Cale. “She was taken, stabbed, on your watch.”

  Cassidy sucked in a sharp breath. Cale knew, understood with every fiber of his being, that if Mercer took Cassidy away from him right then, he would never see her again. Mercer would make her vanish.

  I can’t let that happen.

  Cassidy’s gaze slid over Cale. To Mercer. “Did you find Genevieve?”

  Cale saw Mercer shake his head. Then he glanced at an avid Tina. “Wait outside, Doctor.”

  Tina hurried to obey. She was probably already afraid that she’d crossed a line with Mercer.

  Folks needed to stop jumping when the big, bad wolf growled.

  Cale wasn’t in the mood to jump.

  Mercer waited for the door to shut behind Tina. Then he said, “We found the man you shot.”

  Cassidy sat up a bit straighter. When she winced, Cale’s fingers caressed her arm. He hated for her to hurt.

  “H-he can tell you where Genevieve’s…body—” she stumbled over that part “—is. You can make him—”

  Mercer shook his head. “Doubtful. Dead men don’t tell a whole lot.”

  Cale swore.

  “I killed him?”

  “Only if you shot him twice, once in the stomach and once in the heart.”

  Cassidy tried to stand. Cale made sure he gave her the support she needed.

  “No. I just shot him once.”

  “Then it looks like his partner wanted to make sure that he didn’t talk. He was left, dead, in the van. Techs are dusting for prints, checking for any evidence that was left behind.”

  Her breath heaved out. “He knows I’m your daughter. That was why they took me. It had nothing to do with the Executioner, and everything to do with you.”

  Mercer actually backed up a step at the heat in her words. “Cassidy, you need to calm—”

  “Calm down? Really? You
think that’s what I need to do?” She shook her head. Finally, finally, more color came into her face, even if it was in an angry burst across her high cheekbones. “I didn’t ask for this life. You’re the one who sought it out, not me. I’m just the one who had to pick up the pieces after you.”

  Silence.

  Mercer inhaled slowly. “I have a plane waiting—”

  “You always do. Like sweeping me away is going to fix things. This guy knows who I am. He knows the secret that we’ve both tried so hard to cover. If we don’t find him, how do we know that others won’t discover who I am, too? I’ve tried your way, Mercer. I’ve tried it for years.” She sounded weary. “I don’t want to disappear for you anymore.”

  Mercer’s hard stare cut toward Cale. “And you think you can just walk away with him? That he’ll be able to protect you?”

  Cassidy’s brows rose. “Only recently, you thought he could keep me safe. Isn’t that the reason you sent him to Rio?”

  Mercer’s lips thinned. “That was before!”

  “Before what?” Cassidy demanded. She still weaved, just a bit, but her voice was much stronger.

  “Before I knew he was sleeping with you!”

  Cale had been quiet up until that point, but Mercer had just crossed the line. He positioned his body right next to Cassidy’s as he faced off against Mercer. “Father or not, you don’t use that tone with her—you don’t ever, understand?”

  Mercer stared back at him. Was that shock in his eyes? Get ready for more.

  “I’m done,” Cale said bluntly. He hadn’t anticipated saying those words, but he had no choice.

  “Done?” Mercer parroted.

  “I’m out of the EOD. Consider our test run over.”

  Definitely more shock now. “You’re just going to walk out on Cassidy when she needs—”

  “I’m taking her with me. Provided that she wants to come.” Cale threaded his fingers through Cassidy’s.

  Cassidy’s lips parted in surprise.

  “I told you,” he said, focusing just on her. “You have a choice. You can go with Mercer, you can get on his plane, or you can come with me.”

  “You don’t have any place to take her,” Mercer snarled. “You don’t—”

  “Whiskey Ridge isn’t more than a spot on the map, but you won’t feel hunted there, Cass. My sister and brother-in-law have a ranch. There’s plenty of room for us. We can stay there until it’s safe for you.” Or for as long as you want. If you like Whiskey Ridge, then I’ll buy land for you. For us.