Lethal Redemption

by April Hunt

  “No, which is why I’ll find somewhere to lay low until daylight. But just hoping that Rhett’s okay isn’t an option, and you don’t know me as well as you think you do if you think it is.”

  Oh, he knew her, probably better than himself. “Then I’m going with you. Roman and Tank can manage taking Sarah back.”

  Roman cleared his throat. “Someone want to clue us the hell in? What the fuck did we miss, and what’s this about Rhett and General Wilcox?”

  Grace tossed him her camera. “Get that to Liam, but make sure Director Vance is looped in. Rossbach’s using his Elite Guards as a hit squad, and by the look of it, they’ve already knocked their list of six down to three. Rhett and Cade’s dad are two of the remaining.”

  Tank whistled. “Who’s the third?”

  “Don’t know,” Cade interjected. “But it also looks like Rossbach doesn’t know yet either, so we have a bit of time on that front.”

  “He doesn’t know the identity of someone he’s trying to have knocked off? Interesting.”

  “Which is why you need to give that camera to Liam. Four of the men in those pics are wearing military uniforms, so I’m hoping it won’t take him long to get hits.”

  “And the fifth?”

  “Civilian clothes, but I’m about ninety percent sure that it was taken on a base somewhere. There’s a small corner glimpse of what looks like a military grade Humvee.”

  Roman didn’t look thrilled at the idea of splitting up, but he didn’t argue. “We’ll look into it, and I’ll get the General on the horn the second we step off this mountain. Not sure how he’s going to react to the info that someone’s gunning for him, though.”

  Cade did. He might not know his father very well, but he knew enough to know that they’d have nearly the same reaction. “He’ll sit out on his front steps with a banner over his fucking head saying Here I am, fucker. Come and get me.”

  “You’re probably right.” Roman chuckled. He tossed Cade a set of keys. “We have a backup car about three miles south, just off an old logger trail. It’s nothing fancy, but it’ll get you where you need to go. There’s a bag in the trunk with some clothes and cash. Make sure you check in the second you can without compromising yourselves. I don’t want Zoey hounding my ass worrying about you two.”

  Cade smirked, knowing it wasn’t only Zoey who would worry. “We love you too, man. We’ll be careful.”

  “One more thing.” Grace slid a glance to a still unconscious Sarah. “She’s not the same person that Brandt remembers. She’s a danger to herself, and especially to him. She needs professional help. Vance has access to all my Bureau contacts. There’s a doctor in Arizona who specializes in cult victims. We need to contact her.”

  Roman grimaced but nodded. “The VP’s not gonna love that.”

  “I don’t care what he does or doesn’t love. It’s what she needs.”

  “Got it. Vance. Contact. Professional help.”

  Cade shrugged their pack over his shoulder and automatically reached for Grace’s hand. The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by either of their friends, but he didn’t care. “I think we’ve all spent way too much time on this damn mountain. It’s about time we get off.”

  Chapter

  Twenty-Four

  Grace glanced over her shoulder for the third time in as many minutes, half expecting Simon to pop out from behind a tree any second. Something like a little river water wouldn’t deter a man like him from dusting off and getting back on his feet.

  And coming after them.

  If she were warm with a sufficient amount of chocolate in her system, she’d be up for the challenge, but she’d lost feeling in her hands fifteen minutes ago, and her stomach growled out its displeasure at not having been fed.

  Grace hurdled over a fallen log and glanced into the woods behind them—again. This time, Cade caught it.

  “Our ride out of here should be around the corner.”

  “Good.” She waited a beat before pointing out what had been bothering her for the last hour. “Simon shot at us.”

  Cade slid her a questioning look. “Is there more to that statement?”

  “Roman fired that warning shot and Simon immediately started shooting blind into the trees. If the three of us hadn’t been crouched down, any one of us could’ve been hit. He knew we had Sarah, and he risked hitting her.”

  Grace wished she’d broken his nose when she’d had the chance. Bastard.

  Cade’s hand settled on the small of her back. “Soon, thanks to you, Sarah will be with people who actually care about her well-being. Getting her out of there was the first step. Everything that happens next is up to her and her family.”

  Knowing he was right didn’t make her worry any less.

  The road Sarah was about to travel wasn’t a smooth one, and she wouldn’t wish it on her worst enemy, much less someone who could’ve been a good friend if they’d been in different situations.

  They stepped out of the thicket of trees and onto the dirt-lined logging trail.

  Cade nudged his chin to the left. “There’s our chariot.”

  “Chariot” was an understatement. Mud brown with more than a few holes rusted through the exterior, their getaway car looked Grace’s age. Or hell, a few years older.

  “Roman can’t be serious. He said this thing would get us where we needed to go. I didn’t realize he meant we’d have to propel it forward ourselves as if we lived in Bedrock.”

  Smirking, Cade dangled the set of keys in front of her. “Do you want to do the honors or should I?”

  She gave the car a wary once-over. “It’s all yours. The less I have to touch the interior the better.”

  Cade chuckled. He popped open the trunk and tossed her the black bug-out bag stashed beneath the spare tire. “While I drive, you see what they gave us to work with. It should be pretty standard. Clothes, cash, guns, and ammo. Everything you need for a fun party.”

  The second they belted up, Cade took off.

  He was right. They had all the necessities, including a map of the DC Metro area, some bottled water, and a few packs of beef jerky. At the sight of the dried teeth-breakers, Cade’s eyes lit up.

  “Hand those things over before I gnaw my arm off.” He bit into a big clump and groaned. “Better than a New York strip.”

  “I’ll have to take your word on that.” She opened up a bag of nuts and searched the GPS coordinates for someplace out of the way for them to lie low. Options were seriously lacking in this area. “There’s a motel about ten miles out from here, but there’s another one about five miles away from where we’d need to park and hike up to Rhett’s cabin. My vote is for the one closer to Rhett. It’ll make getting up at first light that much easier.”

  “And on the off chance Reynolds wasn’t blowing smoke earlier, it’ll probably be the first place that Rossbach’s EGs check.”

  She hated that he was right, but she sent him an annoyed glare anyway. He slid a hand over her knee and squeezed assuredly. “We’ll take the extra distance into consideration when we come up with the morning plan. We’ll get you up that mountain, Grace. I promise.”

  She believed him as much as she believed Rhett could handle himself, but it didn’t make her worry any less. He was family, one of the first constants in her life, and she didn’t know what she’d do if he wasn’t there anymore.

  The slow rub of Cade’s hand and every stressful minute of the last few days weighted Grace’s eyelids until she couldn’t fight the exhaustion anymore. She fell asleep and woke up to the sound of their chariot’s brakes screeching as Cade pulled to a stop.

  “We there?” She yawned into her elbow and glanced at the interstate motel that could have starred in every B-rated horror flick. “Oh, wow. You sure you don’t want to keep going?”

  “I don’t think the other one would be much better.” Cade chuckled. “It’s this or the back seat, and my vote’s for the place that doesn’t give us frostbite if we have to take a piss.”

  “T
his place will probably give us gangrene instead. Or a fungal infection.”

  Cade headed into the front office and came back out in less than five minutes. He grabbed the bug-out bag from her and tossed her the keys to room 3C. “Would you like me to carry you over the threshold, my lady?”

  “No, but you’re definitely slaying any dragons—er, cockroaches—that we may come across. As a matter of fact, we’re sleeping in shifts. With the lights on.”

  Cade chuckled. “Where’s that Steele sense of adventure?”

  “In a five-star hotel.”

  The interior could have been worse, but not by much. Bright blue carpets contrasted with the pink floral bedspread on the single queen mattress, and the patterned wallpaper looked straight out of the seventies. But overall, it was cleaner than she expected, the smell of bleach hanging in the air.

  Cade tossed their bag on the bed. “Shower first, or would you like to partake in our beef jerky feast? I’d run across the street to get something, but it’s just a cow field. I saw a vending machine in the office, though.”

  “I think I’ll shower and sleep. I’m too tired to chew, especially jerky.”

  “While you’re cleaning up, I’m going to check in with Roman and Steele Ops, and then maybe hit up that vending machine. We may need a little more sustenance in the morning—and a cavalry.” He walked to the door but paused. “And Grace?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Take Magdalena into the bathroom with you…just in case.”

  “Already planned on it.” After Cade left her alone, Grace dug through their bag, pulling out a nondescript T-shirt and a pair of men’s boxers. She set Maggie on the toilet lid and got undressed while the water warmed up, and then she scoured every inch of her body, averting her eyes from the questionable black smudges rimming the tiles.

  Possibly-toxic mold be damned, her skin felt shiny and squeaky clean by the time she shut off the water and slipped into the spare clothes. She opened the bathroom door and crashed into Cade’s hard body.

  His hands gripped her hips, preventing her from falling on her ass. “Did you leave any hot water for me?”

  She glanced back at the still steamy bathroom. “Maybe?”

  Lust darkened his eyes and fueled her own, but with everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, acting on it wasn’t a good idea—at least not until they finished that heart-to-heart talk where she basically admitted that he’d been—and always would be—the love of her life.

  His gaze paused on her lips before dropping to where her wet hair dampened her soft gray T-shirt. “It’s late. It’s been one hell of a long day, and tomorrow’s going to be a lot of the same. Probably more.”

  “And your point?”

  “That as much as I want to finish yesterday’s conversation and act on that look in your eye, we’re going to have to take a rain check. We need to be well rested in order to deal with whatever comes at us next.”

  The telltale firming of Cade’s cock brushed against her stomach spoke volumes for what it thought about that idea. “I’ll probably be asleep the second my head hits the pillow.”

  She wasn’t.

  Listening to the shower from beneath the pink floral comforter, she tossed and turned, trying both sides before ending up flat on her stomach. No position helped. She eyed the floor, seriously contemplating giving it a try until she spotted the mystery stain two feet away. “Yeah, I’m not that brave.”

  She returned to her left side when Cade stepped out from the bathroom, a cloud of steam billowing out behind him. Water droplets clung to his bare chest, and his towel, halfheartedly wrapped around his waist, looked ready to drop at the faintest breeze.

  He grabbed a pair of boxers from their bag and slid them on beneath the towel. Two seconds later, the mattress dipped as he climbed into the bed behind her. Heat radiated off him, warming her skin as he tucked an arm beneath her head.

  His mouth, a hair’s breadth away from her ear, brushed her skin. She shivered. “You were supposed to be asleep before I finished.”

  “I guess turning off my brain’s more difficult than I thought.” She rolled over to face him, putting their faces a mere inch apart. “Did you check in with the guys?”

  “I did. They were back at Steele Ops and in the process of contacting the vice president when I called, and I’m pretty sure Director Vance is on her way over.”

  “And then they’re taking Sarah to Dr. Preston? The cult specialist in Arizona?”

  He hesitated. “Knox and Vance have it covered.”

  “You’re dodging my question.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why are you question-dodging?”

  “Don’t use your mind-reading power on me, Special Agent Steele. You may not like what you end up stumbling into.”

  “I don’t need to like it. I just need to know.” She pushed him onto his back and propped her chin on his chest. “Start talking, Wright.”

  He tucked a stray lock of hair off her face, his fingers brushing against her cheek. “Evidently Brandt wasn’t thrilled about Arizona.”

  “Too bad. She has to go. It’s important for her to—”

  “Babe, I know. You’re preaching to the choir here. Neither Vance nor your cousins are pushovers. Let them do what they do. You’re either here or there—you can’t be both.”

  His words echoed in her head. He hadn’t meant them as an accusation, but guilt still rushed over her. She sat up and tucked her knees to her chest. “You should be with Roman and the guys in DC. You should be with your father.”

  “I’m exactly where I need—and want—to be.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but Cade palmed her cheek, silencing her with his thumb. “Knox already sent people to track Wilcox down, and everyone there is more than capable of questioning the old man about his connection to Rossbach.”

  “You know that’s not why I think you should be there.”

  Cade’s hand fell away as he sat up, turning to face the wall—and giving Grace his back. Every inch separating them felt like a mile, and she longed to close that distance. But just as he’d given her space during the last week, she needed to do the same.

  It was painful and it sucked, but she waited for him to give the verbal invitation.

  “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong.” Cade’s back rippled with tension as he leaned his arms on his knees. “He is not my father.”

  “He may not be the one that you remembered when you were little, or the one you imagined every day since, but he is your dad.”

  “No, he’s the man who abandoned his family,” Cade snapped. “And for no good reason other than that he was a coward. He left my mother alone with two small children, one of whom was chronically ill, and he didn’t look back—not even when our mom died. Anonymously throwing money into Zoey’s healthcare doesn’t negate the fact that he wasn’t there.”

  “You’re right. It doesn’t.” Grace understood the anger. Her entire life she’d lived knowing that her mother couldn’t give two hoots about her, but from what interaction she’d had with the former general, Grace knew that wasn’t the case with him.

  Deep down, Cade knew it too.

  “Five surgeries.” Cade’s voice was thick with emotion. “Zoey suffered through five open heart surgeries—six if you count the valve replacement this year. She’s been subjected to countless more procedures and setbacks. He could’ve stepped forward at any point in time, and he didn’t—even after his stuck-up snob of a family was long gone.”

  Grace’s palm itched to touch him, but she stayed back, giving him time to work through his emotions. “You’re right.”

  “I know I’m right. And you think I should what? Forgive him? Forget all the hell we went through until Gretchen came into our lives?”

  “You shouldn’t forget. You should learn from it.” They both should.

  Sometimes there was a delicate line between throwing your opinions in someone’s face and gently steering them into looking at something from a differe
nt perspective. Nerves rolled through Grace’s stomach as she contemplated on how to do the latter.

  This was the talk before the talk. The one that would, hopefully, make any discussion about a future together that much easier.

  Steadying her breathing, Grace slowly crawled across the bed and onto Cade’s lap, her legs straddling his. His hands dropped to her hips, but he refused to meet her eyes.

  She tilted his face up to hers, and the pain floating in his blue eyes cut her to the quick. It felt it as if it were her own—and it was. As much as she’d tried ignoring it, and denying it, she loved Cade Wright.

  She was in love with him and had been ever since that day she first knocked on the Steeles’ front door and he answered it with a snarky attitude. She’d loved him years later, even when he’d broken her heart.

  And she loved him now.

  She’d love him always.

  And if there was any chance of a future together, they couldn’t hide behind the past and pretend that it hadn’t happened. Not now. Not ever.

  “What your father did was wrong,” Grace admitted. “He made a bad decision, made it out of fear, and he wasn’t the only one to suffer the consequences. His actions affected you, and Zoey, and Gretchen, and everyone who loves you. But it’s not so different from what happened between us nine years ago.”

  Cade stiffened, but Grace preempted his defensiveness, stroking her thumbs over his cheeks. “Why did you re-up with the Army? After we already had our entire lives laid out in front of us…you showed up to my graduation having already sold your life away for another four years.”

  “That’s completely different.”

  “The situation’s different, but I’m not so sure the motive is.” Grace fought against welling tears, unsure if she was ready to hear the truth, but knowing she needed to. They’d already spent way too much time and energy avoiding what was right in front of them. “Why?”

  Cade wiped away her tears, but as soon as he did, more fell.

  His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I didn’t know who I’d be without the Army. I didn’t know if I could be someone who deserved you in his life. I didn’t know if I could be the type of man who you’d proudly calls yours. I made the decision I did because I loved you too damn much to risk fucking up your life.”