by Cynthia Eden
What was even happening? “Mercer, stop!”
Frowning, he looked over at her.
She just felt tired as she stared back at him. “Stop. This isn’t—”
Her phone rang, vibrating in her front pocket. Genevieve? Hope flooded through her as she yanked out the phone. Yes, yes! That was Genevieve’s picture flashing on her screen. She answered immediately. “Gen—”
A scream cut through Cassidy’s voice.
Genevieve’s scream.
Cassidy stumbled back.
Cale whirled toward her. His hands curled around her arms, steadying her.
“Help me...” Genevieve begged; her sobs filled Cassidy’s ears.
“I will,” Cassidy whispered. I promise. “Where are you, Genevieve? What’s happening?”
“They...want you.”
Her gaze met Cale’s.
Turn on the speaker. He mouthed the words.
Fingers trembling, she pressed to connect the speaker.
Then they could all hear Genevieve’s cries.
“He says...h-he says that if you don’t come, I’m mort.”
Mort. Dead.
“Je ne veux pas mourir!”
Tears stung Cassidy’s eyes at those pitiful words. I don’t want to die.
“You won’t,” Cassidy promised. “You won’t! Just tell me where you are. I can bring help to you.”
A train’s whistle sounded in the background. The sound was long, mournful.
“Je ne sais pas.”
Cassidy swallowed the lump in her throat. I don’t know.
“Track her phone,” Mercer whispered to Gunner. “Get Sydney to triangulate that call’s location.”
“He says that you have to come for me.” Genevieve had switched back to English. She did that when she was upset, a tumble of her mother’s English and her father’s French. “He...he wants you to meet him. H-he said...said to meet him at midnight, at a park just behind—”
Genevieve broke off, screaming, a pain-filled cry. As if she’d been struck or—
No, don’t imagine it, don’t. Cassidy’s breath sawed from her lungs.
“Behind Dunlay Street and M-Manchester,” Genevieve finished, tears nearly choking her.
Cassidy heard Gunner softly repeating the instructions to the person on the other end of his phone.
“P-please...be there, Cassidy...”
“I will,” Cassidy vowed.
But Genevieve wasn’t there to hear her.
The line had gone dead.
* * *
THE CLOCK ON Mercer’s desk was ticking far too loudly.
Cale paced back and forth in the small confines of that office, tension and adrenaline pulsing through his veins. Cassidy waited down on the level below him, guarded by Gunner and Lancaster, but—
I need to see her.
Instead, he was being called in for a sit-down with Mercer. Like he needed to deal with office politics right then.
The door opened behind him. Ah, so Mercer had finally joined him. Let the battle begin.
Cale’s shoulders stiffened. “I’m not letting her go to that exchange without me.”
Mercer’s sigh carried easily to him. The sigh and the soft click of the door shutting behind the director.
Cale glanced over his shoulder at Mercer. The lines on the man’s face were even deeper than they’d been before.
Mercer lifted a hand and pointed at Cale. “You’re making a mistake.”
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Or the last.
“You should cover your emotions better.” There sure wasn’t any emotion in Mercer’s voice as he slowly headed around the desk and eased into his chair. The last time they’d been in this office, yes, Cale had been able to read Mercer pretty well. The emotions had cracked beneath his surface. This time...the man was far too controlled.
He was dealing with Mercer, the EOD director, and definitely not the father who’d been frantic.
Cale realized that he’d done that same compartmentalizing with Cassidy. The agent and the lover.
He damn well wouldn’t do it again.
Mercer eased behind his desk. The leather chair groaned as he leaned forward. His watchful stare had never left Cale’s face. “Others will read those emotions of yours. If you’re not careful, your enemies will use them against you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cale grumbled, not about to discuss what was going on personally between him and Cassidy. “But—”
“I’m talking about Cassidy. About the way you look at my daughter.” Mercer flattened his hands on the desk’s surface. “About what others will see unless you start watching yourself a whole lot better.”
Cale’s back teeth clenched. “What happens between me and your daughter—”
“Cassidy looks a lot like her mother.” Mercer’s gaze seemed far away. He looked right through Cale, and at his own past. “Same hair, eyes...even that stubborn chin. Marguerite was so beautiful. The first time I saw her...” He swallowed. “I knew I couldn’t walk away from her.”
Isn’t that the way I feel about Cassidy?
Because he knew that he should step down. Another case waited—plenty of other cases—but he couldn’t leave Cassidy.
Wouldn’t leave her.
“I was undercover, even then. Pretending to be someone I wasn’t.” Mercer stared down at his hands. “Always pretending. But Marguerite seemed to see through that.”
This was a Mercer that Cale didn’t know. So he just stood, watching, waiting to see what Mercer would reveal next.
“I loved her, but I loved my job, too. People counted on me. So many lives. So many...” His lips kicked up into a mocking smile. “But I was young. Foolish. I thought I could have it all. The girl. The job. The danger. All of it. Everything I wanted.” The smile faded. “We married in secret.”
Married...and had Cassidy.
“But I’d made so many enemies. They found my Marguerite. And took her from me.” His hands slapped against the desk. “In an instant, they took everything from me. I wasn’t even there to tell her goodbye.”
Cale felt his muscles turn to stone. This story...the ending...it hit far too close to home for him.
When he’d been a teen, his parents had been taken from him. Not by an enemy, but by a drunk driver. Gone in an instant.
He’d never been able to tell them goodbye. He’d never been able to save them.
So he tried to save others.
Cale’s breath whispered from his lungs. “You didn’t lose everything that day. You still had Cassidy.”
Beautiful, bright Cassidy.
Mercer’s eyes closed for a moment. “Because of who I am...what I am...Marguerite died. Cassidy had to see that terrible moment. Just a child, and she had to watch her mother die.”
And the memory still haunted her. He knew it probably always would.
“What do you think you can give to Cassidy?” Mercer asked him after he opened his eyes.
Cale stared back at him, no ready answer on his lips.
“You’re on the same path that I took. Danger. Enemies.” Mercer shook his head. “One of your enemies framed you for murder just months ago. You don’t have a safe or easy life.”
No, he didn’t.
“What will you give to her? More danger? Maybe even the same death that I gave to my Marguerite?”
Mercer looked very tired and weaker than Cale had ever seen him before. “I want Cassidy to be safe. To have a normal life. But she won’t have that life with you, Agent Lane.”
Because he was EOD. Because he’d learned long ago how to deal quick death to the threats in this world.
“Step back from this case,” Mercer told him. “Step back from Cassidy before you do more damage to her than even I ever could.”
“The last thing I want is to hurt her,” Cale conceded. The words were true, but he hadn’t thought ahead. Hadn’t thought past the moment of being with Cassidy.
He’d ju
st wanted her.
After so long of being in the shadows of life, she’d been a temptation he couldn’t resist. He’d reached out to her.
Taken what he needed so badly.
And hadn’t considered the future.
“There is no future for you two,” Mercer said, seeming to read his thoughts. “Cassidy needs to move away from the EOD, away from the guilt of her past.”
Because of her friend’s death.
“She needs to find someone safe and settle down.”
Another man. Anger had his hands fisting.
“You see that, don’t you?” Mercer pressed. “You see that you aren’t the right one for my daughter.”
He wanted to be. He wanted to be her everything.
“Too violent, too dark and with too much death hanging on you.” Mercer’s shoulders slumped. “Don’t you think I know? You’re just like me.”
No. He didn’t want to be like Mercer.
“We weren’t made to love,” Mercer continued. “We were made to break and destroy.”
Cassidy couldn’t be destroyed. “That’s not happening,” Cale growled.
“You will let her go,” Mercer said. “Because you don’t want her to break.”
Their eyes locked.
“I can pull you from this case—we both know I can.” Ah, there was the Mercer he knew—the cold confidence. The hard threat.
But Mercer was right. He was the EOD. If the guy wanted Cale tossed from the building, he would be. Armed guards would flood upstairs in an instant at his command. They’d toss him into the street.
Then I’d just have to bust my way back inside.
“But I want you working this one,” Mercer continued, surprising him. “Cassidy trusts you. And with her friend’s life at stake, I don’t want Cassidy any more afraid than she has to be.”
Cassidy was already plenty afraid.
“So you can keep working with the team.”
Cale’s eyes were slits. Thanks—I was going to do that anyway.
“But when Genevieve is back, when we have this SOB in custody, then it will be time for you to do the right thing and walk away from Cassidy.”
The right thing.
For her.
For him?
“Are we clear, Agent?” There was no weakness in Mercer’s voice then. It made Cale wonder if there ever had been. Had it just been an act?
Cassidy must have gotten her acting talent somewhere. But unlike Cassidy, Mercer didn’t give away any tells when he lied. The man was an expert at deception.
“Oh, I think you’re being pretty damn clear,” Cale told him. And now it was his turn to be clear. Cale stalked toward the big mahogany desk.
One of Mercer’s brows rose.
Cale wrapped his hands around the edge of the desk and leaned toward Mercer. “I’m not you.”
Mercer blinked.
“So don’t tell me that I am. Don’t tell me what will happen to me or to Cassidy.” He kept his voice level with an effort. “You’re my boss—I get that. But I’m starting to think that coming on board with the EOD was a mistake.”
“Are you, now?”
“Being a free agent worked a whole lot better for me. There was a lot less B.S. to deal with.” Like a father who should have been there for his daughter. He stared at Mercer—glared at him—then said once more, “I’m not you.” Then he turned and walked away.
Because, really, what else was there to say?
* * *
MERCER DIDN’T MOVE as Cale Lane stalked from the room. The agent did have a lot of rage inside him, but Cale was pretty good at containing that rage.
If he hadn’t been so good at that containment, Mercer figured the guy would have taken a swing or two at his jaw.
The door closed behind Cale.
Mercer opened his desk drawer, carefully moved the papers and pulled out the old black-and-white photo that he kept hidden there.
A photo of Marguerite, holding Cassidy when his daughter had been barely a year old.
I deserved those hits.
The past was gone, and no matter how much he wished that he could change things, there was no going back for him.
Things would be different for Cassidy. He’d make sure of it. No matter how many strings he had to pull.
And no matter who he had to hurt.
He put the photograph back in place. The edges were rough. From all the years he’d held that precious memory.
Back then, Cassidy’s eyes had lit with love when she looked at him.
When had she stopped looking at him that way?
At her mother’s grave...
At the grave site, Cassidy’s beautiful gaze had held an accusation. She’d known her mother’s death was his fault.
They’d both known it.
Because he hadn’t been able to give up the job, he’d lost his family.
He shut the drawer and then pressed a button on his phone to contact his assistant. “Get Lancaster up here,” he ordered. Lancaster was one agent who never let emotions slow him down.
Mostly because the guy didn’t seem to have any emotions.
Not like Cale. His eyes burned when he looked at Cassidy.
A few minutes later, a light rap sounded at Mercer’s door. When Drew Lancaster entered, Mercer waved him forward.
“I have a job for you,” he said to the agent.
Drew Lancaster nodded.
I can’t trust Cale, but I can count on Drew.
In the end, Drew would do whatever was necessary. He always did.
Chapter Nine
“How long have you had the tracking device?” The quiet question came from Dr. Tina Jamison as the EOD doctor approached Cassidy. “I’m sorry but—I, uh, wasn’t given full access to your file.” No, of course Mercer hadn’t given her that access. Cassidy rolled her shoulders.
“The current device was implanted about six months ago.” Not that she’d wanted it implanted. But she hadn’t exactly been given a choice.
Dr. Jamison, a petite woman with dark hair, peered up at her from behind the frames of her small glasses. “Sydney checked the signal, and it seems to be operating fine.”
Ah, Sydney. That would be the delicate-looking blonde over in the corner. The one huddled over a computer screen.
The one with the too-assessing gaze that kept sweeping back to Cassidy.
“It is operating perfectly,” Sydney said as she rose. And when she stepped away from the computer, Cassidy finally got a good look at the woman—and her very pregnant body.
Didn’t expect that.
“No matter where you go, I’ll be able to track that signal,” Sydney said with a firm nod. “We can find you.”
Good to know. Because Cassidy was going to that drop.
Genevieve was counting on her.
The door opened behind Dr. Jamison. Gunner hurried inside. Cassidy tensed. She knew Gunner was working out the details of the meeting with Genevieve’s captor and—
And Gunner stopped near Sydney. As she watched, Gunner lightly rubbed his hand over the blonde’s neck.
Sydney’s features softened.
Wow. I didn’t expect that, either.
Gunner, Mr. I Eat Nails for Breakfast, was with delicate Sydney? Before, he’d told Cassidy that he was married to an agent named Sydney. She just hadn’t expected to see the two of them like this. To almost feel the connection running between them.
Yes, that was envy that Cassidy felt knifing through her. Envy because Gunner had emotion blazing in his eyes as he looked at Sydney.
Love.
“I’d like to do some blood work on you,” Dr. Jamison was saying, pulling Cassidy’s attention back to her. “Just some routine—”
“No.” Mercer had a rule about that. One that he obviously needed to pass on to the good doctor here. No blood work was ever performed on Cassidy in this facility. Any checks she needed were privately performed in satellite offices that Mercer set up for her.
Tina’s eyes widened. �
�But, I, um—”
“Mercer just wants to make sure the locator is fully functional,” Gunner said as he stepped away from Sydney. “Nothing more, Tina. You don’t have to run any extra tests.”
Cassidy forced a tight smile. “Right. Nothing more.”
Tina hesitated, but then she gave a little nod and hurried from the room.
Sydney skirted around Gunner and closed in on Cassidy. Sydney’s gaze was assessing as it took her in. “You’re not what I expected.”
Sydney wasn’t what she’d expected, either. If the lady was with Gunner, shouldn’t she be a little package of death and danger?
But the woman didn’t look dangerous. She was...pretty. Very pretty.
And her hand was lightly rubbing her belly, as if caressing the child inside.
Cassidy pulled in a slow breath. “A party girl, right? That’s what you expected?” Another slow breath. Then she let a big smile take over her face. “I’m just a little tired. Give me a bit...” She forced a light laugh. “And I’ll be back on my game.”
Sydney’s head cocked to the side as she studied her. “You’re very good at that.”
Cassidy kept her smile in place.
“It’s almost like another woman just slipped inside of you.” Sydney’s voice was musing. “I thought you were an asset, but you’d sure make for an interesting agent.”
Cassidy didn’t so much as flicker an eyelid.
Sydney leaned closer to her. “Why is your file sealed?” A whisper that didn’t carry.
Gunner had taken up a position guarding the door.
“What do I need to know about you,” Sydney demanded as steel slipped into her soft voice, “in order to make sure that Gunner isn’t put at any additional risk while he’s on your detail?”
Gunner...who would be a father soon.
Gunner...who looked at Sydney with love.
“Is this about the Executioner?” Sydney wanted to know. “Or is there something more going on here?”
Sydney just wanted to protect her family. What was so wrong with that?
Cale knew Cassidy’s secret.
He won’t tell them.
Mercer sure wouldn’t.
“Gunner is going on the exchange with you tonight. If I need to make sure you have more backup, if I need to change any of the plans, then tell me.”
Sydney sounded afraid.
I don’t want Gunner going with me.