by Cynthia Eden
She tried to crawl toward those lights.
The van’s tires squealed as the vehicle rushed away.
Cassidy kept crawling toward those lights.
* * *
CALE SHOVED DOWN the brake the instant that the patrol car’s headlights fell on Cassidy. He’d taken that damn vehicle, rushed over to Brookley, burning rubber, and he’d desperately searched the surrounding streets.
His palms were sweating, his heart racing.
And Cassidy—his Cassidy—was crawling in the middle of the road.
He threw open the door and rushed toward her. “Cassidy!”
He’d raced to another scene, on another street, so many years before. He’d found the bodies of his parents.
Seen his little sister...
She’d been alive.
So was Cassidy.
* * *
HE LIFTED HER into his arms. She was bleeding, trembling. He wanted to crush her to him, but he forced his hold to stay gentle. She needed care from him right then. Not raw desperation. “It’s all right, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”
“They...knew...”
He carried her back to the patrol car. His breath hissed from between his teeth when he saw the blood on her shirt. Too much blood. “Cassidy...”
“He cut...tracker...”
He grabbed for his phone. “I’ve got her.” What street was he on? “Debouy and Hutchins. She needs an ambulance!” And if that ambulance didn’t get there in the next few moments, he’d just rush her to the hospital himself.
Cassidy...bleeding out in his arms. Nightmare.
That wouldn’t happen. He’d said that he would protect her.
“C-Cale?”
His body had curled over hers. He’d put his hand over her main wound, applying pressure to stop the blood flow as best he could.
When he’d been back at that park behind Dunlay, dark fear had controlled his thoughts.
Cassidy had left him. He hadn’t gotten to tell her goodbye. Just like with his parents.
His lips brushed her cheek. “Don’t leave me.”
Her hand rose. Her fingers—her skin had been scraped from her palms. What the hell had happened to her? But her fingers lightly touched his cheek. “I’m...not.” She even tried to smile then. Smiling? After what she’d been through?
His heart stopped for a moment.
Then beat even faster, harder, than it ever had before.
“It takes more than...this,” Cassidy whispered, “to stop me.”
And he knew that he was staring at one of the strongest women he’d ever met, and he’d sure come across more than his share of fierce protectors during his time in the military—and as a civilian.
Cassidy wasn’t weak. She was—
Everything.
He held her even tighter. “Tell me who did this to you.” He could hear the scream of the ambulance’s siren, coming closer and closer. “Tell me, sweetheart. I’ll find them.” Hunt them. Stop them.
Kill them.
No one hurts her and walks away.
Yeah, that violent side of his, that predatory side that others whispered about? That Mercer had flat out taunted him with? It was out.
He’d been trained to hunt and kill his enemies. The one who’d done this to her would pay.
Cale would make absolutely certain of that.
“I shot him,” she confessed in a whisper.
His eyes widened.
Good.
“I had...a gun...at my ankle. Got it before I—I left...the EOD.”
The ambulance rushed around the corner and came to a screeching halt. Two other vehicles were right behind it—a black SUV and a long, gray sedan.
The ambulance attendants ran toward them. Gunner and Mercer jumped out of the SUV.
“Never saw his face...”
“Cassidy!” Mercer was there, shoving back the ambulance attendants.
Cale growled at him. “Let them through! She’s hurt!” He had her blood on his hands.
“S-someone else was driving...the v-van...d-dark van...” Cassidy told him, voice roughening. “Two people...two...”
After the way things had gone down at the park, he’d realized they were dealing with a group, not just one attacker.
A sob burst from Cassidy. Mercer had moved back, finally, and he stood watching them, with his hands clenched into fists. “G-Genevieve...” Her name seemed torn from Cassidy. “She’s dead.”
Cale’s breath was cold in his lungs. He’d been afraid that she was.
The captors had gotten Cassidy, and once they had her—well, Genevieve was no longer an asset. She was another body to carry around—a liability.
Deadweight.
He helped the attendants load Cassidy onto the stretcher. She held tightly to his hand, her grip fierce and desperate.
His hold on her was even stronger.
Mercer stood to the side, watching, with shoulders slumped.
“She was my f-friend,” Cassidy whispered as tears tracked down her cheeks. “The only one I had, for so long.”
Her tears were ripping him apart. “You’re not alone, Cassidy. I won’t ever let you be alone.” No matter what he had to do. No matter what he had to sacrifice.
His life—everything—had changed for him.
“How bad is it?” Mercer asked quietly.
Bad enough. There was too much blood. Cassidy was too pale under the ambulance’s lights.
“Blood pressure’s too low,” one of the attendants said. “We need to get her to the E.R.”
“I’m going,” Cale said instantly. And he was. When that stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, he was right there.
At her side.
Where he knew he was supposed to be.
He brushed the hair back from her cheek, wiped away her tears.
When Cale looked up, he saw Mercer standing just past the open doors of the ambulance. “Stay with her, Agent Lane,” Mercer ordered, his voice gruff.
No emotion there. Emotion should have been there. The guy was her father. He should be trying to get in that ambulance, too.
But Mercer was stepping back.
“I’ll want to talk to her when she’s clear,” Mercer added with a firm nod.
The guy was acting as if Cassidy was any other asset.
She’s not.
Cale glared at him. This guy held most of the power reins in D.C., but folks didn’t realize it. Cale realized it. He wasn’t intimidated.
He was furious.
“Get your damn priorities in order,” he snarled at him.
Then the doors closed.
He couldn’t see Mercer anymore. Good. He didn’t want to deal with Mercer then.
Only Cassidy mattered.
“C-Cale?” Cassidy was shaking.
No, seizing.
When he heard the EMTs say that her blood pressure was dropping too much, Cale felt his own heart start to sputter with fear.
He held her even tighter. As the medics worked on her, as they tried to stabilize Cassidy, he held her tight.
Because she wasn’t just an asset to him.
* * *
MERCER WATCHED THE ambulance rush from the scene. He swallowed the lump that wanted to choke him. When he’d first seen Cassidy, cradled in Cale’s arms, with all that blood...
I thought I’d lost her, too.
“Mercer?” Gunner’s quiet voice. “I saw a video camera on that last red light that we passed. I’ve already called Sydney—she’s gonna pull up the feed.”
And Sydney would be able to show them all just what had gone down on that dark road. Just how his daughter had wound up bloody and broken.
He tried to control the rage growing in him. With his job, he wasn’t supposed to let emotion rule him.
He wasn’t supposed to—
Marguerite had looked as broken as Cassidy. With blood on her body. So pale. Just left in the street.
Like his Cassidy.
His fingers were shaking. Mercer balled
them into fists.
“Sir?”
Had he spoken? He must have, because Gunner was frowning at him.
“We find them. We take them out.” His words were brittle. “I want every tech we’ve got going over that video. We’ll put an all-points bulletin up for the vehicle, and we will have that van.” He wanted that van found within the hour. The video would show them the make and model of the vehicle Cassidy had described. “Cassidy shot one of the assailants, so he’ll need medical help. Get men at the hospitals. Anyone comes in with a gunshot wound, I want to know about it.”
He paused, sucking in a sharp breath as he realized that his words had fired out too hard and fast.
Not controlled.
Not any longer.
Cassidy’s blood stained the street.
Gunner stepped closer to him. “Mercer...”
“Cale can’t be trusted to keep her safe.” Flat. He believed those words with every fiber of his being. Because he’d seen the way the man looked at Cassidy when she was loaded onto that stretcher. That look wasn’t just about attraction.
It was much more.
Once, Mercer had looked at Marguerite that way.
When emotions got involved, the cases became even more dangerous.
He didn’t let Gunner and Sydney work in the field together any longer—he couldn’t. It was too much of a risk. But Sydney had been promoted to oversee their tech ops, and Gunner...well, Gunner had already shown signs of wanting to pull away from the EOD.
Few agents stayed with the EOD for life.
“I think you’re wrong.” Gunner’s voice was quiet. Intense. The way the guy always seemed to be.
Mercer glared at him.
“I think Cale is actually your best bet for keeping her safe right now.”
Bull. He was a liability. Despite any of Mercer’s original plans, the situation had changed. “Why would you—”
“Because I’ve got eyes, too, Mercer. If someone tried to hurt Syd, what do you think I’d do?”
He knew exactly what Gunner Ortez would do. Kill. Because Sydney and the twins were Gunner’s life.
But Cale had only just met Cassidy. His feelings for her couldn’t be trusted. They’d make him weak. They’d—
“He won’t leave her. You can kick him out of the EOD, you can try to force him from her side, but the man is one of the most dangerous I’ve ever met. We’ll waste more time trying to stop him from being with her than doing anything else.”
Gunner was trying to be reasonable.
Mercer was tired of reason.
“He’ll destroy her.” Said with certainty. Because Cale was too much like—
Me. And I destroyed my Marguerite.
“Sometimes people can surprise you.”
Mercer marched away from him. Techs had arrived on scene. They were studying the skid marks left on the road. They’d already flagged an area of blood on the cement.
Cassidy’s blood. He hated the sight of her blood.
“People don’t surprise me anymore,” Mercer muttered. He knew all about the darkness inside them. There were no surprises. In the beginning, he’d actually thought that Cale might—
He stopped the thought. No, Cale wasn’t good for Cassidy. Cale was too much of a threat. Steps would be taken to separate them.
Cassidy would be safe.
Cale would be sent on another mission.
Life would go on.
It always did.
Except for my Marguerite...
Her life had ended far too soon.
“Find them,” Mercer ordered the men and women who stared at him with wary eyes. Kill them. Because if her attackers knew Cassidy’s true identity, then he couldn’t allow those men to live.
He didn’t need Cale to tell him about priorities. His main priority was the same one that it had been since the day he buried Marguerite.
Keep my daughter alive.
Nothing else mattered.
No one else mattered.
Chapter Ten
The lights in the hospital were too bright and hard, glaring down on her as Cassidy lay on the operating table. She wasn’t shaking anymore. That was good, right? She was sure trying to take it as a good sign. The violent tremors had rocked her for so long, and she’d been terribly afraid.
I don’t want to die.
There were too many things that she wanted to do in this world. Death wasn’t an option.
Please, don’t be an option.
An IV fed into her wrist, she wasn’t sure why, and there was a circle of doctors around her.
“Cale?” She needed him to be there with her. Her head turned a little to the right.
And she saw that he was. Stepping quickly to her side. Sliding his hand over her cheek.
The heartbeat that had begun to race slowed down. The beeping machines quieted a bit.
“They’re almost finished stitching you back up,” he told her.
It seemed like every time she turned around, she was getting stitched up—or he was. Couldn’t they manage to go a few hours without injury?
But Cassidy didn’t want to think about stitches or wounds then. She could feel the slight pressure on her, but she didn’t try to look over at the doctors.
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 th
at 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.”