by Cynthia Eden
Knife.
Chase jumped back and avoided the swing of the blade. Then he ducked low and plowed his fist right into the SOB’s stomach. Chase heard the other man grunt even as the jerk tried to slice him again.
Chase caught his attacker’s wrist. Twisted. As the blade fell, Chase was attacking again. He delivered two fast, hard punches to the perp’s face. He’s wearing a mask. A ski mask. The man staggered back. When he came at Chase again—
I’m done. Chase swept out with his foot and tripped the bastard. The man went down hard, and his head cracked when it slammed into the floor. Chase hit the button on the lamp, and light flooded in the room.
First, he saw the knife. Chase kicked it away. Then…
Handcuffs?
Yes, handcuffs glinted near the side of the bed, and the sight of the cuffs had Chase swearing. If you were coming to kill your prey, you didn’t bring handcuffs. You brought handcuffs if…
If you’re planning to take her with you.
Chase patted down the bastard. Found a taser. And a syringe. Fuck. He ripped off the man’s mask. Studied his features. Hell. It was the same bastard who’d tried to break into Vivian’s apartment. The guy was still breathing, but out cold. Chase whirled and rushed down the hallway.
Problem. Big fucking problem.
His phone was on the hallway table. He’d left it there earlier, and he grabbed it. His fingers swiped over the screen as he called Merik.
But he only got Merik’s voicemail.
He dialed the other agents who were supposed to be there. No answer.
Shit.
The door creaked open down the hallway.
He whirled.
Vivian stood in the open doorway. She wore a long, white shirt. One of his shirts—he’d left his clothes in the room she’d been using.
“What’s happening?” Her voice was hushed.
The location is compromised. “You have to get dressed. Now.”
Her eyes widened. “My clothes are in the room you were using.” She hurried out of the doorway and toward the other bedroom. “I’ll just get—”
He caught her wrist, but it was too late. She’d already opened the door.
“Chase?” He felt her tremble. “There’s a man on the floor.”
“He was coming for you.”
Her head turned toward him.
“Your location is already compromised.” Fast. Too fast. “He didn’t come to kill you, baby. He came to take you.” That meant the bad guys knew about the scramble.
And the fact that Chase couldn’t get the Wilde agents outside to answer?
It means trouble. Deadly, dangerous trouble.
He grabbed her clothes. Kept his hold on her wrist and pulled her back to the other bedroom. His original room. Chase texted out an alert to his boss, knowing the code-red message would send agents swarming. He didn’t try to contact Dex, though, because…
I don’t trust him. There was no one at the CIA that he did trust right then.
He yanked on his clothes while Vivian dressed, and he grabbed his weapon. They had to get out of there before—
A bullet slammed into the wall beside him. His head whipped toward the shooter. Some asshole in a black ski mask filled the doorway, and the guy was taking aim again, holding up a gun. One that he’d equipped with a silencer.
Sonofabitch.
Chapter Fourteen
Once upon a time, Vivian had thought that working for the CIA would be exciting. A real adventure. But with her family’s history, she hadn’t thought that she’d get past the screening process. Sure, she didn’t have a criminal record. She didn’t have so much as a parking ticket, but her family’s ties were bad, to put it mildly.
So when she’d been called up for the contract job, she’d thought it was her lucky day. Fate’s way of giving her a chance. She’d passed the psych evaluations. She’d done all the required training. She’d been close to the action—
She’d never planned to be this close.
“He shot at you!” She gaped at the ski-mask-wearing man in the bedroom doorway. A man who was getting ready to fire again.
Vivian leapt at Chase. They slammed together and rolled across the bed before they crashed on the floor.
“What the hell are you doing?” Chase demanded.
She’d thought it was obvious. Vivian shoved hair out of her eyes. “Saving you?”
“I was about to take aim!”
She could see his gun now. She hadn’t noticed it before. She’d been more focused on making sure Chase didn’t get hurt.
Without another word, Chase surged up. He fired his weapon. Once, twice.
“Fucker!”
That hadn’t been a cry from Chase. It had come from the man in the ski mask.
Footsteps pounded as the intruder fled.
“He’s running away.” Chase caught her arm and hauled Vivian to her feet. “Come on, we have to get out of here before he pulls in his reinforcements.”
Reinforcements, as in there were more men in ski masks? “We only arrived a little while ago.” She raced to keep up with Chase, but for every step, she could see that he was shielding her with his body. “How did they find us so quickly?”
“Excellent question.”
He stopped when the hallway angled. Peeked around the corner. “Clear. Let’s get to the car and get out of here!”
“Where are the other Wilde agents? Shouldn’t they be here?” Helping? Shooting? Something?
“Another excellent question. And I’m worried about the answer.” He kicked open the door for the garage. She wasn’t sure why he’d kicked it and not opened it the normal way but—
Then she saw the figure slumped behind the door. “How did you know he was there?” Vivian asked, impressed. When he’d kicked in the door, Chase had knocked out the waiting attacker.
“Lucky guess.”
Vivian shook her head. “I don’t think it was luck.”
He’d opened the vehicle’s door. He pushed her inside. “Get in and get down.”
She slumped as far down as she could in the passenger seat. The SUV’s engine growled to life, she heard the grind of the garage door rising, and Chase whipped the vehicle into reverse. Once they were clear of the garage, he hurtled them forward.
“Coming behind us,” he muttered. “Shit. I think there are two of them.”
She started to rise and look.
“No! Stay down!”
She slumped back down.
“They want to kill me, but their goal is to take you.”
Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.
“Asshole in the bedroom came with handcuffs. Drugs. A freaking taser. He was going to do anything necessary to get you out of there.”
The SUV raced forward, and she knew Chase had the gas pedal shoved all the way to the floor.
“The alarms didn’t go off. If you’d been in that bedroom instead of me, if they’d taken you, if you hadn’t gotten the chance to call out for help…” His head turned toward her. “If they’d taken you, I would have gone crazy.”
“Chase—”
Wham. The sudden, powerful impact tore a scream from her as something slammed into the side of their vehicle. The SUV crumpled. She could hear the horrible sound of metal bending, grating, and then the vehicle was hit again. Again.
“We’re going in the water. Baby, hold on, just hold on!”
The water? Had they made it to the bridge? She didn’t—
Her side of the vehicle hit something. There was more grating. More horrible shrieking. She whipped her head to the right just as the SUV seemed to take flight—no, it wasn’t flying. The guardrail had given way. The vehicle flipped onto the side—her side—and plummeted into the dark water that waited below.
“Chase!” Vivian screamed.
***
“No, no!” He could see what was happening from a distance. “She’s supposed to be alive, dammit! The job changed—those assholes know it!” He yanked out his phone. C
alled them.
The SUV had gone into the water. Vivian Wayne was in the freaking water. What a clusterfuck.
The call was answered on the second ring. “Get her the fuck out of the water!” he shouted. “We need her alive! What part of alive do you not understand, you dumbass?”
Whoop, whoop, whoop.
He stiffened. The sound was faint, but coming closer. And he sure as shit knew the sound of an approaching helicopter when he heard one. “Get out of there.” They didn’t have time to retrieve Vivian from the water. Not with the cavalry coming in via chopper.
Dammit. This job was screwed in a million different ways.
“What about the woman?”
His hold tightened on the phone. “Did you kill the man with her?”
“No…ah…I don’t think so.”
You’d better have fucking not. “As long as he’s alive, his job is to keep her safe. He’ll protect her.”
“The fuck he will. If they’re both going under, he’ll save himself!”
No, he wouldn’t. Chase Durant would not leave that water without Vivian Wayne. “Just save your ass, all right? Get out of here. Before somebody on the chopper spots you.”
“What chopper?”
Dumbass. “Get. Out.”
***
The SUV plummeted into the water. Because of those bastards who’d hit them, the SUV was crumpled and crushed in a dozen different ways. Water immediately began to pour into the interior even as the vehicle sank deeper into the icy lake.
Chase yanked off his seat belt. His car door was smashed in, and it sure as hell wasn’t like the automatic window control button was working. “Baby, see if you can get your window down.”
“It…it won’t go.”
He turned toward her. The water was rising fast. “I’m going to get us out.”
“I think I’m stuck,” she whispered.
“We’re both stuck, but I’m going to get us out.” He yanked open the console between their seats. Hell, yes. The small escape device was exactly where it should have been. His fingers closed around it.
“What’s that?” Vivian asked as her voice caught on the words.
“Rescue tool. Never leave home without it.” An all-in-one device that could cut through a seat belt thanks to a cutter on one side, and on the opposite end, a hard head that angled to a point—one that was perfect for breaking the glass in a vehicle. It was standard Wilde policy to keep such a device in all company vehicles. “This will get us through the window. Now, I need you to take a deep breath for me. I’ll break the glass, and then we’ll swim the hell out of here.” The water was rushing in faster and faster.
“I’m stuck,” she said again, even softer this time. “My foot is caught on something. When we hit the railing, the side of the SUV shoved in on me. I-I can’t seem to get free.”
The water was up to their chests. “I’m going to get you out.” The SUV angled forward as it sank even deeper.
She screamed, “Get out!”
“Baby, I will, I—”
“You have to get out!” She pushed at him. The water surged higher in the vehicle. “Get out now! You can’t stay in here with me!”
Oh, he couldn’t? Watch me. “Where the fuck else would I go?”
“Chase—”
“Don’t worry, baby. I can hold my breath for a long time. SEAL, remember?” He gave her a smile, but he wasn’t sure she could see it in the dark. “But you take that deep breath for me, okay?” He thrust his hands down toward her legs. She was, dammit, yes, she was pinned. The metal was a mess near her leg. He had to dip his body under the water as he tried to grab her, but, fuck, she was jammed in there. He yanked and yanked, but the metal was like a manacle around her.
I need to move the passenger door. I have to get the door open. The mangled door is what’s pushing against her.
His head popped out of the water. Damn. There were only about two inches of unsubmerged space left in the SUV for them to use as breathing room, at least in the front because of the tilted angle of the car. Vivian had stretched her body and craned her head back so that she could keep her mouth above the water and take in gulps of air.
“I’m…still stuck,” she said as her voice broke.
“I’m going to get you out. I just need to get that door open first.” But I think I have to do it from the other side. I don’t think I can open it from this position.
“Go,” she told him. It sounded like she might be crying. “Please, Chase, go.”
“I will.” The water was about to take that last bit of air space from them. “I’ll go and swim around to the other side of the vehicle. I’ll get you out.” He sucked in a deep breath.
“No, just go, I am begging you to leave—”
The water took the last of her words away. Fuck. Chase used the hammer-like end of the escape device and broke the window. He shot out of the window and then kept his hands on the SUV as he maneuvered around to Vivian’s side. The water was pitch black, but the SUV’s lights were still on. Shining in the dark. He got to her side. Yanked on the door. It wouldn’t give. So he yanked harder. Another try and—
The door wrenched opened.
His hands flew to the bottom of the SUV’s passenger side. Without the door there, he could free her and he hauled her foot out. He made sure she wasn’t stuck in a seat belt. He grabbed her, locked one arm around Vivian’s stomach, and then Chase kicked for the surface. She was limp against him. God, this had to be hell for her. Trapped in the dark. Trapped in the car like that…Her nightmare come true.
She had already been afraid of being trapped. This fucking mess had just upped the ante by a million for her. He kept kicking, kept aiming for the surface. The enemy could be up there waiting but there was no choice. Chase had to get Vivian air. He could stay under the water longer, but she couldn’t. He had to take the chance, he had to get her out—
They broke through the surface of the water. Gunshots didn’t ring out, but hell, they hadn’t before because the jerk who’d shot at him back at the cabin had been using a silencer on his gun.
Chase sucked in a quick breath.
She didn’t.
Fear shoved through his heart like a knife. “Vivian?”
Still no breath. Her head sagged against his shoulder.
Because she wasn’t fucking breathing.
He angled her head, made sure her mouth was open, and he pushed his breath past her lips. Once. Twice. Baby, don’t you do this to me. Don’t you—
She jerked in his hold.
He lifted his head back just as she coughed up water. “Hell, yes.”
She coughed again.
He held her and struck out for shore. Hell, yes.
Her arms curled weakly around him. “Chase?”
He pulled her closer.
“You were…s-supposed to go…”
“Not without you. Never without you.”
***
There were a lot of flashing lights. Red ones. Blue ones. Vivian sat hunched in the back of an ambulance. The EMT had patched up her ankle—it had gotten sliced when she’d been trapped. Luckily, the wound hadn’t been too deep. The EMT put a brown blanket around her shoulders, but she was still wearing her soaking wet clothes, so the blanket didn’t do much good.
Police had swarmed. So had Dex. She could see him, marching about fifteen feet away as he stormed straight for Chase.
Uh, oh. She stiffened.
Dex grabbed Chase’s shoulder and swung him around. “Why the hell didn’t you call me?” Dex’s bellow easily reached her.
She saw Chase pull back his fist. “Don’t!” Vivian yelled.
Too late.
Chase’s fist plowed into Dex’s jaw. Dex staggered back, but then he caught himself and lunged for Chase.
She ran toward them. “Stop it!”
Dex swung his head toward her. His fist froze in the air. “Well, at least she’s still alive. Though from what I heard, that’s a near thing.” His head turned back toward
Chase. “She nearly drowned on your watch.”
Chase’s jaw hardened. “She nearly drowned because this case is compromised. Has been from the beginning. You knew it. You knew the traitors ran deep, that’s why you came to Wilde, but you didn’t tell us everything. You withheld vital information! And now I’ve got two Wilde agents on the way to the hospital—” He motioned toward an ambulance that was roaring away from the scene. “And my partner is missing. They fucking took Merik, probably planning to use him as some kind of bargaining tool, all because you don’t want to tell me what—or rather, who—you think we might really be up against! Because you’re playing damn games while lives are on the line!”
A shiver slid over her. “Merik was taken?” She hadn’t known that. She also hadn’t known about the other agents. “How badly were the agents hurt?” Hurt because they’d been protecting her.
“They’re gonna make it.”
She stiffened, then glanced over her shoulder. Eric Wilde stood there. She had a vague memory of him jumping out of a helicopter and running toward her and Chase. At the time, Chase had been carrying her out of the lake.
She didn’t exactly remember how she’d gotten from the submerged SUV to the surface of the water. She’d told Chase to leave. Begged him to go right before things had gone hazy. She’d held her breath. Her lungs had burned. Everything had been dark around her.
Then she’d been in his arms. Holding tightly to him as he swam in the freezing water of the lake. And as they’d neared the shore, Vivian could have sworn that he’d whispered…
“Don’t ever leave me again.”
Now, Chase stalked toward her. “The doctors need to check you out. You need to get back in the ambulance and get to the hospital.”
“I’m okay.” Just cold. A bone-deep chill that seemed to start from the inside.
“You’re not fucking okay!” he snarled. “You were—” He stopped. Clenched his jaw.
“I was what?” That chill Vivian felt grew worse. A shiver worked over her body.
Chase hauled her against him. Wrapped his arms tightly around her body. “She’s freezing!”
“That’s because my clothes are soaking wet. So are y-yours.” Her teeth were chattering a bit. “But I don’t exactly want to get naked in front of everyone so…” So she’d deal with the cold.