“They haven’t been able to do much other than kill a few scientists. No, I’ll slip by just fine.” Mickey called out to his boss, “And Niko, you’ll get your way.”
Niko shook his head. “What are you talking about now?”
“You wanted me to set up Tasha and have the authorities find her in a compromising situation.” He performed a small bow. “Consider it done.”
“I think that’s everything.” That was the first thing Parker had said in a while.
It didn’t make any sense to Cara. “What?”
Reid slowly lifted his head. “Yep.”
Then the room broke into a free-for-all. Chaos reigned. One minute everyone stood in their positions, not making any sudden moves. Then everyone shifted. People flew through the air.
Reid lifted his hand and a blade flashed. One swift shift and he stabbed it into Mickey’s thigh. An anguished roar cut through room. Mickey lowered the gun to fire, but Reid slammed into him. Sent him flying backward. She ducked as Parker flew across the room, He knocked into her, bringing them both down and into the dirt.
She struggled under his weight. Shoved and pushed. She needed to get to Reid. Parker yelled her name as she rolled away from him. She was up and on her feet, racing to where the men fought on the floor.
The gun shook in her hands. She aimed then tried again as their bodies flipped. Legs and arms wrapped around each other. She waited for Reid to pin Mickey down or to get a clear shot, but neither happened. One arm lifted. Punches and kicks. When Reid finally rolled to the top, she took aim at the man beneath him.
Before she could fire, a gunshot blasted through the room. A chunk of the wall blew apart. She could hear crashing behind her. It all happened so fast and all she could do was stare at the weapon in her hand. Her gaze shifted from the gun to the men crawling around in front of her.
Reid clutched his shoulder. Red seeped through his fingers but he kept fighting. Another shot in the same area where that first one had been. His arm hung lower on one side. He made a fist but his fingers didn’t move that much.
Horror raced through her. She almost dropped the weapon. It slipped from her fingers as her muscles turned to mush and she tried to focus.
She was the one who’d shot him. She panicked at the thought but feared she did it. Without thinking, she must have pulled the trigger. Now Reid was vulnerable and Mickey hadn’t been slowed down.
“Not you.” Parker said the words as he stepped in front of her. “Mickey got him.”
A gun went off again, and for a second no one moved. Parker stood there, looking around.
It took another second for Mickey’s body to slump over Reid, trapping him against the hard ground. The two men just lay there, still. Blood ran over both of them, with no clear idea where it came from.
It was quiet now. All the shouting, yelling, and grunting had stopped.
“Reid.” Panic rose inside of her and washed over everything. She wanted to claw her way across the floor to get him out from beneath Mickey.
Then Mickey moved and her heart stopped. He’d survived. He must have been the one who got off that last shot, and now he was rising like some sort of otherworldly creature from a horror show.
Instead, his body flipped to the side. There was a crack as his head hit the tunnel wall. Blood ran over the uneven rocks and a new smell filled the stale air.
Relief drove her to her knees. Reid was alive. He’d shoved Mickey aside. She could see Reid now, watch his chest rise and fall. Then she noticed the pool of blood under his shoulder. It gathered, then ran down his neck.
She could barely focus, but the red stain brought her winging back to sanity. She slid across the floor to him. Behind her, Parker was talking. She didn’t know if it was to her or to Reid, and she didn’t care. She kept working. Ripped her jacket off and rolled it in a ball to press it against Reid’s shoulder.
He panted but then his breathing slowed and his eyes drifted shut.
She wanted to scream into his face. She forced her voice to remain somewhat calm. “Reid.”
“I’m okay.” He nodded but didn’t open his eyes. “Where’s Tasha?”
A new wave of guilt pounded Cara. Until that moment she’d forgotten all about Tasha. She looked around and saw the other woman’s body tangled up with Niko’s. More blood stained the floor. Pretty soon a river of it would wash through here.
Cara squinted in the semidark to better see what had happened. Tasha was on top of Niko. Covering him. Protecting him.
Tasha sat up and stared down at Niko. “You get hit?”
All the color had left Niko’s face. His skin had blanched the color of his white shirt. He shook his head, seemed unable to form a sentence.
“Good.” Tasha pushed on Niko’s side and stood up. She did a quick check of her torso. Her gaze stopped on the dots of red on her arm. “Small hit. I’m all good.”
“How?” Cara didn’t realize she’d asked the question out loud until she heard it.
“Mickey’s ricochet.” Tasha stepped over Niko and joined the rest of them on the ground. “Speaking of which.”
She put her fingers to Mickey’s neck.
“Well?” Parker asked.
“Nothing.” Tasha was looking down at Reid now. “How is he doing?”
“That’s the third time he’s been shot in three days. Or was it only two days? I can’t even remember how long we’ve been here.” Parker talked tough but his voice sounded scratchy. “But I think you need to send him for some more training. After a hospital, of course.”
“Cara?” Reid’s voice drifted up to her.
“I’m right here.” She grabbed his hand. “Are you okay?”
“This isn’t a big deal.”
It looked like a bloodbath. She didn’t know how he was still talking, or why. He needed rest and an ambulance. She assumed they had those in Russia. If not, Tasha could work her magic. Either way, Cara wanted Reid to get medical attention.
She glanced up at Tasha. “He needs a doctor.”
“No.” Reid broke into a coughing fit.
Parker laughed as he grabbed the medical kit out of Reid’s bag. “Listen to your woman.”
One of his eyes popped open. “Are you my woman?”
Now was not the time for this. Not with all of them watching. But it didn’t matter because her mind would not change. She’d watched him walking into danger for her over and over again. This wasn’t about tension or sexual attraction or even adrenaline. Maybe they hadn’t really said the words again, but this was love. Pure and simple. He loved her. She loved him. And as soon as he stopped getting shot for five seconds, she’d tell him that.
“I am.” She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “Now listen to your woman and get ready to see a doctor.”
His eyes drifted shut. “Bossy.”
She kissed him again because it actually hurt not to. “And all yours.”
Reid felt his stomach flip over. He heard machines and felt something clamped to his arm. A needle poking into his vein. He slowly came awake and struggled to remember what had happened.
His headache could be a weapon. It hurt to open his eyes. When he did, he looked around and took it all in. The ceiling tiles with the tiny holes. People talking in the hallway. The antiseptic smell. He was in a medical facility of some sort. Likely one Tasha found and paid off the entire staff to keep quiet about.
His gaze kept traveling to the chair next to his bed. He expected to find it empty or see Parker. The view was so much better.
Cara, all showered and clean and in clothes that fit her. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight. She stared out the window as she hummed a familiar tune.
Maybe he’d died.
“Cara.” When she turned and smiled, he wondered if he’d been right.
She got up and leaned over him. “How are you feeling?”
“A little rough.” Now, there was the understatement of the century. But looking at her helped. And she smelled good. The scent of a
lmond overcame whatever hospital cleaning supply tried to overpower the room.
She squeezed his hand. “Apparently it’s bad for a grown man to be shot three times in less than a week.”
“Who knew?” He tried to shrug but even that hurt.
“Uh, everyone?”
He wanted to ask her so many questions. He knew Tasha and Parker were safe. Even that guy Niko made it out somehow. The rest—the bomb and the other scientist—no part of that story ended well. A simple check-in on Cara had turned into a nightmare. The only good news is that they stopped some very bad shit. Tasha had control of the cobalt bomb. That made being in a hospital a little more bearable.
So did Cara. He reached up and ran his fingers through her soft hair.
“It’s clean now.” She smiled. “Shampoo is an amazing thing. I always took it for granted before, but no more.”
God, he loved her. His need for her kicked his butt. He couldn’t think about going back to his apartment without her. Coming home and not seeing her. Sleeping alone. She made him smile. Challenged him. He admired so much about her . . . and that ass. Damn.
He wanted to tell her. They needed to make plans. Maybe that was stepping ahead, since they had so much to talk about, but after everything he needed her to know. A gun to his head, all those lies Mickey told that he never believed. So much had happened in such a short time. She’d likely chalk it up to adrenaline, but it was so much more.
She kissed him again. This time soft and on the lips. “You need to go back to sleep.”
“No, I—”
“We’ll talk later. You need your rest.” She touched some piece of equipment that beeped.
He opened his mouth and his words slurred. It had to have been a painkiller. It worked fast. He couldn’t feel his tongue. Then the light in the room started to fade.
When he woke up a few hours later she still sat in the chair. He smiled and let his eyes drift shut again. The mix of medicine and blood loss did a number on him.
The same thing early the next morning. He could smell breakfast. In the quiet, watched her read a book for a few seconds. He almost said something but then exhaustion overtook him again.
By the time some of the meds wore off the next afternoon, she was gone.
24
CARA WAITED until she climbed into the backseat of Caleb’s rental car before she said anything. Where he even got one of those in Russia, she had no idea. All she wanted to do was scream at him.
Reid had barely been in the makeshift clinic Tasha managed to set up, and already Caleb wanted her to get on a plane and go home. She refused and he insisted—actually threw his weight around and made a “do you know who I am” type of scene—that she join him outside in the parking lot for a talk. She only went because she feared his stomping around might wake up Reid and he needed rest.
She slammed the door and glared at her brother. “What is wrong with you?”
“Excuse me?” He sounded appalled at her tone.
Good. “There is an entire group of medical professionals in there, making sure Reid is comfortable since we can’t actually take him to a hospital, and you were yelling at them.”
Caleb scoffed. “That’s an exaggeration.”
“Then you started ordering me around.” She shook a finger at him. “Which is never going to happen again, unless you want me to punch you in public.”
He’d actually summoned her from Reid’s bedside for a brotherly talk. The bullying came from a place of love. She got that. Caleb wanted to ask her a billion questions and protect her. She gave in and followed him once Reid finally fell asleep and stopped opening one eye to peek up at her every two seconds. He wouldn’t miss her for an hour or so, but she absolutely intended to be in that room when he woke up again.
She refused to leave him until he was up, and they’d talked through all the baggage that kept weighing them down. No more separation. Not anymore. Keeping her distance from Reid for all those months had exhausted her. She’d been so sure she was right back then. Now she knew better. Now she knew him better, and she wouldn’t rest until he understood how much more they each needed to give.
Doubts still lingered, but being together again, through the danger and in those quiet times just between the two of them, he had done everything—everything—right. He asked for answers and listened when she gave them. He tried to explain his point of view. And when attackers came into her life again, he’d rushed to save her. Put her life before his over and over again. Broke rules and showed her how much she meant to him.
For a second time, life threw her together with him in an adrenaline stew. Energy and danger whipped around them for almost three days. It wasn’t real life. It was this bizarre twisting mess that had her emotions boiling over and her confidence sliding all over the place. But the chaos could lead to something bigger. This time she’d throw all of her energy into the task.
They needed to start with the basics. She needed to ask for a second chance and finally tell him what she should have said back then and certainly should have said yesterday. She loved him. Totally and forever loved him. She’d tried to stomp it out and pretend it didn’t exist, but it just grew. Now it bubbled over.
First she had to deal with an overbearing older brother. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
Caleb turned to face her in the backseat. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”
“Don’t do that.” She refused to play this game and be his poor sick little sister. “I was here on a job. I’m a professional, have a doctorate. I do not need babysitting.”
“Except by Reid.” Caleb fiddled with the door handle. Not one to sit still for long, he tended to fidget and touch things and generally hover on the brink of doing something that got him in trouble. Despite that, she was the kid everyone coddled. Never mind that he’d once been arrested, not her.
“Make your point.” She loved her brother, but he hovered dangerously close to being punched.
The door handle came off in his hand and he dropped it to the floor. “You almost got killed.”
“Caleb—”
“It was crazy irresponsible for you to come here.”
No, they were not going to approach the conversation like that. She refused to get shoved onto the defensive. She had a career she loved and she would not apologize for it. “You don’t get to decide what I do with my life and which risks I take.”
His eyes narrowed. “We’re talking about you working for the CIA.”
“Hypocritical much?”
“What?” But the truth played across his face.
“Apparently you work for the Alliance on the side. Funny how you forgot to mention that.” She could bat verbal volleys back and forth all day. Could but didn’t want to. She wanted to get back to Reid and continue repairing the rift between them. It took all she had to sit in that car and not run to him now. “You think I didn’t figure that out?”
Caleb looked out the window. “It’s not the same thing.”
“It is.” When he started to say something else, she cut him off. “End of discussion.”
“Fine.”
She waded into the one issue that might get stuck between them, but he needed to know where she stood. Needed to know that if Reid would forgive her, she wanted him in her life.
She reached over and touched Caleb’s knee. “You know I love you. Even your overbearing big brother crap.”
“You’re not exactly easy.” When she pinched him, he jerked his arm away. “Fine. I love you, too.”
“I know you don’t get my relationship with Reid and—”
“No.” Caleb’s head shot around and he stared at her. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
The blank expression, the confusion, threw her off. “He carries a gun and goes on assignments. I get that the danger worries you.”
“Sure it does, but Reid is rock solid.”
“I know.” So, for some reason they were having a fight over something they agreed about? She had no
idea when her world shifted. The last sixteen months had been a series of emotional body blows. Now she saw nothing but hope stretched out in front of her.
Caleb frowned at her. “Okay.”
“You’re saying you like Reid?”
“Why do you think I called him to help find you?” Caleb plowed forward, answering his own question. “Yeah, the tracker was part of it, but I knew he’d get to you as fast as possible.”
“You hoped.” Maybe a part of her secretly hoped. She could admit that now.
“No, Cara. I knew.” This time he traced a finger over the window before giving her eye contact again. “I’ve been talking to him during the last sixteen months. Feeding him information about you that he pretended not to care about. Saw the way his eyes lit up when I mentioned your name before he rushed to hide his interest.”
The truth smacked into her. “You’ve been matchmaking?”
Her brilliant gamer brother. Now that didn’t fit at all.
“You sure as hell haven’t made it easy.” Caleb’s voice lowered to normal levels. “But I knew he loved you.”
“I hoped he did.” Thinking about the possibility now sent a rush of happiness spiraling through her.
“Since you were so miserable, I figured you loved him, too. Especially since you refused to talk about him.” Caleb shook his head. “You’re stubborn as hell.”
That was fair. “Guilty.”
Running scared was not a way to handle a relationship. She might blame adrenaline and the skepticism over falling in love so fast and a host of other factors, but her fear played a huge role.
“Then why did you leave him months ago?”
Wrong man. This was not the conversation she needed to have with her brother. There was only one man who needed to hear what she had to say. “There were a lot of reasons and none of them are your business.”
Caleb leaned his head back against the seat. “Is he good to you?”
Her heart softened at the question. He really was being an overprotective big brother, but in a very normal, very sweet way. “The best.”
He shook his head. “I will never understand women.”
Under the Wire: Bad Boys Undercover Page 25