by Cynthia Eden
She could feel Rick tensing, and she was very afraid that he was about to slip straight to his option two mode—kicking ass. And if he did kick the asses of the FBI agents, what would happen then?
He’d get tossed in a jail cell.
When Rick started to lunge at Bryan—
“No,” Kat said softly.
Rick’s head turned toward her.
“My turn to say no.” She stared into his eyes. Her first good-bye. Or, rather, the first one that had hurt. “Thank you, Rick.”
He shook his head. “Don’t you do it. This isn’t the end, I promised you—”
Her hands fisted in his shirt. She yanked him toward her even as she leaned onto her toes. She saw the flare of surprise in his eyes right before her mouth crashed into his. It was a fast, frantic kiss. She wanted one more kiss from him. Just one more.
His hands curled around her waist. He pulled her closer. Kissed her harder and deeper—
Someone cleared a throat. Was that Kendrick again?
She pulled away from Rick. Gazed up into his eyes. “I will miss you, and I will never forget you.”
“Don’t leave with them, princess, don’t—”
“I don’t have a choice, and neither do you. Thanks for looking out for me. It was nice. For a little while, with you, I think I got to truly enjoy life.” She wanted to kiss him again, but she didn’t. Instead, Kat stiffened her spine and edged toward Bryan. “Let’s go,” she mumbled. “And by the way, I’m starving. I hope wherever the hell I wind up, there are brownies close by.”
Bryan and Tom led her to the door.
“Kat!”
She stiffened at Rick’s call and glanced back.
His eyes were so dark as they swirled with emotion. “It’s not over.”
No, it wouldn’t be over for her until she went into the courthouse.
“We aren’t over,” he told her. “I promise.”
***
Rick wanted to rush after Kat. He wanted to grab her, pull her into his arms, and never, fucking ever let her go.
“That didn’t go so well,” Kendrick allowed when the door clicked shut behind the agents. “Though I suppose it could’ve gone worse. I mean, no one was arrested. I always count that as a win.”
Rick clenched and unclenched his hands. Kat had looked so sad after she’d kissed him. “I was supposed to stay with her.”
“Yes, well, the FBI does beat out Wilde.” Kendrick prowled around the room as he made this announcement. Pacing and plotting again. “But it’s only temporary. We need to come up with a new strategy—”
“Or we could just let her go,” Ben said as his brows shot up. “Um, I mean the FBI has her. She’ll be okay.”
Rick whirled to glare at his friend.
Ben shook his head. “No, no, that is a terrible plan, terrible,” he corrected immediately. “I don’t know why the hell I said that. What was I thinking? The FBI—”
“I don’t trust them,” Rick snapped. “Not for a minute.”
Eric raked a hand through his hair. “Yeah, well, they don’t trust us, either. That’s the problem. Someone got in here at Wilde, someone hacked my system, and now the Feds have no use for us.” His jaw hardened. “Someone hacked my system. How is that shit even possible?”
“The guy saved her life.” The words were pulled from Rick. He frowned after he said them. But… “He did,” Rick muttered. “He tipped us off and we were able to get out before Kat was taken. The guy who broke in here…maybe he wasn’t looking to hurt her at all. Maybe he was looking to help Kat.”
All eyes turned to Rick.
“Who would want to help her?” Ben asked.
Kat. Kat and her secrets. “She never told me who she called when she vanished from the Feds that first time.”
Eric nodded. “The brownie run.”
“Uh, do what now?” Ben squinted. “Can someone bring me up to speed? Because I feel lost as all hell.”
“The Feds originally turned Kat over to us because she’d slipped away from them. She went on a brownie run.” Rick would not smile as he thought of that first meeting with her. Would not. But his chest felt warmer. “Only while she was gone, someone found the hotel she and the Feds had been using. It got shot to hell and back. The idea was that the Feds had sold her out, so Eric’s connection—”
“Assistant Director Silas Evans,” Eric inserted with a worried frown.
“He pulled in Wilde. He wanted new protection for her. We were supposed to keep Kat safe until she went to court. She was supposed to stay with me.” His time with her shouldn’t have been over. He’d been promised longer. He’d—
“Uh, Rick?” It was Kendrick who studied him. “I have to ask, man. Just how involved did you get with Kathleen O’Shaughnessy?”
“Does it matter?”
“Shit. That’s not the answer I was hoping to hear.” Kendrick nodded briskly. “All right. You’re in deep. Maybe you’re not seeing everything in the clearest light, so let me shine some illumination for you. The fact that she’s gone? That’s not a bad thing. The Feds can take her. They can take the danger that trails her. You can go back to your normal life and you can just forget about her.”
Forget about her?
“No.” The same thing he’d told Kat. And suddenly…
It was just… “No,” Rick snarled again.
No, I can’t lose her.
No, I can’t let her go.
No, I can’t risk Kat.
I need her too much.
He whirled and lunged for the door.
“Rick!” Eric yelled.
He didn’t stop. Right then, he was only focused on one thing—Kat. She’d been in pain when she’d left. He’d seen her pain. And had he done a damn thing about it? No, he’d just let her walk away. He was supposed to protect her from everyone and everything—that was his job. Instead, he’d let her walk.
He rushed out of Eric’s office and past the agents who were guarding the area. He turned and spared one glance for Eric’s assistant, Dennis.
Behind the lenses of his glasses, Dennis gaped at him with huge eyes.
Rick just stared at him.
“They took the elevator.” Dennis pointed. His finger trembled a little. “Their cars are waiting out front. They’re going to the lobby.”
What the hell? He jumped in the nearest elevator. They were just taking her out the front door? How was that safe? Rick had brought her into the building as quietly as possible, and the Feds were parading her around in front of everyone.
“Wait, dammit!” Eric hurtled into the elevator.
The doors shut a second later. Rick jammed the lobby button.
“Tell me what’s going on here,” Eric ordered him. “You are not like this, you are not out of control this way.” A pause. “What has she done to you?”
Maybe she’d committed the worst sin of all. She’d made him care. “I’m not losing her. My job is to keep her safe, and that’s fucking what I’m going to do.”
“She walked away from you. She left you.”
Rick nodded. “And I’m going after her.”
“The Feds aren’t going to let you near her.”
“We’ll just see about that.” Why the hell was the elevator so slow?
“Shit. You…you like her.”
He glared at Eric. “Don’t start with me.”
“You had sex with her, didn’t you?”
“Screw off.”
“You’re…you more than like her.”
“I’m not a damn teenage boy, and we are not sharing shit. I’m not letting her go, and that’s all there is to it. Why the fuck is the elevator so slow?” He slammed his fist into the wall.
“Yeah. Okay. Settle down, big guy. Don’t go damaging the merchandise. Breathe, and you’ll be in the lobby in a moment. They don’t have that much of a lead on us, and—”
The doors opened. Thank Christ. Rick rushed out. Two guys in suits—guys he didn’t recognize but who had the buttoned-down appearance
of FBI agents—spun toward him. When they saw him charging forward, they shot toward him. Rick threw out his arms and knocked them both back.
“This is going to be so bad,” Eric muttered from behind him.
Bad didn’t cover it. He ran for the building’s front doors. He could see Kat through the glass. She was being loaded into the back of a long, black car. For some reason, the car looked like a hearse to him. That was all he could think—Kat was getting in a car that looked like death.
No, no! He threw open the front doors, ignoring the doorman who tried to grab him. “Kat!”
He saw her head whip toward him. She was in the back seat now.
“Don’t leave me!”
She was attempting to get out of the car. He could see her trying to push past Agent Tom Wayne. The guy was in the back with her. He was holding her back. The sight made Rick’s fury even stronger. “Let her the hell go!”
The driver of the vehicle jumped out. The car was still on. Rick could hear its engine as it growled. He could even hear a strange little click, click beneath the growl.
The driver barreled toward him.
Bryan was running from another car, one that had been parked farther down the street.
Kat had finally gotten free of Tom. She stumbled out, with Tom right behind her. Tom grabbed her and they both crashed into the cement.
Rick bellowed as his fury erupted. Kat had hit the cement too hard. He grabbed her, yanking her away from Tom. He pulled Kat into his arms and cradled her. “I can’t let you go. You need to know, I—”
The car exploded. The heat and force of the blast slammed into him. Rick flew into the air, holding tightly to Kat. They hit the ground and pounded into the cement even as screams and the crackle of fire filled the air. He could feel the heat all over his skin. Frantic, he lifted his body up so that he could stare down at Kat.
She blinked at him. A cut marred her right cheek, and blood slid over her skin. “Rick?”
Fucking, no. It had been a trap. He’d almost let her walk straight into a trap. Almost let her die. If he’d been a minute slower—a few seconds slower—his Kat would be dead.
Someone had blown that Fed car to hell and back. Someone could be out there right now, watching from one of the nearby high-rise windows, ready to take her out. Ready to finish the job he’d started.
Rick scooped Kat into his arms and ran back toward the Wilde Securities building. He kept his body curved around her, protecting her as much as he could, running in a zig zag so there wouldn’t be a straight bead on him.
Eric was there, waving him in and shouting something. His words didn’t register. All Rick could hear was a pounding in his ears. The frantic pounding of his heart. Everything else was static. Madness. Chaos.
She’s not dead. I got to her in time. She’s not dead.
He flew through the open door. Met more chaos. Wilde agents grabbed for Kat, but he shoved them aside. No one was taking her from him. Not again.
Not ever again.
Chapter Sixteen
“Get her upstairs!” Eric shouted. “Get her back to my office—now!”
Rick ran into the elevator. He looked back to see Eric racing outside of the building. Debris littered the ground—burning debris. People were running around out there, and he could still hear screams.
Wilde agents he recognized closed in around him. They had their guns up, and they made a wall in front of him. Rick’s shoulders pressed to the rear of the elevator. His hold on Kat was bruisingly tight.
He wanted to trust the men and women in front of him. He’d worked with them for years. But…
He didn’t trust them fully. He couldn’t, not with Kat’s life on the line.
His body was tense, battle-ready. His gaze swept over her face. He hated the blood on her cheek. God, his Kat. She would have been blown to pieces.
“Baby, I’m sorry.” His voice was a rasp.
She stared up at him. “Why?”
Her voice reached over the mad drumming of his heartbeat. Because I let you down. Because I should have been there sooner. Because I should have been there the whole time.
He bent his head. Pressed a kiss to her forehead.
When the doors opened moments later, the agents cleared a path for him. As he raced to Eric’s office, he saw Ben rushing out to meet him. Ben and Kendrick. Shock covered the faces of both men.
“Dear God,” Kendrick began, sounding as rattled as he looked. “The blast shook the whole building!” His gaze dropped to Kat. “Is she—”
“I’m okay,” Kat said. Her voice was stronger. “He can put me down. I’m—”
Rick kicked the door to Eric’s office. “Lock it,” he snarled behind him. “No one else gets in this room—not unless it’s Eric.”
Ben and Kendrick had followed him back inside. Ben locked the door.
Rick lowered Kat to the couch. Or, he tried to lower her. His arms were just being all weird, though. They wouldn’t let her go.
“Rick.” Kat’s hand rose and touched his cheek. “I’m okay. You can put me down.”
The third time was the charm. He actually managed to let her go. “I need a cloth for her face. She’s bleeding.”
Instantly, Ben shoved a wet cloth into his hand.
Rick blinked at it.
“I got it from Eric’s bathroom,” Ben hurried to explain. “When you were, you know, trying to figure out how to stop holding her.”
Rick slowly turned his head to stare at Ben. “She could have died.” Even to his own ears, his voice sounded lost.
And afraid.
But he wasn’t afraid of anything. Hadn’t he told Kat that very thing? He didn’t scare easily. He walked into fires. He faced down killers. He didn’t get scared.
So why am I terrified right now?
Ben clamped his hand on Rick’s shoulder. “She didn’t die, man. You got her. She’s safe.”
“I’m safe, Rick.” Kat’s quiet voice. “I’m okay.”
Her face was too pale. Her lips trembling. And blood was still on her cheek. He lifted the cloth and tenderly brushed it over her cheek. His Kat. Dear God, what would he have done if she’d been in that car when it ignited?
“The…scratch isn’t that bad.” Rick cleared his throat. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
Kat shook her head.
His breath rushed out. “I’ll get rid of the cloth. Don’t move.”
He whirled. Marched into Eric’s bathroom. That fancy-ass, too expensive bathroom that was probably bigger than some apartments in the city. Rick tossed the cloth into the garbage and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Crazy eyes. Clenched jaw. Fury stamped on his face. He looked scary as hell.
He looked like he wanted to kill and destroy. Because he did. He wanted to destroy the person who’d set that bomb. And, hell, yes, he knew the work of a bomb when he saw one. He knew all about explosives. Back when he’d been a firefighter, he’d been called—unfortunately—to several bomb scenes in the aftermath of the explosions. And, God, they’d been bad. What had been left of those people…
Not much had been left.
And if he’d been on that street…with Kat blown apart that way…
I would have lost my mind.
Rick stormed out of the bathroom. He went straight to her.
Ben’s eyes widened as he peered at Rick’s face. “Uh, buddy, just take a breath. Calm the hell down for—”
“Get out,” Rick snapped. “You and Kendrick—get out. I need to be alone with Kat. Right now.”
Ben and Kendrick shared a long look.
“We’ll be on the other side of the door,” Kendrick assured him. “You need us, all you have to do is call out.”
Ben was hesitating. “But we should ask Kat some questions—”
Kendrick grabbed him and pushed him toward the door. “Not now. Right now, he just needs her.”
Rick didn’t look their way. He was right in front of Kat. Her head tilted back as she stared up at him. Beautiful Ka
t. Eyes so deep and green. That long, thick hair. Her golden skin.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
She was worried about him? Him?
He sat next to her on the couch. Pulled her into his arms. Buried his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled her scent. Okay? Hell, no. Hell, no.
***
“What happened?” Layla Lopez barked into her phone as she paced along the hospital corridor. She turned, her eyes locking on the man who was being examined in the room right across from her. She could see him easily through the nearby glass window. Two uniforms stood at attention beside the perp who had one hand cuffed to the gurney beneath him.
“An explosion,” Eric Wilde told her. “Right in front of the Wilde building. Someone was trying to take out Kathleen O’Shaughnessy. Didn’t succeed, but several FBI agents were injured. They’re on the way to the hospital.”
“What a coincidence,” she muttered. “That’s where I am.”
“You’ve still got the hit man?”
“My eyes are on him.”
“The bomb was in the FBI car. And if the fellow you have is really the guy who goes by Ghost, bombs aren’t his style.”
No, they weren’t.
“Someone else put the bomb in place. Someone else in the line that wants Kat dead.”
She knew it was a very long line. “Where is she now?” Layla asked.
“Safe,” Eric responded flatly.
“Not a very specific answer.”
“And I have no idea if this line is secure or not, so that’s all you’re getting. For anything else, we’ll talk in person.”
She definitely intended to talk with him in person. “You and Rick.”
“He’s occupied right now.”
Through the window, she saw that the doctor was finished with the exam. Oh, poor hit man. He’d gotten stitches. Big freaking whoop. If she’d had her way, she would’ve dragged the perp straight to the station without pausing for the ER visit. But some FBI jerk had called her boss and given orders that Ghost had to be examined. Ghost was being treated like a freaking VIP. The FBI was saying they were in charge of him, and they were telling the PD how to handle the perp.
She didn’t particularly enjoy following orders from Bureau bozos. Layla exhaled slowly. “I need to talk with Rick. I’ve got a dead body. He has answers that I need.”