Glitter and Gunfire (13 page)

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.

* * *

M
ERCER
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 that 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.

* * *

S
HE
’
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.”

He was barely aware of his own wounds, some scratches and contusions from the blast. The docs at the hospital had patched him up, too, despite his protests.

Tina headed toward the monitors on the right side of the bed.

“The docs gave her a sedative to help her sleep.”

Tina paused, then glanced back at him. “Is that what they told you?”

He didn’t like her tone, not a bit. Suspicious now, he kept a wary eye on her.

Tina reached for the clipboard. “It looks like she’ll be just fine.” She put the clipboard down and turned to face him. “Now let me check on you.”

Cale grabbed the hand that lifted toward him. “What’s going on, Tina?”

She glanced down at his hand. He felt the tremble that shook her. No, Tina didn’t like leaving the safety of her labs at the EOD. But she’d come there tonight, on Mercer’s order?

Is that what they told you?
Her words rang in his head again.

“What’s going on?” He wanted to know. He and Tina hadn’t exactly gotten close during his time at the EOD. Tina and Sydney were tight, though, best friends from what he could tell.

“I’m following orders,” Tina said. “We all have to follow orders, don’t we?”

He was getting tired of the orders. Before he’d joined the EOD, he’d been a free agent working to help those who needed him. A mercenary? Maybe he hadn’t liked that title. Maybe he’d wanted to see what it would be like to be part of a team.

And being a Shadow Agent did have its moments.

But it could also—

“If Cassidy was awake, she’d fight.”

He almost missed Tina’s whispered words.

But as they sank in, a cold fury spread within him. “What’s happening?” As if he didn’t already suspect—
Mercer.
The director was happening. His schemes and plans.

“A transfer team is waiting outside. Since her location in D.C. has been compromised—” serious understatement “—Mercer wants her taken out of the city. When she wakes up, Cassidy will be far away.”

He shook his head in denial. “Mercer didn’t tell me about any transfer. He didn’t—”

“That’s because you’re not going with her.” Tina didn’t look him in the eye as she revealed this information.

The hell he wasn’t.

Tina stared at his neck. “He says the threat to this asset is too strong. That she has to be relocated before her position can be compromised again.”

This wasn’t happening. “You’re just going to take her while she’s unconscious? While she can’t say or do anything to stop you?”

“It’s not me.” Her gaze flew back up to hold his. “You have to understand, Mercer is—”

“Screw Mercer!”

She flinched.

No, he couldn’t take his fury out on Tina. He brushed by her and went back to the bed. “Get the IV out of her.”

Tina didn’t move.

“Get it out, Tina!” Because that IV was pumping the drugs into her body. Not to stabilize her, as he’d been told, but to keep her unconscious so that Mercer could whisk her away again.

Cassidy’s weak voice whispered through his mind.
Get me out of here.
Had she made that plea because she knew what Mercer would do? Had he done that to her before?

Probably.

But he wasn’t doing it again.

Cale heard the light shuffle of her footsteps as Tina inched closer to him. “If you go against Mercer, you know what will happen.”

He could kiss his career in the EOD goodbye.
Fine. Whatever.
“It should be her choice.” That was exactly what it
would
be. She would be awake. Aware. Cassidy would be able to choose—the path Mercer wanted for her, or...

Me.

Because he could protect her. If she needed to get away from D.C., then he could make that happen. He already knew exactly where he wanted to take her.

Home. Whiskey Ridge, Texas. The only home he’d ever known.

“I—I—” Tina’s halting steps stopped. “He said she was in danger. That we had to move her.”

And Tina was following orders, trying to protect a civilian.

“Get the IV out of her.” Or he would. He just didn’t want to hurt Cassidy. But one way or another, that IV was coming out.

He looked over his shoulder and leveled his stare on Tina. Waited. “It should be her choice. You know it, and I know it.”

Tina gave a small nod.

Then she reached for the IV.

* * *

G
UNNER
APPROACHED
THE
VAN
slowly, his weapon up, two other EOD agents at his back. They’d kept regular law enforcement personnel in the background as much as possible—not like it had been easy to cover up the explosion in the park.

The van’s back doors hung open, its cavernous interior dark.

As the men closed in, one agent swept a light inside.

The light fell on a dead body.

Gunner’s eyes narrowed. Two shots. One had hit the man in the stomach. One had blasted right into his heart. From the look of the wounds, both had been administered at a very close range.

Cassidy had told Cale that she shot her attacker—that she hit him
once.

Had she been mistaken, or had another scene played out here?

His gaze searched the van. No driver. But someone
had
been behind the wheel while Cassidy had been held captive in the back.

His stare returned to the body.

Cassidy shot him in the stomach.
That would make sense. The first bullet, ripping through him, gave Cassidy the precious moments that she’d needed to escape.

But that wound hadn’t killed him.

The wound to the heart had ended the man’s life.

His partner shot him in the heart.

It was the partner that they had to find.

He turned away from the van and began to slowly scan the street. He was good at tracking, almost as good as his grandfather had been. He’d been trained on the reservation as a child, and when it came to hunting, he did the job well. Maybe too well.

Gunner crept to the edge of the road. Let his light sweep over the grass.

There. Bent grass, broken by feet running too quickly.

He followed those telltale marks. The bent grass, the snapped twigs.

The driver had come this way for a reason. He’d abandoned the van in that spot for a reason.

A few more feet, and he found that reason.

Tire tracks. A second vehicle had been stashed there.

The killer was on the move again, and he could very well be closing in on Cassidy.

* * *

C
ASSIDY
’
S
EYES
SLOWLY
opened, the green color muted, her gaze confused. “C-Cale?”

He didn’t like the slur in her speech. He’d been right there, right beside her, and she’d been drugged.

He couldn’t believe Mercer had been dumb enough to think that Cale would let her walk away. Or just be
taken
away.

“What’s happening?” Cassidy asked as she tried to sit up.

He put his arm around her, helping to steady her. He’d already dressed her—well, done his best, anyway—in jeans and a T-shirt that he’d gotten Tina to sneak up from the gift shop. “Mercer wants to take you out of D.C.” There was no time to sugarcoat. He figured they had all of about five minutes to get a plan in motion.

Mercer moved fast.

So did Cale.

“Out of...” Cassidy put a hand to her head.

“You have a choice to make.” He kept his voice steady. Kept his hand on her arm because she was weaving a bit on the bed. “Do you want to go with Mercer? He can put you on a plane and take you out of the city. You’ll be safe while the EOD hunts the people who took you.”