Glitter and Gunfire (15 page)

She arched toward him.

He thrust into her.

Her nails dug into the covers. Pleasure hit her, cresting over her almost instantly as he withdrew and thrust deeper. Again and again, and she was lost. She gasped out his name and let the release sweep over her.

The thunder of her heartbeat filled her ears, wild and drumming. And Cale was there surrounding her, holding her. Kissing and stroking and making the desire build again. Always, again.

The second time the release hit her, he roared his pleasure, too. Cale stiffened over her, then drove inside her, even deeper than before.

This time, the pleasure wasn’t sharp. It was long and consuming. Ripping away the brittle facade that had surrounded her and leaving her feeling exposed, empty—

And very, very much...
his.

* * *

“I
T
’
S
TIME
TO
go, Cassidy.”

She smiled at his voice, loving that deep rumble of sound, but Cassidy didn’t open her eyes.

She was in the middle of a really good dream. She and Cale were in a meadow. The sun was shining down on them. They were walking. He had her hand cradled in his.

There was no fear.

No danger.

Just life.

“Sweetheart, we have to go. The car’s waiting for us.”

His voice was louder now, breaking through the dream. The peace she’d known an instant before began to slip away.

Her eyes opened. Cale stood beside the bed, fully dressed. His expression was carefully guarded, almost blank.

Where was the heat that had blazed before in his eyes? So much passion. A desperate need.

That sensual pleasure hadn’t been a dream.

Sweet reality.

“I should have woken you sooner.” Now his voice seemed almost hesitant. “But you just looked so...peaceful.”

She hadn’t exactly enjoyed a lot of peace in her life.

“But we have to hurry. The car’s outside.”

Right. They were leaving. He was taking her home.

I want to have a home. A real one.

Could Cale give that to her? Did he even know what she wanted from him? Why?

Swallowing, Cassidy turned away from him. Five minutes later, with her hair combed, her teeth brushed and clad in the clothes he’d prepared for her, she was ready to go.

He stayed close while they hurried from the building. Dawn had just come, and streaks of sunlight slid across the D.C. skyline. Gunner was by the vehicle. So was Logan. She glanced to the left and caught sight of—

A flash of red hair.

Cassidy froze.

“Cassidy? What is it?” Cale’s hold tightened on her.

Cassidy glanced back at the alley. “Genevieve.”

A frown pulled his brows low. “The agents are still searching for her. They’ll find—”

“I just saw her.” The words were pulled from a throat that suddenly seemed dry. What was happening to her? Was she seeing ghosts?
Seeing what I want to see?

“Where?” Cale demanded.

She pointed to the alley.

Cale didn’t head toward the alley. Instead he guided her to the vehicle. “Make sure she stays inside,” he told Gunner.

“What’s happening?” Gunner demanded.

“I—I saw...” Wait,
had
she seen her? Cassidy wasn’t sure, not anymore. She rubbed temples that ached. “I thought that I saw Genevieve in the alley.”

Gunner shook his head. “I cleared that alley. No one is there.”

He sounded so certain, but she’d been certain a moment ago, too.

“I’ll be right back.” Cale pulled his weapon and headed into the alley.

Gunner closed the car door, sealing her inside the vehicle.

Cassidy waited, barely breathing, as the seconds slowly ticked past. Then Cale was back, striding toward the car. His face grim.

He climbed into the vehicle. “No one was there.”

Maybe...maybe she’d just wanted Genevieve to be there. Wanted so badly that she’d made herself see a ghost?

The car slowly pulled away from the curb. Helpless to stop herself, Cassidy glanced back.

No one was there.

The car slid easily through the empty streets. Cassidy swallowed, trying to ease the sudden dryness of her throat. “Did you...did anyone find Genevieve’s body?” She hated to think of her friend that way. Broken. Lost.

Cale shook his head.

“Maybe he lied to me.” Killers lied, right? That was what they did. Lied, killed.

Cale’s fingers caressed her arm. “Maybe he did. Agents will keep searching for her. They won’t give up.”

Maybe they wouldn’t, but... “But I’m giving up. If I’m just running away with you, I’m giving up on her.” She couldn’t do that. It wasn’t right.

“No, you’re staying alive.” His voice had hardened. They were in the back of the vehicle. Gunner and Logan were up front. The other agents would be able to easily hear every word that they said. “That’s what you have to do.”

“What if she’s in this city?”

Cale shook his head. “What are you going to do? Search every street? Every house? Every building?”

If she had to, maybe. “I can’t...I can’t do it, Cale.” She wanted to, so much, but running—
enough.

“What can’t you do?” He’d leaned toward her.

She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I want to go with you. I want to get on that plane and go home with you. I want to pretend that we’re starting some kind of life together, far away from Mercer and everyone else.” She licked her lips. “But I can’t.” Then, voice louder, she focused on the men in the front. “Take us to the EOD headquarters.”

Logan didn’t even slow down. And he didn’t turn around.

“Logan.” She snapped out his name. “Take us back.”

They eased under a row of bright streetlights—still on because the light of the day wasn’t heavy or clear yet—and, in the rearview mirror, she saw Logan’s gaze shift toward Cale.

“It’s not his choice,” Cassidy said, lifting her chin. “It’s mine. And I’m not running.”

“Are you dying?” Gunner wanted to know as he glanced back at her. “Because that’s what almost happened to you.”

Yes, she had almost died, and Cale—no, all of those men—had risked their lives for her.

For her secret.

She opened her mouth and said, “I’m Mercer’s daughter.”

Wait, had she meant to say that?

Yes.

The silence in the car was heavy. She could feel Cale’s gaze boring into her.

“Thank you for all that you’ve done to protect me,” she said, her voice sounding too calm even to her own ears. “But the threats to me won’t ever end. They can’t. And as much as I want to just run away, to be with Cale...” Her chest was aching. “I can’t. I can’t leave Genevieve.” If there was a chance that her friend was alive, then she had to keep searching for her.

And if Genevieve was dead...
I need to find her body. I can’t leave her out there, all alone.

Gunner was still staring at her. “I know who you are.”

“Me, too,” came from Logan as the car accelerated.

Cassidy blinked. Well. So much for her big reveal.

“Syd can uncover anything with her computers.” Gunner shrugged. “She didn’t want me walking in blind in that park, so she made sure I knew.”

Cassidy had laid out the puzzle pieces for her.
Because I wanted her to tell him.

“And you told Logan,” Cale muttered to Gunner.

A slow nod from the sniper. “We figured you already knew, seeing how...close...you’d gotten with Cassidy here.”

She was grateful for the dark because it hid the heat that stained her cheeks. She and Cale had definitely gotten close.

“I don’t see how you being Mercer’s daughter changes anything. You and Cale have a plane waiting on you.”

They weren’t listening to her. “Genevieve could be alive.”

Cale’s hold tightened on her. “You didn’t see her in that alley.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Logan said contemplatively.

“What?” Cale’s head jerked toward him.

“A few minutes after we left the safe house, a car started tailing us.
Someone
was outside of that place, watching us.” His fingers drummed lightly on the steering wheel. “They’re staying back, keeping their headlights off, but I still made them.”

She immediately spun around, but Cassidy couldn’t see anyone following. “Are you sure?”

A rough laugh. “Trust me. I know when I’m being followed.”

He would.

“And I know when—
Hell!
” Logan slammed on the brakes, but it did no good because another car barreled right toward them. A big dark SUV that slammed straight into their vehicle. They collided with a crush of metal and the sickening crunch of glass. Cassidy didn’t even have the breath to scream as she was thrown forward.

Chapter Eleven

The seat belt cut into Cale’s shoulder. Swearing, he yanked it away and reached for Cassidy. “Sweetheart?”

She was pulling on her own seat belt—the belt had jerked her back against her seat. “I’m okay.”

“Logan? Gunner?” He snapped out their names.

“My legs are pinned,” Gunner growled. “And Logan—”

“Has a gun to his head.” A cold, deadly voice floated through the car. A man’s voice. A voice Cale had never heard before. He pushed forward to see if the man was bluffing. When he moved, he caught sight of a gun pressed right to Logan’s temple. The window on Logan’s side had shattered during the crash—or else the guy with the gun had shattered it—and now the man had easy access to the interior of the vehicle.

“Unlock the back doors,” that cold voice ordered Logan. “Or I’ll put a hole in your head right now and unlock them myself.”

Cale pulled his own weapon. When those doors were unlocked, he knew exactly what would happen.

He also knew that Logan
wouldn’t
unlock them. Logan was the team leader. He would never sacrifice his team. Even if he had to risk his own life in order to protect them.

“Why don’t you get the hell away from me?” Logan invited roughly.

Cale dived for Cassidy, covering her with his body because he could already see Logan moving. Logan’s hand whipped up, and the crunch of bones—no doubt the gunman’s wrist shattering—filled the car even as a bullet erupted from the weapon.

The bullet flew over the driver’s seat, narrowly missing Cale.

The sounds of a struggle came from the front of the vehicle. Cale couldn’t help from his current position, so he jumped away from Cassidy, heaved open the back door and—

Genevieve was standing before him. Only she wasn’t alone. Another gunman. Another weapon. Only this gun was pressed under her chin.

“Come on, hero,” the man—his face covered by a ski mask—said. These thugs sure liked their masks. “Take another step, and she’s dead.”

Cale didn’t move. Not yet. But he planned.

Then Cassidy jumped from the car behind him.

“Cassidy!” Genevieve cried frantically. The woman tried to leap toward her, but the masked man tightened his hold, and Genevieve froze.

The thud of flesh hitting flesh echoed behind them, and in the next moment, Logan was rushing to Cale’s side. Cale had known the team leader could handle himself in that fight.

My money is always on Logan.

Now they just had to dispatch this bozo.

“I will kill her right now,” the man swore. “I will shoot her while you watch!”

“Then what?” Cale demanded. “We kill you? That’s your big exit plan? Death?”

But another vehicle was rushing up behind the armed man, and the guy wasn’t even looking over his shoulder.

Since he didn’t seem surprised or upset by the speeding car’s arrival, Cale knew it could only mean one thing....
His backup.

“No, I have another exit plan.” The faintest of French accents tinged the man’s voice.

The Executioner had been French.

So was Genevieve.

Cale lifted his weapon and aimed at the gunman. “You aren’t leaving with her.”

“A sniper has you in his sights right now, Mr. Lane.”

Was he supposed to be impressed because the guy knew his name?

“If you don’t lower your weapon, you’ll be dead within the next five seconds.”

Bull.
He knew better than to believe a line like that.

“Surely you do not think you’re the only one who has a sniper on his team?” The gunman shook his head. “Tell them, Genevieve.”

“I—I...it’s true!” Her voice was high and desperate. “They’ve been watching you, all of you!”

“We picked this spot. We sprang our trap.” The gun dug into Genevieve’s chin. “Now we want our prize.”

Too bad for them. Cale took a step forward. Cassidy was behind him. He was afraid the woman might try to lunge in front of him and save her friend. He couldn’t have that. He couldn’t risk Cassidy, not when the end was finally in sight.

His gaze slid toward Logan as he tried to get a read on the other agent’s thoughts.

A sniper? If there was a sniper out there, then the best spot for him would be the building on the right. A sniper would have a good position up on the third floor.

But the sniper wouldn’t be able to take out both him
and
Logan. If the sniper was even real.

I’ve heard better bluffs before.

Cale straightened his shoulders. “It’s okay, Genevieve. You’re going to be fine.”

The sun was starting to rise higher. He could see the desperate hope so clearly on Genevieve’s face. Hope, but no bruises, no other injuries at all from what he could make out.

Just that wild hope.

“You’ll drop your gun?” she whispered.

Cassidy had crept closer to Cale.

Trust me.

He sure hoped that she did.

“This is how it works,” the gunman shouted. “You send me the pretty blonde. She gets in that car.”

The vehicle had screeched to a stop.

Cale shook his head. “That’s not happening.” He was adamant.

If Cassidy got in that car, she was dead.

Not
going to happen.

Cassidy’s fingers pressed against Cale’s back.

“You don’t make the rules!” the man shrieked, his accent becoming more pronounced. “You don’t tell me—”

“It’s been more than five seconds,” Cale snapped, “and your sniper hasn’t fired.”

He wasn’t there. A damn bluff.

Yet even as he said those words, a man was leaping from the front seat of the backup vehicle. He had a gun clutched in his hands.

Logan fired his weapon instantly, and that man crumpled.

The gunman, the one still trying to hold tight to a now frantically squirming Genevieve, lifted his weapon away from her chin.

That was just what Cale had been waiting for. “Drop!” he yelled.

Genevieve fell.

The gunman brought up his weapon. “No, she’s the—”

Cale fired on him.

The shot ripped into the man’s chest. He stumbled back, gasping, then hit the ground.

Genevieve hunched her shoulders, shuddering. But then the injured man reached for her. He was struggling to rise, trying to get her within his grasp once more.

“Shoot him!” Genevieve begged. “Stop him! Help me!”

His hands were around her. Cale ran forward. He kicked the man back. If he could take the man in alive, then they’d find out exactly who was involved in the plot to abduct Cassidy.

“Kill him!” Genevieve cried. “After what he did to me, make him pay!” She tried to lunge for the discarded gun, but Logan was there, stopping her. He pulled her back and held her in his arms as she cried.

“Genevieve?” Cassidy’s hesitant voice. “Genevieve, I am so sorry.”

Genevieve looked up at her. Tears slid down her face.

Cale pulled out his phone and called for backup even as he kept his gun aimed on the fallen man.

Cassidy hurried toward Genevieve. “I never meant for you to be hurt.”

Genevieve stared at her with glistening eyes. Logan’s hands slowly fell away from her.

Logan eased back from the women. Cale saw him turn to make sure that the man in the car wasn’t a threat.

It was hard for dead men to be threats.

“You didn’t mean...” Genevieve’s breath shuddered out. “I know what you meant. I
know.
” Then she was hugging tightly to Cassidy, and Cassidy—she was looking straight at Cale.

Thank you.
Cassidy mouthed the words as she held her friend close.

Cale nodded. He didn’t need her thanks. For Cassidy, he’d do anything.

“Don’t worry, Gunner,” Logan called as he headed for their car and the trapped EOD agent. “We’re going to get you cut out of there.”

Yes, they would and—

A bullet slammed into Cale’s back. He stumbled as white-hot pain erupted near his spine.

Logan swore. “Shooter! Looked like the shot came from the third—”

A bullet blasted toward Logan. He ducked for cover.

Cale’s gun slipped from his fingers when he hit the pavement.

“Cale!” Cassidy screamed.

Then she was there, running her hands over him. Only he couldn’t feel her touch.

He couldn’t feel anything but that white-hot pain.

“Told you...” Genevieve’s voice drifted to him. But it wasn’t a voice wild with fear or desperation. It was calm. Cold.

Cruel?

“I told him that a sniper was waiting. He just needed the right signal to fire,” Genevieve said in that same cold voice. Cale wanted to see Genevieve’s face. But he couldn’t see anything then. Not even Cassidy. “I gave him the signal,” Genevieve finished, “right when I hugged you.”

“You,” Cassidy breathed, sounding lost.

“You took something from me, Cassidy, someone that I loved. I thought it was only fitting that you watched while I took away the man that you loved.”

Cassidy didn’t love him.

Did she?

I love her.
But he hadn’t told her that. He should have told her. Just like he should have told his parents when they’d dropped him off that day.

They’d dropped him off for practice, driven away. He’d figured he’d see them later.

He’d buried them later.

“Cale, it’s okay.” Cassidy’s fingers swept over his cheek. Gunfire rang out again. The sniper? Keeping Logan in check?

He had to help Cassidy. If he didn’t—

“Nothing’s
okay,
” Genevieve shouted. “It hasn’t been
okay
since you took away Ian. You thought you were so damn clever. You should have been the one to suffer that day, not him!”

He should have seen it sooner. Genevieve hadn’t been the victim in Rio. She’d been the accomplice—maybe the accomplice in all of the abductions. The inside man—woman—who’d gotten close to the prey.

Who’d learned their weaknesses, their secrets.

Just like she’d learned Cassidy’s.

“He’s going to bleed out there. He’ll be dead before any help can arrive,” Genevieve taunted.

“No!” Cassidy yelled. “He’s not!”

More gunfire.
Rat-a-tat.
Only it seemed like—how many people were firing? Two? Three? So much gunfire.

“Step away from him, Cassidy! Come with me now, or I’ll put a bullet in his head.”

The gun that had been tossed aside...
she
must have it.

“I was going to kill you at the EOD. I was so enraged that day, hurting because you took
Ian!
”

Genevieve had been the shooter? Wasn’t she just a woman with some deadly talents.

“But then I realized your death would be too easy. You have to hurt, like I hurt...”

Cale realized exactly what punishment Genevieve had in mind for Cassidy. One lover’s life for another.

Cassidy’s breath heaved out. She must have realized Genevieve’s plan, too, because suddenly she pressed her body flush to his. “Don’t leave me,” Cassidy whispered to Cale. Then she curled her body around his, protected him.

No.
The cry was his, but he couldn’t speak.

“Get away from him!” Genevieve’s voice was higher. Wilder. But she wasn’t shooting.

Because she wants Cassidy alive.
Genevieve knew that she could use Cassidy to get to Mercer.
She knows all about the EOD. She’s been playing us all.

A deadly game that was coming to an end.

“I won’t leave him!” Cassidy was holding him tightly. Trying to put pressure on his wound, trying to shield him.

“I’ll shoot through you!” Genevieve’s footsteps scuttled toward them.

A dead daughter couldn’t be used against Mercer.

But a live hostage could.

His own weapon was just inches away. He tried to move his hand, but every damn part of him hurt now. The pain was consuming him, sweeping over him in an engulfing wave even as darkness flickered around him.

Too much blood loss. An injury too deep.

A groan broke from him.

“Get away from him!”
Genevieve was screaming even louder now, her voice almost breaking. “He dies, just like Ian died. He
killed
Ian, so I’ll kill him! Death for death! Death for—”

“Shoot me.” Cassidy’s voice was coldly quiet. The gunfire had stopped. Had Logan and possibly Gunner managed to take out the sniper up on that third floor? “Shoot me,” Cassidy said again. “Because that’s what you’ll have to do. I won’t let you hurt him again!”

“You think I won’t?” Genevieve didn’t even seem to be aware of the cessation in gunfire. She was too focused on Cassidy.

Was that Cassidy’s plan? To distract her?

If so...
Keep it going, sweetheart.

His fingers moved, just a little. He felt the hard edge of his gun.

“We...we were friends,” Cassidy said. Her hair brushed over Cale. She was covering him with her whole body, willing to sacrifice herself for him.

He hadn’t thought it would be possible to love her more.

He’d been wrong.

“We’ve been friends for a long time, Genevieve. You don’t want—”

“We were
never
friends! You lied to me, always lied.” Brittle laughter. “Just as I lied to you. Remember your precious Helen? She begged for you at the end.”

Cassidy’s body trembled against him. He could feel her now, a bittersweet press of her flesh against his.

“She was such easy prey. So trusting and foolish. They were all easy. I got close to them. I was the one to tell Ian when to take them. I was there—
always
me.”

“Why?” Cassidy demanded. She wasn’t letting him go.

He wouldn’t let her die for him.

“Because I had nothing. I left that boarding school because my family had
nothing.
I was in the street. You were at your parties. Dancing. Drinking. I wasn’t going to be thrown away! I was going to have everything!”

Even if she’d had to kill in order to get that life?

“Ian... I met him when I was desperate and alone. He changed me. Helped me.”

No, he’d used her, used her connections.

“He taught me how to hunt. Introduced me to his men.”