“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.”
The men she’d still been using as her team. A network that was far bigger than they’d realized. They’d thought that most of the Executioner’s men had been killed at that raid in Rio.
Wrong.
“Those men are hiding in the buildings near us right now,” Genevieve continued. She was almost on them. He could hear the ragged pull of her breath.
His fingers stretched.
“I will kill you both. All it takes is one wave of my hand. One wave. And the bullets will come down on you.” More laughter, the cold, uncaring laughter that told Cale she’d let bullets rain down on others before and she hadn’t cared.
“You thought you’d fooled me, didn’t you, Cassidy?” Genevieve asked. “But it was I all along... I was the better actress. I was the one who played you.”
The silence chilled him. Logan and Gunner would have attacked by now, if they could have.
It was up to him.
Trust me, Cassidy. He’d told her that before. He hoped she remembered now.
“Leave...” Getting that one word out was so hard.
He knew then how serious his injury was. He wouldn’t have much time. He had to make sure Cassidy was safe.
“Run...” When he made his move, she had to run to the car. Had to get inside before any of Genevieve’s men fired.
“No.” Cassidy’s voice was as pain-filled as his own. “If I move, she’ll kill you.”
But Cassidy had to step back if she hoped to keep living.
“Last chance, Cassidy!” Genevieve’s voice rang out. “Get away from your lover! Or you die with him!”
Because she wanted her vengeance. He’d killed Ian, now she thought to kill him.
Think again.
“Get...away...” Cale growled.
“Not happening,” Cassidy growled right back at him.
I love her.
“You’d be willing to die for him?” Genevieve screeched. “A man you just met days ago? He doesn’t even care about you!”
“I care,” was Cassidy’s soft response.
Then he heard a thud. Fast, brutal.
It was a sound he’d heard before. A sound he’d made before. The butt of a weapon striking someone.
Cassidy grunted, and he felt her body twist as she turned to fight back against Genevieve.
Genevieve wasn’t killing her—she couldn’t kill the hostage she wanted—but she was trying to knock Cassidy out. If Cassidy wasn’t conscious...
Then you can kill me?
He grabbed for his gun and managed to heave his body to the right.
Cassidy swung out, landing a solid blow to Genevieve’s jaw. That wonderful left hook of hers. The redhead screamed, and her hand flew up into the air.
All I have to do is wave.
Did she even realize she’d just given that signal?
“Down!” Logan’s roar.
A shot rang out. It sank into Cale’s side.
He fired his weapon.
Another weapon fired. The shot seemed to echo, and Cale heard a distant cry.
“Cale?” Cassidy was crouched before him, leaning toward him, her beautiful face surrounded by the darkness that was stretching more with every moment that passed.
He tried to smile at her.
Tears slid down her cheeks.
She knew, he realized. Cassidy already knew just how serious his injuries were.
But there was one thing she didn’t know.
“I...love you...” He wished his voice didn’t sound so broken, and he wished that he’d told her sooner.
The darkness spread more. Cassidy was the last thing that he saw.
The last, perfect thing.
* * *
“CALE!”
His eyes had closed. No, no, he could not do this to her. “Help me!” Cassidy shouted.
Then Logan was there, rushing forward with his gun drawn. “Keep pressure on him!”
On the wound at his side or that terrible wound in his back?
His blood was on her hands, soaking her fingers, and fear was like bile in her throat.
“Help’s on the way,” Logan said. He didn’t sound afraid. That meant everything was all right, didn’t it? She risked a fast glance at him, but then she saw the fear that flashed in his eyes.
Not all right.
“Cale, please stay with me,” she begged him.
But Cale didn’t respond because he couldn’t.
“I have to make sure that Genevieve is—” Logan broke off, but she understood.
Dead.
Cale’s bullet had sunk into Genevieve’s chest, even as Genevieve had been lifting her own weapon. Only Genevieve hadn’t been aiming at Cale in that last instant. Something had seemed to break in her, and she’d been aiming—
At me.
Cale had stopped her. He’d saved Cassidy. Now he was dying in front of her.
She knew the sniper could fire on them again. She tried to drag Cale’s body a few precious inches toward cover.
“It’s okay.” Logan was back, putting his hands on top of hers. “While hell was breaking loose, Gunner managed to get out of the car. He took out the sniper.”
That final shot—it had been Gunner?
“He’s checked the area,” Logan said. “We’re clear.”
“Please, don’t let him die,” Cassidy whispered.
“He won’t.” Again, his voice was so certain, but she was afraid to look into his eyes.
Cale’s eyes were closed. They’d been open and on hers—burning with so much pain—when he’d told her that he loved her.
Then his eyes had closed. Her heart had stopped.
Footsteps thudded toward them. A few moments later, Gunner crouched beside them.
“Did the bullets go through him?” Gunner asked.
Cassidy shivered. “The one at his side...it did. But his back...”
The bullet was lodged in him. She’d seen no sign of an exit wound.
They all stayed crouched over Cale, applying pressure, doing everything they could to save him until an ambulance rushed toward them, lights flashing, siren shrieking.
She’d been taken away in an ambulance before. Cale had stayed with her, every moment.
I love you.
It hadn’t been about duty for him. Not about a mission.
It had been more. She’d been more to him.
Did he realize that he was everything to her?
“Cassidy!”
That was Mercer’s voice, calling out to her. There was emotion, fear, in the cry of her name.
She didn’t look toward him. She couldn’t look away from Cale.
When he was loaded into the ambulance, she was right there. From now on, wherever Cale was headed, she planned to be right there with him.
She didn’t even look at her father. She couldn’t—her gaze was on the man that she loved.
Mercer was still calling her name when the ambulance sped away.
* * *
MERCER WATCHED THE ambulance vanish. Another ambulance. More blood. More death.
Always more.
Cassi
dy had been crying. Her clothes, her hands, had been stained with blood, and tears had poured silently down her cheeks.
The EMTs were crouched around Genevieve Chevalier’s figure now, but there wasn’t anything that could be done to save her.
“She’s the one,” Logan Quinn told him as the agent approached. Other EOD personnel were fanning out, searching the scene. Logan had been clear about where their enemies had been hiding.
Mercer gazed down at Genevieve’s form. In all of his years as an agent, he’d learned that evil could hide beneath the most deceptive of surfaces.
It was a lesson his daughter had now learned, too.
“She was going to shoot Cassidy. At the end, she was pointing her weapon at your asset.” Logan’s voice hardened as he delivered that barb.
He knows. Mercer glanced up. Saw that Gunner stood just behind Logan. Gunner was bleeding from about a dozen cuts, but he acted as if he wasn’t even aware of the injuries.
“You took her out?” Mercer asked as his gaze stayed on Gunner. Gunner was one of the deadliest snipers that he’d—
“Cale did it.” From Logan. Hard. Cold. “Even with a bullet in his back and another bullet driving through his side, he protected Cassidy. He saved her.”
And Cassidy had been desperate for him. Those tears...
Mercer swallowed.
“You didn’t count on it, did you?” Logan pressed.
Mercer’s breath eased slowly past his lips. “I knew Cale was a good agent. The minute I assigned him to Cassidy’s detail, I realized he’d put his life on the line for her.”
Logan shook his head. “No, that’s not what I meant.” A pause. “You didn’t realize that they’d fall for each other, did you?”
No.
But they had because on Cassidy’s face...there had been grief. Fear. Love.
“What happens now?” Logan wanted to know. “Are you going to try to force her onto another plane? Because, let me tell you, I sure as hell don’t think that will happen. She won’t leave him. Not unless—” Logan broke off.
But Mercer knew what he’d been about to say. Not unless Cale dies.
“Secure the scene,” Mercer told him, turning away. He needed to get to that hospital. He needed to get to Cassidy’s side. He’d seen Cale’s injuries. He knew just how bad they were. If the agent died, then Cassidy would shatter. Mercer knew it because...he’d shattered when Marguerite had died. Shattered and never been able to piece himself back together again.