Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(52)
Author: Cynthia Eden

She stared back at him, her body held carefully still. “Sorry?”

“I wish I’d never lied to you. I wish I could go back and start things over.”

“I don’t want to go back.” She didn’t want to hear apologies or regrets. She much preferred it when he just talked about loving her. She stepped toward him, put her hands on his chest. “I just want to go forward, with you.”

“It’s so fast. What if you change your mind?”

He was afraid. Her big, tough ranger. Afraid he wasn’t worthy of love. “Do you trust me, Jasper?”

“With my life.”

The words had her heart beating faster. “Then trust me when I say that my mind won’t change. I love you. I’ll love you today.” She leaned up. Kissed his lips. “And I’ll love you for every tomorrow that comes.”

His hands locked around her, so tight and strong. “I want you so much that the need I feel scares me.”

“I think that’s how love is supposed to be.” Not perfect. Not gentle. But wild and dark and consuming. “Because that’s the way I feel for you.”

Not safe.

Not easy.

So much…so much it scared her, too.

Then his lips were on hers. He kissed her with a savage need. A need she felt for him, too. Finally, finally they were safe. Cale was clear. It wasn’t about a mission or evidence or the EOD. It was just about them.

About the new life that they were going to start, together.

Scary, consuming…not perfect, but just what they both craved.

Epilogue

Cale watched the sun as it slowly dipped below the horizon. It was so red, like blood in the sky. Seemed as if he spent most of his days covered in blood.

Killing.

Fighting.

“Why’d you save all those people?” The quiet question came from behind him. He tensed because he hadn’t heard any footsteps approaching.

Cale looked over his shoulder. Sydney Sloan stood just a few feet away. She’d come out of the temporary headquarters without making so much as a sound. She stood with her hands on her slender hips, surveying him with a hooded gaze.

He forced a shrug. “Someone needed to save ’em. Why not me?”

She gave a little laugh. He watched her with care. Sydney Sloan was a beautiful woman, no doubt, but as an EOD agent, he knew the woman was also deadly. A man needed to be extra cautious around a woman like her.

He looked over her shoulder, didn’t see her usual big, fierce EOD shadow, so he had to ask, “Where’s Gunner?” Because from what he’d observed, he always seemed to be just a few steps away from Sydney.

She frowned at his question. Then she shrugged, but he didn’t find the move to be as careless as she’d probably planned. “It would seem that most of your psych report was bull.”

He nodded. “Most.” His “aggressive tendencies”—yeah, that part had been true. He could get more than a little aggressive when the right circumstances occurred.

Like when someone was targeting his sister for death.

“The work you were doing on your own…it’s not so different from what we do,” Sydney said as she edged closer to him. “Rescuing people is part of our job.”

“And hunting killers?”

“We do the work that no one else can.” A deliberate pause. “You can believe that when someone targets EOD agents, all of us fight back.”

Yeah, well, that was the reason he’d become number one on their hit list.

“Since Jasper’s leaving, we’ll have an opening on our team,” she murmured. Her head cocked to the right as she studied him with that too-knowing gaze of hers.

He lifted a brow. “You’re seriously offering me a job?”

“No.”

The abrupt denial startled him.

“Logan’s the one doing the offering. I’m just the messenger.” Her smile widened, flashing a dimple in her cheek. “I guess he thought I might come across as friendlier. Especially when you consider that the other option was Gunner.”

Gunner…the guy who looked as if he ate nails. The guy who watched Sydney with a fierce, protective stare.

“You are the better option,” Cale agreed.

“So, are you interested?”

His gaze drifted away from her. He’d bought the place in Whiskey Ridge to try to give Veronica the stability that he knew she wanted. But she didn’t need him or the land any longer, not really.

Cale had known the first time he saw Jasper look at Veronica that things had changed. During the time that he had served with Jasper in the military, the guy had never gazed at a woman with such desperate intensity. As if his whole world were in her hands.

But that was exactly the way he looked at Veronica. No, actually, Jasper looked at Veronica as if she were his entire world.

Things were changing now, and maybe it was time he changed some, too.

Working on his own—well, that had gotten him a close call with death. But with a team to back him up, with people he could count on…

Cale nodded. “I think I might be interested.”

Sydney offered him her small palm. His fingers closed around hers. He shook her hand once. “Welcome to the team,” she said.

“Sydney.”

And there was another teammate. Gunner had just stepped outside, and he sure was glaring at Cale. Or rather, glaring at Cale’s hand. The hand that was still holding Sydney’s.

“Great news, Gunner,” Sydney said as she pulled her hand free and looked back over her shoulder at the other man. “Cale’s joining the team.”

“Great,” Gunner agreed, but he sounded anything but pleased. Then Cale met the other man’s stare. Saw the very clear don’t touch glare and got the picture.

He could join the team, but he needed to stay away from Sydney Sloan.

Message received.

Then Logan was there, closing out the team. His gaze swept over them. “We haven’t tracked down the man who put out the hits on the EOD agents yet.”

With both Wyatt and Reed Montgomery dead, that tracking sure would be harder.

“But we’ll find him. The EOD doesn’t stop.”

“And we don’t give up,” Sydney said.

Gunner’s gaze was on her. “No,” he agreed, “we don’t.”

Cale couldn’t wait for their next mission. He was ready to get back in action. He glanced back up at the sky. The streaks of blood-red were all but gone.

Maybe…just maybe…he’d be able to wipe off the blood from his own hands. One day.