Glitter and Gunfire (Shadow Agents #4)(36)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Their foolish mistake. She hadn’t walked into that park unarmed.

She was sitting with her legs curled toward her body. This time she wasn’t packing a knife in her ankle holster. Her boots hid a small gun that was secured to her ankle. Her right hand slid down, and her fingers locked around the weapon. “Get away from me.”

He laughed.

“Let me go!”

“No. I’m going to make you scream.”

The way her mother had screamed? Screamed for me to hide. Screamed and said, “Close your eyes, ma petite. Close your eyes!”

Only Cassidy hadn’t closed her eyes.

She didn’t close them now, either. She yanked up that gun, and she fired at him.

The bullet tore right through him and flew toward the front of the vehicle.

Cassidy’s captor stumbled back, roaring in pain and shock.

And another cry, pain-filled, just as shocked, came from the front of the vehicle. Then the van swerved, twisted—

Cassidy leaped to her feet. She shoved open the back door of the van. Wind whipped against her body. This was her chance. She was taking it.

The black pavement blurred beneath her eyes. It would hurt. But pain was better than dying.

She sucked in a sharp breath.

“No! Stop—”

Cassidy jumped onto the pavement. She hit hard, rolled and felt the flesh tear from her hands and arms.

The van slammed on the brakes, and the scent of burning rubber filled her nose. Cassidy knew that she had to get up, she had to run, so she staggered to her feet. She stepped forward—and fell again. Her ankle throbbed painfully.

Then she heard the sirens. The sweet, beautiful sirens that were getting closer, closer, and she lifted her head and just saw the flash of red lights coming toward her.

She tried to crawl toward those lights.

The van’s tires squealed as the vehicle rushed away.

Cassidy kept crawling toward those lights.

* * *

CALE SHOVED DOWN the brake the instant that the patrol car’s headlights fell on Cassidy. He’d taken that damn vehicle, rushed over to Brookley, burning rubber, and he’d desperately searched the surrounding streets.

His palms were sweating, his heart racing.

And Cassidy—his Cassidy—was crawling in the middle of the road.

He threw open the door and rushed toward her. “Cassidy!”

He’d raced to another scene, on another street, so many years before. He’d found the bodies of his parents.

Seen his little sister…

She’d been alive.

So was Cassidy.

* * *

HE LIFTED HER into his arms. She was bleeding, trembling. He wanted to crush her to him, but he forced his hold to stay gentle. She needed care from him right then. Not raw desperation. “It’s all right, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

“They…knew…”

He carried her back to the patrol car. His breath hissed from between his teeth when he saw the blood on her shirt. Too much blood. “Cassidy…”

“He cut…tracker…”

He grabbed for his phone. “I’ve got her.” What street was he on? “Debouy and Hutchins. She needs an ambulance!” And if that ambulance didn’t get there in the next few moments, he’d just rush her to the hospital himself.

Cassidy…bleeding out in his arms. Nightmare.

That wouldn’t happen. He’d said that he would protect her.

“C-Cale?”

His body had curled over hers. He’d put his hand over her main wound, applying pressure to stop the blood flow as best he could.

When he’d been back at that park behind Dunlay, dark fear had controlled his thoughts.

Cassidy had left him. He hadn’t gotten to tell her goodbye. Just like with his parents.

His lips brushed her cheek. “Don’t leave me.”

Her hand rose. Her fingers—her skin had been scraped from her palms. What the hell had happened to her? But her fingers lightly touched his cheek. “I’m…not.” She even tried to smile then. Smiling? After what she’d been through?

His heart stopped for a moment.

Then beat even faster, harder, than it ever had before.

“It takes more than…this,” Cassidy whispered, “to stop me.”

And he knew that he was staring at one of the strongest women he’d ever met, and he’d sure come across more than his share of fierce protectors during his time in the military—and as a civilian.

Cassidy wasn’t weak. She was—

Everything.

He held her even tighter. “Tell me who did this to you.” He could hear the scream of the ambulance’s siren, coming closer and closer. “Tell me, sweetheart. I’ll find them.” Hunt them. Stop them.

Kill them.

No one hurts her and walks away.

Yeah, that violent side of his, that predatory side that others whispered about? That Mercer had flat out taunted him with? It was out.

He’d been trained to hunt and kill his enemies. The one who’d done this to her would pay.

Cale would make absolutely certain of that.

“I shot him,” she confessed in a whisper.

His eyes widened.

Good.

“I had…a gun…at my ankle. Got it before I—I left…the EOD.”

The ambulance rushed around the corner and came to a screeching halt. Two other vehicles were right behind it—a black SUV and a long, gray sedan.

The ambulance attendants ran toward them. Gunner and Mercer jumped out of the SUV.

“Never saw his face…”

“Cassidy!” Mercer was there, shoving back the ambulance attendants.

Cale growled at him. “Let them through! She’s hurt!” He had her blood on his hands.

“S-someone else was driving…the v-van…d-dark van…” Cassidy told him, voice roughening. “Two people…two…”

After the way things had gone down at the park, he’d realized they were dealing with a group, not just one attacker.

A sob burst from Cassidy. Mercer had moved back, finally, and he stood watching them, with his hands clenched into fists. “G-Genevieve…” Her name seemed torn from Cassidy. “She’s dead.”

Cale’s breath was cold in his lungs. He’d been afraid that she was.

The captors had gotten Cassidy, and once they had her—well, Genevieve was no longer an asset. She was another body to carry around—a liability.

Deadweight.

He helped the attendants load Cassidy onto the stretcher. She held tightly to his hand, her grip fierce and desperate.

His hold on her was even stronger.

Mercer stood to the side, watching, with shoulders slumped.