Trevor had his arm around Isabel, whose face was drawn. Noelle stood near the desk, arms crossed, features hard. D was stone-faced as usual, while Sullivan, Liam, and Kane just looked concerned.
Ash placed a warning hand on Cate’s arm before addressing Noelle. “What is it?”
The blonde let her arms drop to her sides. “Isabel’s father was killed this morning.”
Cate rocked back on her heels. She didn’t know much about Isabel’s dad other than that he’d held a position of power in the East Coast mob and was now incarcerated in Sing Sing. As the number three man in the DeLuca crime family, he’d been untouchable on the inside, or at least that was what Isabel had always maintained.
“Rivera?” Ash said grimly.
“Looks like it.” As Noelle gestured to the collection of photographs splayed on one of the tables, Cate noticed that the woman seemed to be making a conscious effort to avoid Ash’s eyes.
What the hell was going on? What did Isabel’s father’s death have to do with Ash?
Warily, Cate walked over to look at the photos, then regretted it instantly.
Holy hell. Killed? That was the word Noelle had chosen to use? The pictures didn’t show a killing—it was a bloodbath. Messy. Gruesome. A total hatchet job.
Cate’s stomach churned as she and Ash examined the photos. Bernie Roma’s entire body was covered in stab wounds and there was blood everywhere. The attacker must have hit a main artery.
But it wasn’t the blood that disturbed her—it was the missing fingers. On Bernie’s right hand, all five fingers had been chopped off at the second knuckle. Judging by the ragged ends, the blade that was used hadn’t been very sharp.
Cate studied another picture and nearly threw up when she realized that the dismembered digits had been shoved inside Mr. Roma’s mouth. The thumb was sticking out grotesquely from the corner of his lips.
Behind her, Ash cursed softly. “Looks like Rivera’s work, all right. When did this happen?”
“Late last night,” Kane told them. “It was an inside job. Rivera must’ve paid off one of the other prisoners to do the deed.”
Isabel’s head jerked up. “I’m going back to New York,” she declared.
Her husband shook his head. “Absolutely not. That’ll play right into their hands. They want to split us up, make us weaker.”
“I need to make funeral arrangements.” Her voice was strong and steady. “I’m the only family he had left, Trev.”
“He doesn’t need a funeral,” Trevor snapped. “Especially not one planned by you. And that bastard doesn’t deserve your tears, Izzy. Not by a long shot.”
Although she flinched at his bluntness, Cate understood where Trevor was coming from. From what Jim had told her, Isabel’s father had basically disowned her when she’d joined the FBI. They’d been estranged ever since, and, according to Jim, Bernie Roma hadn’t been a very nice man.
“He might’ve been a bastard, but he was still my father,” Isabel shot back. “I owe him a proper burial.”
Trevor threw a helpless look at Noelle, whose expression grew pained. “Do what you have to do,” she told Isabel, albeit reluctantly.
D shifted restlessly behind them. “I gotta get back to Sofia.”
“I need you here,” Noelle argued, the tiniest hint of panic in her voice.
The two locked eyes until D finally gave her an abrupt, unhappy nod.
“Fine. I’ll send her and Gabby to the compound for now. Until I feel she’s unsafe, I’m with you.”
Cate could tell Noelle didn’t like that answer much, but she didn’t complain. Her gaze flickered toward Ash before she hastily pulled it away again.
Something else was going on. Cate felt it in her bones but was hesitant to question Noelle in front of everyone. And Ash didn’t seem to be picking up on the nervous energy Noelle was throwing out.
Trying to ignore the strange tension, she asked, “Why would Rivera target Isabel’s father?” Before anyone could speak, a gasp of anguish stalled Cate’s breath and then she answered her own question. “Oh God. Rivera told me he was coming after all of us—I didn’t realize what that meant.”
Ash reached for her arm. “Cate—”
“This is my fault.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said firmly. “It’s the DEA’s fault. And Rivera’s. Not yours.”
Isabel quietly spoke up. “He’s right. It’s not your fault, sweetie.”
“Bullshit.” She blinked rapidly through a rush of tears. “None of you would be here in the first place if it weren’t for me. Riya died because of the picture I took. Rivera knows who you guys are because of me.” She swiped at her wet eyes. “I never thought he’d go after your families.”
“That’s what men like him do.” Ash dragged one hand through his dark hair. “That’s how he controls people. He doesn’t kill you, he kills everyone you love.”
“Ash,” Kane started, taking a step forward. “There’s something—”
“No,” Noelle interrupted. “I’ll do it.”
Cate’s alarmed gaze flew to Noelle. Oh shit. She hadn’t been imagining the tension. Something was up.
“What’s going on?” Ash glanced from Kane to Noelle.
The woman grabbed a cigarette pack from the table and tapped out a smoke without meeting Ash’s gaze. “Bernie Roma wasn’t the only casualty.”
He stiffened. “What does that mean?”
Noelle lit up and took a long drag, reluctance etched into every inch of her beautiful face.
Ash raised his voice in anger. “Somebody tell me what the fuck is going on.”
On a long exhale, Noelle said, “Your grandmother was killed last night.”
Silence crashed over the small room. Ash stood frozen in place. Cate, meanwhile, grabbed the nearest chair and sank onto it in horror. Maybe Ash didn’t feel like the world had kicked his legs out from under him, but Cate sure as hell did.
Kane took over for Noelle, his sympathy unmistakable. “Three men were seen entering your grandmother’s house last night while she was attending a book club at the library. An emergency call was placed around ten o’clock. Came from a concerned neighbor. The cops found your grandmother in the kitchen. Beaten, throat slashed, and, uh, there were signs of sexual assault. The sheriff is willing to send us copies of the crime scene photos, if we want.”
Ash didn’t say a word.
Noelle ashed her cigarette in a nearby coffee cup and finished for Kane. “Someone used a permanent marker to write the words payment in kind on her refrigerator.”
Cate’s stomach turned over.
The man beside her finally made a sound—a long, heavy breath that echoed in the room. “She goes to bed at eight thirty every night. Has for as long as I can remember.”
Cate marveled at the evenness of his tone, the way his hands didn’t even clench at his side. Didn’t he feel anything right now? She knew he was close with his grandmother. He didn’t speak of her much, but when he did, it was with grudging respect. Once he’d described himself as a “little shit” who hadn’t known the meaning of authority and command until his gran had whipped it into him.
“Yeah,” Kane said with visible discomfort. “Apparently that was still the case. The neighbor called the sheriff’s dispatcher because she was suspicious that all the lights were still on that late.”
“Small towns,” Ash replied, utterly expressionless. “That’s how it is. If it hadn’t been for the refrigerator note, I might’ve said it was meth heads.”
The room went silent again.
“Ash,” Isabel finally said, grief in her eyes. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
He shrugged. “Sorry for yours.” And then he was back to business, turning toward Noelle. “I assume we’re moving Jim?”
She nodded. “Jet’s being gassed up right now. Doc says Jim shou
ldn’t be moved but I think he’s a sitting duck here. I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be able to stay at this base without word leaking to Rivera. If he can get to Isabel’s dad in a maximum-security prison, then . . .” She trailed off.
“He’s got a lot of resources,” Ash finished for her.
“Exactly. So I say we move him. It’s only a few hours from here to Costa Rica. Kane will be on the flight.” Noelle’s gaze was fixed on Cate as she spoke.
Cate moistened her lips. “Are you asking me for permission?”
“He’s your father.”
“He’s your husband.”
Noelle ground out her smoke. “We make this decision together or we don’t make it at all.”
She gulped as all the petty arguments she’d had with Jim came rushing over her. Her demands for freedom. Her rejection of every one of his suggestions after her disastrous first year at college. He’d only ever wanted her to be happy but it was always on his terms. Now, she was in the terrible position of making decisions for him, and she didn’t want that.
“We should take him home.” She bit her lip. “I’ll go with him.”
To her bewilderment, Noelle shook her head. “We can’t risk it.”
“Risk what?”
“We’re sending most of the team back to the compound. They’ve got families to think of. Sofia and Gabby. Luke’s flying Olivia and his mother-in-law in from Colorado. Kane’s parents are coming in from Michigan. J.J. will be there.” Noelle sighed. “If it wasn’t for the kids, I’d be fine with you heading home, but . . .”
But your presence would endanger the children, was the unspoken rest of that sentence.
Ash let out a low angry sound. “Cate’s a kid.”
“The hell I am.” She rose from her chair to face him. “I’m the one Rivera really wants. And I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I led that psycho and his death squad home to where J.J. and Gabby are staying.”
“Then I’ll take you somewhere else,” he shot back. “I can hide Cate for as long as we need to.” The last bit he directed at Noelle, who looked back with regret.
“No, I need you here. With Kane and Luke leaving, we’re going to be stretched too thin. And if Isabel is set on going to New York—”
“I am,” Isabel cut in.
“Then that means Trevor is leaving too—”
“Damn straight,” Trevor said, protectively squeezing his wife’s hand.
“Which means that they’ll need backup,” Noelle finished, sounding tired. “Callaghan, take Bailey and the twins to Manhattan with you. And for the love of God, don’t leave the safe house unless it’s absolutely necessary. Rivera’s hit squad is probably still in the city.”
“Fine,” Ash snapped, “but that still leaves you with D and Holden. Ethan. Jules. And”—he gestured to Liam and Sullivan, who’d remained silent for most of the briefing—“Boston and Sully. It’s a small crew, but it’s not unmanageable.”
“It’s not enough,” Noelle snapped back. “I need you and Cate here.”
A muscle in his cheek ticked a few times as he stared at Noelle. Then he did a very un-Ash-like thing—he picked up the coffee cup that Noelle had been using as an ashtray and hurled it against the wall.
Cate flinched as pieces of ceramic exploded into the room. “Ash . . .”
“God fucking dammit!” he yelled, and then he threw open the door and disappeared, his heavy boots echoing in the tiled hallway.
“I always wondered what would make him lose his cool,” Kane murmured. “Guess now I know.”
“I’ll go talk to him,” Cate said quietly.
Noelle offered a nod. “I’ll talk to the doc about transporting Jim and let you know what he says.”
Cate ducked out of the room and hurried down the corridor in the direction of the barracks. At the last second, she made a detour to the kitchen. Holden had caught her the other morning and informed her that he’d found a bottle of whiskey and if she had trouble sleeping, it was in the cabinet by the fridge.
If anyone needed a shot of liquor right now, it was Ash.
Five minutes later, she tracked him down in his room. He was sitting on the bed, long legs stretched out in front of him, a rifle resting against one knee. Cate didn’t say a word as she carefully moved the rifle to the side and offered him the whiskey.
Jerking his head in gratitude, he took the glass and downed the entire contents in two seconds flat. “Sorry about the mess downstairs,” he mumbled. “I’ll clean it up later.”
“Liam is doing it.” After a moment of hesitation, she settled in beside him on the bed.
His mouth turned down at the corners. “You shouldn’t be here with me. I’m not in a good mood.”
“I know.” She took the empty glass from him and set it on the floor. “But Noelle is saying good-bye to Jim and I think she deserves some privacy.”
He exhaled heavily and shifted his legs around. His big boots came to a rest close to her small sneakers and he studied the contrasts for a moment before raising his gaze to hers. “I’m sorry for calling you a kid. It was a knee-jerk thing. I just want you to be safe.”
“I know that.” The ache in his eyes prompted her to slide off the bed until she was kneeling between his legs. She placed both hands on his knees as if to steady him, even though he was already sitting down. “But we live in a really unsafe world. You can’t protect everyone you care about all of the time.”
His hands fisted on the tops of his thighs. Cate hesitated, then let her fingers creep over his, slowly, waiting for him to draw back. To her surprise, he didn’t. He relaxed, flattening his fingers under hers and tipping his head back against the wall, as if her simple touch soothed him.
She took that as a sign of encouragement and cleared her throat. “I wish I’d met your grandma.”
“She would’ve liked you.” He smiled sadly. “It was men she wasn’t fond of. She once told me that if God had intended for my old man to screw all those women, he’d have given him more than one penis.”
Cate choked back a laugh.
“No, go ahead and laugh. That shit’s funny.” Ash peered down at her, a half-smile playing around his lips. “She had choice things to say about her own daughter too. ‘Your mom don’t have the sense of a tick when it comes to men.’”
“But you . . . she was proud of you,” Cate hedged. “For going into the military. You told me that once.”
“I remember. I think that was the time I asked you for a good memory of your grandfather and you said that you didn’t have any.”
“That’s because he was a maniac who kept a dead woman alive and made his granddaughter visit the corpse every week. Oh, and he had his granddaughter’s best friend killed. It’s hard to remember a good time with him,” Cate said flatly.
She didn’t like thinking about her grandfather. He’d kept her from Jim for too long. Seventeen years too long, and now she was on the verge of losing her father just when she’d found him.
Forcing those awful fears away, she turned her attention back to Ash. “When’s the last time you saw her?”
“Over Christmas. I went home for a visit because she hadn’t seen me in a while and kept leaving me messages asking if I was still breathing. But you’re right. She was proud that I enlisted. I never told her what I did after I got out and she never asked. Probably because she didn’t want to know the answer.”
“You’ve always done good things, Ash.”
“Have I? I don’t think I have. Like right now? There’s not a good thought in my head.”
His voice had taken on a dark note, one full of hunger. And beneath his absurdly long lashes, there was unchecked heat. It stole the air from her lungs.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said roughly.
She bristled. Was he seriously going to kick her out agai
n? After she’d come in here to comfort him?
“In Guatana,” he clarified when he caught her expression. “You’ve got a huge target on your back, sweetheart. I don’t want . . .” He took a breath. “Fuck, do you realize what Rivera wants to do to you?”
“Yes. Kill me.”
“Kill you,” Ash echoed. His face went bleak. “Except before he kills you, he’s going to rape you a few hundred times and then cut off your fingers and shove them in your mouth.”
A cold shiver ran up her spine. “I won’t let him.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said again.
“And where exactly should I go? You heard Noelle—if I go home, I risk leading Rivera to everyone we care about. I’d never be able to live with myself if something happened to any of them.”
In the blink of an eye, Ash yanked her up into his lap and cupped her chin with both hands. “And you think I’d ever be able to live with myself if I lost you?”
Her jaw fell open, shock slamming into her chest at the same time Ash’s mouth slammed against hers. She could feel the rapid beat of his heart, the unsteady breath in his lungs, as he kissed her hard and deep.
Her moan filled his mouth and he answered with a guttural noise of his own. After all this time, after all these years of restraint, Ash was finally letting go, and his kiss was as addictive as she’d always known it would be.
He spread her lips with his tongue and drove it inside, kissing her with a passion that sucked the breath out of her lungs. And as she gasped for air, his hands delved under her shirt and cupped her breasts, thumbing her nipples over her bra.
“Fuck,” he choked out. “I have to taste you.” He pushed her shirt up high enough to release her breasts from her bra, then dipped his head and sucked one nipple hard into his mouth.
Lost in exquisite sensation, Cate ground her lower body against the prominent bulge beneath his zipper. God, now wasn’t the time for this. Not after he’d just received news that his grandmother had been murdered. Not when more than half of the team was taking off to secure the safety of their loved ones. Not while Jim lay unconscious a few corridors away from them.