He couldn’t let the same fate fall on Cassidy. She deserved better.
She deserved love. Life.
And he’d give it to her.
He took two steps. Paused. Glanced over his shoulder and made sure that he projected his intent at the two agents. “Whatever you think you know about Cassidy Sherridan, you forget it. Got me? After today, you forget everything about her.”
With narrowed eyes, Logan glared back at him. “Is that what you do when she’s not around? Forget?”
Never.
“Maybe one day you’ll understand,” Mercer murmured. But, no, he didn’t want Logan to understand. Logan had the woman he loved. So did Gunner. He didn’t want either man to ever know the pain he felt.
The pain that his daughter was feeling right then.
Because when you lost the other half of yourself, living was near impossible.
“Maybe one day,” Mercer repeated. “But pray you don’t. Just follow my orders, Agent. Follow them.”
And he rushed away, determined to finally be there for his daughter when she needed him.
If Cale dies...
He would make sure that he was there to piece Cassidy’s life back together. Somehow.
Chapter Twelve
The operating room doors swung closed, the faint whoosh of sound seeming far too loud for Cassidy’s ears.
She stared at those doors, lost. Cale hadn’t opened his eyes. Not once during the ambulance ride. He hadn’t talked to her again, hadn’t squeezed her fingers. He hadn’t done anything.
Her hands lifted. His blood had dried on her. She should go wash it off. Her fingers started to shake.
“Cassidy.”
She jumped at Mercer’s voice, but she didn’t turn to face him. “They...they wouldn’t let me go back.”
Of course not. She knew she couldn’t go in surgery. Not with a wound as severe as his. Logically, she understood that, but logic wasn’t exactly her strong suit then.
A tear leaked down her cheek. They just wouldn’t stop. She swiped her bloody hands over her face. “The doctor said he’d go to ICU after—after he comes out.” Because Cale would come out. He’d pull through the surgery just fine. Cale could survive anything. “But only family can see him then.”
She wasn’t family.
To the doctor, she was no one.
Mercer’s fingers closed around her shoulder. Cassidy trembled. She hated for him to see her weak like this. She always tried to put on her strong face when Mercer was around. When your father was a supersoldier, there wasn’t supposed to be room for weakness in his daughter.
“I’ll get you in that damn ICU room.”
Her eyes widened. Mercer’s cheeks were flushed, and his eyes were bright with emotion.
“I could get you in that operating room, too, but Cassidy, you don’t want to see that. You don’t want to see them cutting into Cale.”
A scream was breaking inside her, but she clamped her lips together and held it back. When she was sure it wouldn’t burst free, Cassidy whispered, “The doctor said...he wanted me to call in Cale’s sister because...” It hurt to say it. “Cale might not wake up. His injuries are so bad.” Her eyes squeezed shut. “I could see him dying, right in front of me. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t do anything.”
Mercer’s arms wrapped around her, and he pulled her against his chest. He...hugged her?
She pressed her face against his shoulder. He’d hugged her at her mother’s funeral, hugged her just like this. So tightly. As if he never wanted to let her go.
Only he’d pushed her away after that day, pushed her away for so long.
“Your ranger’s going to be fine,” he promised, his voice gruff. “That man isn’t about to give up without a fight. EOD agents are tougher than anyone else out there. He’ll pull through.”
I...love you.
“He doesn’t know,” Cassidy told him, her voice a mere breath of sound.
Mercer eased back—just a little—to stare down at her. “Know what?”
“That I love him.” It hurt. He’d told her, he’d made sure that she knew, but she hadn’t been able to say those three words to him.
“You’ll tell him.” Mercer gave a firm nod. “When he comes out of surgery, when he opens his eyes and calls for you, you’ll tell him then.”
She wanted to believe him. Once, she would have believed anything that Mercer said.
But she wasn’t a child anymore. And Mercer’s word wasn’t law, even if he wanted it to be. “Genevieve planned it all. I thought...I thought I could help her. That she needed me.”
“But she was just trying to use you in order to get to me.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “It had to be the agents I sent to guard you. She figured out what—who—you were because of them. She traced them back to me. I put you at risk, the same way I always have. First Marguerite, then you.” His hands tightened on her. “I never wanted to hurt either of you.”
His voice had broken at the end.
She’d never seen him broken.
“After your mother was killed, I tried so hard, I swear I did. I tried so hard to protect you. But I just made a prison for you—one that you couldn’t escape.”
Because guards had always been there.
Men and women who’d jumped at Mercer’s command.
Until Cale.
“I don’t know how to open the prison. I don’t know what to do.”
Mercer didn’t know?
“I do.” She straightened her shoulders. “You just let me go.”
His head bowed. “I want you to be safe.” A ragged breath escaped him. “And I want you happy.”
She was as far from happy as she could possibly get. Grief was a knife in her gut, twisting and cutting away at her. The waiting room was empty—just her and Mercer. She had no idea how he’d arranged that. Mercer and his strings.
They sat together. The silence was thick and hard.
She couldn’t keep her eyes off those operating room doors. “Tell me again that he’ll be okay.”
“He will be.”
She wanted to believe him. Mercer could move mountains. Once she’d thought her father could make anything happen.
But he hadn’t been able to keep her mother alive.
Cassidy licked her dry lips. “I didn’t mean to love him.”
“I know.” His shoulder brushed hers. “We can’t control who we love. You will be able to tell him...soon.”
Cassidy nodded, and she prayed that he was right.
* * *
CALE HURT. The pain pulsed through him in waves that wouldn’t end.
“He’s coming around, Doctor. Should we—”
Cale’s hand flew out. He grabbed hold of the person talking, and the man’s voice broke off.
His throat burned as Cale rasped, “Cass...”
“Sir, we just removed the tube from your throat. You need to calm down.”
Forget calm. His hold tightened. His eyelids were heavy, and he struggled to lift them. Had the jerks taped them down? “Cass...”
“Sir, just calm—”
No tape. He finally managed to crack open his eyes. “Want...Cas...sidy...” His voice was stronger, more a snarl than anything else.
The guy he was holding tried to pull free.
“Get...her...”
“Mr. Lane!” Another voice. Snapping.
Was he supposed to be impressed by some doctor’s snap?
Need Cassidy. Was she all right? The last thing he remembered was the gunfire.
He’d tried to stop Genevieve before she could hurt Cassidy.
“We just spent hours stitching you back up. You’re damn lucky your spine wasn’t damaged. Now stop struggling before you undo all my work!”
If they’d get Cassidy, he’d stop. “Cass...”
“Yes, yes, I get it. You need Ms. Sherridan. We’ll get her, okay? But first, calm down or we’ll strap you down.”
They’d better not.
He eased his hold
on the man. Footsteps raced away.
The doctor’s face came into focus as he leaned over Cale. “Mercer told me you’d be like this.”
Cale couldn’t do more than bare his teeth in a grimace.
“He also told me that you’d pull through, no matter what.”
Sinking into that black oblivion of darkness hadn’t been an option. Not when he had Cassidy waiting for him in the light.
If she was waiting.
“Don’t worry,” the doctor told him. “Your Cassidy is fine.”
Then the doors flew open and banged against the wall.
“Cale!”
No voice had ever been sweeter, even if it was clogged with tears. He turned his head. Saw Cassidy standing in that doorway, with Mercer just a few feet behind her.
Cassidy rushed toward him. Her face was too pale, her eyes too wide. He hated for her to be afraid.
Especially when that fear was for him.
“I’m...okay...”
“He’s lucky to be okay,” the doctor muttered, plenty loud enough for him to overhear. “If that bullet had been another inch over, he would have—”
Cassidy’s lips shook.
“Out!” Mercer’s order. “You can tell me outside, Dr. Longtree.”
Then Mercer dragged the guy away, barking an order for the male nurse to stay in the room and keep an eye on Cale.
Cale stared up at Cassidy. She was inches away but not touching him. That wasn’t good enough. “Closer.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to hurt you.” But then she crept a little bit closer, as if she couldn’t help herself. Her fingers, soft and light, feathered over his arm.
His heartbeat started to calm down. Cassidy soothed him. Cassidy made him feel at peace.
He studied her a moment. Machines were beeping around him, the nurse was trying to blend in with the wall and Cassidy had dried tear tracks on her cheeks. “Is Genevieve...dead?” A blunt question, but one that had to be asked.
“Yes.” Cassidy licked her lips. “She’s gone.”
And he’d been the one to kill her. “She was going to...shoot you. I remember that.... I had to take the shot....”
“What else do you remember?” Her fingers had stilled over his arm.
“The sound of gunshots. A scream.” Cassidy’s?
“Nothing else?”
Was there something? The hesitation in her voice told him that there was.
Her lashes lowered, then lifted so that her gaze could hold his. He loved her eyes—so deep and green and shining with emotion. So—
“You told me that you loved me.”
The machines beeped a little louder.
“Cassidy, I—”
“Don’t tell me it was the blood loss or delirium or anything like that.” Her voice had sharpened. Her eyes narrowed. “Because I’ll know that you’re lying to me.”
He didn’t want to lie to her.
Cassidy’s shoulders straightened. “You said you loved me because you thought you were going to die, and you didn’t want to pass without telling me.”
He stayed silent.
She glared. “Next time, don’t wait for death, okay? Just tell me.”
Uh, okay.
“Because I love you, too, Cale. I love you so much. And when you were bleeding out on that ground, I felt like my world was ending.”
He ignored the pain and reached for her, pulled her against him as best he could and kissed her.
Her lips parted for him. Her fingers pressed to his cheek. He could taste the salt of her tears.
And the sweet promise of their future.
“I don’t want my world to end,” Cassidy whispered. She pulled back a bit to meet his stare. “Cale, I want my life to start again, with you.”
He couldn’t imagine a life without her. Things between them had developed so quickly—maybe too quickly, but he didn’t care. He knew what love was because he’d lived too long without it.
“Whatever we have to do, I’ll do it,” she promised. “I want to be with you.”
He kissed her again. The nurse cleared his throat. “You seem...uh...pretty okay in here. I’ll just...step outside a bit.”
Cale held tight to Cassidy. Plans, ideas, were racing through his head. Cassidy needed a home base, a place where she could feel safe.
He wanted to give her that—wanted to give her the world.
He would. He’d give her everything. “There’s this little town,” he whispered. “I mentioned it before, in Texas...”
“Your home.”
It hadn’t felt like home to him for years, but now, when he thought of her... “Let’s take a visit there.” See what happened. How she liked it. What she liked.
Because he’d go any place with her—London, Rio, even Whiskey Ridge, Texas.
Wherever Cassidy was happy, that was where he wanted to be.
But Cassidy laughed, a light, husky sound that skipped right through him. He loved it when she laughed. He’d make sure she had plenty of reason to laugh and smile in the years to come.
She was smiling then, flashing the little dimple that he just had to stroke.
“Oh, Cale.” Her hand lifted and brushed back his hair. “Don’t you understand? Home for me—it’s going to be wherever you are. As long as we’re together...”
They would be. Together for the rest of their lives.
“Then I’m happy,” she finished.
He gazed at her, completely lost for a moment. His society girl, his fierce fighter.
His.
The woman he’d cherish for the rest of his days.
“I love you, Cassidy Sherridan.”
Her smile widened.
Protecting her had been the best assignment of his life. He’d owe Mercer for that, for connecting him with the woman of his dreams.
Cale was sure Mercer would come collect on that debt. The guy always did.
But that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered—she was in his arms.
The place where he always wanted her to be.
Cale kissed her again.
They were both home.
* * *
MERCER TURNED AWAY from the hospital door, but Cassidy’s quiet words still rang in his ears. When you were bleeding out on the ground, I felt like my world was ending.
He knew exactly how his daughter felt.
But Cassidy’s world wouldn’t end. She’d have her man, and they’d be together. Cale was a fighter, a protector—that was why Mercer had recruited him for the EOD. And it was also why he’d sent Cale down to guard Cassidy.
I’d thought, hoped...
And his plan had worked. Cassidy would now have a warrior by her side, day in and day out. A man willing to put his life on the line for her.
More plans would have to be made. Cassidy wanted out of her prison. He had to find a way to make that happen. He’d have to figure out a way to clear her so that his enemies wouldn’t hunt for her any longer.
Had Genevieve leaked the information that she’d had? Sold it to any of her and Ian’s connections? He’d find out, and he’d eliminate any threats to his daughter.
He might have to use some bait, might have to call in some old favors, but he would give Cassidy her freedom.
Mercer had lost his chance at love, but he’d make sure that his daughter had her happiness.
She deserved it.
He began to whistle as he walked down the hallway, plans and schemes running through his mind.
Cassidy was going to be free.
And she’d have the life that she’d always wanted.
No matter what, he’d make the dream happen for her, even if it meant he had to get his hands a little bit bloody.
After all, the EOD was used to blood and death.
He was the EOD. He had this.
Epilogue
She wasn’t in a ballroom anymore. She wasn’t wearing a glimmering green gown that matched her eyes.
She wore jeans, a faded T-shirt.
/> She was standing in a meadow, laughing.
Cale’s arms were crossed over his chest as he stared at Cassidy. They’d been in Whiskey Ridge for two weeks—just two short weeks—and Cassidy seemed to glow with happiness.
She didn’t wake up afraid that one of her father’s enemies would find her. She slept through the nights, held carefully in his arms.
They watched sunsets together. Rose at dawn to see that same sun rise.
They made love.
They talked about the future.
And he dreamed of everything that he wanted to give her.
Because that was what she’d already given to him.
She’s every damn dream I ever had.
Cassidy glanced over at him, and she smiled. Her dimple flashed. His heartbeat kicked up.
Slowly, she strode toward him. “Hi, there, cowboy.”
The title had been mocking once—still was their own joke. The cowboy and the princess. That was how he thought of them.
Two different worlds. They probably should have never been together.
But they were.
When he’d finally been released from the hospital, Cale hadn’t been able to get her home soon enough.
And this place...with her there, it truly felt like home.
“I’m happy here,” Cassidy said, the words simple. True. No telling hitch gave away a lie.
She didn’t lie anymore or, at least, not to him. That hitch had sure slipped through when she’d gamely tried his sister’s roast beef the day before.
“Could you always be happy here?” he asked her carefully.
Her hands rose. She stroked his face, her fingertips lightly smoothing over the stubble that lined his jaw. “I told you before, I’m going to be happy as long as I’m with you. And I don’t care where we are.”
As long as they were together.
He held her gaze and slowly dropped to one knee.
“Cale?”
He opened the box in his hand. Before he’d left D.C., he’d picked up one very special item. He opened the box.
A diamond wasn’t nestled inside.
An emerald was. One that reminded him perfectly of her eyes.
Those eyes were very wide right then.
“Cassidy Sherridan, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”