Chapter Five
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C old swept through Tristan as he got his first good look at the shot-up Rover. He ran past it, his attention instantly locking on Cassie. She was kneeling on the road beside Penny, hands covered in blood as she continued CPR. Her face was pale and sweaty, jaw clenched.
She looked up at him, and the sheen of tears in her eyes when their gazes connected hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Cass...
He dropped down on Penny’s other side. “I got it,” he said, pushing Cassie’s hands away to take over the compressions. Even though he was pretty sure Penny was already dead.
Cassie fell back on her heels, breathing hard as she dragged a forearm across her sweaty forehead. Her face was drawn and pinched.
Ryder knelt beside her and reached out to check Penny’s carotid pulse. He looked up at Tristan a moment later. Shook his head.
“Don’t stop,” Cassie pleaded in a strained voice. “We might give her a chance if the ambulance gets here fast.”
He kept going, each compression helping to circulate her blood and hopefully get some oxygen to Penny’s brain.
But they needed a defibrillator in the next couple minutes or there was zero chance of getting her heart beating again.
And given the amount of blood she’d already lost, he doubted even that would save her.
Cassie stared at his hands anxiously, face tense.
He wanted to hold her so badly it was a physical ache in his chest. What the fuck had happened? They had boxed her in, and three shooters had opened fire on her with rifles out here. It had obviously been carefully orchestrated. Why?
“Cass, are you hurt?” Ryder asked in a low, calm voice.
She shook her head, gaze pinned to Tristan’s hands as they moved up and down on Penny’s sternum. “I’m fine.”
She wasn’t even close to fine, but at least she didn’t appear to be physically hurt.
The distant wail of a siren carried on the air. Cassie twisted around as a sheriff’s department cruiser appeared on the crest of the hill a quarter mile behind them. She started to get to her feet. Ryder grabbed her arm to steady her and helped her up.
The cruiser pulled over to the shoulder, and a deputy got out.
“Got a defibrillator?” Ryder called out.
“Yeah.”
“Hurry.”
The deputy rushed around to the trunk and ran the device over.
Ryder pulled Cassie back as the cop knelt and got it ready. “Tell me when,” Tristan said, his arms and back starting to burn from the relentless pace.
The deputy nodded and reached for the hem of Penny’s shirt, paddles in one hand. “Now.”
Tristan stopped the compressions. The deputy yanked her shirt up. They quickly got the pads in place on her skin and the cop charged the device. “Clear.”
Tristan pulled his hands away and eased back on his haunches. The cop pushed the button. Penny’s chest lifted an inch with the charge.
The cop checked her pulse. His mouth thinned. He charged the device again. “Clear.”
Nobody had moved.
He hit the button a second time. Another charge coursed through Penny’s chest. But there was still no pulse. And there wasn’t a damned thing more they could do for her.
The cop looked up at him. “I’m sorry, man. She’s gone.”
Yeah. She’d been gone for a few minutes at least, but they’d had to try.
Tristan got to his feet and wiped his sticky hands on his thighs, his attention on Cassie.
“What happened?” the cop asked as the two bystanders stood by their vehicles in the background.
Tristan didn’t answer, his focus on Cassie. Ryder was speaking to her quietly at the shoulder. She nodded at something he said, pale and quiet, then darted a look at Penny.
The urge to walk over there and wrap her up in his arms was overpowering.
Putting his protective instincts in a chokehold for now, he pulled out his CPS ID to show the cop. “One of our security agents was driving her to meet with us a few miles south.”
“Who. Her?” He looked toward Cassie.
“Yes. Three vehicles boxed her in here, and three shooters opened fire with rifles.”
The cop’s eyebrows shot upward. “Rifles?”
“Yeah.” A goddamned ambush.
The cop frowned, looked down at Penny. “Who is she?”
“Penny Janec. She’s Becca Sandoza’s personal assistant.”
His head snapped up, his stare locking with Tristan’s. “The actress?”
“Yeah. Excuse me.” He left the cop to call it in and walked over to Cassie and Ryder, unable to stay away from her a moment longer.
“I’m sorry,” she was saying. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what—” She stopped, sucked in a shaky breath before gathering herself. “I didn’t see it until it was too late.”
“No, Cass, don’t blame yourself,” Ryder said firmly. “There’s no way you could have expected something like this.”
She nodded, shut her eyes. “I just...shit.”
The cop was talking on his tac radio to someone as he approached them, then spoke to Cassie. “I need to ask you some questions. Do you need another few minutes before we get started?”
“No. I’m good. Rather do this now and get it over with.” She removed her holster and surrendered her weapon for forensic investigation.
Tristan and Ryder both stayed beside her while she answered the questions.
He tried to piece everything together in his own mind as she spoke, but this whole situation wasn’t adding up.
The shooters had purposely targeted her vehicle.
It had to be because of Becca. That was the only thing that even remotely made any sense at all.
The cop wrote down all Cassie’s answers. “You’ll need to stay until forensics comes and documents everything. After that, you’ll need to go into the station to give an official statement. If this goes to trial, we need to make sure all procedures and protocols were followed.”
She nodded, looking exhausted. “I know.”
Tristan had to force himself not to reach for her. She would absolutely hate how protective he was feeling of her right now. How badly he wanted to pick her up, carry her back to the vehicle, and drive her away from here so he could take care of her.
So he did none of those things. Because she would expect him to treat her as he would any of their male colleagues in this situation. He couldn’t help how he felt, though. And he hated everything about this.
More cruisers arrived on scene, followed by the ambulance.
Finally, the forensics team arrived and put on their white coveralls.
Cassie and the deputy explained everything again.
The team began documenting all the evidence, taking pictures of Cassie along with swabs of Penny’s blood from her hands and clothing.
Throughout it all, Tristan watched her closely, monitoring her for any other signs of distress. She kept her arms wrapped around her body but stood tall as she answered more questions, her voice quiet but steady.
Forensics took pictures of the scene, the shot-up vehicle and tire marks on the asphalt. The spent casings on the road. And Penny.
They finally zipped her into a body bag and loaded her into the back of the ambulance to be taken to the hospital morgue.
Tristan folded his arms in irritation, his patience stretched thin.
Cassie had barely survived a firefight and watched someone she’d been tasked with protecting die in front of her.
She had cooperated fully and stayed here long enough. They needed to let her go.
“Can Cassie leave now?” Ryder asked the first cop, obviously thinking the same thing.
“Yeah. But they’re waiting for you at the station. Both of you,” he added to Tristan.
He stepped forward and set a hand on Cassie’s waist. Didn’t care if it looked proprietary to the others. “I’ll drive you.”
She stiffened and looked up at him a moment, then glanced at Ryder.
“Go,” he said to her, his tone gentle. “I’ll handle this from here.”
“But how will you—”
“Callum’s on the way. He’ll take me back to Crimson Point when we’re done here.” He set a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Go on. Go home and take care of yourself tonight. I’ll meet you at the office in the morning.”
Cassie relented with a nod.
Tristan tugged her waist gently and led her away to the company vehicle he’d brought. She didn’t protest or pull out of reach as he walked her to it. That alone told him how deep her level of shock was.
Once she was inside, he grabbed a container of wipes and a small trash bag from the back, then got in the driver’s side. Shutting them inside the SUV together brought a measure of relief.
But now that they were alone, his muscles bunched with the impulse to wrap his arms around her and crush her to him. She would hate that though, especially in plain view of Ryder. He wanted to protect and comfort her, not embarrass her. So he didn’t try to touch her.
“Becca’s gonna need more security,” Cassie said, huddling deeper into the plush leather seat.
“Gavin and Decker are on the way to get her. Creed and Donovan are securing a new location. And Chase is with her right now. He’s got her.
” The well-known stuntman was a fellow former Marine with combat experience.
He was armed and would be on full alert right now, especially with his wife potentially in danger.
Nobody was getting near her without his permission.
“Okay. That’s good.”
“Here.” He opened the container, waited for her to take a handful of wipes before grabbing some for himself to scrub the blood from his hands and wrists.
The knees of his pants were stiff with it, and more was splattered on his shirt, but that could wait until he got home.
His only priority now was being there for Cassie.
She didn’t speak as she cleaned her hands and forearms, taking more and more wipes.
She spent a few minutes trying to get the blood from under and around her fingernails, then took one last clean wipe and washed her face.
When she was finished, she put it in the trash bag and leaned back against the seat with a hard sigh to stare out the windshield.
He curled the fingers of his right hand into his palm to keep from reaching over and brushing a damp lock of inky hair from the top of her cheek.
“Who’s going to tell Becca?” she asked. The color was back in her face, two bright pink spots on her cheeks.
“Ryder and Callum’ll take care of it.” He had so many questions but held them all back.
She would be going over all the specifics again soon enough, and the dashcam footage would fill in any gaps.
The cops would look at it first, but CPS would keep a copy and do their own analysis as well.
“Want some water?” He handed her a bottle.
She accepted it and took a few swallows. Shook her head. “I still can’t believe it happened. It doesn’t seem real.”
A lead ball formed in his gut as he thought again about how close she’d come to taking a bullet. It could just as easily have been her lying there dead on the side of the road with Penny right now. His stomach clenched.
“She looked like Becca.”
He nodded, having been thinking the same thing. “A little.” Penny and Becca had the same coloring, similar builds. From a distance, it was possible that someone might confuse them.
“They must have thought she was Becca. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Yeah.” Mistaken identity was the only thing he could fathom at this point too.
But targeting Becca Sandoza out here in the middle of the road, in broad daylight, and in plain view of anyone else who came by?
That was insane. Not only that, she was worth way more alive than dead to anyone looking to target her.
This whole thing made no sense, and it sucked that Cassie had been caught in the middle of it.
He didn’t know what her experience as a cop had been like, but she’d never been in combat and definitely hadn’t been pinned down, alone and facing three shooters armed with rifles. This had to have shaken her badly.
Cassie folded her arms and hunched into herself, shivering a little. “I didn’t see it coming.”
“No one could have.” There were no current credible or specific security threats against Becca. This attack had come out of nowhere. “Here.” He reached into the backseat for his jacket and draped it over her.
“Thanks,” she murmured, clutching it around her.
He wished he could have wrapped himself around her instead.
Pushing the thought from his mind, he looked through the windshield. Ryder was still standing at the shoulder up ahead, now talking to the head forensics woman.
“We’d better get going. They’re waiting for us at the station.” She sounded tired.
He glanced at her, saw she was still shivering even with his jacket covering her. “They can wait until you’re ready.” He started the engine, put the heat on, and aimed the dash vents at her.
“No, it’s okay. Let’s go.”
“All right.” He put the SUV in gear, turned it around, and drove away from the cluster of emergency vehicles, the forensics team still at work.
All the evidence they gathered would hopefully give the cops and CPS enough to ID the shooters and track them down.
As well as clear Cassie of any responsibility.
For now, he was taking her back to Crimson Point. And once she was done at the station, he would do everything he could to make sure she was okay.