17. Peter
17
Peter
I was dozing lightly on the couch when the phone rang. My nerves lit up with the first trickle of adrenaline teasing at me. In our job, no news was always good news, and a ringing phone was like the toll of a death knell.
I heard Amy answer the phone in the kitchen. “Frank’s Pizza.” She paused, listening to whoever was on the other end of the call. “Sab? What is it? What’s wrong?” There was fresh tension to her voice, and my eyes snapped open.
Sitting up, I struggled to shake the cobwebs from my mind. Something was wrong, and my entire body tingled with dread. Struggling not to let it slip into panic, I was already reaching for my gun.
“Okay, I’m on it,” Amy said, and I heard her on the move, headed my way. “I’ll get him out. Do you know who… Sab? Hello?” The call was cut off. A signal jammer?
I was on my feet, my senses sharp as I flicked off the small living room lamp, shrouding the room in shadows. They were coming. Putting my back against the wall, I peeked around the curtain, scanning the empty lawn and quaint suburban street beyond. I saw no sign of movement, heard no approaching vehicles.
Amy stepped silently around the corner, backlit from the kitchen light, gun in hand. Our gazes met, and I shook my head once, indicating that all was quiet. She reached behind her and flipped off that light too, making it easier for us to blend with the shadows. We both stilled our movements as our eyes adjusted.
Even as my heart hammered in my chest, I fought to hold my breath, straining my ears to hear the barest movement—a door or window being forced open, a footstep, the rustle of fabric. Adrenaline threatened to make my hands shake, but this was what we trained for. Decker was sleeping upstairs, and it was our job to protect him so he could testify in the mob trial.
How did they find us? There had to be a rat, someone on the inside. There was no other possibility!
I’d been on alert for so long, it was almost a relief when the light at the top of the stairs went out, the alarm panel by the door going dark. Someone had cut the power. We’d known it wasn’t a false alarm, and it wasn’t a drill. This was life or death. And now it was time for action.
Moving on the balls of my feet, I gestured for Amy to head for the back of the house, while I took the front. There was only one way for them to get to Decker, and that was up the main stairs. I refused to let them get that far.
Sweat made my shirt cling to my chest and back as I wove around the armchair, its form squat and bulky in the dark. I held my gun at the ready, safety clicked off, and set myself by the front door, guarding the entry and stairwell. The open plan gave me a view through the dining room to the back, and I watched Amy’s silhouette slip through the door to the mudroom, where the back door and basement stairs were located.
How long would it take Sab to get here? He knew where we were, knew we needed help. We just had to hold them off until backup arrived. Ten minutes? Maybe less? It felt like an eternity.
My mouth was parched, my eyes dry from not blinking. Any hint of sleep had been tossed aside once that phone rang, and my entire body sang with pent-up energy.
There was a dull thump from somewhere in the house, and my breath hitched. Was that Amy? I wanted to call out to her, but I gritted my teeth and waited, muscles tense. A creak from the basement stairs. A gasp and a heavier thud.
Fuck.
I took three steps, four, toward the back of the house, gun aimed and ready for someone to step through that door. What I hadn’t been ready for was the shadow that moved out from the hall behind me as I passed.
An arm came around my neck from behind, compressing my airway. I tried to pivot, bringing my gun around, tried to elbow him in the gut, but this was a trained killer, and he knew exactly what he was doing. His chokehold tightened so I couldn’t cry out as the knife was thrust through my back, right below my ribs. He stabbed me three more times, blood drenching me, and no matter how hard I tried to hold onto my gun, my grip loosened, the weapon clattering to the floor.
My legs gave out, and I landed hard, the world spinning as my face connected with the tiles.
I was going to die here on this floor, but I still tried to cry out to Decker, to tell him to run, hide, fight back. To do whatever it took to live.
“Run…” I mumbled through numb lips as my vision went dim… my heartbeat… slowing…
“Peter? Peter, wake up.”
“Run!” I shouted, my voice louder than I thought possible as I struggled against someone’s hold. I flailed away from their hands, grasping my shoulder, my face.
“Hey, Peter, wake up. Shh, you’re okay, I’ve got you.”
“No! No, he… I have to—” My chest was too tight, choking me. Oh gods, I was going to die. I had to get upstairs, had to save Decker.
“Breathe, baby. It’s me, Casey. You’re here with me. You’re okay.”
I blinked in the gray haze of pre-dawn light peeking around the edges of my bedroom curtain, trying to regain my bearings. I was in my bedroom, at home, not bleeding out on the floor. I shivered, the sheets tangled around me, damp with cold sweat. I stared up at the man hovering over me, not the assassin sent to kill Decker, but my angel. “C-Casey?” I stuttered out through chattering teeth.
“Yes, I’m here. I’ve got you.” Casey combed my sweaty hair back from my forehead. “It was just a dream.
My entire body was on fire, with both remembered pain and real, overlapping until I didn’t know what was dream and what was reality. “It felt so real,” I whispered, scared to blink in case it brought me right back there.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked carefully. He was propped on one elbow, gazing down at me, and while I knew he had to be at least a little curious, he wouldn’t push. And where I might’ve once reached for pills to help ease the fear, the regret, the constant dread that simmered within me… now I reached for my angel.
“He… he stabbed me.” But that wasn’t where the story began. It wasn’t even where it ended. And since there was no chance I was going to be able to get back to sleep now, I struggled to prop myself up with some pillows, willing my limbs to stop shaking. It’s not real , I told myself. It’s over .
Taking a steadying breath, I began again. “Amy and I were undercover in a safehouse, keeping a witness alive until he could testify against a mob boss. Decker had all kinds of evidence against this scumbag—murder, drugs, human trafficking—but witnesses had a way of disappearing.” I shook my head slowly, the memory replaying through the background of my mind.
“They found you?” Casey asked. He was hunched into me, clinging to my arm as if dreading the answer, even though the entire thing was already said and done.
“He did. We had a mole in the office, and one night, they came for him.” I fought the shudder that wanted to rattle me down to my bones. “I just… I heard a sound and assumed they were coming in the back, and I went to give Amy some backup, but I never should’ve left my post at the front.” I growled, teeth gritted, the frustration still as fresh as it’d been the first time I woke up in the hospital. “I should’ve realized there were two of them. It was a rookie mistake. I didn’t follow the plan, and I nearly got Decker killed.”
I felt Casey jolt in bed beside me, and he sat up, almost glaring down at me, eyes glassy. “Peter, you nearly died too.”
“Yeah, but that’s the job,” I said bruskly. “I knew the risk, and if I had to do it all over again, I still wouldn’t hesitate to give my life for his. His testimony put Santana away, saved countless lives. His life mattered more than mine.”
Casey punched his pillow angrily. “But I don’t want you to die!” he shouted, tears spilling down his cheeks. “I love you, dammit!”
I gaped, stunned by his outburst. Now it was me comforting him. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him close, and he dropped his face into my bare chest, shoulders heaving. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere, I’m still here.” I kissed the top of his head over and over. He was nearly inconsolable, and I had no clue where this had come from. Had he had a nightmare too?
I rubbed a hand over his back and waited for him to start calming down before I said, “I love you too, you know.”
He lifted his tear-stained face off my chest, his eyes puffy. “You do? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better, right?”
“If anything, I’m saying it to make me feel better. I’ve been wanting to say that for a while now, but I didn’t want to scare you off.”
“You won’t scare me off,” he said with a sniffle. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to just blurt that out in the least romantic way possible. I just had this sudden realization that your job is dangerous, and it terrified me. I can’t handle losing you, not now when I just found you.”
That was one of the reasons I’d never gotten serious with someone before. It was a lot to ask of a partner, to go without contact while I was on an assignment, to worry about all the what-ifs day in and day out. And if I’d had kids? I would always have one eye on the job, the other on my family, scared that some criminal would go after them to get at me. Now that I was injured, though, things had changed.
For the first time since the incident, I saw a silver lining. A future I had never let myself hope for.
“Angel, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. I’m done as a field agent. Even after all my physical therapy, even if I could run, hop, and skip, I won’t ever put myself in that position again. I’m done, I promise.” Saying those words out loud for the first time seemed to lift a weight off my shoulders I hadn’t even realized was there. Was this why I’d been avoiding talking to my boss? Did I honestly think he was going to force me back into the field?
“Really?” he asked cautiously, as though afraid to hope.
“Really.” I tipped up enough to kiss him softly, even as my back gave a warning twinge.
When I dropped back on my pillow, Casey followed, deepening the kiss with a sweep of his tongue that made my heart race for a much better reason this time. “You’re a hero, you know that, right?”
I shook my head. “I was just doing my job, but I’ll be your hero if you let me.”
“I don’t need a hero,” he said, leaning in to nuzzle my neck. “I just need you.”