Chapter 20
B eth’s stomach dropped as she watched Kane stiffen. Panic buzzed in her ears. The music faded to a distant hum as she shot a tight smile at her partner and hurried past him.
Kane met her on the edge of the dance floor. “We need to leave.” He nodded, then muttered, “Roger that.”
“Who are you talking to?”
He didn’t answer as he cupped her elbow and guided her to the exit in quick strides.
Beth waved to Evangeline as they sailed past her. “What’s going on, Kane? Did something happen? Did I get another message?”
“No, but we need to get out of here.” Kane pulled her sugarplum jacket off the coat rack as he walked by. The metal hangar clanging against the wall popped like a gunshot. She stopped and closed her eyes as the sound blasted through her chest.
“Come on,” Kane growled.
The cold air sliced into her face as she followed him outside, but she scarcely felt the snowflakes on her bare shoulders.
He opened the door to his truck. Her heels barely cleared the running board before Kane shut her in. Warmth enveloped her, but she shivered.
Kane jumped into the driver’s seat and threw his hat on the dash. “If I say duck, you do it.”
She tugged on the seat belt. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“We decoded intel from an undercover source who used to be embedded within the Diablos.” He checked the rearview mirror. “The intel indicates the cartel is targeting an employee from your agency with detailed knowledge of Triple X. The codename for this target is Cazampulga , which means?—”
The wine she’d drank burned a path up her throat. “I know what it means.” She choked on her words. “Black widow in Spanish.”
“That’s definitive proof that you’re the target.” He jerked the truck around the next corner. The towering marble angel marking the edge of the cemetery came into view as the black widow taunt played in her mind. Turning to the window, she swallowed the nausea spurting up her throat.
Kane said her name, but she didn’t answer. Instead, she stared at the passing graves. Something white waved next to Danny’s headstone. Squinting, she pressed her face to the window. “Stop the car.”
“What? No.”
She ripped off her seat belt and tugged at the door handle.
Kane grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?”
“Stop.” She yanked the door open. Kane cursed as he slowed down. As the truck skidded to a halt, she jerked from Kane’s grip and jumped out. Her heel landed on a patch of ice and her ankle twisted. Pain lanced up her shin, but she righted herself and ran toward the arched gate. Turning sharply to the right, Kane’s harsh voice in her ears and his hands at her waist, she slid to a stop in the snow-covered grass.
Kane yanked her against his chest. “What the hell?”
She stared at the crude wooden cross erected next to Danny’s gravestone. A piece of notebook paper blew from a nail in the center. Its edges, wet from the elements, fluttered in the wind. The moisture didn’t distort the frightening message written in thick, black marker.
Welcome home, Cazampulga.
Kane tore the paper off the cross and stuffed it in his pocket. A muffled clap cut through the night. He hit the ground with Beth in his arms. A bullet slammed into his steel leg. As he rolled to shield her, he thought the command to activate himself into phase two.
The sting of activation sprinted down his body as he jumped to a crouch and shoved Beth behind him. “Stay down.”
Another shot thudded over the wind. Kane dove on top of Beth as a bullet slammed into the center of the cross next to him.
Beth struggled under his heavy weight. “Were those gunshots?”
“From a silencer. Stay.”
He scanned the area as he placed himself between Beth and the direction the shots had come from. Nothing moved in the barren trees surrounding the gigantic angel statue. Even the wind had died down. Holding his breath, he waited for another shot.
“ Status?” Ryan asked.
“Gunshots. Both from the east.”
“I’ve got an aerial view of the location. You’re in a cemetery?”
The incredulous note in Ryan’s voice wasn’t lost over the brainwaves. “Yes. Hostiles?”
“Stand by.”
“Roger that,” Kane said aloud.
Beth tugged at him. “Who are you talking to?”
He silenced her with a harsh “shush,” not realizing he’d switched from talking in his head to talking aloud.
Poised to either fire or fight, Kane crouched over Beth, his breaths calm and controlled, torn between guarding her and going after whoever fired those shots. But he couldn’t leave her. It wasn’t luck that the shot hit his steel leg instead of flesh. Nor was it luck that the second one landed smack in the center of the wooden cross. Whoever made those shots was sending a message.
“Kane.”
The fear in Beth’s voice ripped through his heart, especially since he knew it wasn’t only for her own life but for his. “Hang tight, sugarplum.”
“Area is clear,” Ryan said. “ Is Beth okay?”
“Affirmative.” Kane didn’t need to report his status. If his pulse rate so much as dropped a few beats while he was in phase two, his comms unit would alert headquarters.
“We’ve secured a safe house. Nic and Linc are activated and will meet you there. Stand by for details.”
“Good.” And not good. The activation of his teammates meant the threat wasn’t just credible but dire enough to mobilize Project VIPER. He tugged Beth up. “Let’s go.”
Kane hurried her to the truck and deposited her inside. Rounding the hood, he scanned the street as he climbed in next to her.
She curled into herself as he sped away from the curb. “I’ve never heard a gunshot with a silencer. It didn’t sound like a shot. I mean, when I go to the shooting range with Scarlett, and the night Danny…” An anguished squeak slipped from her throat. “It didn’t sound like that.”
“Breathe, Beth.” He touched her knee. It shook underneath his palm. He stole a glance at her profile as he held the wheel tight with his other hand. “We’ve got it under control.”
“We who?” She glanced back at the cemetery. “Who were you talking to back there?”
“Ryan.”
“How? Through mental telepathy?”
“Something like that.” He’d been wanting to tell Beth about the enhancements VIPER had built into his body and brain. To share with her how astounded he’d been when he’d woken up in the military hospital and been offered a second chance at his career, and his life. How he’d mourned his brothers who’d lost more than a leg that day and cried for the ones who would grieve for them. How he avoided commitment because he feared leaving someone behind, and how, since meeting her, he’d begun to question that thinking.
He scratched the back of his neck where the chip that networked his body and brain had been implanted. Sometimes, like now, when his adrenaline soared into overdrive, he could swear it sizzled under his skin like a bomb primed to explode. The scratching at his neck turned into clawing as the urge to tell Beth everything grew to a painful itch.
He wanted to explain how it felt to have lethal technology coursing alongside his blood. How going from clinically dead to somewhat inhuman made him feel invincible, yet scared shitless. How the chances of him not coming home from a mission were significantly lower than before he joined VIPER yet astronomically high.
He couldn’t share all that, but she deserved to know at least a little bit of the truth. “There’s technology built into my body that lets me communicate with headquarters remotely.”
“Like when Edgar’s voice invaded your truck earlier and scared the crap out of me?”
“Yes, and that was pretty damn funny.”
She laughed, the sound off-kilter, but it was genuine, and he drank in every strained beat. “The technology also lets us communicate silently in our heads. We can also share information through this.” He held up his wrist. “Chris and Nic have their comms units built into their arms, but Linc and I have to wear them.”
“Is that why they teased you about having to wear jewelry the other night when we all met up for dinner?”
“Yeah, ’cause they’re dickheads.”
Another laugh, this one not as strained, glided from her lips. “You guys take giving each other crap to a whole new level, like when you and Linc argue about whose relatives make the best moonshine.”
“My Uncle Pat’s is so much better than his cousin’s from Alaska. You’ll have to try some when we get home.”
Her laugh, this time, sounded like it came from the heart. He stared at the road, pleased with himself for making her smile, and prepared himself for her next question. He’d always wondered how much Scarlett had told Beth about VIPER’s competencies. Not much, he guessed. Both women respected the integrity of classified information, yet they were family. Just how super did Beth think he was?
One block flew by. Another. A turn out of town and still no sound from Beth. His respect for her upped a notch. She was shot at—twice—for fuck’s sake. She had every right to be a hysterical mess, but he was grateful she wasn’t.
As a seventeen-year-old boy, he hadn’t known how to handle his mother’s tears. As a man, he knew exactly how to comfort Beth. His idea of comfort, no matter how innocently intended, would lead to things he wouldn’t follow through with until they had a conversation.
He’d told her she wasn’t getting all of him until she confessed what gave her nightmares. Well, she had. As much as he wanted the whole damn box of sugarplums, not just a sample, they had to get something else straight before he sank his cock deep inside her sugar and devoured her from the inside out.
Did she really believe pretending to be her boyfriend would get him killed? He shook his head. Who was he kidding? The pretending had stopped almost before it had started. They were good together.
Damn fucking good.
So good that denying his feelings felt like trying to shoot a bullet back into a gun chamber.
Fruitless.
Impossible.
Lethal, because if he died in combat, Beth wouldn’t just grieve like his mother had. She’d blame herself.
“Kane?” She didn’t look at him. “You were just almost killed.”
He noted she hadn’t said “we,” as if the very real threat of her life being in danger didn’t matter. But it did, and he’d do everything he could do to keep her safe from the stalker, Chavez, and from herself. “Those shots weren’t intended to kill either of us. One hit my steel and the other hit dead center in the cross. I saw it when I rolled with you.”
“Oh my God.” Her hand flew to his thigh. Panic rose in her voice. “I didn’t realize you were hit. Does it hurt? ”
He moved her fingers to where the bullet had gone through his pants. It wasn’t the first time he’d had a bullet lodged in his leg. It certainly wouldn’t be the last. “It feels like when you go to the dentist and you’re numb, but you still feel the pressure from the drill.”
He grazed his fingers over her left arm, her skin cold underneath his touch. “Did I hurt you when we hit the ground?”
“No. Just a few scratches, and I twisted my ankle when I ran from the truck, but the throbbing has stopped.”
“I’ll attend to your injuries when we get where we’re going.” He reached behind him and pulled her coat from where he’d tossed it in the back seat. “Put this on. You’re shivering. And no more jumping from vehicles.”
She nodded. “Lesson learned.”
“Good.” He slowed down as she took her seat belt off and shrugged on the coat. His hands relaxed on the steering wheel as she buckled back in.
“Kane?”
“Yeah?” He tensed at the heaviness in her voice.
“I can’t let you be number four.”