Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
She’s not hurt. She’s not hurt. She’s not hurt.
More importantly, she’s not dead. She’s not dead. She’s not dead.
The two refrains had beat through his head as he hauled ass across town and tried to get to her. Agnes had stopped the attacker after her. She was safe. She was alive. And Cass was going to keep her that way.
His hand extended toward her. Agnes peered down at his hand. She didn’t take it. Just peered at it with a faint furrow between her delicate brows. “Yours as in…?” She bit her lower lip. “What, exactly?”
“Mine.” Wasn’t that clear enough? Rage still wanted to choke him. The idea that someone would hurt her, kill her…
“Ahem.” From Gray. Followed up with, “Agnes, I need a minute alone with Cass.”
Cass growled at Gray. Not like he was there for Gray.
I’m here for her.
“I’m the senior agent here. I’m the one in charge, so stop growling at me. Agnes, wait outside a minute. Now.” An order.
She sucked in a breath. Nodded. Her gaze avoided Cass’s as she stepped to the side and briskly made her way to the door. She opened it.
A moment later, it closed behind her with a soft click. His gaze remained on the closed door. He’d turned his head to follow her movements. Every single step.
He wanted her back.
“I didn’t come here to talk with you,” he told Gray.
“That’s glaringly obvious.” Gray grabbed his arm. “When in the hell did you fuck Agnes?”
“Two days ago.”
“Why did you fuck her?”
“Because I wanted her more than I wanted breath.”
The brutally honest answer seemed to catch Gray by surprise. His mouth hung open, then he snapped it closed.
The brutally honest answer had also caught Cass by surprise, but he wasn’t as obvious about the shock as Gray.
“Feds and MC leaders don’t become lovers.” The faint lines near Gray’s eyes tightened. “At least, they don’t without someone winding up dead. In case you forgot, people in your sphere aren’t exactly big on law enforcement.”
As if he could forget. “That would explain the attack on Agnes tonight.” He whirled away. Marched toward the desk. Files. A closed laptop. A picture of Gray’s wife.
Because the guy had a wife now. A kid on the way. A normal, happy life. What did Cass have?
Death and violence. That was his life.
Was he jealous of Gray? Yes, I freaking am.
“I told you before, I can get you out,” Gray said.
Death was the only way out. Not like he could easily walk away, not without hunters following him and everyone trying to get credit for taking him down.
He whirled to face Gray. His cousin. The man who was closer to him than any brother would ever be. Not that anyone knew that. Certainly not anyone in Cass’s world. No one except… “You told her.”
Gray’s brows lifted. “Excuse me?”
“You told Agnes that we are family. Why did you do that? Did you think that would make me trust her?”
“I have no clue what you are talking about. I have never told Agnes Quinn about our relationship. Exposing that information to the wrong person would put a target on us both.”
“Is she the wrong person?” What an odd thing to say. “Don’t you trust your own agent?” But, then again, this wouldn’t be the first time someone at this office had gone bad. Except he knew for a fact that Agnes had helped take down the bad guy in the previous case.
Instead of answering what Cass thought were very valid questions, Gray fired, “You’ve been to this office before.
People think it’s because you’re pissed as hell at me and won’t be intimidated by the Bureau.
They figure you come in here to try and intimidate me and to look like the badass that you are. ”
“I’m not intimidated by the Bureau.” And he was, generally, as a fact of life, pissed as hell. As far as being a badass…Aw, thanks for the compliment.
Gray just looked even more intense than normal as he added, “You having a vendetta against the FBI is one thing. But you fucking a Fed is another cluster altogether. You’ve put yourself at risk.”
No, more than that… “I put her at risk.” Because he hadn’t kept his dick zipped up. “Now we have to move, quickly, and take out my enemies before they take out Agnes.”
Gray sucked in a breath. “Dammit.”
“Yes, dammit to hell.” He pointed over Gray’s shoulder, toward the shut door.
He kept his voice low because he did not want anyone outside the office to overhear his conversation with Gray.
“We need the world to believe she’s turning her back on the Feds.
She needs to swear allegiance to me and only me.
Because otherwise, there are too many assholes looking to get payback against me.
Idiots who think they can take me down. Word is gonna spread like wildfire about my hookup with the Fed. ”
“And maybe you should have thought of that before you hooked up with her!”
“She came to me,” he rasped. “She walked into my bar and…” His words trailed away.
Gray waited. And waited. And… “She walked in and you just did not have the physical strength to walk away?”
Actually, he’d carried her out, then driven away with her. “The prick who came after her tonight—”
“Judas Long.”
He nodded. “Bear of a guy, bald, bushy beard, nose ring?” Just so they were talking about the same man.
Gray inclined his head.
“He tried to get the jump on me the night that Agnes came into my bar. She, uh, let me know he was closing in for the kill.”
Gray crossed his arms over his chest. “Pretty sure she said that she saved you.”
“Of course, she’d say that. I had it handled.
” But… “She didn’t have to step in. She did.
Then I kicked the prick’s ass. Turns out the guy is a floater who was looking to switch MC allegiances.
He thought that by going after me, he’d make a killer name for himself.
” A roll of one shoulder. “He thought wrong. But he learned exactly who Agnes was. Word has now spread, and I don’t want her getting zipped up in a body bag because she had the bad taste to—number one—save my life and number two—”
“To fuck you?”
“That wasn’t bad taste. That was her lucky night.”
Gray rolled his eyes.
Grim, Cass told him, “Because of me, she will be targeted, again and again. Tonight’s attack will just be the first of many.”
“Dammit,” Gray repeated.
Yes, dammit. Dammit straight to hell and back. “Bright side,” Cass gritted out.
Gray frowned at him. “Did you just freaking say ‘bright side’ to me? Since when do you ever have a bright side?”
Since I get to keep Agnes at my side. Wow. Hold up. He wasn’t looking forward to this madness. Was he? Cass cleared his throat. “Bright side, you’ll have a Fed embedded with me.”
“Yeah, the whole problem is that I had a Fed in bed with you.”
Smartass. “We’ll take down some very powerful individuals. I’ll finally wrap up the fucking mission…”
Those were words he’d never said, not out loud. But an end had to come…
The end would be on his terms. His way. And he’d raise as much hell on the way to the grave as he possibly could.
Silence.
“You’re…wrapping up the mission,” Gray repeated carefully.
He nodded. “My objectives have nearly all been reached.”
“No, they haven’t.” Gray watched him with that intense, knowing stare. “You’re still after revenge. Still looking to burn down the world.” His mouth tightened. “So the hell is she. That’s why this is a clusterfuck. The whole thing could explode in our faces.”
He closed in on his cousin. “Why is Agnes looking for revenge?”
Instead of answering him, Gray let out a long sigh. “How did you and Agnes get together?”
She walked into a bar and asked what she had to do in order to get—“The usual way.”
Gray waited.
Cass didn’t share more. He’d already said that she came into his bar. That she’d intervened with that dumbass Judas. There was no more info that Gray needed. “Do I look like I kiss and tell?”
“Agnes isn’t what you think.”
“I think she’s a sexy and smart FBI agent who is now in the crosshairs because of me. You gonna tell me that I’m wrong?”
“Agnes can handle threats. She’s not going to turn and run just because some jerks are after her. She took out the attacker tonight without breaking a sweat.”
Now uncertainty stirred within Cass. “You’re saying you don’t think she’ll go undercover and follow my rules?”
“Oh, she’ll go undercover. It’s what she’s been waiting for.” Definite disgruntlement. “But she needs to fully explain what you’re getting into.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “We’ll have to stage a public scene,” Cass mused. “Word has to spread that she’s separating from the Feds. When you pick a side, everyone has to know.”
A quick knock rapped on the door. Then it swung open.
Agnes ducked her cute head inside. “Hi.” She flashed a slow, broad smile. “Are you done talking about me? Can I now enter the conversation that is about me?”
His gaze got stuck on her smile.
“Agnes.” A long sigh of her name from Gray. “Come inside. Shut the door. Have a seat.” He walked behind his desk and heaved down in his own chair.
Taking her time, Agnes came inside. She softly shut the door. She strolled casually across the small room. Took her seat. Even crossed her legs. One foot swung lazily.
Cass remained standing.
His hands did clench into fists, though.
Rage still burned inside of him. She’d been targeted.
She could have died before I got to her.
He’d forced Bayne to give up Judas. Bayne had called the bastard.
After Cass had delivered some brutal punches.
And when the phone had been answered, Cass had been surprised as hell to hear Agnes’s voice. Surprised—and relieved.
Agnes tilted her head toward him. “Stop fretting.”
What?
“I didn’t even get a scratch.” She winked at him. “But I did leave a few, new bruises on that perp.”
“You also put a gun to his head, Agnes,” Gray groused. “And your partner had to pull you back.”
She’d done what now?
Her shoulders lifted, then fell. “I wasn’t going to pull the trigger.”
Cass’s gaze sharpened on her.