Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Agnes sat on the floor of the van, her legs stretched out in front of her.
There were no seats in the rear of that van.
Just a discarded roll of duct tape. Just seeing that duct tape had rage burning through him.
If Bear survived his injuries, Cass would make sure the bastard wished that he had died.
“He said Raz covered for him,” Agnes announced. Her back was to the wall on the left.
Cass lowered next to her. Very, very carefully, he took her hand. Her right hand. It was so much smaller than his own hand. Far more delicate.
This delicate hand had been bound with duct tape as she lunged out and tried to grab the back door of a moving van. He brought her hand to his lips. Kissed her knuckles softly.
“You were questioning Raz,” she pushed. “While I was being checked out by the EMTs.”
Questioning him. Driving his fist into the guy’s ribs. Yes, he’d done both things.
“What all did you learn?” Agnes wanted to know.
“I learned that when Bayne came to get his snake tat, Bear was with him. Because Bear was his lieutenant.”
She whistled. “That’s an interesting point to pick up. And, you, uh, weren’t aware of that fun fact before?”
“It was eight years ago. And, no, I wasn’t aware.
MCs are tricky bastards. Allegiances are buried deep.
And eight years ago…” He exhaled. “Back then, I was filled with so much fury and hate that I could barely see past my own need for revenge. Those were the days when I was hunting my uncle. I’d buried my father and…
” He stopped. Focused on what mattered. Her. “Eight years ago…
“That was around the time when I was attacked.”
“I wish I could go back.” The words were the truth.
He’d tried to never regret anything he’d done.
Tried not to look at the past because what good did that do?
But… “If I could go back, I’d say screw the others.
Screw everything else. I would come straight to you.
I’d find you in Austin, Texas, and I’d make sure no one hurt you.
I’d take it all away, and you wouldn’t have this life.
” She wouldn’t be in the back of a crappy van with a dislocated shoulder and with the skin ripped from her arm and leg.
He swallowed. “You’d be safe. You’d be painting somewhere.
” Hell, he’d seen the quick sketch she’d done in the tattoo shop.
Her fingers had flown over that paper, and she’d clearly been talented.
The snake had leapt off the paper. “You’d be an artist. You wouldn’t have ever needed to pretend to be a prostitute for three months, you wouldn’t have been nearly drugged by some sadistic asshole,” he said, remembering the stories she’d told him about her time with the FBI.
“You wouldn’t have gone into a prison and been locked away with twisted guards who wanted to—”
“Cass.” Just that. His name. Soft. Husky.
He kissed her hand once more, and his head turned toward her so that he could look into her incredible eyes. The eyes that saw straight into his soul.
She shook her head. “You think you could go back, wave some magic wand, and take away all the pain I’ve ever felt?”
If he could, he damn well would. “You should not be in the back of a shitty van with a dislocated shoulder and blood staining your clothes.” Gruff.
“You should never have needed to jump from the van, almost killing yourself, because one of my men was a traitorous bastard.” All along, he’d thought that he’d infiltrated the Twins.
That he’d been on target to take them all down. Now, though, he saw the truth.
It was my group that was infiltrated. People were watching me. I was the target. There had been plenty of attacks on him over the years. That was the nature of the beast. But he’d survived. He’d thrived. Come back harder.
Looking back, though, he wondered how many of those attacks had been due to inside jobs. Levi and Bear. Two of those in his inner circle. Working to rip him apart.
Yeah, was it any wonder he had trust issues?
One thing he knew with certainty—she did not belong in his world. “I would change it all,” he spoke with complete conviction, “and give you back the boy you loved.”
“I’m staring at the man I love.”
His heart ached when she said those soft words. “You shouldn’t love me.”
“Why? Because you’re so big and bad? Tell that to someone who hasn’t seen you make the worst cup of coffee in the world.”
He frowned.
Light spilled from the front of the van, and he saw her lips dip down before Agnes told him, “I don’t want to change who I am. Or what I’ve done. Want to know what my favorite movie is?”
“Yes.” He wanted to know every single thing about her, but he was very much afraid he wouldn’t. They were running out of time.
“My favorite movie is It’s A Wonderful Life. Bet you’ve seen it, everyone has.”
He remembered watching the old black and white with his mom, with Gray…
“My mom actually lost her hearing when she and her sister fell into an ice-covered pond when they were kids.” It had taken too long to get his mother out of the frigid water.
She’d gotten an infection, been in the hospital for weeks, and…
“She would watch that movie and cry and sign that even bad things could happen for a reason.”
“I really wish I could have met your mother.”
He did, too. She would have loved you.
Her lips trembled. “I miss Max. He was a good person who lit up the world by being in it.”
I will never be good. I will never be someone who lights up the world. He was far too comfortable in the darkness. Most days, Cass felt like he was the darkness.
“I will always miss him, just as I will miss the girl I used to be. But I would not change who I am now. Because this woman? The one who probably currently looks like hell?”
“You look beautiful,” he assured her.
A weak laugh slipped from her. “Stop being a dirty liar.”
“You look beautiful,” he said again. “You always look beautiful to me.”
“And you call yourself the bad guy.”
Like bad guys couldn’t see beauty?
She shifted her body a bit against the side of the van.
“If I hadn’t gone undercover as a prostitute, more women would have died.
If I hadn’t gone into that prison, more women would have been hurt, brutalized.
I stopped that. I made a difference.” She sent him a half-smile with her trembling lips.
“It’s A Wonderful Life. We all make small changes.
We all help others, even if we don’t always realize it’s happening. We change others.”
She’d changed him. In such a short time, she’d changed him so much.
“We’re going to stop Bayne,” she told him. “And he won’t ever play his sick game again. He won’t hunt people in the night. Won’t kill them. Won’t leave families grieving.” A soft exhale. “We both know Gray is tailing us.”
Absolutely, he understood that. He understood that Gray would have a team ready to swarm. He got the whole deal.
“He and Ryan served together,” she revealed.
The van bounced again.
“They’re close,” she added as her head leaned near his.
“I’d bet my life that Ryan has been texting Gray updates and staying in contact with him ever since he began tracking me.
Ryan probably realized what I was doing with our shoot-out scene in Atlanta or maybe he figured out things when we left the body at the Grove Motel. Ryan is a very good tracker.”
He thought both of her brothers were very tough bastards.
“I’m sure…” She wet her lower lip. “I’m sure he was at the scene with Levi.
Watching from the shadows. When the bullets started flying, he would have reached out to Gray immediately.
I figure that’s how Gray got here so quickly to catch us with Bear.
Ryan was in contact with him. Those two have probably been scheming together all along.
I suspect Ryan is one of the reasons Gray held back with me about the Twins. ”
Cass hadn’t been given the chance to contact Gray. He’d been too focused on Agnes. But I’m not a bit surprised that Gray had other eyes on us. That was just the way Gray operated. Contingency after contingency.
“We don’t have to kill anyone today,” she whispered. Her voice had been low the whole time. He wondered how much of their conversation her brother had heard as he drove up front. “We can lock away the bad guys. You and I can both walk away.”
You think someone who wants you dead gets to walk away?
“Maybe I’m the one who never should have entered your life,” she said, voice a bit sad as he remained silent. “Maybe I never should have gone into that bar.”
Screw that. He leaned forward. His lips pressed lightly to hers. “I wish you’d walked into my life sooner. So much sooner.” Another kiss. One that lingered.
Then his head lifted.
A teardrop tracked down her cheek.
“Agnes?” Horrified, he caught that teardrop. “You’re in pain. You need to be in a hospital. You need meds, you need to be checked out thoroughly!”
She shook her head. “I need you. I need you to stay with me, when this is over. I need to see if, together, we can have a wonderful life. Because I really, truly think that we could. If we just had a chance.”
“A Fed and a criminal?”
“We both know you’re more than that.”
And they both understood that a new life would not be easy. “Danger will follow me.” He would always have to be on guard, no matter where he went.
“I don’t care.”
She was tempting him. Making him think that more might just be possible. “I can’t be the same person, you know that. I’ll have to change everything.”
“Surface. The surface can always change.” Her hand drifted to press over his chest. “It’s what’s in here that stays the same. Will this stay the same?”
Was she asking if he would always love her? Because the answer would be yes. There was no life—or world—in which he did not love her.
But the van was slowing. Turning.
“Almost there,” Nash called back to them.
“We can have a chance.” Agnes did not look away from Cass. “Just say you want to take that risk.”
“I’d take any risk with you.” Done.
“Get your game faces on, people,” Nash barked. “Because I’m already seeing the guards on the outskirts. Men on motorcycles. Barbed wire around the fencing at the warehouse. But they recognize the van, and they are just waving me forward. Our lucky freaking day.”
“That’s just poor security.” Agnes sniffed. “They should at least stop to see the driver’s face.”
“Yeah, let’s not question their poor judgment,” Cass told her. “That just lets us get killing close.”
Worry flickered over her face. “You talked to Raz.”
Talked, threatened, hurt…
“Did he give you anymore intel about your uncle? Is he dead? Or will you walk into that place and see a real ghost from your past?”
“He didn’t have much to stay about Winston Striker.” Raz hadn’t provided him with much more intel on his uncle, but Cass was ready for whatever or whoever waited in the warehouse. “I’m not afraid of ghosts.”
“Neither am I.”
The van ambled forward. Cass pressed one more kiss to her lips.
She positioned her gun in the crook of her sling.
Cass had his own weapon at the ready. The van advanced. Slowly.
Turned.
He heard the grinding of a door—a garage door?
“Going through the side entrance of the warehouse,” Nash informed them. “Lots of unfriendly faces. When we go in, they may shoot first.”
“Nah.” Cass was aware of the slight weight of his gun. “We will.”
The van stopped.
Silence.
“I love you,” Agnes told him.
I’m ready to kill for you.
One of the van’s back doors was hauled open.
A booming voice announced, “I want to see the bitch!” A voice belonging to Bayne Hendrix. “Let’s see if she begs before I finish carving her up and leaving her body for Cass to find…” His smiling visage appeared as he ducked his head into the back of the van.
But that smile froze when he saw the gun pointed dead center at his forehead.
“Hi, Bayne,” Cass told him. “Long time, no see. Also…Gonna need you to fucking apologize for calling my lady a bitch—and for kidnapping her.”