CADEN EXPECTED THE DEA to surround the building and try to make contact with Marco. The phone rang incessantly, but Marco didn’t have any desire to pick it up. Caden never expected the bullet that burst through the front window, whizzed past his shoulder, and slammed into the mirror next to Mia and Marco.
“What the fuck!” Marco glanced at the mirror, then back at Caden. “Tell them to get the hell out of here.”
Caden rolled his eyes. “Right. They’re just going to leave you here with two hostages.”
“I don’t fucking need you, since all you do is lie. You can leave. You want her, bring me Trigger.”
Caden took a step to his left, sighing and making a big show of thinking it over. He really wanted a little more space between him and that too-close-for-comfort bullet Beck sent in to let him know they were ready to take Marco down for good. All he had to do was get Mia away from Marco.
He knew Beck would come, though he hoped to keep his brother out of this. Only Beck could make that shot. He could probably take Marco out right now, but after Paula, he’d play it safe with Mia sitting there, her head inches from Marco’s head.
“I’m not leaving without her.”
Marco slashed the scissors across Mia’s forearm, the gash a couple of inches below her elbow. She screamed again, covering the bloody wound with her hand and applying pressure. She bit her lip and blinked back more tears.
Her screams would ring in his head the rest of his life. They sliced away at his heart, made it bleed, and fed the rage roiling in his gut.
“You’re running out of time. I want Trigger here now.”
“You’re not listening,” Mia snapped. “He doesn’t know how to find the guy. I get that your girlfriend is dead. You loved her. You miss her. But is this what she wanted, you to die trying to avenge her death?”
“At this rate, you’ll die first.”
“That’s because she’s in the way.” Caden wanted to say something subtle, but he didn’t want to see Mia get hurt anymore. He needed her out of here, safe and sound. Now.
Mia gasped and tried to slide out of the seat all at the same time. Marco lunged, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her back up. A bullet went right through the chair at Mia’s shoulder a split second before she was up again. Marco jumped to the side, barely escaping a gunshot wound to his leg.
Beck must be freaking that he’d nearly hit Mia on her way back up into the chair, but Caden understood he’d taken the chance and a shot at putting Marco down.
Marco refused to give up, spinning the chair and pulling Mia out, his hand still gripped firmly in her hair. He dragged her toward the back several steps but didn’t count on Mia’s penchant for busting noses. Mia grabbed Marco’s wrist with her left hand, pushing it and the gun away from her. She slammed her right hand up and into his nose with a sickening snap of his head and crack of bone. Blood spurt down his face. Caden ran forward and grabbed the gun out of Marco’s hand. Mia fell to her knees, covering her head with her hands. Marco tried to go for her again. Caden fired, hitting Marco in the chest, and another round from Beck hit him in the head. Marco fell back, his arms wide, and landed on the floor dead, blood spreading over his chest and pooling on the floor at his head.
Caden dropped to his knees next to Mia. He cupped her face and made her turn toward him. He didn’t want her to see Marco’s blood and brains splattered all over the wall and floor. He couldn’t spare her the rest, but he could spare her that.
“Pull it out. Get it out.” She reached toward her back, dragging her long hair away from the pair of scissors sticking out of her shoulder.
Caden had no idea when that happened. He held her hand away. “Stop. Don’t touch it. The paramedics will be here in a minute.”
“Take it out.”
They weren’t that deep, but he bet it hurt like hell. He grasped the scissors and pulled with one hard yank. She bit back a ragged groan and fell against his chest, burying her face in his neck, then she leaned back and ran her trembling hands all over him. “Are you okay? Did he shoot you? Are you hurt?”
He stilled her wandering hands and held them in one of his, then grasped her face in his free hand and made her look at him. “Mia. I’m fine. Are you okay?”
Her eyes filled with tears that ran silently down her blood-splattered face. “No. This time I think it’s broken.” Her watery gaze dipped to her hands he held pressed against his chest. He released her all at once. She held up her right hand. The swelling and bruising spread down from her fingers all the way to her wrist.
Agents rushed into the building from the front and back. Two checked Marco, nodding to Agent Bennett at the door. “Secure,” he called, and the paramedics rushed in.
One of the agents secured the gun Caden had dropped beside him.
The paramedics cut the top of Mia’s dress to get a look at the stab wound on her shoulder. The front fell forward, exposing one pink-lace-bra-encased breast. Mia quickly covered it with her hand, holding the ruined dress up in place as more men poured into the building.
Agent Bennett held a hand out to Caden. He took it and rose from his kneeling position on the floor as another paramedic covered the gash on Mia’s arm with a thick gauze pad to stop the bleeding.
“Caden, are you okay?” Agent Bennett asked.
He took stock of himself and realized that other than the gash on the back of his head, he was fine. Mia, on the other hand, looked a lot worse for wear.
How will I ever get her to forgive me for this?
“Caden. Are you all right?” Agent Bennett asked again.
“I’m fine,” he bit out, his eyes glued to the paramedic’s hand pressed to Mia’s chest to stop the bleeding on yet another wound marring her perfect body and soft skin.
The paramedics helped Mia onto the gurney and wrapped a blanket around her shaking body. Shock finally set in after all she’d been through.
“Caden,” Beck called from the front.
He turned to his brother and walked toward him without really thinking when he saw Beck’s too-pale face.
“He stabbed her. I was too late. I should have been faster. I’m sorry, bro.” Beck spoke way too fast, his eyes way too wide.
Caden hugged his brother close, not caring who saw them. “You saved her. You saved me. If something happened to her . . . ” Caden couldn’t finish that sentence. In a matter of hours, she’d come to mean so much to him. More than he ever thought possible.
“You got him,” Beck said. “I just made sure he was dead.”
“We finished him, but Guzman is still out there.” Caden couldn’t escape that one fact. Or the threat Guzman posed now that they’d killed his cousin.
“This was all about getting to me, wasn’t it?” Beck asked, his eyes filled with bleak regret.
“This is the same shit as always, the good guys against the bad. That’s what we do, Beck, we take down the bad. We did it tonight. We’ll do it with Guzman. But you’re out. I get it. You need to get your head straight. After tonight, so do I.”
“So, does this mean you’re taking her out on another date?” Beck gave him a knowing grin despite the lingering guilt and remorse in his eyes.
“I think I might have run out of second chances after what happened tonight.”
“You’ll make this right. She’ll understand. This had nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me. This is my job and my life.”
“Then she’ll understand that and see that what we do is important. Dangerous, but important.”
“I signed on for it. She didn’t.”
“Give her a chance to make up her own mind about you. She might surprise you. Hell, she surprised the rest of us. She put two guys in the hospital. One might never get it up again thanks to her monster kick to his nuts. How many noses did she break tonight with that move?”
Caden couldn’t help the smile. “Two with that uppercut move. One with the back of her head.”
“Damn, bro. I hope you like it rough,” Beck teased.
“I’ll take it any way I can get it from her.”
“So, it’s like that?”
Caden squeezed Beck’s shoulder. “It’s like that for me. Right now, I have no idea if she feels the same.”
“Better get after her then.” Beck pointed to the ambulance where the paramedics loaded her inside. “Don’t let that one get away.”
Caden slapped Beck on the shoulder. “Thank you for coming.”
“Not a chance in hell I wouldn’t.” Beck squeezed Caden’s shoulder.
Caden rushed out of the hair salon, dodging agents and techs there to document the scene.
Agent Bennett stopped him ten feet from the ambulance. “Hold up, Caden.” He held out Mia’s purse and the box of chocolates Caden bought her. “We recovered these, but the flowers and the plant were destroyed.” Agent Bennett smacked him on the back. “Nice moves.”
Caden took the items and walked toward the waiting ambulance.
“She must be something special,” Agent Bennett called out.
Caden turned and walked backward, not stopping for anything to get to Mia. “She’s everything.”
Agent Bennett smiled and gave him a knowing nod. “Debriefing in the morning.” He looked up at the brightening sky. “In a few hours.”
Caden shook his head and hopped up into the back of the ambulance where the medic wrapped Mia’s arm, wrist, and hand onto a brace to stabilize them until they got to the hospital.
Mia stared up at the ceiling.
“Doing okay, Miss Martin?” the medic asked.
She glanced down at him, then spotted Caden. “I’m better now.” She held her hand out to him. He took it gently in his, held on, and sat on the bench next to the paramedic.
The back doors closed, and they drove away a second later. Caden couldn’t look her in the eye. He didn’t want to see regret and anger over what happened tonight. He’d sit with her, get her to the hospital, make sure she was okay, then give her some time and space to process what happened and decide if she ever wanted to see him again.