When he guards, p.8
When He Guards, page 8
But when she brought up the Twins, Gray always put roadblocks in her path. So maybe she’d decided to take a different path.
“I want to get back to Cassius.” Grim determination underscored Gray’s words.
Sure. Because no way would Gray be redirected so easily.
“You were in the bar when Judas Long attacked Cassius Striker?”
“Well…” Modest. “I actually saved Cass’s life.” She rolled one shoulder. “No big deal.”
Gray’s jaw dropped.
“You can’t go in there!” A raised voice. One from just outside of Gray’s inner sanctum. “You can’t—this is the FBI!”
The door to Gray’s office flew open. “Like I give a shit,” Cass announced darkly.
Her head snapped toward him.
He filled the doorway. All big, bold, and furious. Cass jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Tell your guard dog to back off,” Cass ordered as he glared at Gray. “And get those agents of yours to stand the hell down. I’d hate to have to punch someone else.”
Oh, no. Someone else. That pretty much implied that he had already punched at least one other person. At the FBI office.
She jumped to her feet and whirled to fully face Cass even as she heard Gray swear.
Wide-eyed, she gaped at Cass. “You just…” A shake of her head. “You should not be here.”
“Tell me something I don’t fucking know.” He stalked toward her. Didn’t stop until he was right in front of her. He reached out and caught her chin. He tilted her head from one side to the other, as if searching for injuries. “You’re okay?”
She hadn’t been sliced with Judas’s knife. She had zero injuries. “He was trying to stab me in the back,” she whispered. “That’s his go-to technique. No worries, I maced him.”
Gray marched out of the office. “Stand the hell down,” he blasted to whoever waited outside of his office door. “Everything is under control. And I want you to erase all security footage that shows…”
She didn’t catch what else Gray said because Cass grabbed her full attention.
“You maced him.” Cass nodded. “Of course, you did.” His mouth kicked into a half-smile. He began to lean down toward her.
Was he going to kiss her? Right there? Wait, bad idea. Wasn’t it?
Yes, yes, of course, it’s a bad idea. You don’t make out in the office of your FBI boss.
The door to the office slammed shut. “What. The. Fuck?” Gray thundered.
Cass froze. His eyes glittered at her. Then his head turned toward Gray. “Hello, sunshine.”
“I am not in the mood for your bullshit.” Gray stomped closer to them. “You think it’s easy making security footage of you just vanish whenever you decide to stride in this place? Dude, what in the hell are you thinking?” But his gaze jumped to Agnes. Or rather, to her chin. The chin that Cass still cradled carefully in his fingers. “No, no, no.”
Cass let her go.
She backed up. Put her hands behind her back. The better to not reach out and grab Cass in front of her boss. Because that would be a very bad move.
“Since when are you touching my agent?” Gray demanded of Cass. “Since when are you rushing in here to check on her?”
Since they’d had wild sex two nights ago.
Gray stood right beside them now. His gaze swung from her to Cass, then back to her. “No.” A shake of his head. His gaze returned to Cass. “No.”
Cass’s jaw had locked. “We have a problem.”
“I noticed,” Agnes assured him.
His head cocked as he studied her.
She sent him a weak, very brief smile. “It was hard to miss the man who came barreling at me with a knife. His name’s Judas Long, by the way. Guess Judas didn’t like that I stopped him from attacking you the other night.”
“Shit.” Gray squeezed the bridge of his nose. “You actually saved Cass’s life a few nights back? That story was for real?”
“She didn’t save my life,” Cass growled. “She just threw a beer bottle.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Gray squeeze the bridge of his nose harder.
“A beer bottle that stopped a knife attack,” she had to point out. Seriously, her throw had taken some skill. “Don’t belittle my efforts. Not cool.”
“Sorry, princess.” Cass nodded. “Your beer bottle kicked ass.”
Damn straight, but… “Technically, you kicked ass when you started that whole hand-to-hand fight in the bar with him. The guy is covered in bruises, FYI.”
“For the love of—dammit!” Gray exploded.
Her head whipped toward him.
A muscle flexed along his clenched jaw. He wasn’t squeezing his nose any longer. He was pointing straight at her. “I’m in charge here. I’m supposed to be in the damn loop.”
She hadn’t planned to loop him in on her, uh, sex life. Kinda a need-to-know situation. She had not thought he needed to know.
“The near stabbing tonight wasn’t about you,” Cass told her.
“It felt like it was.” Her attention shifted back to him. “Call me crazy, but when a man comes at me with a knife, it feels personal.”
Cass pressed his lips together. Then… “It’s because we fucked.”
Her eyes widened.
“Sonofabitch!” An explosion from Gray. “This is not the shit I need to hear right now!”
Yes, well, she’d prefer not to be discussing this either but… “What does us having sex matter? What does it have to do with anything?”
“Weakness.” One word from Cass. Gritted. Snapped.
She waited for more. He kept her waiting. Sighing, she told him, “You’ve got to elaborate. I’m all for a bit of suspense, but you can’t just drop one word and be done. You leave too many unanswered questions that way.”
“You’re my weakness,” Cass said, as if each word had been torn from him. “And they are gonna use you against me.”
She wondered who “they” were. She also wondered how in the world she could possibly be his weakness. As far as she knew, the man had zero weaknesses. That was why he was the big, tough badass leader of the Night Strikers.
“My enemies know I fucked you. They know you are a Fed. They will line up to take you out.”
Because she’d had a one-night stand with him?
“Me fucking a Fed didn’t exactly go over well in the MC circles. Those who hate me have always been looking for a weapon to use against me. A weakness. They think you’re that weakness.”
How flattering. What woman didn’t want to be called a weakness? Her eyes narrowed, and she realized that her hands had fisted.
“Oh, hell.” From Gray. “You two really—jeez, why? How do you two even know each other well enough to do that crap?”
Cass never looked away from her. “A bastard named Bayne Hendrix came up to me tonight. He’s the one who told me about the coming attack on you. Bayne said he’d picked up on rumors that I fucked a Fed.”
A curse from Gray.
“He told me to my damn face that you were going to be eliminated. Said I should send flowers to your funeral.”
And she had a flash of soggy flowers on a gravesite. But not her funeral. It had been Max’s funeral. Her boyfriend. Her fiancé. She’d stood in the rain and felt as if she were drowning.
“What did you do to Bayne?” Gray wanted to know.
“I…convinced him to call up the prick who was going after Agnes.”
Ah. That would be how she’d gotten the phone call. Or, rather, how Judas had gotten the call. “Where is this Bayne now?”
“Running.” A bit out response from Cass. “Running and getting the hell out of my town. He was told to spread the word that you were protected. He was also warned that if he ever tried to hurt you or come after you in any way…”
She waited. He needed to finish that sentence.
Cass shrugged. “If he ever tries to hurt you, death will seem like a blessing compared to the hell I’ll bring to him.”
Well, okay then.
“When Bayne announced to everyone that I’d fucked a Fed—”
“How did he learn that,” she cut in to ask, “exactly?”
“He learned it because there are too many pricks wanting to take me down. Too many eyes on me.”
Did that mean that someone had been trailing them that night? Trailing him…her?
“It was either act like you meant nothing to me and let a line of attackers come after you…”
“That doesn’t seem like a fun plan,” she muttered.
“Or claim you,” he finished. “Tell the world that you did matter. That you mattered more than anything.”
Silence.
“I claimed you.” Cass extended his hand toward her. “Agnes Quinn, from here on out, you are mine.”
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.
