Chapter Seven
The Dallas skyline stretched in front of Drew. He stared at the buildings, noting the sweep of architecture as it bled into the red evening sky.
He and Tina were in a plush hotel room. Five star all the way. No dusty sheets or wobbly chairs would be found in this place. For security, Drew had requested two adjoining rooms. Dylan and Rachel were stationed right down the hall in another set of adjoining rooms.
Dylan was determined to go through with Mercer’s ridiculous plan. They wanted Tina to continue with the deception of being Mercer’s daughter. Wanted her to play that part—and to keep Anton’s focus on her—until their team could bring down HAVOC and its leader.
He hated that plan. Tina wasn’t trained for a situation such as this one. Putting her into the middle of this fight could very well get her killed.
I won’t have her death on my hands.
The door squeaked open behind him.
Soft footsteps came toward him.
He kept staring out at the setting sun. Its light reflected off the high-rise towers.
The scent of strawberries drifted in the air.
His fingers curled into fists. “Why did you say yes?” Because she had, and with that one word, Tina had changed everything.
She’d agreed to Dylan’s too-dangerous plan, and she’d made saving her even harder.
“I agreed because Devast is determined to kill me, and no matter what you do or say, he isn’t going to believe I’m not Mercer’s daughter.”
My fault. That burned like acid in his gut. He and his team had thought they were being so smart.
Mercer’s real daughter, Cassidy Sherridan, had needed to vanish. Intel had leaked out about her—not her specific name, but the fact that Mercer had a daughter he’d hidden for years—and the sharks had started to circle. They’d needed to get the sharks off their blood scent.
We needed bait.
But the bait was supposed to be Rachel. Not Tina.
They’d left a trail of evidence including phone calls and a log of private meetings connecting Rachel and Mercer. They’d wanted all those circling sharks to think that Rachel was the one connected so intimately to Mercer.
When the sharks came in to attack, Rachel and the team would have been ready.
But the main shark had gone after the wrong prey in New Orleans. Tina had been down there—why?—and Devast had connected her to Mercer.
“I’m sorry,” he told Tina, and he meant the words. Drew was sorry that he’d screwed up her life, and that his team had brought her into this twisted mess. He turned toward her.
She stood just a few feet away, her eyes wide, her cheeks a soft pink.
She’s so beautiful. Does she even realize what she does to me?
He cleared his throat. “Why were you in New Orleans? You weren’t supposed to be there.”
“The call came down that an EOD doctor might be needed on scene.” Her smile was wry. “Considering some of the locations the agents travel to, visiting New Orleans sounded like a really good option for me. I can’t... I can’t always go into the field. It was—”
“Safe,” he finished as he edged toward her.
She nodded. Her hair brushed across her cheeks with that slight movement. “I thought that would be the perfect trip for me. I needed a break from D.C.” A rough laugh eased from her. “I guess I got my break.”
“A break is one thing.” He tried to keep his anger and fear leashed. “Signing on to finish this mission? That’s something altogether different. You’re risking your life.” The anger spiked, sharp and hard, within him. “You don’t belong in the field, Doc. You need to get back in an office. Go back to—”
“I know his daughter.”
Hell. He’d wondered if Tina had put the puzzle pieces together. The woman was sharp. She’d been working in the EOD office when Cassidy Sherridan had gone in a few months back. Cassidy hadn’t headed to the office willingly. She’d been hunted, nearly shot right outside on the street in front of the EOD office.
“She’s trying to escape, isn’t she?” Tina asked.
Yes, Cassidy wanted out of the prison that had held her in check for her entire life. “Not at the cost of someone else’s life.” Cassidy would never go for a plan like that.
“It’s not just about her.” Her gaze seemed shadowed. Since when did Tina keep secrets from him? “I want to stop Devast, too. I want to help.”
He had to touch her. He shouldn’t. She was still recovering but...
His fingers trailed down her cheek. Like warm silk. “Help by staying alive.”
“I can do more.” Now she had anger of her own pushing through the words. “So I’m not an agent. I’ve been working with the EOD for years. I can keep a level head. I won’t panic. I have my medicine now, so I can control my attacks. I can do this.”
The problem was that he didn’t want her to “do this.” What he wanted was for her to be far away from danger. He forced his hand away from her and took a step back so the scent of strawberries wouldn’t be so tempting. “Go to your room. You should get some rest.” He turned away.
“Stop it.”
That wasn’t anger coming from Tina. It was full-on fury.
He glanced over his shoulder.
Her cheeks weren’t just a soft pink any longer. They were flushed a dark red. “Uh, Tina...”
“I don’t take orders from you, Lancaster. Whether I’m completing this mission or not—that isn’t your call. It’s mine. It’s my life.”
“A life that you could lose!”
“Pierce Hodges already lost his life.”
Pierce. His body tensed. Pierce Hodges had been the pilot on that plane. A good guy. Drew had worked with him before and—
“Pierce died because Devast was coming after me. Devast is going to keep coming. If we don’t stop him, innocent people are going to die.”
This was what she didn’t seem to get. “You’re innocent.”
Tina shook his head. “Not in his eyes. You really think you’re going to be able to convince him that he made a mistake? My life has been bound with Mercer’s since I was eighteen. You were trying to link him to Rachel, but you overlooked the fact that he’s been linked with me for too long.”
Eighteen?
“I won’t have more deaths on me. Not when I can do something to stop this.”
“You don’t know what you’ll be facing—”
Her chin lifted. “Maybe you don’t remember, but when we were in that hellish room and that jerk with the knife was getting ready to cut me—when he was getting ready to take a finger from me—I didn’t make a sound.”
He shook his head. He didn’t want to remember that moment. It twisted his guts.
“I’m not going to crumble. I don’t have your training, I get that. But I can do my part.”
He stared back at her.
Her eyelashes flickered. “I know what this is about.”
He doubted it. He was good at keeping his secrets.
She stalked toward him, stabbed her index finger into his chest. “It’s because of the attack I had. You can’t get past it.”
Drew shook his head. “That’s not—”
“I am not some little piece of fluff. Do you understand me? Yes, I had an asthma attack. My asthma gets severe—especially if smoke is billowing around me! But I’ve got it under control. I’m fine now.”
But he’d never forget how terrified he’d been. “I’m not going to risk—”
Her finger stopped its stabbing, but her eyes were bright with fury. “I’m not yours to risk, Agent.”
I feel like you are.
“I told you already. This is my life.”
But he felt like she was his.
“You think I’m some green girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing? That I’m just a healer. That’s what you said, right?”
There wasn’t any “just” about it. She saved lives. She’d saved plenty of agents. That was damn important.
“I killed a man when I was eighteen.”
There was that magic number again, only now he realized it was attached to a dark story that had changed her life.
“I can do it again, if I have to.”
She’d killed a man? His doc? Drew shook his head.
Her smile was sad. “Anyone can kill, under the right circumstances. Those circumstances...” The smile vanished as she swallowed. “They didn’t give me a choice.”
His heart was pounding in his chest, racing fast, but when Drew spoke, his voice came out flat. “What happened?” He had to know. It was getting to the point where he felt as though he had to know everything about her.
She backed up a step.
He caught her wrist, held her there. “What happened?” She didn’t get to drop a bombshell like this one and just walk away from him.
She straightened her spine. Her whole body seemed to tense as if she were bracing herself for the memory. “It’s one of those ‘wrong place, wrong time’ stories. They always end badly, you know.”
Pain echoed in her voice and seemed to strike right at his heart.
“My parents and I got caught in the middle of a bank robbery. When we walked into that bank, we didn’t realize what was happening until we heard the teller scream.”
She eased out a slow breath and continued. “My dad, he was a cop. He had his dress blues on that day. He always looked so good in them. My mom would call him her ‘handsome cop.’ And he did look handsome that day. I was proud of him. Always so proud.”
She pushed her left hand through her hair. Her eyes were on his, but Drew didn’t think Tina was actually seeing him. Her gaze seemed to be focused only on the pain of the past. “We went inside, thinking that we’d be in and out. We had dinner reservations at six that night.” She pushed out a hard breath. “We didn’t make dinner.”
“Tina...”
“As soon as they saw my dad, the robbers panicked. They screamed for him to get on the ground and to lift his hands up.”
He wanted her in his arms. But Drew didn’t move.
His thumb rubbed lightly against her wrist. The beating of her pulse seemed to steady him.
“I had an attack. They were worse back then. I used to get them more frequently.” Her breath eased out slowly. “My dad always carried medicine for me. He was reaching for it, but the robbers thought he was reaching for his gun.”
Hell.
“They shot him. My mother ran at them and they shot her, too.” Tears glimmered in her eyes. “My mother died instantly, but my father didn’t. His blood was all over me, and there wasn’t anything I could do. I was trying to pull in air, begging them to help my dad, and when I looked up—” She blinked and finally seemed to see Drew once more. “The shooter had his gun pointed right at my head.”
Drew didn’t speak. He found that, for once, he couldn’t.
“Sirens were screaming. Help was coming, but it wasn’t going to get there fast enough. I knew I’d die. Just like my mom. I didn’t want to die.”
Every muscle in his body had locked.
“I had been trying to stop the blood from flowing out of my dad. My hand was just inches from his holster—from the gun that he had never grabbed.” A tear slipped from her eye. He carefully wiped it away. “I lifted it and I fired, right before the shooter did. I killed him.”
“You saved yourself.” Eighteen. He’d never imagined that her life had been so dark. No, he hadn’t wanted it to be dark. He’d always liked to think that only good things happened to the doc. She’s my good thing.
But it seemed danger had stalked her for far longer than he’d realized.
“What happened to your dad?” he forced himself to ask.
“He died right after the police stormed inside.”
Hell.
“Mercer was there.”
So this was how Mercer fit into the puzzle of her life.
“He and my dad...they were friends. He was at the funeral. He stayed with me, made sure that I was set for college. Med school.”
Med school. He understood. “You wanted to be able to save lives.”
“I did but...I still couldn’t save that man at Lightning. No matter what, you can’t save everyone.”
She pulled away from him; headed for the connecting door. The room immediately seemed colder without her near.
Tina paused and glanced back at him. “I didn’t tell you that story so that you’d feel sorry for me.”
“Sorry isn’t what I feel.” She was even stronger than he’d thought.
And I always thought she was damn tough.
“You can’t save everyone,” she said again as she gazed back at him. “You should have realized that by now.”
He had. He wasn’t interested in saving everyone.
Just her.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen next. You don’t know if you can save me. Whether I agree to the plan or not, Devast is hunting me.”
You don’t know if you can save me.
She was right. He didn’t know. He had no idea how this case would end.
Tina slipped into her room then quietly shut the door.
He stood there, far too aware of the silence around him.
After a few moments Drew found himself staring down at his own hands. Tina had killed one man. He didn’t want to remember all of the lives he’d taken.
She’s my one good thing.
His head lifted. He looked toward that connecting door. Then Drew took a breath and a step. He kept walking until he was in front of that door.
He didn’t knock. Didn’t hesitate. He just swung that door right open.
If it hadn’t been unlocked, he probably would have broken the damn thing down.
Tina stood near the bed. When the door bounced against the wall, she spun toward Drew and her eyes flared wide with surprise.
“I know that I have to try to save you.” He felt as if a force was pulling him toward her. A moth to the burning flame. She was the fire he craved. “Because I need you.” Then he kissed her.
With the press of his mouth to hers, Drew got that fire.
The desire seemed to ignite in his blood. Her mouth was soft and warm, and she kissed him back eagerly.
This wasn’t a time for fear. Not a time for death.
This was their time.
“I made you a promise,” he growled against her mouth. “There’s something you should know. I always keep my promises.”
“So do I,” she whispered back. Her hands were between them, seeming to singe him right through the thin fabric of his T-shirt. Then she was shoving up that T-shirt.
He tossed the thing across the room. “No going back,” Drew told her, voice rough. He was rough.
She was silk.
“I don’t want to go back.”
With those words, Tina sealed both their fates.
He lifted her and put her in the middle of that big bed with its clean, white sheets. Her hair spread out behind her.
She reached up for him.
She was the most perfect thing he’d ever seen. And this time, for her, because it was her, he was going to show her that he could be more than the wild lover who consumed.
Though he sure as hell wanted to consume her.
He stripped the hotel robe off her. Let it drop to the floor. Her breasts were round and perfect, with light pink nipples. He put his mouth on her and tasted. “Strawberries...” he whispered. His arousal shoved hard against his jeans.
She arched her hips toward him. “That’s my...ah...lotion. I found some in the gift...ah—shop!”
He made a mental note to buy her a case of strawberry lotion. “Love that scent on you.” He loved touching her, kissing her. His lips feathered over her flesh. He licked her nipple, caressed her and held tight to the reins of his control.
He was trying to be gentle and easy.
Tina wasn’t.
Her nails raked over his back. Her fingers pushed between them and fumbled with the zipper of his jeans.
“I don’t want to wait,” she told him. “All I want is you.”
Her voice was the best sin he’d ever heard. She was every thought he had right then.
He ditched his jeans, but made sure to keep the protection he’d shoved into his back pocket. Yeah, he’d visited that gift shop, too. Because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off her.
And protecting her, always, was his priority.
His hands pushed her thighs farther apart. Drew nearly lost his mind when he touched her and found her so ready for him. He took care of the small foil packet in a flash.
He heaved in a deep breath—hold on to your control, hold on to it!—and positioned himself at the entrance to her body.
He started to thrust into her, but then Drew stilled and she glanced at him. Tina’s eyes were wide and eager, her lips parted. Desire was on her face. Desire wasn’t enough.
He wanted to see her pleasure.
“No going back,” he said again. This moment would change everything for them. She needed to realize that. This wasn’t just some adrenaline-infused hook-up sex.
Tina’s hands caught his. Their fingers threaded together.
He thrust.
Too good. Drew growled out her name. He withdrew, thrust again. Her legs wrapped around his hips. The pleasure built, rushing fast and hard toward him. This wasn’t just sex. He’d had sex with plenty of other women.
This was more. So much more.
He thrust faster. Harder. His control ripped. No, shredded.
He’d wanted to show her that he could be a considerate lover.
But he was starving for her.
Her sex squeezed around him. He was staring straight into her eyes, and he saw her gaze go bright and blind with pleasure.
His climax hit him. The pleasure slammed through him, took his breath, and he held on to her as tightly as he could.
Drew kept thrusting. The pleasure wasn’t ending. His back tightened. His muscles strained. Tina whispered his name. She was so beautiful. So perfect to him.
The release crested. The surge was the most powerful climax he’d ever had.
When it ended, when the shudders stopped racking their bodies, Drew could only think—
No going back.
He always kept his promises.
* * *
IT WAS THE ringing of the phone that woke Drew hours later. The steady peal came from his phone, a weak and low sound since he had fallen asleep in Tina’s room.
In her bed.
He glanced over at her. His arm was curled around her stomach. Her lashes swept over her cheeks. She breathed easily. Slowly.
The phone kept ringing.
Drew slipped from the bed. He yanked on his jeans and padded quietly to his room. He grabbed for the phone.
He didn’t recognize the number, but in the EOD, that didn’t mean anything. Burner phones and untraceable cells were used every day. “Hello?”
“Agent...Lancaster?”
He turned away from Tina’s door and headed toward the skyline view. Darkness had fallen over the city now, but the lights from the skyscrapers still gleamed. “Who is this?”
“I believe you’ve been looking for me,” the voice said. It was a male’s voice. No accent. No inflection. “And I’ve been looking for you.”
He glanced toward the connecting door. He could still see Tina in there. Safe in bed. “I think you’ve got the wrong number.” His gut clenched and his body went on high alert.
Laughter. The cold kind. “No, I’ve got the right number, and I’ve got the right man.”
Drew strained to hear any background noise that might give the guy’s location away, but, unfortunately, he heard nothing.
“How valuable is she?” the voice asked him, still as calm and easy-as-you-please.
“Sorry, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice came out the same way. He could play this game all night long.
Devast. The big boss had actually called him. Called him on what should have been a secure line. Who was giving the guy this intel? They’d thought that the EOD had outed its traitor months back. A guy in the tech department who was now in a cold grave.
Someone else was on Devast’s side. The bombing on that plane and Devast’s access to his personal number proved it.
A sigh drifted to his ear. “Don’t waste my time, Agent Lancaster. I know exactly who you are. You know who I am. And you know what I want.”
Tina.
Fine. His cover was blown with the guy, so he could cut through the bull. “You’re not getting her.”
The laughter came again. “Why? Because it’s your job to keep her safe?” A taunt.
“Something like that.” He made sure to step away from the glass and yank the curtains closed. He was up so high that Devast shouldn’t be able to take a shot at him, but Drew had never been the type to take chances.
“I’ve learned a lot about you recently. After you killed my men, I had no choice but to learn.”
The guy spoke of death far too easily. But then, Devast had been an instrument of death for most of his life. “You sure don’t seem upset about losing them.”
“And you don’t seem upset about killing them.”
Once more, his gaze returned to Tina’s still form in that bed. She thought that she was safe right then.
She wasn’t.
Drew couldn’t track the call—he didn’t have the equipment handy—but was Devast tracking him? Right then? The HAVOC network was massive. And inside the EOD. “This call is over,” he said. He wasn’t going to risk revealing Tina’s location to—
“I want to make you an offer,” Devast said quickly. “Consider it a business deal. You give me what I want, and I’ll give you a million dollars.”
What? One million dollars was one hell of an offer.
“Like I said,” Devast continued, and now the guy sounded way too confident. “I learned a lot about you. I know that you’re a man who would once do anything for money. Lie. Cheat. Steal. And now...for Mercer...for his money, you kill.”
His back teeth had locked. “You don’t know as much about me as you seem to think.” He didn’t auction off his services to the highest bidder.
“Give me what I want,” Devast said, “and I’ll give you enough money to finally kick all of that poor Mississippi mud off your shoes.”
The bedcovers rustled softly from the other room. He turned away from the room and hunched his shoulders. “Who says there is anything wrong with that mud?”
Silence. Then... “Think about my offer. Think long hard about it. I’m giving you one chance. The money—and your life.”
For Tina’s life.
“I don’t give second chances, Agent Lancaster. This is your one opportunity. Be smart. Take it.”
The floor squeaked behind him. The scent of strawberries drifted in the air.
“Bring her to me. Forty-eight nineteen Demopolis Way. The old factory on the east end.”
Devast sure thought he’d found Drew’s price. “When?”
“Sunset. That will give you plenty of time to get her away from the other agents.”
And it would give Devast plenty of time to lay his trap. Drew was no fool.
I won’t betray her.
The floor gave another low squeak. Tina would be close enough to hear every word that Drew said. “I’m surprised you don’t just want me to kill her right now.”
He heard the sharp, indrawn breath behind him.
“I won’t have another mistake on my hands. I want to see Mercer’s daughter die.”
Drew turned his head. He could look straight into Tina’s eyes then.
“Make the trade, Agent Lancaster.”
The line went dead in his ear.
Fear flashed in her eyes. “Drew, what’s happening?”
He glanced down at his phone. Had Devast traced them? And if the EOD traitor had hacked into the system already... There could be no safe place for her.
No safe place, but with him. Drew rushed toward her and locked his fingers with hers. “We need to leave now.”
* * *
ANTON DEVAST SMILED as he put down the phone. The seed had been planted. Now, it was just about letting it take root.
Drew Lancaster could trade the woman. Or he could die.
A simple enough offer.
Anton looked to the right. Dallas waited. So did his prize.
When I’m done, I’ll send you a piece of her, Mercer.
Then his old friend would know that they’d finally come full circle.
A child for a child.
Payback.
* * *
MERCER STARED DOWN at the faded headstone. Weeds were trying to grow over it, so he bent and jerked them back.
The stone was cold to the touch.
No flowers. No mementos marked the grave.
The man buried there had been gone for nearly twenty years. No one but Mercer ever came to visit the grave. He knew—he’d had eyes on this cemetery for years.
“Who is he?”
He didn’t glance back at the agent’s curious voice. He was bringing Cooper Marshall on to the case because he needed backup. The mission was going to get tough, Anton wouldn’t hesitate to kill—and Cooper Marshall, well, he was an agent who never hesitated.
He was also a guy who didn’t seem to understand fear. Sometimes that lack of fear was a weakness.
Sometimes it was an advantage.
“He was a man who got caught in the cross fire.” A cross fire that had come from Mercer. “And his death started a war that I need to end.”
He backed away from the grave. His gaze slid around the area. The spot hadn’t changed much in twenty years. The trees were still heavy, lush. A pretty spot.
Jon might have liked it.
Grief pulled at him, but Mercer pushed the memories away. “You’ve been briefed on the situation with Dr. Jamison?”
He couldn’t bring in a full force of agents on this case. The more people who knew, the more potential for word to spread about his “daughter”—and that couldn’t happen.
He’d already sent a message to Cale Lane, his real daughter’s husband. The agent was on high alert, and he had strict orders to keep Cassidy out of the U.S. until this nightmare was over. Cale also had orders not to tell Cassidy what was happening. If she thought that someone else was being risked in her place...
Cassidy would be back here in an instant.
He didn’t want her in that kind of danger. He’d begun the whole ruse with Rachel Mancini to protect Cassidy.
The plan had been for Rachel to draw out his enemies—in particular, Devast. The agents would have taken Devast down, and Mercer’s “daughter” would have died in the cross fire. They’d arranged to stage Rachel’s death so perfectly.
With that fake death, the hunt for his daughter would have ended. Cassidy would have been safe to live a normal life. A life she’d never had before.
But now that perfect plan was in ashes.
“I have been briefed, sir,” Cooper replied.
Mercer’s gaze slid to him. “Dr. Jamison has volunteered to assist in the rest of the investigation. She wants to help us catch the man behind her abduction.”
“Anton Devast,” Cooper said. His blue stare drifted to the grave—and to the name on the headstone.
Jonathan Devast.
“Devast is a very dangerous, unpredictable man.” Mercer cocked his head as he studied Cooper. “You’re rather unpredictable, too.” A point that had almost kept the man out of the EOD.
Cooper Marshall was an ex-U.S. Air Force Pararescueman. He jumped into danger any chance he could get. Literally.
A faint smile lifted Cooper’s lips. “Yes, sir, I’ve been told that I am.”
They were alone in the graveyard. No eyes. No ears. “You’ve been on a mission in Afghanistan for the past seven months.” Mercer exhaled a slow breath. “And I have someone who has been in my agency, someone who has been selling secrets, straight to Devast. Since I personally sent the plane to pick you up on your mission—”
“You think I’m not the traitor.”
“I know you’re not.” He knew every single secret that Cooper Marshall possessed. He should. The man was family.
Some secrets, Cooper didn’t even know.
“So you want me to go in and join the others who are already on point,” Cooper began.
Mercer shook his head. “No, I don’t want you making any contact with the other agents.”
Cooper’s blond brows rose. The sunlight glinted off his hair. Not as golden as my Cassidy’s. Much darker.
Cooper cleared his throat. “Sorry. I’m a little confused. If I’m not to join the team, then just what is my assignment?”
“To make sure you’re not seen. To follow Tina Jamison. To keep your eyes on her and to report to me anything or anyone that threatens her.”
“And the agents with her— What, you don’t trust them? You think one of them could be the traitor?”
He wanted to trust them. On paper, Drew Lancaster, Rachel Mancini and Dylan Foxx were all good agents.
But somewhere in the EOD, there was an agent who was selling him out.
So, yes, he wanted to trust them, but he’d learned long ago that he didn’t always get what he wanted. And he wouldn’t put Tina’s life in jeopardy. “Money can tempt a man to do just about anything in this world.” The right offer, to the right man... “This isn’t the first time that one of the EOD’s own has turned.” Not the first time and, unfortunately, not the last. When you moved in the circles that he did, betrayal was a fact of life.
It was a fact that had killed his wife.
It had taken time, but Mercer had traced that brutal attack back to the man who’d been his friend.
His gaze returned to the grave.
“I want extra protection on Tina Jamison. She’s not an agent, and I’m not going to have her sacrifice her life because she’s trying—” He stopped because Cooper had no reason to know the rest. Tina is trying to repay a debt to me.
He knew exactly what Tina was doing. Because he knew her. Tina was smart, incredibly so. She always had been. Her father had kept smiling pictures of a young Tina—holding her slew of academic awards—all over his desk.
Mercer had never been able to show pictures of his own daughter. But he had one of Cassidy, one that he carefully hid from others.
Cassidy and her mother, Marguerite.
Tina was grateful to him. He knew that. She’d told him time and again. But he hadn’t done anything for her. She would have graduated college on her own. Gone to med school—on her own.
Sometimes, he felt as though all he’d done was put her in a cage. He’d offered her the position at the EOD because she was a damn good doctor.
But... Did I also offer her the job so that I could keep an eye on her? To protect her, the way her father would have done?
Only, Mercer’s protection had turned into a trap.
The same way I trapped Cassidy.
And if he’d known about Cooper Marshall sooner...
He shoved out a hard breath. “You’re on Dr. Jamison’s security detail. You watch her. You protect her. If you think she’s compromised, you move immediately to retrieve her.” He leveled his stare at Cooper to make sure the man got the point. “Your priority isn’t bringing down Devast. It’s keeping Dr. Jamison alive.” Because if a choice had to be made...
Cooper nodded.
Then Mercer wanted his agent to make the right choice.