Forever Loved (Forever Lost Book 2) (21 page)

“I love you too. My sweet, sweet, Cassie. You’re strong and beautiful, and far kinder than I deserve after how I’ve treated you. Now, do it, be free…”

When she pulled the trigger and watched as his lifeless body fell to the ground, Cassie screamed in pain. Every inch of her body yelled for her to run, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She shouted curses at his lifeless body, yelling at him for daring to make her choose her life over his, but knew it was pointless. Grayson was gone, and she only had a couple hours before his cartel buddies would arrive. Cassie had to be long gone by then.

After calling on the numbness she once had been forced to maintain every day to return, Cassie stood, stashed the gun in the back of her jeans, and grabbed Grayson’s car keys from his jacket. All the while, she couldn’t look at the corpse she was leaving behind.

She closed the door behind her and calmly walked down the corridor to the nearest stairwell. It turned out the place was a derelict old house. Cassie had no idea where, but all she knew was that she had to get away. She felt like a zombie as she forced her feet forward, something living and breathing, but not alive. Her body was numb, along with her heart. On auto-pilot, she checked as she rounded every corner using methods she’d watched the cops do on television. Cassie pointed the gun around in search of any moving target, and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she spotted the solitary black sedan parked outside by the base of the stairs.

She slowed a couple steps short of the bottom when she saw someone leaning casually against it, clearly expecting her. Cassie crept forward, unsure how to proceed, when a soft, yet terrifying sound reached her ears. It was only a small, satisfied snigger, but it halted her descent in a heartbeat. It was a sound that turned her blood to ice, and her steely resolve to mush. Eduardo had evidently come along for the ride, and was openly amused to have discovered her fleeing Grayson’s captivity.

“I knew he wouldn’t be able to do it,” he said, and laughed again. “That’s why the mission took so long, isn’t it? Not that he couldn’t find you, but that he couldn’t quite bring himself to decide your fate,
Señora Sanchez
,” Eduardo added, stepping into the doorway so she could see him fully. He too had aged incredibly since she’d last seen him, but that intense dark stare of his still gave her the creeps. Eduardo was a true monster; she’d seen it right from the start. This time, though, she had no one there to protect her from him. Cassie took a step back. She didn’t know where she might go, but hiding or running in the opposite direction seemed like a good place to start.

“Don’t even think about it,” muttered another voice from the shadows by the base of the stairs. She heard a gun cock. Figuring it had to be trained on her, Cassie turned to find the voice’s owner, but couldn’t see through the darkness.

“Drop the gun,
puta
. If you do as you’re told, I won’t hurt you. I promise,” Eduardo told her, and she realized she was still holding the gun in her hand. She lifted it higher, her hand shaking as she trained it on her oppressor. She didn’t believe his lies for even a second.

With a sneer, Eduardo reached to his hip where he pulled a knife from its sheathe on his belt. Cassie recognized the blade instantly, and saliva flooded her mouth when a wave of nausea struck. It was Victor’s knife. The same one his brother Luis had given him as a teenager, and the one she’d later used to stab him and take his life.

“You’ve three seconds to drop it, otherwise I’ll shoot you in the stomach,” the voice in the shadows warned her, and Cassie gasped. Whoever was there somehow knew she was pregnant, and she had to wonder how.

“No,
José
. I’ll use this to cut the
bastardo
out.” Eduardo stepped closer, calling her bluff with the gun. “It’s the justice you deserve, but I won’t make it fatal to you, no. I need you alive so I can get my money’s worth,” he told her, and Cassie retched.

In her moment of disgust, he lunged and grabbed the gun. She fired, but Eduardo had already pushed her hand skyward and the bullet hit the wall behind him. He flung the weapon away, and then tackled her.

As he pushed Cassie down onto the stairs beneath them, Eduardo slid the blade between two of her ribs in a calm and calculated move. He didn’t go deep, but it was enough to leave her writhing beneath him, gasping for agonizing breath.

He watched her with a smile, and brushed her hair away from her face in a move she might’ve considered gentle if he hadn’t just stabbed her.

“
José? Please, is it really you?” she whimpered, closing her eyes so she didn’t have to stare up into Eduardo’s piercing gaze any longer. He was mere inches away, his body crushing hers against the hard stairs beneath them.

“
S
í,
Inglés aumentó,
it’s me.” She heard him take a step toward them. “I lied when I told you I meant no harm. You were right not to trust me.”

Cassie nodded. Being proven correct wasn’t remotely as sweet as it ought to have been. She finally opened her eyes. Eduardo had her exactly where he wanted her, and there was nothing she could do to fight it. Cassie gave in to the pain radiating from her side, letting the calm numbness trickle out from her heart to the rest of her tense, aching body. It was better to be an emotionless shell for what she knew was coming, and the pain actually helped her focus her energy on retreating into herself.

Eduardo watched Cassie give up, and he smiled. Clearly delighted by her lack of fight, he ran his thumb over her lip before sliding it down to her breasts and then waist.

“Go do a perimeter sweep, will you?” he ordered without looking away, and José stalked off without another word. “I’m going to fuck you now,” he murmured when they were alone, unbuttoning Cassie’s jeans. “And if you scream or fight me, the knife will go here next.” He rested his hand over the small round of her belly.
Cassie said nothing. She simply screwed her eyes shut, waiting for him to proceed. Waiting for the pain and the anguish to hit her along with his disgusting violation. But nothing happened.

She opened her eyes again just in time to watch as Eduardo’s brains splattered against the wall beside them. A misty cloud of blood settled on her face and chest, and Cassie could do nothing but stare up at the gory mess in shock and disbelief. She turned to where the shot had come from, and saw the blood-covered face of a man she knew all too well on the other side of a shattered windowpane. Roger was standing there, albeit with a significant sway. He had a pistol in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

He grinned as though pleased with what he’d just done, but Cassie couldn’t believe her eyes or feel gladness for what had just happened. She guessed she had to be hallucinating, and did nothing but scream until she eventually passed out.

Chapter Twenty

They were bumping along when Cassie started to come around. Something stung at her side, the pain eventually forcing her awake. She groaned and coughed.

“Try not to move.” Roger’s voice was in her ear, and the sound shocked her back to full awareness. She blinked awake and turned her face toward it. He was really there, not dead like Grayson had let her believe. Roger had clearly been injured, but he was okay. Her protector was back by her side, and he was pressing down on her stab wound with a wad of bloody cloth. The bumping she’d felt was because they were in the back of a car, and Cassie quickly realized they were driving off, away from both Grayson and Eduardo’s corpses.

“How did you find me? Where’s
José?
Who’s driving? You’re alive?” She mumbled question after question, and eventually fell silent. Cassie lifted her hand to touch Roger’s cheek and sighed. “Tell Leo I love him, and I’m sorry,” she said, fretting that she might not make it after she saw just how much blood was soaking through the gauze in Roger’s hands.

“You’ll be telling him yourself in a matter of minutes, Cassie. Trust me,” Roger replied with a scowl. He was trying not to show how worried he was, but his expression said it all. She was in a bad way.

“You always were a bad liar,” Cassie groaned as the world started to spin.
Roger sighed, and rather than respond, he turned his head to glance over his shoulder at their driver.

“I hope you’ve got your foot to the floor,
José?” he asked. Cassie’s breath hitched. Her eyes widened in fear, but Roger shushed her. “It’s okay. He’s with us, Cassie. He’s on our side.”

“Well in that case, I want a fucking word with you, José,” she managed.

“S
í,
Inglés aumentó,
you may have as many as you desire.” His voice filtered over to the backseat, and Cassie smiled. Whoever he was, trusted ally or cartel scumbag, Roger seemed at ease with him there, and so would she be.

Pain spurred from her chest again and Cassie sucked in a hissed breath. The car was spinning, so she closed her eyes and prayed that she’d at least get to see Leo one more time. While she hoped the baby was okay, all she could think about was him, and when the darkness dragged her under again, it was his face she saw in her mind’s eye.

***

Leo paced, pounding the floor hard with his size elevens in an attempt to leave holes in the linoleum. Being powerless and without any information at all wasn’t his idea of fun, and he glowered at the man sitting behind a steel table opposite him.

“Tell me again why I’m here?” he demanded, coming to a stop before him.

“For your protection,” the man answered, crossing thickly muscled arms across his chest. Leo sized the guy up, trying to determine if he could take him, but then figured it wasn’t the best idea, seeing as he’d declared himself as a Secret Service agent and all.

He thought back to a few hours earlier when
a couple of mean looking behemoths had stormed into his office unannounced and asked him and Brian to go with them. They’d barely said a word, and yet the underlying message had been abundantly clear—there hadn’t really been any choice in the matter. The men had told him how they knew that Cassie had been taken and who by, and how they’d put measures in place that’d ensure she was extracted and safe by the end of that day. However, Leo had been offered no proof of their claims, and had spent the past few hours demanding answers from the men whose lips were annoyingly sealed.

“Where is she? What’s going on? Who the ever-loving fuck are you guys?” he tried again, but his stoic companion said nothing—again.

Leo slumped against the wall, holding his head in his hands. He felt broken, and so desperate for the answers his tight-lipped companion seemed either unwilling or unable to give him, and it was making him angry. “I need something, man,” he murmured, but his heartfelt plea was met with nothing but silence.

After an age, the door opened and in walked another man Leo had never seen before. Unlike his gargantuan comrades and their all-black getup, he was dressed in a suit and tie. He seemed different to the others, and Leo tensed. This guy was clearly
someone
, and his otherwise indifferent guard jumped to attention and then took his leave without being given a word of order.

Leo mirrored the new man’s movements, and quickly took the seat opposite him at the table, while silence descended that was so thick he was sure he could taste it.

“Mr. Solomon, my name’s Colton, but people call me ‘The Boss.’ I’m the director of this particular branch of the Secret Service.”

“Funny, that’s what people call me too,” Leo replied with a smirk. “Looks like we’re either gonna get on like a house on fire—or not.”

“I’m hoping the former,” Colton answered, and Leo fixed him with a serious look.

“Well, that depends on how long you’re planning on keeping me locked up…”

“Only as long as necessary. I trust you’ve been well taken care of?” he asked, and Leo shrugged. He fixed Colton with a hard stare, trying to read him, but it was no use. The man opposite was more than a closed book, he was a bound and sealed bag of cold and calculated nothingness. Leo shuddered. In many ways, it was like looking in a mirror.

“I was told to go with your boys out there, taken halfway across the city to where I’d hoped to find my girlfriend safe and well, only to be shoved in here without so much as an idea of her whereabouts or condition. I’ve been given nothing. I’ve been told nothing…I need answers, Colton, and I hope to bloody God that you’re here to give me some.”

Colton awarded Leo a flicker of a smile, but otherwise didn’t react to his ramblings, as though having expected every single word of Leo’s anxious response. He crossed his knees and linked his hands over the top, evidently going with the more casual approach.

“She’s in our custody, and you can see her shortly.” He paused while Leo let out a sigh of relief. “While she’s being taken care of, I thought we might have a little chat. Do you know who we are and what we do here, Mr. Solomon?”

“With all due respect, Colton, I don’t give a shit,” Leo snapped, thinking how this was not the time for a game of “guess the special branch while having a pissing contest with the Big Boss.”

“Don’t you want to know why we found and rescued Ms. Philips, or how? Aren’t you at least the slightest bit intrigued as to how we knew where to find you, or why we chose to intervene?” Colton pressed. Leo guessed he wasn’t leaving their small room until he at least showed his willingness to play along, so he shrugged.

“I was warned I’d be being watched, so can’t say it’s a huge surprise old Big Brother has been keeping tabs on me,” he answered. “Let me guess, MI6?”

Colton gripped the hem of each sleeve in turn, straightening himself while sitting taller in his seat.

“We don’t work for the government, but we are affiliated with the Secret Intelligence Service, yes,” he agreed. “Organized Crime Unit, specifically drug related.”

“Specifically, cartels and highly organized drug rings?”

“Specifically, yes.”

“Then what, pray tell, do you want from me? I won’t go back inside.” Leo had transformed. He was no longer the man trembling with anxiety, fearing the worst. He was Mr. Big, Bad Solomon, and when he felt backed into a corner, his alter ego certainly wasn’t one to back down. Colton seemed hesitant to answer, so Leo leaned over the table towards him, and added, “You might want to get to the goddamn point, and quick.”

***

Cassie stirred, feeling ready to throw up. She turned her body and retched, and was surprised when the rim of a cold metal bowl touched just below her lips.

“We’ve got you, Cassie.” Roger’s voice filled her ears, and the wondrous sound immediately eased her nausea. She turned her face toward him and let her eyes flutter open. It was so bright it took her a few blinks to come around, but when she did, she saw the loveliest sight.

“You look like an idiot with that bandage on your head,” she teased, and smiled. He’d been patched up, as had she, going by the gurney she was laid out on and the thick gauze now wrapped around her ribs. It was tight, but she felt no pain, and guessed she’d been doped up pretty good. “The baby?” she mumbled in question, and her heart fluttered wildly when Roger grinned.

“Fine,” he answered quickly. “Everything’s fine.” He lifted up a sheet of black and white images, and Cassie took them from him with a gasp. It was a set of sonogram pictures. She stared at the little blob in shock while Roger helped sit her up against the thick cushions.

“What’s going on, Rog? And where the hell are we?” He pulled up his chair so he could sit beside her and hold her hand.

“I hope you’re ready for this?” he asked with a smile, and she nodded.