Blindsided (14 page)

FIFTEEN

T
he crystal chandelier in the front foyer took a stray bullet that missed its mark.

Ethan.

The crash of each falling piece smashing into the wood floor shook him where he crouched for cover. A quick recount of the last split seconds confirmed the bullet had been meant for him.

He had been pressed against the wall, approaching the double front doors. The slender windows on either side would tell him who had come calling, but before he could determine the visitor’s identity, the side windows shattered to pieces with a round of rapid fire.

Ethan hit the deck, but the bullets that embedded into the wall he had been pressed against proved he was the target.

He was being taken out. There was no doubt about it. But by whom?

Ethan pressed his pants pocket for the cell phone Wade had given him. He redialed for the third time the number for Pace.

Still no answer.

Was that because he was dead?

Or because it was his boss who’d ordered the takedown?

Did Pace see it a necessary maneuver in order to get to Roni? He would know that Ethan would die protecting her. That he would take a bullet for her if it meant keeping a civilian alive under his investigation.

But Roni wasn’t here.

For Pace to take him out without the civilian in the vicinity, he had to believe Ethan had gone rogue. Or had some other reason for keeping her alive.

Duty had always been the driving force in keeping with his responsibilities for the innocent, but duty never caused the hovering sense of panic that had him second-guessing his every move. One wrong move and he might lose his civilian.

His brain tripped over the word
civilian
. It didn’t feel like the correct word to describe Roni. Words like
friend, comrade
and
pal
also didn’t work either.

Those just made him feel...bitter.

Here he was sitting on the pristine floors of a fortress that belonged to one of the classiest women he’d ever met. It reminded him of how different their lives were.

His whole apartment could fit into this foyer. Not that he was ever there. He lived undercover, one investigation to the next. The Bureau knew any job could be handed to him, and he wouldn’t bat an eye. A month under, a year under, an undeterminable length that could take years all meant more time as Ethan Gunn. No matter the job, he was their man. And they saw him as a man who took each job by the horns. A man in charge.

Roni only saw him as a sidekick.

It was as though she saw through the facade at the real man behind the mask. Ethan Gunn was a fake. Take off his cover, and he was a kid from the hood. His expertise amounted to stealing and cloning cars. Even Guerra had said he’d never seen a better thief. The man didn’t know the half of it. That came from practice, and lots of it.

Ethan didn’t want Roni to ever know. He wasn’t even worthy to be her sidekick, never mind her...what? He was back to finding a word suitable to describe what Roni was to him.

Another round of bullets shattered windows in the dining room. At what point did the shooter or shooters come through them? He prepared to spring up for the ambush, his gun ready for when they did. He trusted Wade to guard the back of the house and alert him by text if they were breached. Clay and Sylvie had the second floor in case they had a climber.

Movement to his left caught his eye. He swung his gun in that direction to take aim at the intruder.

Confusion turned to outright seething anger in less than a second.

“Get down!” he yelled as he stood from his hiding place to dive for the woman under his charge.

Multiple rounds spewed around him in all directions. Thuds and shattered glass wherever the bullets found a place.

Ethan collided into Roni at full force, sending them both skidding across the smooth floors. Bullets hit the floor off to his right. On his knees, he shoved her to the left, behind a fancy chair and side table.

Ethan pushed in close to shield Roni’s body with his. His chest rose and fell in rapid repetition, his voice box clogged with pent-up anger. All he could do was wrap his arms around her and squeeze the rage out of himself before it consumed him.

Never had he felt such an emotion. He wasn’t even sure if it was rage. It was more like a feeling one might get standing on a precipice of total loss.

His heart clenched. His lungs seized. His brain saw red. His eyes watered up.

“Why?” He managed to break the choke hold around his vocal cords for that one word.

“They want
me
, Ethan. And they know they have to kill you to get to me.” Roni shook her head against his cheek. “I’ve allowed this long enough. I’m grateful for all you’ve done to keep me safe, but I cannot allow you to give your life for me.”

Ethan lifted his face to stare into the wide blue eyes of Veronica Spencer. “You can’t stop me.”

“Yes, I can,” she replied.

Something hard pushed into Ethan’s rib cage. It took only a second to remember the glimpse of the gun Roni held before he took her down to the floor.

The fear in her big round eyes told him she would never shoot him, but that didn’t mean the trigger wouldn’t get pulled accidently in fright. Another spray of bullets could cause her to jerk and pull it.

Ethan reached between them and moved the barrel away from him. Her hand went limp as tears pooled in her eyes. He easily took the gun from her and placed it beside them just as her tears spilled and she let out a wail.

She latched her arms around his neck and trembled in his arms. “I’m so sorry. I would never... I just... I don’t want you to die because of me. Let me lead them away from here. It’s me they want. Please, Ethan, let me go.”

“Shh.” He consoled her rising pained speech of selflessness, feeling her streams of tears against his cheeks. He kissed her ear. “It’s okay, Roni. I thank you for thinking of me, but this is what I do.”

Her head shook back and forth, and he lifted his face to hers. Inches from her elegant face even in the onslaught of angst. He’d never seen anyone more beautiful. The fact that she meant to protect him made her even more so.

His heart swelled. “No one has ever done anything like that for me. I’m humbled, but you need to let me do my job.”

“You didn’t sign up to take a bullet meant for the criminal. You protect innocent people, not the guilty.”

“You’re not guilty.”

She lifted her trembling chin. “How do you know? You saw the pictures. I’ve been lying to you this whole time. I’m guilty. I’m guilty of it all.”

Ethan paused for a brief second at her turnaround confession. “All of it, you say?”

“Yes. You’ve been protecting a crook.”

“And trafficker?”

She swallowed hard but nodded once.

“Stop it, Roni. Just stop it.”

“No, you stop protecting me. Right now, Ethan Gunn, you stop—”

Ethan slammed his lips down on hers. He meant it at first to silence her crazy request. What she was asking of him was insane. Didn’t she understand he would die for her?

No. How could she? He didn’t even grasp the weight of that himself.

But with her lips beneath his, moving in accord with him, opening to him, she had to know something he didn’t know. Was this her kiss goodbye?

Not if he had anything to say about it. She wasn’t losing him that easy. He was a tail she wouldn’t be breaking away from.

Ethan slanted his face to pull her in as close as possible, demanding she accept him as something more than her protector. His fingers twined into her gloriously silky red hair, his palm cupping the back of her head to hold her and guide her in their kiss, a symbol of his need to hold her and guide her in their everyday life.

Roni fisted her hands against his chest, twisting his shirt. He felt her strength but wouldn’t let her push him away like she wanted to push him out of his job to protect her.

But his job description did not include kissing her.

Abruptly, Ethan pulled apart from her. Their lips were still close, but only their breathing mingled.

She searched his eyes as he knew he searched hers for what this might be between them.

Friends? Comrades?
Pals?

No. Whatever was between them went way beyond any of those terms.

Ethan had never felt so scared in all his life. Not even the bullets pummeling her home stood up against the fear of what Roni could do to him. She could very well shatter everything he knew to be true. That solo or no-go was just as much of a farce as his name.

* * *

More than ever, Roni needed to escape.

And not just from the assortment of evildoers who had finally caught up to her.

Ethan Gunn stood on the threshold of breaching more than her home’s walls. But the damage he could leave behind trumped any pain Jared had ever caused. Something told Roni she would be the one left in the dust, spinning her wheels, and this time, there would be no one to blame but herself.

With Jared, the blame was obvious. His words and actions were abusive and selfish. Ending their relationship came easy.

Nothing would be easy with Ethan.

Roni swallowed hard at the intensity shooting from his eyes. Their chests rose and fell in the same rhythm that spelled havoc and...
fear
for them both.

“Just let me go, Ethan. And this will end right now. It won’t go any further. We both know it can’t.”

She bit her lower lip, tasting him there and fitting the sweet flavor of tenderness to memory. Never did she want to forget how close she’d come to something that many never see in a lifetime.

Never did she want to forget the way she felt in his arms when he held her with such purpose. His hand behind her head guided her. His other hand trailed down her arm with a light touch.

The flashing red lights of her mind alerted her to dangerous roads ahead.

As though the shooters outside knew of her approaching peril, a lull of gunfire changed to formidable silence.

Ethan was touching her arm. The light fabric of her blouse covered her scars there, but it still put her on alert. His fingers had trailed down from her other scarred place. The place where he had held her during their kiss was her neck.

Ethan’s hand had been on her neck.

Panic flooded through every muscle in Roni’s body. Her hands where she had bunched his shirt in their kiss became a force to push back humiliation.

He’d touched her scars.

She pushed harder.

“I know what you’re thinking, Roni.”

“I told you nobody touches me there.” She attempted to kick out from his grasp.

“Well, maybe I’m not nobody to you.” His lips thinned as though the idea made him just as distressed.

And his hand swept the rest of the way down her arm at lightning speed until he found her repelling hands. One flick and he had her wrist in his grasp.

“You’re right. You are something to me.”

“I don’t think this is the time to have this conversation. Confessions under fire don’t stick.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t said before.” She curled her lips as though Ethan was a bug under a microscope.

“And what is that?”

Roni gritted her teeth, knowing what she had to say. “You’re somebody who’s just along for the ride. And that’s all you’ll ever be. Don’t forget it.”

Ethan gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. “That’s what you think. Sweetheart, I’ve been in the driver’s seat from the word
go
. Nothing happened that I didn’t allow. Don’t you forget
that
.”

Before she could say another word, he had her pulled up and out from their hiding place. He dragged her behind him at a fast clip toward the back of the house.

“Where are we going?” she called, ducking her head when a smattering of gunshots restarted outside. The Norcastle PD was out there. How long could they hold these people back? They had to be surrounded themselves.

Please, God, protect them
.

The prayer, however simple, stumped her. Why now? He’d already proven He didn’t answer her prayers.

She had no time to squander thinking up a reason for reaching out to God because Ethan’s next action stumped her even more.

They reached the back of the house where a bench chest and coat hooks above were situated. He lifted the bench, and she expected him to tell her to climb in.

Any normal person would.

Except Ethan wasn’t any normal person, no matter what she just told him.

He grabbed a few boots from the chest and tossed them to the floor. Then he reached in and lifted the bottom board up.

A narrow, steep stairway lay open for them.

Roni inhaled in shock. Not because she didn’t know about the secret passageway. She knew about them all. Her mother had her reasons when designing this house and made sure her children knew about every exit. But Roni’s shock was because Ethan knew about them.

“How?” she asked as he pushed her in and followed her.

As soon as they were inside, Ethan pulled the cover down, putting them into total darkness.

Roni stepped down carefully a few steps and listened to the muffled gunfire retreat the farther she went. Or perhaps that was because her mind blared louder with fathomless reason of how Ethan could have known about her mother’s escape routes.

“You ask how?” he said, close to her ear. “You must not have believed me when I said I’ve been in the driver’s seat since the word
go
. I know about them all. I’ve been through every square inch of this place these past few months. I wasn’t taking any chances of you sneaking away when I came to arrest you. Pace isn’t the only one who gets his man. I do, too. I wasn’t going to be leaving without you then, and I’m not letting you ditch me now. You won’t be leaving me behind, Roni. Not today, and not ever.”

Roni cringed at the forceful tone in Ethan’s voice. She didn’t feel threatened, but she also didn’t know this side of him. Up until now, his compliance had preceded him. But it had been a farce. He wasn’t being compliant at all. As he’d said, he’d been leading this show the whole time, letting her believe she had been the master of ceremonies.