Her Forgotten Betrayal (21 page)

“And all you care about,
brother
, all you’ve ever cared about, is hurting people and the money you now make while you’re doing it.”

In the doorway beyond Sebastian’s self-congratulating tantrum, she caught a flicker of a shadow moving in the hallway.

Cole.

Thank God.

“Money is power.” The muzzle of Sebastian’s revolver pressed into her temple once more. “And power’s the only thing that matters. That’s the one lesson we both managed to learn from good old Father. It’s why you’ve slaved away, sacrificing everything else in your life for our business, even though you couldn’t possibly understand its true potential. It’s why I knew you’d never trust Marinos enough to stay with him tonight in that ridiculously tricked-out shack of his. Of course you’d come back here alone, crying and weak, picking up the pieces of your sad excuse for a life. What you really want most, just like me, is to do everything by yourself. You need to control your world, like Father taught both of us to do. How you live. How you love—or not. Even how you choose to die.
This
is what you wanted. It’s what you’ve dreamed of. I’m really doing you a favor. This way, no one will hurt your stupid, tender heart again, right? The difference between you and me, Shaw, is you’re too weak to make your dream a reality on your own.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” she said. She’d been watching Cole’s approach, holding herself motionless while her head throbbed and her brother monologued about his sadistic victory.

“And why’s that?” The muzzle of their father’s pistol bit deeper into her skin.

“Because my dream-come-true is standing behind you,” she said, “with his weapon pointed at your freakish skull.”

…

Shaw had been on the floor, bleeding, sneering up at her maniac brother. Now she was smiling at Cole’s approach. Her cheek was bruised, her upper lip cut. She looked close to passing out at any moment, and yet strong enough to keep battling her brother until she’d beat the bastard at his own maniacal game. She’d defied the danger they’d put her in. And like a seasoned interrogator, she’d talked her brother into revealing every one of his secrets.

Cole was going to get her out of this. Then he was going to paddle her for taking ten years off his life while he’d listened to every twisted word that had passed Sebastian’s lips. Then he was going to chain her to his side and kiss her breathless until he talked her into marrying him, so she could spend the next sixty years or so driving him even crazier while he tried to keep up with her brilliant, impossible self. To hell with her not forgiving him. He’d find a way to make her see that they didn’t have to be over. She’d find a way to love him again. He didn’t care what it took.
He
wasn’t giving up. Not this time.

How could he ever have thought he could let this fearless woman go?

“Drop the gun, Sebastian,” he said. The only thing keeping him from ripping the man limb from limb was the weapon Sebastian still had pressed to his sister’s temple.

“Pray tell,” Sebastian said. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you don’t have a death wish. Narcissists have too strong a sense of self-preservation to be that stupid, even one as warped you. And trust me. I
will
kill you.”

“I’m terrified.” The bastard actually chuckled, and Cole saw Shaw cringe. Her complexion was paper-white. Blood dripped from a scalp wound where her brother had taken a swing at her. All while Cole had waited in the hallway, as he and Shaw had discussed he would, until she gave him the safe word they’d agreed upon.

It had nearly killed him to wait, to listen to her suffering. But this time, it had been her call whether or not she went through with the mission and when to end it. This time, she’d been in charge.

“You should be scared shitless,” he said. “My team will be arriving in under thirty minutes. And every word you’ve said has been wirelessly feeding to my computers as well as to them. It’s over, Sebastian. You’ve lost.”

“Have I? Maybe I care more about seeing my precious sister’s brains splattered all over my grandmother’s prissy bedroom,” Sebastian said, “than about saving my own ass.”

“Then you’d have killed her already,” Cole reasoned. “And yet, here we all are. Why is that?”

“So I could finish what I should have after the barn fire.” The other man turned, his hand still twisted in Shaw’s hair. He dragged her with him until she was sprawled on all fours between him and Cole.

“Ow!” she cried, allowing her first sign of weakness to slip out, her head down, her body shuddering.

“Let her go,” Cole bit out.

“And miss watching you see her die?”

“I can drop you right here.” Cole aimed his own weapon at the monster’s forehead, dead center.

“But will I get my shot off first?” Sebastian laughed. “Are you going to take that chance, Special Agent Marinos, for the sake of closing out your assignment? After all, I’m your suspect, the one you’re tasked to bring in. Who will care if you can’t save your bothersome witness from the danger she’s recklessly put herself in? You’ll still be a hero with your task force, as long as you’re willing to sacrifice the bitch you love for your career.”

Shaw laughed right back. “Shoot his ass, Cole.”

But Cole couldn’t, not until there was a fraction more space between her and her brother.

“Shut up!” Sebastian kicked her in the ribs and let her fall to the ground, keeping his weapon trained on her.

“Touch her again,” Cole warned, “and I’ll—”

“Kill me?” The other man’s grotesque features contorted into a parody of sympathy. “So you said. But evidently, loving and protecting a woman aren’t the only things you suck at.”

Shaw made an impatient sound. “He also sucks at letting me make my own choices. Which is why I’m getting better by the second at taking things into my own hands.”

With no warning, she pushed off the ground. Her elbow came up and jammed into her brother’s gonads. Cole swept his free arm out, deflecting the bastard’s gun to the side. Sebastian doubled over, screaming in pain. His pistol skittered across the floor.

For a split second, Cole watched Shaw scramble away. But it was all the time her brother needed to take the upper hand. Sebastian’s head plowed into Cole’s diaphragm with enough force to knock the wind out of him. He landed hard and lost sight of Shaw.

“Run,” he wheezed out, praying to his angels that she’d listen and follow their plan. As soon as she was clear, she was supposed to make it downstairs and outside, then find someplace to hide and wait for Dawson to show.

Sebastian landed on top of him, panting and still whining with pain. He began grappling for Cole’s Glock.

Where was Shaw?

Cole couldn’t catch his breath, the world was fading to white, a maniac was about to shoot him with his own gun, and he couldn’t find Shaw. Sonofa
bitch
.

“Cole,” she yelled from somewhere behind her brother.

“Run!”

He had no idea whether she’d heard his choked-out command or not. Lodged between him and Sebastian, his gun fired. Shaw screamed.

Damn
.

The bedroom faded to black.

Chapter Nineteen

Shaw heard the gun go off and saw Cole go limp beneath Sebastian.

“No!” she screamed as the man she loved gave his life to preserve hers, her heart breaking in two, her precarious hold on reality rocked to its very core.

Then, before her brother could stagger to his feet, she ran, the way she’d promised she would. She ran, even though she wanted to fall across Cole’s body and weep for everything they should have had.

She wanted to thank him for caring for her so much more than he’d ever let her know. He could have killed Bastian at any point, but he’d waited until they had the evidence they’d needed to clear her name, and even then he hadn’t fired. He’d put his life in danger walking up to Sebastian, refusing to shoot because he wouldn’t risk her safety.

So she ran to honor his sacrifice, knowing that even though she was alive, a part of her would forever be dead inside. She’d missed her chance, at his cabin, to make Cole believe they didn’t have to be perfect—that they could fight their way back from anything, as long as they were fighting together. That she wanted to take the risk, any risk, that would bring him back to her. She hadn’t needed more time. She hadn’t needed anything else but him. And he’d died without knowing how much she still loved him.

She didn’t want perfect, she’d realized when her heart had sung at the sight of him striding into her bedroom like the hero he was. Sure, he’d made her want to clock him for not telling her the truth sooner. But that didn’t change how, in just two short days, he’d filled up her empty life like no one else ever would. Having him with her again had shown her that she didn’t want to keep chasing after safety, not if it meant being alone. She wanted Cole, reckless and stubborn and exasperating Cole, however she could have him.

And now his love was gone forever.

Tears blurring her vision, she raced down the stairs, her nightmare stalker limping after her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Sebastian raged.

Halfway down, she turned to see him at the top landing, a remote device in his hand. He pressed a button on its face. An explosion shook the house around them.

“That would be your beloved kitchen, my pet,” he said. “No more midnight hot chocolate for you.”

He cackled as he hobbled down the steps toward her, toward the fire she could already feel rolling at them from the back of the house.

Esme! She’d run into the closet before Sebastian arrived. Shaw couldn’t go back for her now.
Oh, Esme.

“You had no intention of any of us getting out of this alive, did you?” She backed away from him, hating him, tripping on the broken step and losing her balance.

She fell the rest of the way to the bottom. She rolled until she could stagger to her feet. He was descending as slowly as before, pressing another button. A blast sounded from the direction of the parlor, and he laughed again.

God, he’d rigged the entire house to blow. Everything, her ties to her childhood, her grandmother’s things, and her memories of the last twenty-four hours with Cole, even her precious Esmeralda—it was all crumbling around them.

“Surviving is no longer my top priority, no,” Sebastian ranted. “Putting you both in your place, into the ground where you should have been when I was doomed instead to living the life of a sideshow freak—that’s became a far more worthy pursuit. If I have to die to achieve such an admirable goal, it is worth the price. But since your hero’s preceded you to your final destination, it seems I’ll be on my way after all, before his task force arrives. There’s just one loose end I need to tie up first.” He grinned maniacally. “You.”

She stumbled away from the scarred reflection of herself, toward their father’s office. Her brother and flames and billowing smoke followed close behind. She could feel her panic threatening to undo her resolve. It was the same hysteria that had fueled her amnesia—the horror of being trapped with no way out.

In the conference room closet.

In the burning barn.

In her empty life.

But Cole had died to give her this chance to be free, and she wasn’t going to waste it. She could do anything, he’d told her. And because of him, she would find her way back to believing that herself. She wasn’t going to stop fighting this time until she’d beaten her brother. And then, somehow, she’d pick up the pieces and make her life mean something more than merely surviving, hiding in her labs, and chasing empty success. She’d live with courage from now on. She’d build the new beginning, the future, she wished she still had a chance to make with Cole.

He’d loved her.

Even if he’d never said it, the rage and determination on his face as he’d grappled with Sebastian over his gun, while he’d yelled for Shaw to get away, had made his feelings for her clear. He’d acted out of instinct, not duty to his assignment, with a depth of devotion he hadn’t trusted himself to express. Or her to return.

She’d been so blind. All along, from the very beginning, Cole had loved her from the bottom of his heart.

“There’s no use running, Shaw,” Sebastian said. “There are no exits down this hall. Not unless you plan to walk through me, and then through a wall of fire. And we all know what a cowardly mess you are when the flames come for you.”

She tripped over the office threshold, into the room she’d hated until she’d taken Cole there, and together they’d made the memories that welcomed her now. She scrambled behind the big desk, opening the center drawer and feeling inside for the key. All while her mind replayed how Cole had held her in the leather chair, how he had consoled and encouraged her. He’d been her safe place, then her cherished memory, then her beloved champion. And he was still there with her, in spirit, as she whirled and faced Sebastian as he limped into the room. Her tormentor, her brother, the monster who’d succeeded in killing her love. Then and now.

Cole’s plan had gotten her this far, making her believe that she still had a shot of getting out of this alive. Now, tears streaming down her face, she stared down the demented specter standing in the office doorway. He had Cole’s gun. It was pointed at her heart. Smoke rose slowly around them. Light flickered from the front of the mansion, where the fire’s heat was consuming their childhood world, moaning faintly, hinting at the inferno it would become, gleefully destroying everything it touched. Just as her brother did.

“Why?” she demanded, her hand clenched around the key to the secret door behind her. She’d been so close. “Why end it this way? You hate me. Our mother died because of me. Why not just let me take the fall for everything you’ve done, so you can get back to the hideous life you enjoy so much?”

“What life? Look at me, Shaw. Look at what you did to me.” He jabbed the gun at the scars on his nose-less face and head. His sneer was a menacing, hate-filled thing.

“All I did was fall in love,” she said. The warmth of her feelings for Cole filled her. “When I was a teenager, and again just a day ago, I fell in love and believed my life could be everything it was meant to be, because someone finally believed in me. I survived your abuse when we were growing up, then years of loneliness because I was too weak to run after the man I wanted. And I survived you nearly killing me in that conference room, and all your stupid pranks around here, so that same man could come back and show me all over again what real passion is like. I’ve lived more in the last twenty-four hours than you ever will, Bastian. All of the destruction, including your ghoulish scars, is your own doing. I hope what you’ve accomplished makes you happy in the hell that’s waiting for you next.”

“You took my mother, then you took the life my father meant for me!” he screamed, the gun once more trained on her. “I was banished to the shadows after the fire, while you swanned around playing Cassidy Global’s pretty princess. You took
everything
from me. Now, by God, I’ve taken it all back.”

It was over. He was going to kill her. She could see it in his eyes. She thought of how close she’d come to escaping from Sebastian the way Cole had insisted she could, even if something were to happen to him. She hadn’t made it. Her brother’s rage was bottomless, and she was out of time. But she’d found the courage to stand and face her brother down, instead of cowering on the ground, as she had in her nightmare when she’d begged him not to hurt her. She’d like to think Cole would have been proud of that.

He’d have understood. She smiled into the thickening smoke. She smiled into the grotesque hatred consuming her brother’s face. Peace cloaked her at the thought of Cole’s arm curling around her. He’d be holding her, supporting her, if he’d been there, pulling her into the safety of his body.

“Good-bye, sister,” Sebastian said. A split second later, the shot rang out.

She froze, waiting for the pain, stunned as her brother’s head exploded and his lifeless body slumped to the floor. She screamed. A hulking shadow fell over the doorway, followed by the staggering bulk of a man holding her cat in an arm that was hanging at an odd angle, blood soaking through his T-shirt to run everywhere. He had her father’s revolver in the other hand.

“Cole!” She raced to him and relieved him of Esme. Her eyes streaming with tears, she threw her free arm around his neck. “How? How are you here?”

“No more giving up, darlin’.” He pulled her close with his good arm and buried his face in her hair. “I’ll never give up on us again.”

“Oh, Cole. I love you.” She kissed him, running her hand over his body, finding where the bullet had torn through his T-shirt and ripped at the muscles in his massive shoulder. “I thought you were dead! I thought I’d never have the chance to make you believe how much we still belong together. But I tried to make it out, for you, even though the thought of going on was killing me. Because I love you, Cole. I’ll always love you, no matter how hard that is for you to believe. I’ll never let you go again. You hear me? Oh, God, I really thought you were dead.”

He kissed her back, taking care with the cut on her lip, his blue gaze promising her the forever she’d dreamed of.

“I love you, too,” he growled. “You’re not getting rid of me, Shaw Cassidy. Not this time. Not ever again. You hear me? I don’t care what happens next, or how angry I make you, or how much you make me want to pull my hair out. I’ll never back off again. You’re stuck with me.”

Shaw smiled, cuddling her Siamese between them. “And you’re stuck with the both of us. How did you find her?”

“When I came to, she was rubbing against my side.”

“She’s such a hussy.”

“It’s lucky I had her before the first explosion went off.”

Shaw shuddered, kissing Esme and nuzzling the top of her head with her cheek. “We’re both lucky you have us.” She fingered the charm on her cat’s collar. “Your mother’s pendant. I remember now.”

“Everything?” His gaze found hers and held, the flickering light of the approaching fire sparkling in his hypnotic eyes.

“Everything. Especially what I should have realized fifteen years ago.”

“And what’s that?” He kissed her again, softly this time.

“That I don’t want to spend another moment without you, no matter what we have to work through to be together.” She kissed him back, crushing her lips to his, branding him with the passion, the connection, she’d thought they’d never again have the chance to share.

“Let’s go, then,” he said. “Before this place collapses around us.”

“Let’s go.” She beamed up at him. There wasn’t anywhere in the world she’d rather be than leaving this terrifying house, knowing that the man she loved would be fighting for her, with her, beside her, forever.

Cole’s arm encircling her waist, she wedged her body beneath his good shoulder so she could support his heavier weight as they stepped around Sebastian. She showed him the key and soaked in the pride that filled his expression. They staggered together toward the hidden panel that had been their agreed-upon rendezvous point if they were separated.

Strong and rugged and alive beside her, Cole waited while she swung the panel open. Then, flames at their backs as the fire progressed to the office, they unlocked and opened the outer door they’d run through as children. Cole pushed back the beautiful green of the ivy that obscured the darkness beyond, and they walked away from her nightmare, Esmeralda huddled safely between them.

The task-force team could deal with the rest of the devastation. The fresh start neither Cole nor Shaw had let themselves dream of was finally theirs. Hand in hand, their fingers tangling around each other’s, the nightmare finally over, they emerged into the clear night and the life they’d fought to begin anew.