Fight For Me (19 page)

She snuggled against him. “I know. I love
you, too.”

How he loved to hear those words. Despite
their current situation, his cock stirred behind his jeans, the
proximity of Cassie short circuiting his brain. He held his hips
away from the perfect curve of her ass in her open-backed gown. She
was hurt, and they were in danger. Now was not the time for
lovemaking.

~*~

Cassidy sank into the muscled arms cradling
her. Dylan had found her, saved her, and loved her. She knew he
wanted to go after Archer himself, but he'd promised not to leave
her, and he hadn't. She felt him pull his pelvis away from her,
afraid to let her feel what she knew was a massive erection, and
she bit back a smile. She wished she were fit enough to lose
herself in him, feel him over her, inside her, surrounding her, and
she suppressed a shudder. If it weren't for her bruised ribs, they
could take comfort in each other in a more visceral way than
spooning on a narrow hospital bed.

She shifted, her ass fitting against his
cock, and he groaned. “You don't know how much I want you,” he
rasped in her ear.

She needed him. Right then. Fuck Steve
Archer, propriety, pain, danger, or rules. “Gently.”

“
I was afraid I'd lost
you, afraid you were dead,” he whispered. “I don't know if I can be
gentle.”

“
You can because I need
you to be,” she assured. Moments later she felt him unbutton and
unzip before the glorious width of him entered her slowly. She'd
needed Dylan in this elemental way, no matter the pain, no matter
the consequences. She reveled in the feel of him, plastered to his
front as she was, his holster bumping into her with every thrust,
his murmured words of love coupled with his rough breathing as he
held himself in check sending her over the edge. She was thankful
for the painkillers, the knowledge that her heavy pants and sighs
would've hurt without them, but she didn't care. This was the man
she was made to love, the one created just for her, and she needed
him. He lengthened his strokes, his hand finding its way around to
tease her, and she shattered, her clenching muscles tearing a growl
from his throat when he spilled inside her.

It wasn't long afterward a nurse came to
check on her, the look on her round face anything but pleased.
“She's hurt!”

Cassidy didn't allow Dylan to answer,
instead affecting her best “grill the witness” voice, “He's my
fiancé, and he was comforting me.” That seemed to calm the nurse
slightly, but she noticed the stiffening of Dylan's long body
behind her with the declaration. She had admitted she loved him,
but she hadn't accepted his proposal, and he hadn't asked
again.

“
Sex is not comforting,”
the nurse shot back, her tone as hard as Cassidy's had been. Her
face was pinched when she shifted her focus to Dylan.
“Shoo.”

“
I ain't goin' anywhere,”
he vowed, and she stifled a laugh. If this nurse thought she could
tell her Ranger what to do, she was in for a surprise.

Undeterred, the the older woman pressed,
“You're getting out of this bed, lover-boy. I just hope you're
decent.”

He groaned, but moved, and she hated the
loss of his heat behind her. “You do what you must, but I am not
lettin' her out of my sight. Not ever again.”

The nurse gave him a long, withering look.
“Fine.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but the words
were swept away by the incredible rumbling of an explosion.

Cassidy screamed as Dylan covered her with
his body, protecting her from the falling ceiling and tipping IV
pole. When the debris stopped falling, she rasped, “He's here.”

“
He's not gettin' away
this time,” Dylan promised. “Not again.”

She believed him, but she didn't like what
he was saying. What if Archer got the best of him? What if this
wasn't the only bomb? She held back tears. “Come back to me.”

“
Always.”

Chapter Thirteen

Dylan didn't want to leave Cassie, but this
had to end now. He was on his own, sure someone had called 911
after the explosion, but not banking on help from the Sheridan
police. Giving into the gut feeling that had been gnawing at him
all afternoon, he raced down the narrow corridor with no regard to
the screaming people displaced by the bomb and scared by him
running past them with a firearm. He didn't have any jurisdiction,
he wasn't a cop, but he didn't care.

He'd left Cassie after insuring she and the
judgmental nurse were okay, unwilling to kill a man in her
presence, the tingling in his spine telling him the tango he was
after was here. He turned a corner and caught a glimpse of what he
thought to be Archer running out a back door, his back hunched,
pistol in hand.

“
It's over, Archer,” he
yelled, both to insure he'd found his target and because he needed
this nightmare to end.

“
It'll never be over,”
Archer countered, his dark eyes glinting in the half-light of the
smoky hall. He aimed his pistol at the center of Dylan's chest.
“Irving was here. Now he's dead.”

“
Good riddance,” he said,
his mind forming plan and counterplan as he squared off against the
detective. They were well matched, Archer only a couple inches
taller, but Dylan knew he was better trained, with more at stake.
He stared the other man down, waiting for him to show an
exploitable weakness, and instead turned into a comic book hero,
asking, “Why? Why punish Cassie, Simmons? They didn't traffic
anyone, they didn't kill anyone—”

“
Oh, but they did,” Archer
cut in. “If they'd done their jobs, Natalie would still be
alive.”

Natalie? Why was he learning things now with
a nine millimeter aimed at him the cops hadn't uncovered? He didn't
say anything, silently coaxing the other man to go on, watching him
all the while.

“
She was my niece. I
bought her and her Momma a house, took care of them, and then
Irving took them both. I became a cop to avenge them, and look what
that got me.” His gun hand shook as he told the story in true comic
book villain fashion, and Dylan swallowed a bit of panic. He really
didn't want to be shot again. Twice was enough, thank
you.

He couldn't help himself, he had to ask,
“But the prosecutors, Archer?”

“
They got Rossi, but it
didn't do a damn bit of good. They didn't even try to get Irving,
the bastard. He was the mastermind, he was the one directing
everything. Nicholas Rossi got involved with Irving, not the other
way around. The prosecution had it all backwards, and no one would
listen to me!” His voice escalated as he explained, the final words
a deafening shout, and Dylan watched the other man's fingers
tighten around the pistol as his hands violently shook and readied
his body to move. “And now you!” Archer continued to yell, “Coming
in here all heroic, jumping in front of bullets and shit. Who do
you think you are?”

“
Dylan, get down!” he
heard Cassie scream from his right before she tackled him, sliding
them both across the floor just before a ceiling beam came crashing
down where he'd stood.

“
How dare you leave me?”
she whispered roughly.

He'd thought he'd left her to protect her,
and now she'd just saved his life, putting herself right in
Archer's path. “Goddammit! I wanted you safe, and now—”

“
And now what? Archer
ran.”

Fuck. He should've taken the shot when he
had it, instead of standing there talking. A bit of drywall
exploded six inches above Cassie's head and he swore again. Archer
had run off, but he hadn't gone far, and now he was shooting at
Cassidy. Enough was fucking enough.

~*~

Cassidy couldn't see from behind the bulk of
Dylan's body, but she knew he had flipped back into warrior mode.
That shot from Archer had been meant for her, and she knew Dylan
wasn't going to let him get away with it. As much as she wanted the
man prosecuted, held accountable for his crimes, she had no doubts
he wouldn't make it to trial, and surprisingly, she was okay with
that. Another bullet burrowed into a wall, and Dylan moved along
the floor, bracing himself to take an answering shot. Her ears rang
and her body vibrated with his as he shot twice more, then
silence.

“
Dylan?”
Oh, God, don't let him be hurt.
“Did you get him?”

“
Did I get him? What kind
of faith is that?” he quipped, and she knew everything would be all
right.

She'd always had faith, but she'd needed to
ask just the same. “I never doubted you,” she promised, the weight
of the situation hitting her. Dylan had just shot Steve Archer in
her defense. “Now, we wait.”

He shook his head slightly. “Sheridan won't
take too kindly to my shootin' people in a hospital.” He shuddered.
“You almost died twice today, Cassie. Maybe Archer was right
sendin' you those headlines. Maybe I can't protect the people I
love.”

She swallowed. So much for not admitting to
her idiot plan. “It was my fault. This whole thing was my
fault.”

“I know Archer tried to pin blame—”

“No,” she cut him off. “Today was my own
fault because I did something utterly stupid.”

He rolled to face her completely, his eyes
narrowed. “Just what the hell are you talkin' about?”

“This morning. The bathroom.” She paused,
took in a painful breath. She didn't want to go on, but she'd
started it herself. “I went in there planning on running on my
own.”

His face hardened to an expression she'd
never seen directed at her and her heart dropped. “You what?”

“I wanted to protect you. If something had
happened to you, I'd have fallen to pieces. I changed my mind,
though.” She wiped the tears running down her cheeks. “Before he
stopped me.”

“You'd've fallen apart?” he asked very
quietly. “Just what do you think happened to me? I couldn't find
you for hours after walkin' into a bathroom covered in blood. My
God, you could've so easily been dead. How do you think I felt
combin' a property I wasn't even sure you were on, prayin' to God
you were alive?”

She knew he would have been going crazy,
just as she knew he would find her. “I knew you'd rescue me.” She
shook with sobs, the pain in her ribs staggering. “I love you.”

“I just killed a man because he's been
gunnin' for you for weeks, because he tried to kill you on multiple
occasions, and you tell me you wanted to protect me, so you
delivered yourself on a silver platter?”

“I didn't know, Dylan. I didn't.”

“But you knew the bathroom was the only
place I'd let you go alone, and you planned on leavin' me.”

“I changed my mind.” She sounded desperate
to her own ears, and hoped he could hear her distress. They could
finally live without worrying, without looking over their
shoulders, and now he was angry with her. Perhaps justifiably, but
she couldn't lose him. Not now.

“Eventually.” He stood, his eyes hard and
his expression grim as he looked at her like she was just another
woman, not the one he'd given his love. “You knew I'd die for you,
kill for you, fight for you to the ends of the earth, but you ran
away.”

Unable to come up with anything to say, she
swiped at the river of tears and snotty nose all the crying had
given her. “I love you.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I wanted to wrap
you in cotton and hide you away, but you wouldn't let me. I wanted
to protect you from everythin', but I had to let you fight.” He
pursed his lips. “You didn't trust me.”

She grabbed his hand. “I did. I do.” Her
heart was thudding in her chest, even as it was breaking. “I always
will.”

Pain flashed behind his incredible eyes as
he studied her, and she felt new tears begin to flow. “I'm gettin'
you back to Aylesford Memorial after we deal with the cops, and
then I'm goin' home.”

Oh God. He was leaving her. “No!” tore from
her throat before she asked, “Alone?”

“I don't need a hospital, Cassidy.” Her
heart dropped with his use of her full name. “You do.”

She couldn't find words, so she stayed
quiet, the salty tears rolling down her face, burning her cracked
lips. Archer may not have killed her, but she was destroyed just
the same, and it was her own fault.

~*~

“Just fucking talk to the woman,” Chris
plead from Dylan's couch. His friend had been camped out, trying to
cheer him up for days, but there was nothing that would make him
feel better. He missed Cassie, but he wasn't ready to show up on
her doorstep.

“You said she's stayin' with Caleb?”

“Yeah, and her parents are staying with
Mason and Kat.” He chuckled. “Good thing Mason's house is big. Can
you imagine coming home from your honeymoon to having your parents
living with you?”

Mason's parents were Cassie's parents, and
they were good people. He couldn't stand it, he had to ask, “How is
she?”

Chris rolled his eyes. “You love her. She
loves you. So why are you here, and she's there?”

That question gnawed at him on a daily
basis. “She didn't trust me and put herself in danger.”

“
And that decision was a
bad one, I get that. But didn't she tell you she'd changed her mind
before Archer grabbed her?”

She had, but he hadn't cared at the time.
“She was tryin' to protect me.”

“
Why is that such a bad
thing? Why is it wrong to want to keep the one you love away from
danger?”

“
Because she practically
handed herself over to him.”

Chris stood then, crossed the room to get in
Dylan's face. “You love her. You're miserable without her. So, she
loves you so much she put herself in danger. So, she did something
stupid because of that. Everyone is safe now.” He rubbed the back
of his neck. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but go to her. Marry
her.”