Road to Absolution (18 page)

I bit my lip as
Carter sat up and raised a knee. “Cassidy Eleanor Dennis, would you do me the
great honor of marrying me?”

“Yes.” I nodded,
giggling as he slid the ring on my finger. It was exquisite. A huge oval
diamond sat proudly between two smaller diamonds and the setting was intricate
on both the top and sides with filigree that sparkled in the dim light. “Wow,”
I breathed.

“If you don’t
like it, baby, we can return it.”

“It’s perfect,”
I said, throwing my arms around him and kissing him. “Thank you.”

He caught me and
settled me across his chest.

“Maverick, you
can come in now,” Carter called.

Maverick shoved
through the door and jumped on the bed. “Did you say yes, Mom?”

“I did say yes.
But is that okay with you?”

“Carter’s gonna
be my dad, right?”

I grinned. “He
is.”

“Yes,” Maverick
exclaimed and pumped his fist in the air.

I laughed. “So
you approve.”

Maverick crossed
his legs and nodded. “He already asked me for permission, Mom.”

“You did?” I
asked Carter.

“Of course I
did,” he said. “I talked to your dad, too. Had to get the blessings from the
two main men in your life.”

I hugged his
waist. “I love you.”

“Are you guys
gonna kiss now?” Maverick asked, a horrified expression on his face.

“Yeah, buddy,”
Carter answered.

“Gross. Can I
please leave?”

“Sure thing,”
Carter said.

I giggled and
dropped my head to Carter’s shoulder. “Eat breakfast while I shower, please.”

“Okay, Mom.”
Maverick left the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind him.

Carter kissed
me, but not for long because my alarm sounded again. I groaned and broke the
kiss. “I should get up.”

“Or you could
call in ‘never coming back.’”

I giggled. “We
have a good plan, honey. I’ll call you after I talk to HR and we’ll go from
there.”

“I’m going on
record to say I still don’t like the plan.”

“I know.”

“We’re comin’ to
take you to lunch today, yeah? I need to get you a burner, so I’ll bring that
with me.”

I sat up and
turned off the alarm. “Why do I need a burner?”

“Because we
blocked Tom’s number and he still found a way to call you, so I want you to
have a phone he doesn’t know about.”

I crossed my
arms and frowned down at him, ignoring the overwhelming desire to lick his
perfectly glorious chest from top to bottom. “Who is ‘we’?”

“Club.”

“Wait. You’re
telling me the club has access to my cell phone?”

“No. Booker
technically does, but Mack’s workin’ on some legal shit, so when I say the
club, it encompasses those two… for now.”

I gasped and
widened my eyes in horror. “Does Booker have access to our texts?”

“No. Don’t
worry, babe. Those are just for us.” Carter grinned. “He can probably access
them, but I trust that he won’t.”

“Why did you
just tell me that?” I grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. “Now I’m going to
be beet red every time I see him!”

“Honey, he’s a
brother. I trust him. He won’t access them without my permission, yeah?”

“No, Carter,
it’s not ‘yeah’! Gah! This is humiliating.” I stalked into the bathroom and
started the shower. As I turned, I was pulled up against Carter and I sighed.

“I promise you,
no one will see the texts. We can delete them now if it makes you feel any
better,” he said. “But they shouldn’t embarrass you, baby. We’re in love, we’re
gettin’ married. It’s an expression of how we feel—”

“A very, very
graphic and
dirty
expression of how we feel,” I grumbled.

He chuckled.
“Fuck yeah, a very graphic and dirty expression of how we feel. How about I
express a little bit more of my graphic and dirty feelings in the shower?”

“Make sure
Maverick’s okay and then you can have me for ten minutes.”

“Start without
me,” he said, and left the room.

I took a moment
to study my ring again and decided to shower with it on. I wasn’t ready to take
it off yet… I might never be.

Carter and
Maverick dropped me off and, after sending an email to HR detailing everything
that had happened with Tom, I went about getting through my To Do list. I was
ahead of the curve for the moment, so when I got a call from Lana, our HR
director, I was able to meet with her right away.

I headed to her
office on the floor below me and closed the door.

A
CE TOOK MAVERICK with him to the club
and found Hawk had brought Lily, so he settled Maverick in the play room with
her and their President’s daughter Ashley who was on kid watch duty for the
day.

Figuring he
hadn’t talked to one of his brothers in a while, Ace headed to the office Hawk
used to run his bounty hunter business out of. Booker and Mack had offices as
well, which kept the club self-sufficient. Carter knocked.

“Come in,” Hawk
called.

“Hey,” Ace said,
and pushed the door open.

“Hey, man.” Hawk
turned from his computer and set his feet up on the desk. “Heard someone’s
fuckin’ with Cassidy.”

“Yeah.” Ace sat
in one of the seats facing the desk. “Booker’s dealin’ with it right now. You
workin’ much this week?”

“Got a couple
assholes who jumped bail and went to ground. Got a lead on one, the other’s a
ghost.”

Hawk was really
good at his job. So good in fact, he was paid accordingly. Two jobs a year
could bring in as much as the average person’s yearly salary, which afforded
him the option of working when he wanted to, which was less now the he had
Payton.

“What’d these
guys do?”

Hawk slid the
files to Ace. “One’s a drug dealer, beat a murder rap, got brought up on
another one, convicted then released on a technicality. Got another murder rap,
this one stuck and he ran. He’s in Salem, so I’m headin’ down there tonight.”

“Shit.”

“He’s a dumb
fucker, but he’s a lucky dumb fucker.”

“Sounds like
it,” Ace said.

“The other guy’s
slippery. Comes from money. Asshole who enjoys stalking and raping women. Two
possible murders, but can’t make them stick with no body.”

Ace opened the
file and his blood ran cold. “Fuck!”

“Yeah, he’s a—”

“No, Hawk, this
is the fucker who’s messin’ with Cassidy.”

Hawk grabbed the
file. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,
seriously.” Ace skimmed the file. “He said he was going to London and Paris.”

“He’s on a
no-fly list, Ace. Don’t know how he’d get out of the state, let alone the
country.”

“Fuck!” Ace
stood and pulled open the door. “Watch Mav, yeah? I’m getting’ Cassidy.”

“We got ’im,
brother. I’ll fill Booker in.”

Ace nodded and
headed to his bike. It’d be faster than his truck and he needed faster today.

* * *

I was leaving Lana’s office when I was
bombarded by Janie who was flailing her arms around in frantic, chicken-like
movements. “You okay?” I asked.

“No,” she
squeaked. “Your boyfriend’s in reception and he’s freaking out. I think he has
a gun, Cassidy.”

I frowned.
“Okay, I’ll head there now.”

As we walked
toward the elevator bay, I felt a chill go up my spine, but the look on Janie’s
face made me sick to my stomach. I turned to see Tom with a crazed look on his
face and a gun pointed at the two of us.

“Hello,
Cassidy,” he said. “I think it’s time the two of us have a little talk.”

“I’m sorry, Tom,
but I need to get downstairs.” Okay, probably not the right thing to say, but
I’d never had a gun pointed at me before. I felt like talking him out of his
plan might be a good option. I was wrong.

“You’re not
going anywhere.” He turned the gun on Janie and shot.

She and I both
screamed and Janie fell to the ground. Before I could register the horror of
watching someone get shot in front of me, I was yanked into a conference room
and shoved against the table.

“Sit down,
Cassidy,” Tom ordered, and aimed the gun at me.

“Is Janie okay?”
I asked, sobbing as I lowered myself in the chair.

“I need to
explain some things to you. You’re the one I want, Cassidy. You and I are going
to get married and have children, and we’ll live together in London.” He waved
his hands around as he spoke and I was worried he’d shoot me. “You’ll love
England, sweetheart.”

“Tom—”

“My name’s not
Tom!” he bellowed.

“It’s not?”

“No! It’s
Robert.”

I swallowed,
nodding, trying to get my breathing under control. Who was this guy? As he
stared at me with a hollow look on his face, all I could think about were
Carter and Maverick. Why didn’t I listen to Carter? He was right. I should
never have come back to work.

“Say my name,
Cassidy,” he demanded.

“Robert,” I
rasped.

“As soon as it’s
clear—” Tom, or Robert, whoever he was, said “—we are going to walk out of here
together. I will take you home and we can start our life.”

“How—how will I
get on a plane without a passport?” I asked.

“I have one for
you.”

I hiccupped,
sobbing as I rubbed my arms, the fear suddenly making me cold. I caught
movement through the window of the conference room door and tried to look
somewhat covertly. Robert was watching me, his back to the door. I bit the
inside of cheek to keep from crying out. Carter was there, although, I couldn’t
hear anything he was saying. I just had to trust that he had a plan and he’d
protect me.

* * *

Ace had Lana, the HR director, pinned
against the wall. “You fuckin’ did this, lady, so you’re not leavin’ until my
woman’s out of that room and safe.”

Another woman
was kneeling beside the one who got shot, keeping pressure on the wound in her
shoulder. It didn’t look like it was life threatening, but Ace kind of wished
it was. Fuckin’ whore used Cassidy as a human shield. Bitch.

“I swear I knew
nothing about him. It wasn’t even my call,” Lana cried.

“How the fuck
did you people not know who he was? It’s called a background check!”

“I don’t know,”
she whispered. “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

“Ambulance is on
its way.” He released her with a scowl. “You need to get these people out of
the fucking building. Quietly. And when my people get here, you don’t give them
shit. They go wherever the fuck they want to go.”

She nodded and
rushed away from him, ushering people as quietly as she could to the stairs.

“Ace, what the
fuck’s goin’ on?” Hawk demanded as he, Booker, Aidan, and their prez, Crow,
walked toward him.

“Bastard’s got
Cassidy in that room,” he said, waving the men to the wall out of sight.

Hawk nodded and
pulled out his cell phone.

“What the fuck
are you doin’?” Ace whispered.

“I’m callin’
Brock,” he said.

“Not gettin’
into bed with the feds,” Crow said.

“Trust me.”

Ace didn’t much
care who Hawk called. He just needed a clear shot of this fucker’s head. So
far, despite the glass, Robert never stayed within sight long enough to shoot.

* * *

“Tom—Robert, can we please talk about
this,” I begged. “I have a son. I can’t just leave him and run away with you.”

“We’ll put him
in boarding school and we’ll have our own family, Cassidy,” Robert said. He
pulled a chair in front of me and smiled. “You’ll see, sweetheart. I’ll make
you so happy.”

“I can’t live
without my son, Robert.”

“You were so
beautiful,” he continued, obviously not listening to me.

“What?”

“On the video
call. I saw you sitting at the end of the conference table and I knew you were
the one. I made them transfer me that day.”

“I don’t
understand,” I whispered.

“From the New
York office.” He frowned like I should know what he meant. “You remember the
call, right?”

I nodded. “When
you were being introduced?”

“Exactly. I saw
you and knew you were the one for me.”

“But we don’t know
each other, Robert. There must be someone else who knows you—”

“No! It’s you,
Cassidy,” he screamed. “It’s always been you!”

He started
waving the gun at me again and I raised my hand as some lame attempt to shield
myself. “Okay, Robert. I’m sorry.”

* * *

Outside the room, Jaxon slid the tiny
camera under the crack of the conference room door and studied the screen at
the end of it.

“Is she okay,”
Ace demanded.

“Yeah,” Jaxon
said. “The guy’s sitting across from her, the gun’s on his lap.”

“Fuck!” Ace rasped.
“It’s been two hours, we need to get her out of there.”

“Carter, I get
it. But I need you to back up so we can do our job.”

* * *

I don’t know how long I’d been in this
room with Robert, but I was feeling stifled by the heat and the closeness of
his body, and I really had to pee.

The FBI had
called into the phone in the room and all it managed to do was to make Robert
even more frantic. I think he realized he wasn’t walking out of here with me,
and probably knew he’d be going away for a very long time.

“Robert, please.
I could really use some water, and I’d like to talk to my son. Could we please
just call them back?”

“Shut up!” He
paced the room, his eyes and hands moving wildly.

“Please,” I
begged.

“You’re not
leaving this room, Cassidy. Just shut up.”

“What do you
mean?” I whispered.

“I’m not an
idiot. I know there are agents outside waiting for us. I’m not leaving this
room alive.” He silenced me with a stare. “And neither are you.”

“No, please,
don’t do this, Robert.”

He pointed the
gun at me and time stopped. I think I heard the sound of a shot, but didn’t
register it. Just the excruciating burning pain that spread through my stomach.
I screamed and Robert put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He fell
into a heap on the ground and all I could think about was now Carter could save
me.

* * *

A shot rang out, then a scream and
another shot, and Ace shoved past his brother and into the conference room.
“Cassidy! Somebody get the fuckin’ paramedics in here now!”

Cassidy was
slumped on a chair, blood pouring from her stomach. She had her hands over the
wound, trying to keep pressure on it.

“Baby,” he
whispered, replacing her hands with his. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

“He… he shot
himself. In the head,” she whispered, her eyes unable to focus on anything.

“I know, baby.
Look at me. I’ve got you.”

“It hurts.”

“I know, honey.
Help’s coming.” He turned and yelled, “Where the fuck are the paramedics?”

“Here,” a young
woman said and wheeled in a gurney, a large man following. “Sir, give us some
space, please.”

Ace found
himself pulled away by Jaxon, and Cassidy was lifted onto the gurney. The
paramedics did whatever the fuck they did and then she was wheeled into the
elevator. Ace followed, keeping hold of her hand, even though she’d passed out.

The rest of the
day moved in a fog. Ace was forced to leave Cassidy in the hallway of the
hospital as they wheeled her into emergency surgery. Most of the club arrived
shortly after the ambulance did, as did Jaxon. Brock and Dallas were cleaning
up and processing the crime scene.

An hour later,
no one had given Ace any information and he was going crazy.

“Let me see what
I can do,” Macey Stone, Payton’s best friend, offered. She had arrived with
Payton and Dani, and happened to be an emergency room nurse in Portland. He
highly doubted she’d have any access here, but he was desperate. Ace nodded and
she left the group.

“Fuck,” Ace
whispered, dropping his still bloody hands on his head. “I have to get
Maverick.”

“He’s fine,”
Payton said. “Ashley’s got him and Lily totally entertained. She’s ordering
pizza and can stay with them all night if need be. We can also take him home
later if you like.”