Authors: Jenna Mills
Smoke and Mirrors (32 page)
Vilas smiled broadly—triumphantly. "Prove it."
"Prove it?"
"Prove to me whose side you're on." Vilas inclined his head toward the gun in Derek's hands. "You lusted after the wrong lady, my friend. She betrayed you, and me. Now I ask you to prove whose side you're really on. Do the job for me. Kill your whore."
The little color left in Cass's face drained away. Fearless, that's what he'd always called her, yet he saw the fear now, hot and primal, blazing from her eyes.
"The choice is yours," Vilas taunted. "Tonight can be your last, or everything can go back to the way it was before. All you have to do—"
Caution dissolved into chaos. It all happened frantically
fast,
but for Derek the scene unfolded one excruciating petal at a time, steady and unstoppable.
Cass's gaze was riveted on Derek. Her body remained stiff. But her leg moved, raising enough to jam her heel down on the
His hand fell away from her head, and he doubled over.
She took advantage of his pain to twist and karate chop the gun from his hand.
It went clattering along the pavement, Cass lunging after it. Vilas pounced on her, Derek diving after him. He had his own gun, but it was worthless as long as Vilas had a weapon of his own.
"Get out of here, Cass! Run! Now."
"I'm not leaving you." Her gloved hands shoved beneath his and closed around the butt of the gun.
"You bitch!" Vilas roared. He lay on top of her, his body grinding hers into the ground. "You'll pay for this. You'll—"
"It's over, Vilas." A new voice. Gray's voice. "Give it up while you still can."
Vilas froze.
Breathing hard, Derek shoved Vilas off Cass. He rolled to his feet and pulled her with him, positioning her securely behind his back. Arms sliding around his waist, she handed him the gun, placing it securely in his hands, hers joining with his.
They pointed it at Vilas. "I've waited a long time for
this night, you son of a bitch."
Vilas glared at him, hatred and defeat sharpening his
eyes.
A semicircle of cops moved in, guns trained on Vilas. "You okay?" Gray barked. He'd been waiting in the wings, waiting for Derek to get Cass away from Vilas. A surprise attack was always better, Derek knew. While Vilas had been focused on him, Gray had been moving in for the kill. It had been dangerous, but they were two highly trained men, fighting for a woman they both loved. One as a sister, the other as his life.
"You did
good
," Gray now said. "Real good."
Derek cut him a smile. "For Cass, I'd do anything."
* * *
He stood staring out the window. The glistening morning sun had long since chased away the lingering gray of the night. A brilliant ball of fire now hung low in the sky, sharing its light and warmth with everything in its path.
Except Cass. She was so cold, from the outside in, or maybe the inside out. Derek had yet to say a word to her. Not at the station, not at the hospital where they'd stayed with Brent until the doctor assured them he would be fine, not on the drive to his grandfather's house. He'd shot a few looks her way, heated, charged looks she couldn't begin to decipher.
But no words.
Cass was trying to give him his space, but she didn't understand why'd he'd taken her hand and all but dragged her to his car, then sped away. But wouldn't speak to her.
From looking at him, at his tense, rigid body, the hard set to his jaw, it was impossible to tell that his name had just been cleared, that the press was labeling him a hero.
She'd been in the room when he and his buddy, FBI agent Lucas Treese, had explained the sting, how they'd endeavored to bring Vilas down, when the chief had cleared Derek of wrongdoing.
A parade of emotions now marched through her. Happiness and relief, hope, but most of all, dread. Derek acted as if she wasn't even there, as if she didn't even exist.
And she couldn't take it. "Derek…" she started, moving tentatively toward him.
He pivoted toward her. He held a glass in his hand, one that contained a hearty shot of whiskey, a shot he hadn't touched. He stared at it a moment, then his features hardened and he flung it toward the fireplace. It crashed on impact, drawing Cass's attention away from the man, to the shards of glass raining down on the hardwood floor.
That's all it took for Derek to catch her off guard. He was on her in a heartbeat, having
strode
across the room.
And her heart revved to a staccato beat.
He looked fierce, like a man capable of great violence. But she wasn't scared.
Not of Derek, nor
the love she felt for him.
Not anymore.
He looked at her from those amazing eyes of his. Go-to-hell eyes, she'd called them. They'd shown her heaven and earth, yet now they showed her neither. They simply glittered with more emotion than anyone should ever experience at one moment.
Then he crushed her to him. Tight and comforting, protective. Arms like steel bands pressed her to the wall of his chest. His warmth soaked into her, chasing away the chill she'd lived with for too long.
The shaking started, from somewhere deep inside. She'd been stoically holding it together, yet now her fortitude crumbled, leaving her with nothing but the joy of Derek's arms around her.
He pulled back and stared down at her. His big hands found her face, framed her cheeks. "I love you," he ground out. "So damn much it scares me."
In his words she found hope and joy, yet in his eyes, those smoldering sapphire
eyes,
she found the haven she'd been seeking.
"It scares me, too," she whispered, shoving aside the shock and fear and taking a giant leap of faith. "Because it's bigger than I am, bigger than I ever imagined anything
could
be."
The blunt tips of his thumbs stroked her cheekbones. "I'm sorry," he shocked her by saying. "So damn sorry for not listening to you yesterday, for turning you away. If I had—"
"Don't say it." His regret turned her inside out. "Don't even think it. I'm the one who's sorry. I'm the one who almost cost you—"
"Don't say it." With a wicked grin, he tossed her words back at her. "Don't even think it. You haven't cost me anything. You've given me everything."
So many times she'd awakened at night, her body and soul crying out for him. And every time she'd simply lain there, stroking Barney's furry snout, mourning for something that could never be. But she had been wrong. It could be—it would be.
Happiness spilled into a trembling smile. "God, I love you."
His thumbs brushed away tears she hadn't even been aware of.
"It was an incredibly brave thing you did," she told him, still unable to believe it herself. "You laid your life on the line for your brother. Sometimes I wasn't even sure you liked each other."
A light glinted in his eyes. "We like each other. We just don't always see eye-to-eye." His thumbs continued to stroke her cheeks in a feather-soft, rhythmic manner. "Brent would never have survived a scumbag like Vilas. Ryan deserves to grow up with a father who loves him."
Unlike Derek had. "You risked
everything…"
"I did what I had to do." He shoved his hair back from his face, but a few dark straggles remained against his cheekbones. They lent him an air of back-street danger. "Luc made it easy for me. He was ready to step in and lock Vilas away the second I had enough proof."
"You could have taken the fall in the process. Your sting could have backfired." Cass splayed her fingers against the warmth of his chest. His heart beat strongly against her palm.
"It was a risk I had to take."
"For your brother."
"Family is important, Cass. It's all we really have."
His words touched something deep inside her. She slid her hand up his neck and cupped the planes of his face. He looked hard and unforgiving, but she knew the rough exterior protected a heart of gold.
He frowned. "It must've been hell for you, fearless, thinking I was everything you despised—"
"Only at first. Only the cop. The second the woman met the man, everything changed."
"They're the same person, Cass. The woman and the cop. They're both you."
"And they both love you." That was the important part, the love that had grown from the lies. "I never knew how empty my life had become until you filled it, how much joy and hope I could have until you gave it to me. It tore me up—"
Derek silenced her words with a kiss, one of love and longing, desire and redemption.
Then he pulled back, and with a wicked, thrilling smile, lifted her into his arms and strode from the study. Into the sun-dappled foyer. Up the sprawling staircase. Into his room, where his king-size bed sat waiting.
He laid her down against the pillows and drew her hand to his chest. "Feel that?"
She smiled. "You got a thunderstorm going on in there?"
He smiled back at her, not the wicked one from before, but one of warmth and tenderness. "That's the way I feel about you."
Emotion swamped her. Tears rushed to her eyes, but she blinked them back, not wanting to blur the most thrilling moment of her life. "How do you feel, Derek? Tell me."
"With words or actions?"
She started to answer straight out,
then
surrendered to the naughty tickle somewhere near her heart. "Truth or dare?"
That irreverent light glinted back into his eyes. "Dare."
"I want it all," she said. "Words, actions, a future. Life. You."
"Careful," he warned, sliding down beside her on the bed. "It might take me a while to satisfy a request that …
extensive."
"I'm in no hurry."
He drew her body flush against his, enabling her to feel every powerful inch of him. "We're talking years," he murmured against her eager mouth. "A lifetime."
Cass thrilled to his words, his touch.
"But let me start with this," he said, easing back to look at her. Lying face to face on the same pillow, he lifted a hand to trace her cheekbone. "I love you, Cass. That's the way I feel. Love."
Moisture flooded her eyes. The smoke and mirrors she'd once feared would drive them apart had brought them together instead. Defenses lowered, hearts stripped bare, love had found a way, a love strong enough to give them tomorrow, and every day thereafter.
"What was that you said about a lifetime?" she asked through her tears.
His gaze heated, his smile turned wicked. Very slowly, he slid his hand from her face down along her neck to her shoulder, where he gently urged her toward him. "Let me show you."
* * * * *