“My life...” He stopped, cleared his throat and tried again. “I never wanted it to hurt you.”
But it had. Their worlds had collided. “It was my fault that you were hurt. A very...dangerous man tracked the money I’d been sending to you.”
Paige stood in front of him. “Is he going to come after us again?”
Drew shook his head.
Her pale lips curved. “We don’t want your money, Drew. We just want you.”
And he wanted them. He wanted his family back.
He wanted a life.
Not ice.
Maybe it was time to take the risk—and to take what he wanted most.
* * *
TINA WALKED SLOWLY down the hallway of the FBI’s office in Dallas. Cooper Marshall was at her side. The guy seemed to be her constant shadow.
She was his mission—at least, for about five more feet, she was.
Tina stopped in front of Mercer’s temporary headquarters. He’d commandeered the biggest office in the place. Figured. That was Mercer. Always making friends left and right.
“Thanks, Agent Marshall,” Tina said. “I’m here, safe and sound.”
Cooper inclined his head toward her. He didn’t talk much. The agent sure seemed to be the quiet and intense type.
Once, Tina would have described Drew the exact same way. Except—
He seemed to talk plenty when they were together.
We aren’t together any longer. The mission is over. So are we.
The door opened. Mercer stood there. “Dr. Jamison, come in...”
She stepped across the threshold.
Cooper started to follow.
“Sorry, son,” Mercer said, sounding not the least bit actually sorry as he held up his hand to block Cooper, “but you don’t have clearance for this.”
Then he shut the door in Cooper’s surprised face.
Tina took a few tentative steps inside the office. She glanced around the room and she instantly realized just why Cooper didn’t have clearance.
Two other people were waiting in that office.
She knew the EOD Agent, Cale Lane. She’d patched him up a few times. And the other woman—the woman with the blond hair and the perfect face—that was Cassidy Sherridan.
Well...technically she was Cassidy Sherridan Lane now.
The blonde was Mercer’s real daughter.
She was also rushing across the room and hugging Tina. “I’m so sorry,” Cassidy told her, squeezing her tightly. “As soon as I found out, I came right away. I told Anton who I was.”
“And I damn well told you to keep her away,” Mercer growled to Cale.