A grim smile pulled at his lips. Maybe Cassidy would get the help she wanted from him, after all.
And she didn’t even have to seduce him in order to get it.
Huh. That was a pity.
* * *
WHEN CALE CAME out of the back room he had a backpack thrown over his shoulder. Cassidy noted the bulge of his weapon under his arm.
She jumped to her feet. “You talked to Mercer.” Genevieve is gone. It’s happening again. I have to help her!
A curt nod from Cale. “It looks like you’ve got yourself an escort back to the U.S.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
She hadn’t even realized the denial had come from her until she heard his clipped response. “We can’t leave! We have to help Genevieve!”
“A ransom demand hasn’t been given to her family yet,” Logan said. Cassidy thought she saw a flash of sympathy in his eyes, but that flash vanished too quickly for her to be certain.
“How do you know that they haven’t made contact?” Cassidy fired back, desperate. “They could have—”
“The EOD knows. Mercer assured us that he’s keeping tabs on the situation.”
“No, he’s keeping tabs on me.” There was plenty of bitterness in her voice.
“Because you’re an as
set?” Cale had taken a few more steps toward her.
Cassidy flinched. “Is that what I am?” It figured that Mercer had pulled the old asset card. He’d used that before. Her trick of blending truth and lies? She’d learned it from him. Learned it before she’d even learned how to drive a car.
Some lessons were taught early, and you never forgot them.
“According to Mercer—” it was Logan talking again—the other agent, Gunner, hadn’t spoken to her at all while the others had been gone “—you’re an important asset that has to be escorted back to D.C., pronto.”
This couldn’t be happening. One of that bunch had to be sane. “You’re all going to escort me away while Genevieve dies? While she’s tortured?” If they wouldn’t help her, she’d have to help herself—and Genevieve. “Look, those guys—the Executioner’s men—they want me. They came to that ballroom looking for me.” Cale had been right there when they’d shouted her name.
“What they wanted was to kill you hours ago. That was a bullet that came your way in the alley,” Cale said, his hand tightening on the strap of his pack. “Not an abduction attempt.”
The guy was missing the obvious. She gave a little growl of her own as she tried to explain what he should know. “They tried to kill you, not me. I saved your hide, cowboy.” And she still hadn’t received any gratitude for that.
Logan slanted what could have been an amused glance Cale’s way.
“Cowboy?”
What? Now Gunner speaks?
She ignored him and focused completely on Cale. “I saved you, so now you owe me. Help me find Genevieve—or at least, just, please, give me my own fighting chance to save her.” Get out of my way and let me help my friend.
But he wasn’t showing any signs of giving in to her. “I have my orders.”
Her shoulders slumped. Cale was just like the others. A robot, following all of Mercer’s commands without question. Even if it meant that an innocent woman died.
Cassidy wasn’t like that. She wasn’t a robot, and she didn’t care how angry Mercer became. After all, what was he going to do to her? Send his agents to control her life? Keep her locked up? Secluded?
Been there, done that. Over and over again.