Glitter and Gunfire/Bulletproof (Shadow Agents 4)

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Or the last.

“You should cover your emotions better.” There sure wasn’t any emotion in Mercer’s voice as he slowly headed around the desk and eased into his chair. The last time they’d been in this office, yes, Cale had been able to read Mercer pretty well. The emotions had cracked beneath his surface. This time...the man was far too controlled.

He was dealing with Mercer, the EOD director, and definitely not the father who’d been frantic.

Cale realized that he’d done that same compartmentalizing with Cassidy. The agent and the lover.

He damn well wouldn’t do it again.

Mercer eased behind his desk. The leather chair groaned as he leaned forward. His watchful stare had never left Cale’s face. “Others will read those emotions of yours. If you’re not careful, your enemies will use them against you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cale grumbled, not about to discuss what was going on personally between him and Cassidy. “But—”

“I’m talking about Cassidy. About the way you look at my daughter.” Mercer flattened his hands on the desk’s surface. “About what others will see unless you start watching yourself a whole lot better.”

Cale’s back teeth clenched. “What happens between me and your daughter—”

“Cassidy looks a lot like her mother.” Mercer’s gaze seemed far away. He looked right through Cale, and at his own past. “Same hair, eyes...even that stubborn chin. Marguerite was so beautiful. The first time I saw her...” He swallowed. “I knew I couldn’t walk away from her.”

Isn’t that the way I feel about Cassidy?

Because he knew that he should step down. Another case waited—plenty of other cases—but he couldn’t leave Cassidy.

Wouldn’t leave her.

“I was undercover, even then. Pretending to be someone I wasn’t.” Mercer stared down at his hands. “Always pretending. But Marguerite seemed to see through that.”

This was a Mercer that Cale didn’t know. So he just stood, watching, waiting to see what Mercer would reveal next.

“I loved her, but I loved my job, too. People counted on me. So many lives. So many...” His lips kicked up into a mocking smile. “But I was young. Foolish. I thought I could have it all. The girl. The job. The danger. All of it. Everything I wanted.” The smile faded. “We married in secret.”

Married...and had Cassidy.

“But I’d made so many enemies. They found my Marguerite. And took her from me.” His hands slapped against the desk. “In an instant, they took everything from me. I wasn’t even there to tell her goodbye.”

Cale felt his muscles turn to stone. This story...the ending...it hit far too close to home for him.

When he’d been a teen, his parents had been taken from him. Not by an enemy, but by a drunk driver. Gone in an instant.

He’d never been able to tell them goodbye. He’d never been able to save them.

So he tried to save others.

Cale’s breath whispered from his lungs. “You didn’t lose everything that day. You still had Cassidy.”

Beautiful, bright Cassidy.

Mercer’s eyes closed for a moment. “Because of who I am...what I am...Marguerite died. Cassidy had to see that terrible moment. Just a child, and she had to watch her mother die.”

And the memory still haunted her. He knew it probably always would.

“What do you think you can give to Cassidy?” Mercer asked him after he opened his eyes.

Cale stared back at him, no ready answer on his lips.

“You’re on the same path that I took. Danger. Enemies.” Mercer shook his head. “One of your enemies framed you for murder just months ago. You don’t have a safe or easy life.”