Glitter and Gunfire/Bulletproof (Shadow Agents 4)

“Shoot me.” Cassidy’s voice was coldly quiet. The gunfire had stopped. Had Logan and possibly Gunner managed to take out the sniper up on that third floor? “Shoot me,” Cassidy said again. “Because that’s what you’ll have to do. I won’t let you hurt him again!”

“You think I won’t?” Genevieve didn’t even seem to be aware of the cessation in gunfire. She was too focused on Cassidy.

Was that Cassidy’s plan? To distract her?

If so... Keep it going, sweetheart.

His fingers moved, just a little. He felt the hard edge of his gun.

“We...we were friends,” Cassidy said. Her hair brushed over Cale. She was covering him with her whole body, willing to sacrifice herself for him.

He hadn’t thought it would be possible to love her more.

He’d been wrong.

“We’ve been friends for a long time, Genevieve. You don’t want—”

“We were never friends! You lied to me, always lied.” Brittle laughter. “Just as I lied to you. Remember your precious Helen? She begged

for you at the end.”

Cassidy’s body trembled against him. He could feel her now, a bittersweet press of her flesh against his.

“She was such easy prey. So trusting and foolish. They were all easy. I got close to them. I was the one to tell Ian when to take them. I was there—always me.”

“Why?” Cassidy demanded. She wasn’t letting him go.

He wouldn’t let her die for him.

“Because I had nothing. I left that boarding school because my family had nothing. I was in the street. You were at your parties. Dancing. Drinking. I wasn’t going to be thrown away! I was going to have everything!”

Even if she’d had to kill in order to get that life?

“Ian... I met him when I was desperate and alone. He changed me. Helped me.”

No, he’d used her, used her connections.

“He taught me how to hunt. Introduced me to his men.”

The men she’d still been using as her team. A network that was far bigger than they’d realized. They’d thought that most of the Executioner’s men had been killed at that raid in Rio.

Wrong.

“Those men are hiding in the buildings near us right now,” Genevieve continued. She was almost on them. He could hear the ragged pull of her breath.

His fingers stretched.

“I will kill you both. All it takes is one wave of my hand. One wave. And the bullets will come down on you.” More laughter, the cold, uncaring laughter that told Cale she’d let bullets rain down on others before and she hadn’t cared.

“You thought you’d fooled me, didn’t you, Cassidy?” Genevieve asked. “But it was I all along... I was the better actress. I was the one who played you.”

The silence chilled him. Logan and Gunner would have attacked by now, if they could have.

It was up to him.

Trust me, Cassidy. He’d told her that before. He hoped she remembered now.

“Leave...” Getting that one word out was so hard.