She’d give Cale a few details since he’d almost gotten shot.
“That’s all until I hear from Mercer in—” he glanced at the black watch that circled his wrist “—forty-five minutes.”
Not enough time.
She’d have to talk fast. Luckily, she’d always been a fast talker. Cassidy exhaled slowly and began with the truth. “Four years ago, my best friend was abducted from a pub just outside of Dublin.” Four years ago, but the memory was just as fresh in her mind. Fear didn’t fade. “The men who took her said that she’d be returned if they were paid three million dollars. They got their money, but Helen never came home.”
Not alive, anyway. Her body had eventually been found by the authorities.
Helen’s death hadn’t been fast or easy. No one should die that way.
“Since then, over a dozen other women—wealthy, young, well-connected women like Helen—have been taken. Sometimes...sometimes they are brought back, with only nightmares and shadows as their memories, but other times, their abductors leave their broken bodies behind.”
He watched her in silence.
She felt as if she’d just ripped open an old, too-raw wound...because she had. “The leader of the group is a man called the Executioner.”
Cale’s dark brows rose.
“He named himself—” arrogant, sick jerk “—when he...when he first contacted Helen’s father. He said that if he didn’t get his money, then Helen would face the Executioner’s knife. His knife.”
And Helen had faced that knife. The blade had sliced away the beauty of her face before plunging into her heart.
His gaze hardened. “The men at the party...”
“I think they were the Executioner’s men.” They’
d been after their next target. After trying to attract their deadly attention for so long—
Finally, they’d come for Cassidy.
That knowledge was in his eyes. “You set yourself up as bait.” Angry, clipped words.
She had. There’d been no choice. “Someone has to stop them!”
His head shook. “The EOD—”
“I’m the one who told the EOD about the Executioner! I’m the one who went to Mercer.” Because she’d been so desperate.
“That’s why you have him on speed dial.”
She waved that away. “My family has connections.” As did the families of all the women who’d been taken. “My grandfather is the French ambassador to the U.S. government. Helen’s father was an Irish diplomat. The Executioner goes after a certain type of woman—”
“A woman like you.” There was fury darkening his words.
“Yes.” It made her the perfect bait. The Executioner was an international killer, and because he hunted in so many places, it was hard for one country—and that country’s authorities—to track him.
The faint lines on Cale’s face had tightened. “Mercer agreed to let you put yourself up as bait?”
Not exactly. That would be why he kept sending agents to guard her. Only this time, Mercer must have realized just how close she’d finally gotten to the Executioner. “Now that I have the Executioner’s attention, I can’t walk away. This is my chance.”
But Cale’s voice roughened even more as he demanded, “Your chance to do what? To wind up dead like your friend?”
Cold, brutal words. She knew his words were supposed to scare her. She’d been dealing with fear too long to let it stop her. “It’s my chance to stop him—and his men—before they destroy more lives. If I can get to the Executioner, if I can bring him down...”
“You really think that you’re going to do this on your own?”
Her eyes narrowed. Her heart was drumming too fast in her chest. “I’ve got an EOD agent standing right in front of me. I kind of figured you could do something a little more useful than just being my human shield.”