It had taken time, but Mercer had traced that brutal attack back to the man who’d been his friend.
His gaze returned to the grave.
“I want extra protection on Tina Jamison. She’s not an agent, and I’m not going to have her sacrifice her life because she’s trying—” He stopped because Cooper had no reason to know the rest. Tina is trying to repay a debt to me.
He knew exactly what Tina was doing. Because he knew her. Tina was smart, incredibly so. She always had been. Her father had kept smiling pictures of a young Tina—holding her slew of academic awards—all over his desk.
Mercer had never been able to show pictures of his own daughter. But he had one of Cassidy, one that he carefully hid from others.
Cassidy and her mother, Marguerite.
Tina was grateful to him. He knew that. She’d told him time and again. But he hadn’t done anything for her. She would have graduated college on her own. Gone to med school—on her own.
Sometimes, he felt as though all he’d done was put her in a cage. He’d offered her the position at the EOD because she was a damn good doctor.
But... Did I also offer her the job so that I could keep an eye on her? To protect her, the way her father would have done?
Only, Mercer’s protection had turned into a trap.
The same way I trapped Cassidy.
And if he’d known about Cooper Marshall sooner...
He shoved out a hard breath. “You’re on Dr. Jamison’s security detail. You watch her. You protect her. If you think she’s compromised, you move immediately to retrieve her.” He leveled his stare at Cooper to make sure the man got the point. “Your priority isn’t bringing down Devast. It’s keeping Dr. Jamison alive.” Because if a choice had to be made...
Cooper nodded.
Then Mercer wanted his agent to make the right choice.
Chapter Eight
“He wants a trade,” Drew said as he paced the small confines of the house.
A safe house, or so he’d said. The guy had hustled her out of that big hotel fast. Told her that their location had been compromised.
Then he and the other two agents had burned some serious rubber getting to this new spot.
A spot that was a lot less glamorous than their five-star hotel. The little neighborhood had looked abandoned at first glance. Houses in disrepair, roofs slumping, windows boarded up.
The streets were dark, and Tina sure hadn’t seen anyone walking in the area.
Tina glanced around the small, single-story house. There were burglar bars on the windows. Instead of making her feel safe, they just made her feel like a prisoner.
“Tina, did you hear me?” Drew paced toward her. A frown pulled his dark brows low. “The SOB called me. I don’t even know how the hell he got my number—”
“Sydney’s working on that,” Rachel murmured. There was a dark bruise on her temple. A cut on her cheek. Little mementos from the explosion that had nearly killed her and Tina. “She thinks someone hacked into the system because he called Mercer’s private line, too. She’ll find the link back to the hacker, just give her some time.”
“We don’t have time.” Dylan looked as grim as Drew. “What we have is a terrorist who’s locked on us. He’s killed to get to Tina already, and he’ll do it again. He won’t hesitate to take out anyone in his way.”
Was that why they were on that forgotten street? To minimize any collateral damage? The hotel had been full, right in the middle of the bustling city, but the houses on the street were pitch-black and empty.
“We have to be prepared for his attack,” Dylan said. “It could come at any moment.”
Tina found her gaze sliding back to Drew. He’d been quiet, too reserved, since they’d left the hotel. “What aren’t you telling me?” There was something else, she knew it.
“A killer is after you!” It was Rachel who answered a little too quickly. “Isn’t that enough, Tina?”
No, right then, it wasn’t. “What kind of trade did he offer?”