Her Forgotten Betrayal(51)

“I trusted you.” Now her heart was breaking. She was just as alone, facing this horrible moment, as she’d ever been.

Smoke from a raging fire rose around them. Blinking wouldn’t clear her vision. Her hands clenched around Cole’s wrist. Even while he was terrifying her, she couldn’t help but reach for him.

“I’ll hate you forever for this,” she said, almost sobbing the words.

“If that’s what it takes,” he whispered into her ear. Goose bumps swept her body—from panic this time, not passion. “If you want your life back, if you want my help, face your fears and remember what your mind doesn’t want you to know. Open the door. See who’s there, so we can get you out of this.”

“I just want you.” More than freedom and life and safety.

She wanted to hear him say again that she was enough. Just her. Just them. And that he’d never leave her. Not this time.

“You can’t have me. Not until you do this for us.” He gently shook her. “Do this, Shaw, and it will all be over.”

The doorknob turned. She grabbed it, trying to prevent her dream from racing forward.

“What if it’s you I see?” It was the secret fear she’d told herself wasn’t there. Hidden deep inside, through one accident piling on top of another after he’d shown up. And through all the half truths he’d been telling her, the evasions…a part of her had continued to wonder if Cole was somehow involved or even causing the danger she was sensing. Now there he was, destroying her hiding place. “What if it’s you I should have been afraid of all along? What if you’re the threat I should be running from?”

“There’s only one way to find out, darlin’.”

He reached for her hand, pulling it from the knob and trapping it in his larger grasp. The door was wrenched open. A slash of light pierced her eyes. The revolver appeared. She and Cole crumpled in a heap at the man’s feet, Cole’s body wrapped protectively around her. The man stared down at her. His face was a blur, but she could make out enough of it this time to realize he was horribly disfigured. Hard hands grabbed her hair.

“Help me,” she cried.

“Stop him yourself,” Cole said, shaking her again. “Tell me who he is.”

The man jerked her face up. The gun’s muzzle bit into her temple.

“No, no, I won’t!” she promised, feeling the same panic as before, as she gazed into his featureless face. “I won’t remember.”

“Tell anyone about me,” the man threatened, his voice an eerie echo from her childhood, “and you’re dead.”

Shaw struggled to get away as fire billowed around them. “I said I wouldn’t tell. Stop it. Stop hurting me.”

“Make him stop.” Cole’s lips nuzzled against her neck. He kissed her, terrifying her with how much she still wanted him, even now. “Don’t give up, Shaw. I won’t let you.”

“Even if he kills me?” She heard a click. The sound of the revolver’s hammer being cocked.

“Even if he kills us both.” Cole released her, his image fading into the flame until she was once more facing her nightmare alone.

“No!” she screamed. She was never what Cole had really wanted. She hadn’t been enough to keep him with her.

The blast of the gunshot roared through her mind, hurtling her into darkness, ripping at the memory of all she’d seen. Leaving nothing for certain except the knowledge that she was in more danger than ever before—only this time, it was because of Cole.

…

“Shaw!” Cole had the woman he loved pinned to the bed. Her eyes were open but seeing nothing.

They’d been asleep for hours when her dream had struck. The endless night before, the adrenaline of her attacks, and then the absolute perfection of the release they’d found together had converged into the type of exhaustion that could suck a man in for days.

God. How long had he been out of it? Darkness once more muted the world outside the bedroom window. He’d let his guard down, drowning himself in the touch, taste, and feel of the woman of his dreams. He hadn’t briefed Shaw on the reality of Cassidy Global’s problems, her precarious standing with the U.S. Attorney, or the joint task force she’d had no idea he was fronting for. He’d made love with her, instead of putting every ounce of energy and experience he possessed into convincing her to do the only thing that would get her safely out of this mess: continuing to work with him and remembering, regardless of how shocked she’d be over his revelations.

And he may have already missed his check-in with Dawson.