Her Forgotten Betrayal(62)
“You’ll do no such thing, Marinos. That’s way outside your discretion on this assignment.”
“She’s already figuring it out on her own. And I need her complete trust.”
“If she’s guilty, she’ll run. If—”
“She’s not our suspect any longer. You can take that hunch to the fucking bank. She’s a victim, a witness, and it’s the Marshals Service’s job, Chief Inspector, to protect her until the felon responsible for the Cassidy leaks, her injury, and the stalking that’s now endangering her life can be brought to trial and convicted. I intend to make sure all of that happens. Even if I have to tell her the truth to do it.”
“And how, exactly, are you going to do that for a witness who’s spitting mad, once she finds out her ex-lover-knight-in-shining-armor is actually a fed who’s had her under surveillance the entire time he’s been pretending to be her friendly, helpful, aw-shucks-ma’am neighbor?”
It was the very question Cole had asked himself a hundred times over the last several hours.
“I’ll make Shaw understand the direness of her circumstances,” he said. “I won’t give her a choice.”
“Damn it, Marinos.”
“I’ll deal with her while you square things with the task force and the Bureau. I need a forensics team here by morning, with better equipment than I have. Something that will outsmart whatever technology this guy’s using to block mine.”
“Sure, why not?” Dawson said, sounding furious and sarcastic, but not altogether unaccommodating. “Anything else I can do for you in my spare time, in the middle of the fucking night?”
“Dig into Shaw’s past,” Cole repeated. “Even though her memory’s recovering, we can’t afford to wait for her to tell us who this guy might be. We’ve got to find evidence to put him away before he decides terminating her is a better solution than merely freaking her out.”
“You know the football field of crap that’s about to land on your head if you’re wrong about this, right? Once I start the wheels in motion, you’re on the record, Cole. There’s no backing away from this one if it goes south. You could be making some career-ending miscalculations.”
“Or I could score one hell of a promotion. I’ll be in touch again once I talk with Shaw.” If the worst happened, he could live just fine without his career. But he couldn’t live at all if he didn’t save Shaw. “Get ready to send our people up here, but tell them to come in quiet, and to keep themselves and their vehicles at an undetectable perimeter. I have no idea how powerful this guy’s surveillance is.”
“Will this help give you an idea?” a cold feminine voice said behind him.
Cole spun, his gun drawn and leveled on where she stood in the doorway leading to the storage room. He lowered his weapon, his fingers actually shaking at the shock of not knowing Shaw had been there. She’d tunneled so far under his radar, God knew how much of his conversation with Dawson she’d heard.
But the only thing Cole could get his mind to focus on at the moment, the only thing he cared about, was that he could have shot her. Jesus. He holstered the weapon before his trembling fingers could press the trigger by accident.
His heart was beating out of his chest. His stomach was in a knot. That proved it without a doubt. He was a total goner.
He loved her.
God, he loved Shaw Cassidy as much as he had as a teenager. More than a shut-down, rusty heart like his should still be capable of loving anyone. And from the hurt, brittle expression marring her beautiful face as she stared back at him, holding out a piece of electronic junk as if it were going to bite her, his worst fears had come true.
He’d just lost her for good.
Chapter Sixteen
Shaw slapped the tiny electronic device she’d found into Cole’s hand, while he told Dawson, her Marshals Service contact, that he’d call back.
She couldn’t believe she’d been rushing to show him her discovery and to fill him in about Dawson. So he’d be with her when she called in the good guys to report that she finally had something concrete to prove she wasn’t crazy. Turned out, Cole was the good guys. Whatever that meant.
She’d believed that he was on her side again, that they were in this together, just as when they’d been kids. She’d believed he loved her again. And she’d fallen all over herself feeling grateful for her second chance to keep him, to be good enough this time, strong enough, to be worthy of his renewed faith in her. She’d begged him to stay with her. She’d bought in to each of his promises. All while he’d been playing a part and manipulating her.