All the things she’d been told had been made inaccessible for her own good, so she could retreat, relax, and reclaim her memory. She’d thought those were her doctor’s orders. Instead, it had been the feds. Rather than investigating other possibilities, they’d simply hoped she would remember the details of her own nefarious deeds. Information she still couldn’t give them—certainly not enough information to counter the charges being drawn up against her.
“Has it continued?” she asked.
She’d managed to surprise Cole. A single eyebrow raised. His head inclined forward. “Has what continued?” he asked.
“The illegal activity. The leaking of classified research. Has anything more happened since my shooting?”
“No.”
Naturally. “Which only helps the government’s case against me. I’m the ringleader, so of course nothing more’s going to be leaked while I’m in custody. Don’t you think that’s a tad bit convenient?”
“You’ve been under surveillance, not in custody.” He sighed. His stance and his expression softened. “You’ve been under my personal protection, Shaw. I know we have a lot to work out once this is over, and this time the fault for the personal mess we’re in is entirely mine. But whether you want to believe me or not, I’ve done everything I could since joining the task force to support your innocence. And now we have proof that the lack of new security breaches has been about this guy being up to no good out here. He’s preoccupied with messing with you. Dawson’s working to get a team here tomorrow to dig for more evidence.”
Whether she wanted to believe him or not? Was he serious? She’d fallen in love with him. She’d let herself feel safe. Wanted. She’d felt secure in his acceptance of the mistakes they’d made as kids, and in the new start they’d both said they’d wanted. And all this time, to Cole she’d been another suspect. A witness. Whatever.
He hadn’t let her into his heart again. Not far enough. Even if a part of him had honestly tried to believe in them, it was clear that they were exactly where they’d been fifteen years ago—nowhere. Everything she’d thought they were becoming again had only been an assignment to him.
Well, this assignment was over. She was done with all of it, particularly thinking she could convince him to give them another chance.
“Tell your team I’m getting the hell out of here.” She turned away, intending to grab her suitcases and start packing. “The only way you’re stopping me is by arresting me and taking me to jail. You can do whatever you want with this place, but I’m—”
Something shattered the wall over her head, raining bits of plaster down on her.
She screamed, then screamed again when Cole tackled her from behind and squashed her already aching body to the floor.
“Stay down,” he ordered.
“Get off of me!” She tried to crawl away, but got no further than kicking at his shins with her bare feet. “Find another way to lure out the person you told me yesterday hadn’t shot at me at all.”
“Knock it off.” He cursed as another silent bullet took out the window of the door to the backyard. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
She rallied herself to run into the kitchen. Instead, she found herself lifted from the floor and carried under Cole’s arm like a football, out the back door into the same yard she’d raced through when she’d first found him.
“Put me down!”
“Stay still.”
He had his gun out and was running for the woods, half naked, faster than should be possible considering he was lugging her along. She twisted and once more tried kicking. Which wasn’t the sanest choice, she knew. But she couldn’t endure his touch a moment longer. His hold around her diaphragm tightened until she couldn’t breathe.
“Kick me again,” he said, racing down the hill through the underbrush and trees, “or try to bite me, and I’ll paddle your ass when we get to the cabin. Hold still until I have us under some cover. Then you can smack me around all you want, if it makes you feel better.”
She went limp, if for no other reason than she couldn’t take in any air. But there was also the realization that she really didn’t want to smack him. And that weak, needy impulse began to dissolve the rest of her fury.
Cole was once more putting himself between her and danger. She’d loved him for being that person, the only person in her life who’d ever cared so much for her. Her addled mind had wanted to believe that he would care for her that way forever. That he was once more the honorable man who’d protected her, who’d asked her to believe that he’d always be there for her no matter what she discovered next. And damn it if a part of her didn’t still long to.