She was aware. “Push it back, would you? I have work to do.”
Cass shook his head. “You have a hospital to get to!”
Nope. “I don’t want to be benched. Please, don’t bench me.” She felt Nash’s fingers curl around her shoulder.
“This is gonna hurt,” her brother warned her.
“Can’t hurt worse than it already does.”
Bear groaned again.
About him… “He can use that ambulance you called for, Cass.” And speaking of calls… “We should call Gray.” Her stare flickered over Cass. “Snuck up on you,” she said again.
A line cut between his brows. “What did?”
“Me. The way you feel about me. I can see it. You love—ah!” A scream of absolute agony tore through her because Nash had just shoved her dislocated shoulder back into place. Dry heaves broke from her.
Cass immediately threw Nash into the air. “Don’t ever hurt her!”
He hadn’t been hurting her, well, okay he had hurt her, but the shoulder had needed to go back in place. The pain was ebbing, and it was more of a dull throb now. Plus, she could actually move her arm a bit, so, win.
But before she could share the winning news, Cass scooped her up into his arms. He began rushing away with her, and she was pretty sure he was rushing blindly. “Cass…I’m okay.” Mostly. Maybe she needed a few stitches. Hopefully not, though.
“Hospital.” Just one, snarled word from Cass.
“Cass, we are so close to our goal.” They could not stop now. “Raz and Bear were taking me to the bastard who did all of this. He wanted to kill me himself and leave my body for you to find.” Because he was a twisted SOB, obviously.
Cass’s face hardened. His eyes spat dark fire as he looked down at her. Rage burned and promised hell in his gaze.
“Let’s give him what he wanted,” she said. “We can do this. We can.”
“I am not giving you to anyone. You are mine, Agnes. Mine. I screwed up protecting you today, but I will never, ever do that again. Do you hear me? You matter. You. I don’t give a shit about anything else. You could have died right in front of me. When you came out of that van and hit the pavement I thought you had died.” A hard, negative shake of his head.
She didn’t point out that—technically—she hadn’t hit the pavement. She’d hit Bear’s big body. At least, she hadn’t initially hit the pavement. Bear had softened her fall, but then she’d slammed into the pavement after she bounced off him. That slam had been centered all on her left side.
“You’re going far away,” he vowed. “Far away from this nightmare. I will get Gray on the phone. And then Gray is gonna take you away. You are gonna be safe. You will never face this kind of threat again.”
“Stop being adorable. I’m an FBI agent. I face threats each day. It’s part of the deal I signed up for.”
“We’ve got a vehicle approaching,” Nash said as he moved to stand beside them. He had drawn his weapon. “Coming fast. Unmarked SUV.”
Her heart slammed in her chest.
“No one is taking her,” Cass growled.
“Agreed.”
Cass gently lowered her back onto the ground away from the road. The two men took up protective positions near her. Not just near her, but in front of her.
The SUV came forward faster. Faster. It screeched to a stop.
Cass and Nash were both armed. She could use a weapon, too. Her right arm was still good. It was just the left one that was currently weak. Time for her to get off the ground and show them that she was okay. And she would get up, as soon as the nausea eased and the world stopped spinning. She hadn’t mentioned the spinning to Nash and Cass yet. No need for them to worry.
Car doors opened. Slammed closed. “Stand down!” A hard order. Her head turned as she strained to see who’d given that order. She peeked through and around the legs of Cass and Nash.
Her eyes locked on the man who’d shouted. Yep, thought that was him.
Her boss from the FBI, Gray Stone, stood near to the driver’s side of the SUV. And her partner Malik was on the passenger side. Both men had their weapons drawn.
