Bodies falling.
And…
“That sonofabitch isn’t getting away!” Cass leapt out of the back of the van.
“Cass!”
He was lunging forward. Pushing through the madness. She jumped out of the van, too, but immediately crouched beside Bayne. A Bayne who had a very large pool of blood beneath his body. She’d hit him right in his cold heart. Hard not to do at nearly point-blank range.
His eyes were open. On her.
Just as Max’s eyes had been open and on her. But, with Max, part of her had been glad that she was the last thing he’d seen. She’d tried to smile for him. Tried to even say, “I love you” in those last moments.
She smiled for Bayne, too. “Enjoy where you’re going.”
“Agnes!” Nash’s shout.
Still crouching, she whirled away from Bayne. Nash was near the left, rear van tire. Her brother was bleeding. “Get covered!” he barked at her.
She was doing that. She was also going to help her brother. She rushed toward him and immediately pressed her hand to the bleeding wound on his side.
“I’m all right.” But Nash hissed in pain.
“You have a bullet in you. That is not all right.” So many FBI agents. She’d just caught sight of Malik. “Working behind my back with Gray the whole time, were you?” she accused Nash.
“Watching your back the whole time, yeah, that’s what brothers do.”
It was. Just as it was a sister’s job to protect her brother. A man wearing a black leather vest and sporting piercings in his nose rushed toward them with his gun raised. He was aiming for Nash.
She fired. So did Nash.
The perp sank to his knees.
“FBI!” Agnes yelled. “Guns down! Guns down!”
The bad guys weren’t listening. There had been plenty of FBI shouts. The perps were outnumbered. The Feds were taking over, and now that she could actually look fully around the warehouse, she realized why. This wasn’t just about her and the man who’d hurt her so long ago. Drugs. Weapons. Way too many fancy cars. Agnes would wager that plenty of stolen property filled the warehouse.
But as her gaze darted around, she was looking for one person in particular.
“Cass went through the door on the right,” Nash told her. “Went chasing the leader.”
He’d gone after his uncle. The real ghost from his past.
Ryan appeared, dropping to his knees beside Nash. “Dammit, Nash, what did you do to yourself?”
“To…myself?” Nash choked out. “You are shitting me. You think I shot myself?”
Nash would be okay. Ryan was there. “Guard him,” she ordered.
“I don’t need guarding,” Nash rasped back.
She ignored him. Her focus was on the door to the right.
“Agnes…” A warning note from Ryan. “You’re a Fed. Do your job.”
“I am.” Her job—it was watching Cass’s back. “Love you both.” Then she was darting through the fighters and the Feds and heading for the door that waited. No way would Cass face his nightmare without her.
They were a team. Partners. And your partner always had your back.
