Chapter Six
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Cassie huddled underTristan’s heavy wool peacoat as he drove them south away from the scene.His dark, woodsy scent drifted up from the satin lining, but she could still smell the metallic bite of Penny’s blood on her clothes.It turned her stomach.
Tristan’s quiet, solid presence and the extra warmth helped soothe her inner turmoil a little.After a few minutes, the worst of the shivers had stopped.
But the shock was still there, a ball of ice lodged deep in her gut.Her mind continued to race, going over the sequence of events, struggling to understand what the hell had happened.And why.
Every horrific detail of the attack kept replaying over and over in her head in an endless loop.She hadn’t noticed anyone tailing them from the house, or after they’d stopped for the coffee.Had she just missed it because she’d let her guard down?
The bottom line was, Penny had been her responsibility, and now she was dead.“It was my fault,” she said into the quiet.
“No, it wasn’t.You did everything you could to get out of there, and then held your ground against three shooters.Penny got shot because she left the vehicle against your orders.”He readjusted the air flow of the vents toward her.
“She was terrified.”Cassie shook her head, regret heavy in her heart.She should have been more forceful andmadePenny stay put.Engaged the child locks to prevent her from getting out of the vehicle in the first place.Jumped on top of her and pinned her on the floor to keep her there if necessary.“I keep going over everything, trying to see if I missed a warning sign.”She shook her head.“Why didn’t I see it sooner?”
“Why would you have?There were zero credible threats on our radar, and they literally ambushed you out of nowhere.”
Didn’t matter.She and all the other personal security agents were trained to expect the unexpected.The truth was, she’d been caught with her guard down.And Penny had paid for that lapse with her life.
She had seen dead people before on the job.But she’d never been responsible for a death before, let alone someone under her protection.It wasn’t something she could just brush off.
“I thought if I could just make it to the pullout, maybe I could get past them on the sand before the safety glass failed.But the windshields were shot up so bad I couldn’t see, and...Shit, I shouldn’t have stopped like that.I should’ve kept going.”Making a run for it blind and trying to ram through the SUV would have been a better option than stopping and leaving them exposed.
Damn, she was second-guessing every single decision now.
“Cass, you’re the best driver we have.If you couldn’t get past them, then nobody else could’ve either.”
She glanced over at him in surprise.Did he really mean that?
“It’s true.I’d put you behind the wheel against anyone else at CPS in any situation.You did the best you could, alone and against an overwhelming enemy force.I’m just glad you’re still here.”His hand tightened around the steering wheel.
She was glad too.Thinking about how close she’d come to dying an hour ago was sobering.
At least Tristan was on her side.His belief in her and her abilities were a desperately needed balm on her raw conscience.But she’d never been good at taking compliments, and didn’t feel right accepting one after Penny had been killed on her watch.
She faced forward and lapsed into silence, resting her head against the window frame as a heavy wave of exhaustion hit.
“Go ahead and sleep for a while,” Tristan said.
Having him beside her made her feel safe on a deep and profound level.But she didn’t want him to see how shaken she really was.“Nah, I’m okay.”
At the first main intersection, Tristan turned west and headed for the coastal highway that would take them north back to Crimson Point.They didn’t talk on the drive, and she was grateful for the silence.
She didn’t want to talk about it anymore.Didn’t want to talk period.Soon enough she would have to explain herself and defend her actions to the police, then again tomorrow with Ryder and the other senior management at CPS.For now, she needed to retreat into herself and save what was left of her badly depleted energy reserves.
