Guardian Ranger (11 page)

Right. The woman had seen all his scars. Kissed them. He still couldn’t believe that she’d done that. She hadn’t been repulsed or scared. She’d just been...loving.

Perfect.

He was so messing everything up with her. He knew it. His breath rushed out. He had to talk with Logan. Get permission from the EOD powers-that-be, aka Bruce Mercer—the bigwig Mystery Man who seemed to run Elite Ops—to brief Veronica fully on the situation with Cale.

She deserved the truth.

He couldn’t,
wouldn’t
keep lying to her.

Veronica was dressed now and staring at him a bit uncertainly as her smile wavered.

He walked toward her with slow, sure steps. She tilted her head back to look up at him. “You aren’t what I expected,” he told her.

“Is that good? Or bad?”

Both.

“Don’t hate me, okay?”

Her brows rose. “Ah, is this typical morning-after etiquette for you? You tell a woman not to hate you because—”

“There’s nothing typical about you.” That was a big part of the problem. If she hadn’t been getting under his skin, he could have kept playing his part, and he could have stayed the hell away from her last night.

But he’d wanted her too much.

A reckoning would come soon. He’d pay for that desire.

As soon as he got her to the main house, he was calling Logan and Mercer. No more secrets. No more lies.

Jasper pulled his gun and headed toward the door. He peeked through the blinds of the nearby window, searching the area outside. Then he moved to the other windows, scanning and checking.

“Do you think someone was watching us l-last night?” she asked him, voice suddenly hushed.

Giving a quick shake of his head, Jasper told her, “No, the storm was too bad. No one was out there.” And it looked as though no one was out there now. He went back to Veronica, took her hand and led her outside.

The ground was still wet, heavy with mud, while standing water covered much of the area. Driving back to the main house would be tricky, but the truck would handle it. He cast a quick, worried glance at Veronica. He didn’t want her to have any bad memories if the truck started to slide.

She climbed into the truck, buckled her seat belt and said, “I’m fine, Jasper,” in a determined way that told him she knew exactly what he’d been thinking.

He hurried around to the driver’s seat. He secured his weapon and cranked up the vehicle. When the engine growled to life, he gently pushed down the gas even as he swept the steering wheel around in a large circle. The driving would be slow going—so damn slow—but he wouldn’t take any risks with Veronica.

His gaze swept the area up ahead. The storm had knocked over trees, sent the stream to swelling and had pretty much ravaged everything in sight.

“It’s funny,” Veronica murmured. “Once we got together, I forgot all about the storm.”

He started to smile.

But then he saw a glint up ahead. A flash of the sun on metal, one big white line that shouldn’t be there. Swearing, he jerked the steering wheel to the right, but he made his move too late.

Gunfire exploded, and a bullet ripped through the windshield. Veronica screamed as the truck careened, rushing forward. The bullet had hit him, his blood was seeping out and he couldn’t control the truck.

Couldn’t stop it.

The truck slammed into a tree. Glass shattered and Veronica stopped screaming.

Chapter Eight

She was trapped in the car.

Mommy wasn’t moving. Why wasn’t she moving? Daddy?

The nightmare of her past tangled with her present.
Veronica’s hands were against the dashboard. Broken glass was all around her.

Mommy had been bleeding. She’d been so still.

The seat belt bit into her shoulder.

She couldn’t get out of her seat. She was strapped in and she screamed and screamed because something was wrong. She couldn’t get out.

Her fingers fumbled. There was a click, and then the seat belt slid free. Her body sagged forward. The truck was at some kind of angle—it had slid down a little ravine and slammed into a tree.

Her forehead was wet. Her fingers lifted. Blood?

Daddy had been bleeding.

Her fingers fisted. She shoved the memory back into her mind. She wasn’t a child anymore. And she wasn’t alone.

Her head whipped to the right. “Jasper?” He was slumped over the steering wheel, not moving.

Had he been hurt in the crash or...
no, before the crash.
The memory of those desperate moments flooded through her. That sound that she’d heard hadn’t been thunder. It had been a gunshot. One that had blasted through the windshield—and hit Jasper.

Carefully now, so very carefully, she pushed him back. The sunlight spilled through the broken windows so that she could clearly see his blood-soaked chest. “Jasper!” This time, her cry was desperate.

His lashes fluttered. “Ver...onica? What...happened?”

“Someone shot us.”
You.
She tried to find his wound, but there was so much blood. She needed to put pressure on the wound. She had to stop the blood. That was what people always did on TV shows. Apply pressure. Stop the bleeding.

His eyes looked bleary. “Get...out...”

She leaned toward him. She was so scared that her whole body shook. “What? What is it?” There was a huge gash near the right side of his forehead.

“Have to...get out...shooter...coming...”

Her heart stopped.

“Disabled...vehicle...sitting duck...”

She didn’t want to be a sitting duck, but Jasper had to be suffering from some kind of head trauma if he thought she was just going to run off and leave him there alone. Because then
he’d
be the sitting duck.

Her gaze flew around the truck’s interior. Where was his cell phone? Hers? She fumbled next to his seat, found what she thought was his phone and—
smashed.

His eyes began to sag closed again.
“Go...”

The hell she was just going to leave him. They’d both go. She’d drag him out if she had to.

And I think I have to.

Veronica turned away from him and shoved against her door. It wasn’t budging. She shoved again and again, and then she angled her body and kicked.

The door finally groaned open.

“Hold on,” she told Jasper as she turned back to touch his cheek once more. Her fingers were covered with his blood. “I’m coming around to get you. We’ll both get out of here.” Somehow.

If she could just find her phone, maybe it would work and she could get Wyatt out there. He could help them.

She eased from the truck, glanced to the left, then the right. She didn’t see anyone, but then, she hadn’t seen the shooter, either. The blast had just exploded in the truck, wrecking her world.

Daddy...Daddy!

The memories just wouldn’t stay buried. Her fingers curled over the door and she started to slide around the vehicle. The truck had crashed down in the small ravine, which definitely wasn’t an advantage. A shooter could come up from higher ground and easily take them both out.

Jasper had been right. They were sitting ducks.

She eased toward the back of the truck. She bent low, trying to stay as covered as she could and—

Hard arms wrapped around her. Veronica opened her mouth to scream as she was yanked back against a strong chest. Her scream never escaped. A hand was pushed over her mouth, and the scream emerged as just a whimper of sound that was stifled beneath rough fingers. She kicked back with her legs and twisted frantically as she tried to escape that steely grip.

“Shhh...Ronnie, it’s me.”

The familiar voice froze her.

And terrified her.

Because it was her brother’s voice.

“We have to get out of here,” Cale said. His mouth was close to her ear. “The shooter’s close, and I can’t risk him taking a shot at you.” His hold eased on her. His hand slipped away from her mouth. “Come on.” His voice was the quietest of whispers. “We’ll circle back and stay low behind the brush near the—”

“I’m not leaving Jasper.” Her own voice was hushed, and she could barely hear it over the frantic beating of her heart. She wanted to grab Cale, to hold him tight, but she had to take care of Jasper. He needed her. “He’s hurt, Cale,” she said as she turned to face her brother. “We have to get him out of that truck, get him to safety—”

“Step the hell...away from her.”
Jasper’s voice. Coming from right behind her.

She whirled and found him standing near the back of the vehicle, his face pale, his bloody shirt clinging to his chest.

He was also holding a gun. A gun that he had aimed right at her brother.

Veronica stepped into that line of fire. “Jasper, what are you doing? Cale is here to help us.” She refused to acknowledge the fleeting terror she’d felt when she first heard his voice.

“Did you think the shot...took me out? That it was...safe to come and...get Veronica?” Jasper rasped.

The gun was aimed at Veronica now.

“Lower that weapon,” Cale snarled.

Jasper lifted his left hand. Held his palm out to her. “Come here, Veronica.”

If she moved, he’d have a clear shot at Cale. Cale was the only family she had. “Cale didn’t do this,” she said. “Jasper, you’re hurt. Give me the gun and let us help you. Cale can give us cover—we can all get out of here alive.”

Jasper shook his head. His eyes weren’t on her. His gaze was focused over her shoulder. On Cale. “I don’t...think...the plan is for us all to get out.”

Cale swore behind her. His hands rose to her shoulders. He was trying to move her to the side. To get her out of Jasper’s range.

She wasn’t going easily.

Cale’s grip tightened on her. “You’ve got a head wound, man. You don’t know that you can take a clear shot.” Cale’s voice was ice-cold, but she still heard the hot fury undermining the words. He always became colder when he was angry.
“You could hit her.”

A muscle jerked in Jasper’s jaw.

Then they all heard it...the growling of an engine, coming closer. Wyatt? Coming to help them? Or the shooter, coming to finish them?

She glanced back at Cale. He didn’t have a weapon in his hands. Jasper was the only one with the gun, and he was pointing the weapon at the wrong people.

Veronica looked at Jasper once more. “Y-you were supposed to help me find Cale,” she said, trying to get through to him. “Why are y-you doing this?”

“Because he’s not here to find me.” The instant response burst from Cale. “The EOD sent him to capture me.”

The EOD? She didn’t even know what that was, but—but the growling of that car’s engine was growing louder.

Company was coming.

“That could be the shooter,” she whispered as she stepped toward Jasper. Instantly, Cale’s hands clamped down on her shoulders like a vise. She tried to shake him off. Not happening.

“Get. Away. From. Her,” Jasper gritted.

“You’re not going to shoot.” Cale was confident. “You’d hurt her. You’ve never hurt a civilian in your life.”

Was that all she was to Jasper? A civilian?

“I’ll be back,” Cale whispered in Veronica’s ear. “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you on your own.” Then he was pulling away, turning, running back for the brush that would give him cover until he reached the stream.

And Jasper was trying to follow him. No, Jasper was raising his weapon to shoot him.

“Stop!” she screamed. She leaped forward and placed her body directly in front of the gun. “Don’t do it.”

Jasper wrapped his hand around her wrist and jerked her to his side. She turned her head, desperate to see Cale.

But her brother hadn’t made it to the brush. The woman with short blond hair—the woman Veronica had seen with the tech team at Last Chance—had just burst from that covering. She had her weapon up and dead-aimed on Cale. The federal agent, Gunner, was right by her side.

They’d stopped her brother. And they were...cuffing him?

“Jasper?” He’d finally lowered his weapon. He stared at her with a carefully shielded gaze, one that she couldn’t read no matter how hard she tried.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

“Don’t be sorry! Tell me what’s happening!” If he weren’t wounded, she’d be shaking him.

The woman ran toward them. “Hell, Jasper, that looks bad.” She had her phone out and was calling for backup and an EMT right away. Her gaze swept to Veronica. “You hurt?”

Yes. It felt as if someone were clawing out her heart. “Why is Cale in cuffs? He didn’t shoot at us.” She waved her hand in the air, pointing up toward the ridge. “You need to check up there for the shooter. We’re all in danger out here. We’ve got to stop him and—”

“We checked the ridge. Right after we heard the crash. No one’s there.” The woman moved closer to Jasper.
Is she an agent, too?
“Figured you’d get shot. You always have to prove that you can take a bullet, don’t you?”

“Bullet...in and out of my shoulder...it’s my head that feels like it’s...tearing apart.”

Because his head had slammed into the steering wheel or the windshield. Veronica wasn’t sure which. She wanted to comfort him, but the other woman was checking his wounds and Veronica wasn’t sure what was happening.
Jasper pulled a gun on Cale.
Her gaze snapped toward her brother. Gunner was leading him away.

She was standing there, lost, and the full knowledge of what had happened slowly sank in for her.

The way the woman was talking to Jasper...

The reference Cale had made to the EOD...

The presence of the agents and their readiness to arrest Cale.

Her body trembled. Nausea rolled in her belly.

From the beginning, it had been a setup. Jasper had been hunting Cale, but not because he wanted to help her find her brother.

But because he wanted to arrest him.

“What’s the charge?” Veronica whispered.

Jasper glanced over at her. His eyes glinted. “Veronica...”

“Multiple counts of murder,” the blonde woman said, voice flat. “I’m sorry, Ms. Lane, but your brother is a killer, and we’re taking him in.”

That was the moment when her world came crashing down around her.

* * *

A
LOCAL
DOC
,
a lady with bright red hair, glowering eyes and tough hands, stitched Jasper up. It was the same doc who’d taken care of the kid who’d tried to abduct Veronica. Jasper railed the whole time she patched him up. He could feel a sledgehammer hitting his brain, but he didn’t care about that pain or the burn of the bullet wound and stitches.

He wanted to get to Veronica.

He had to explain to her.

Back at the accident scene, she’d stared at him as if he were a stranger. Hell, to her, he was. A stranger that she’d taken to her bed, only to discover that he’d been lying to her all along. Using her.

I’m so damn sorry, Veronica.

Once the doc was through with him, Jasper headed over to meet up with the rest of his team. Even before the sheriff’s station had been reduced to ashes and a few skeleton walls, the EOD agents had already scouted the area for their own headquarters. Now the EOD was set up in an old building, one that would serve as their base until the mission was over. When he entered their temporary headquarters, Jasper saw Logan sitting behind a desk in the main room. Sydney paced near him.

“That was close,” Logan said, glancing at the bandage on Jasper’s forehead and the covered wound on his shoulder. “I’m starting to wonder who has the bigger death wish, you or Gunner.”

Jasper’s jaw clenched. “Where’s Veronica?”

“That’s your question?” Logan’s blue gaze narrowed. “We brought in our suspect. We even held off interrogation until
you
dragged your sorry hide out of the doc’s office, and the first thing you ask about is the girl?” He gave a soundless whistle. “Interesting.”

Jasper thought about punching Logan. Sure, Logan was their leader, the guy with the code name of Alpha One, but leader or not, he was still close to getting hit.

Logan rose from his chair and slowly came around the desk. “You didn’t get emotionally involved in this one, did you?”

Hell, yes.

“Because we both know just how dangerous that can be,” Logan said, memories flashing in his own eyes.

But in Logan’s case, that emotional involvement had turned out okay. Logan had saved his lady, and they were planning to get married. Logan was on his way to that picket-fence dream.

Lucky bastard.

While Jasper was pretty sure any dreams he’d been dumb enough to have were dead.

“He asked for you,” Sydney said.

Jasper glanced her way. Her gaze darted between him and Logan. “During his transport here,” Sydney clarified, “the prisoner kept saying that he only wanted to talk with Jasper.”

Well, that would explain why Logan hadn’t started the interrogation. “Planning to use me, huh?” Jasper asked. But wasn’t that the way the EOD worked? Before Logan could answer, Jasper focused on Sydney once more. “What about Veronica?” They’d been separated at the crime scene. Logan had insisted that Jasper go with the doctor—as if he hadn’t spent plenty of time walking around with much worse wounds—while Veronica had stayed with the EOD agents.

“What about her?” Sydney asked, lifting her brows.

The woman was going to make him spell it out. She always enjoyed making him suffer a bit. Part of Sydney’s charm. Or not. “Did she ask about me?” he gritted.

A hint of sympathy lit her gaze. “She asked if you were EOD.”