Guardian Ranger (12 page)

Hell, hell,
hell.
“And you told her?”

“It’s not my place to break that woman’s heart more than it’s already been broken.” She stared directly at him. “That’s your job.” There was more heat in her voice than he usually heard.

Even Logan glanced at her with a touch of surprise.

“You know, it’s not impossible to do a job without hurting a woman. You didn’t have to sleep with her.” Sydney’s hands were fisted on her hips now. Yes, the woman was definitely angry. Odd, especially for controlled Sydney.

“She
told
you that?” he asked her.

“No, I could see it on her face.” Sydney exhaled in a rush. “There’s a certain kind of look that a woman gets when a lover betrays her. Your Veronica had that look.”

“I need to talk to her.”
Now.
He had to explain—

Logan shook his head. “We’ve got a plane coming in at 0600 tomorrow. The EOD wants Cale brought in to the D.C. office for questioning and containment. That means we have less than twenty-four hours—” his eyes narrowed on Jasper “—to break the suspect.”

Logan wanted him to do the breaking. That message was loud and clear in Alpha One’s gaze.

“The first EOD agent that Cale killed...Marcus Holloway...he was a friend of mine.” Logan’s lips tightened. “We’re not letting another team take this guy away. We’re getting Cale’s confession.
We’re
closing this case.”

Logan had always been territorial. When it came to the cases and his life.

Jasper had never really felt territorial about anyone or anything, until Veronica.

“We have everything here that we need to break him.” Logan nodded at Jasper. “We’ve got you, Wyatt—the sheriff seems to be the guy’s only friend—and we’ve got Cale’s sister.”

Jasper stiffened. “I’ll talk to Cale.” For all the good it would do. The man wasn’t the breaking type. Most army rangers weren’t. “But we aren’t using Veronica.”

Logan just stared back at him.

Angry, Jasper snarled, “Would you use Juliana?”

He saw the hit in Logan’s eyes.

That was what I thought.
“Veronica stays out of this.” He pulled in another breath, trying to slow his racing heart. “I’ll handle Cale.”

Then, because he didn’t want to waste any more time on an already ticking clock, he glanced at Sydney. She pointed toward the narrow hallway. “Last door on the right. Gunner has guard duty.”

He nodded, and squaring his shoulders, he headed down that hallway. Logan followed him, shadowing his steps. Jasper knew that Logan would want to hear every word of this interrogation. And, knowing Sydney, the room housing Cale had already been set up for full video and audio surveillance.

Everything that happened in that room would be recorded. Monitored constantly until Cale was on the flight heading to D.C.

Gunner opened the door for Jasper. Jasper and Logan stalked inside. A small table sat in the middle of the room. Cale was seated at the table, with his hands cuffed behind his back.

The room’s windows had been boarded up. The only way in was through the door. The door that an armed Gunner was blocking.

Jasper pulled out a table chair, one directly across from Cale. No point in delaying. He sat down and met the glaring blue gaze of his prisoner.

Veronica’s gaze was a bright sky-blue. Her brother...well, his blue gaze was dark and hard. Promising retribution.

“You used her,” Cale said, body tense.

Jasper didn’t speak. Just having Cale talk first was a victory in interrogation. When suspects wanted to talk, you let them. They usually talked too much, revealed too much.

And you just got to sit back and listen.

He’d learned all about interrogations during his two years at the EOD.

“You know how important Veronica is to me,” Cale continued, his voice flat, totally emotionless, “and you knew she was always off-limits. She wasn’t part of our world.”

The world of battles and death. Blood and bullets.

Jasper leaned forward and felt the pull of his stitches. “You made her a part of that world when you started hunting EOD agents. You brought us right to her door.” Or they would have gone to her door...

But she came looking for me in that bar. Walked up to me with fear and determination mixed in her gaze, and she asked for my help.

“You’ve got the wrong man.” Cale gave him a smile that a tiger would have envied as he leaned back in his chair. “I haven’t killed
any
EOD agents.”

“That’s not what the evidence says.” Jasper kept his voice just as flat as Cale’s. He wasn’t giving the guy the upper hand.

Logan watched in silence from his position against the right wall. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his gaze was locked on Cale.

But Cale shook his head and seemed to ignore Logan. A trick, of course, because Jasper knew that Cale was aware of every move that the other agent made. Still staring right at Jasper, Cale said, “Evidence can lie. Especially if it’s planted evidence.”

“So someone’s setting you up?” Jasper let the doubt drip from his words.

“If you weren’t so busy screwing my sister, you would have realized that sooner.”

Jasper hadn’t expected the knife stab to come so fast. He took the jab and tilted his head to better study Cale. “You’ve been watching us.”

Cale’s eyes darkened with fury.
He didn’t know. Hell. He was just guessing. Just tossing out—

Cale leaped to his feet and slammed his head into Jasper’s. Jasper punched him back, but not before Cale managed to connect hard with the fresh wound on Jasper’s forehead.

Cale had never minded playing dirty.

Logan rushed forward and shoved Cale back into his seat. Then he took out his gun and aimed it right at Cale. “Go at my agent again, and you’ll be a dead man. We won’t care about hearing your side of the story. We won’t care about—”

Cale’s laughter cut through his words.

Jasper swiped away the blood that had dripped down from his forehead.

“You think I don’t know this scene?” Cale asked, still grinning. “If you’re questioning me, then you want something. Something you think only I can give you.”

True enough. So why play any more games? “We want to know who hired you to kill the agents.”

Cale’s grin was chilling.

“You’re a mercenary, right?” Logan pushed. “You kill for the right cash.”

Cale’s gaze slowly slid from Logan to Jasper. “I figure every man in this room has plenty of blood on his hands.”

Jasper looked down at his hands. He’d washed blood away less than an hour before. Still looking at his hands, he said, “You were paid to kill three EOD agents. Marcus Holloway.” He glanced up, waiting for a reaction. “Julian Forrest and Ben King.”

Cale gave no reaction. “I didn’t kill them.”

“You knew them all,” Jasper said. “That’s why it was so easy to get close to them. Hell, what did they do? Just open their doors when they saw you? Told you to come on in? Then you attacked when they turned their backs?”

“That’s not the way I attack.”

“We found shoe impressions that you left at a scene. Clay that matched up to the exact same kind that you’ve got on your ranch.” He heaved out a breath. “I guess you didn’t clean up after yourself well enough at those scenes.”

Cale stared back at him. “I don’t kill men on my side.”

“But they weren’t on your side.” This came from Logan. “They were on the EOD’s side, and the EOD didn’t want you.”

Cale glanced over at him. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

“‘Unstable,’” Jasper quoted, trying to divide Cale’s attention. “‘Extreme aggressive tendencies...’”

The tiger’s smile flashed again. “Show me one ranger who isn’t aggressive.”

“Most rangers aren’t put on warning lists by their shrinks.”

“Yeah, well, most shrinks aren’t looking for a little payback because you caught ’em messing around with an underage girl.” One dark brow rose. “I had to let loose a few of my ‘aggressive tendencies’ that day.”

What? Jasper kept his expression blank as surprise rolled through him. There hadn’t been a record of any charge against the shrink. Had the guy really been involved with an underage girl? Or was Cale just trying to B.S. them?

“Check the story if you don’t believe me.” Cale was way too confident. “Dr. Paul Lyland lost his license a few months back. Seems someone got evidence on him, and the not-so-good doctor had to go before the review board. Pity his nose never healed properly,” Cale muttered, as if the words were an afterthought. “But maybe that will serve as a reminder for the shrink. A reminder that plenty of folks are watching him now.”

Watching and waiting for their pound of flesh? “Do you like delivering your own justice?” Jasper asked Cale, trying to figure him out.

Cale shrugged. “Somebody has to deliver it.”

“Why not let that somebody be you?” They’d check the story on the shrink, but Jasper’s instincts were telling him it was true. Hell, what else had they missed?

“Did those agents do something wrong, too?” Jasper asked because it had to be asked. “If we go digging in their pasts, are we gonna see that they did something to make them land on your punishment list?”

“I don’t have a list.”

“Don’t you?” Jasper threw right back.

Cale’s stillness seemed to be his only answer, but, after a tense moment, Cale said, “Guess who just got added?”

Me.

Cale leaned forward. “Now, I’ve played nice. And if you want me to keep playing nice, you’ll bring my sister to me.”

“I don’t think so,” Logan began.

Cale surged to his feet, seeming to completely ignore the gun that was inches from his face. “If I don’t see Veronica, then I don’t say another word. I know how this game works. Hell, you two think you can get to me? After the nightmare I survived in Syria? Think again.”

Jasper pushed back his chair and slowly stood. “We’ll see if Veronica wants to talk to you.” He turned his back on Cale, a deliberate risk.

“If?” Cale snarled.

Jasper glanced over his shoulder, keeping his expression blank. He was as good at wearing an unfeeling mask as Cale was.
Maybe I’m better.
“Now that she knows just what you really are, do you still think she’s gonna be the adoring little sister? Maybe it’s time
you
think again.”

He marched past Gunner, rage burning in his veins, the fire simmering just beneath his controlled exterior. Cale had once been his closest friend, but he sat across from him as an enemy.

And Veronica? What was she? Not an adoring little sister to Cale, and to him—

He rounded the corner and came face-to-face with her. She stood in the middle of the hallway, with Wyatt right by her. Sydney waited close by them.

Veronica gazed into Jasper’s eyes, and her expression was cold. She’d never been cold before. She’d burned red-hot for him.

Now she seemed to look right through him.

Chapter Nine

Stay in control. Don’t let him see your anger. Don’t let him see your hurt.

Veronica kept her chin up and her back ramrod straight. Wyatt had told her that the agents needed her at their headquarters. The EOD “headquarters” had turned out to be the abandoned building at the end of Black Bear Road.

Jasper was staring at her with blazing eyes. The female agent—the woman had finally introduced herself as Sydney Sloan—had sympathy on her pretty face as she edged closer. It was all Veronica could do not to start screaming at them.

But she was trying to follow another one of Cale’s rules.
Never break in front of the enemy. Never show your pain. Others will just use that pain against you.

Jasper had sure caused her plenty of pain.

“They’re not FBI, you know that, right?” Veronica said to Wyatt. He’d been with her, pretty much from the moment since the agents had taken her brother into custody. At the crash scene, he’d appeared with Logan Quinn. Wyatt’s face had looked grim, the faint lines around his face much deeper.

“Not FBI,” Wyatt agreed quietly, “but they’ve got high clearance.”

“How high?” Veronica asked. She wasn’t staring Jasper in the eye. She couldn’t. And he was just staring at her.

“High enough that the governor called and told me to do whatever Logan Quinn said.”

When the governor said jump...

She swallowed the lump in her throat. She’d been a fool, and now she had to pay a price for her blind trust.

Talk to Jasper.
Because he was still just staring at her, waiting. “You’re not a mercenary,” she said, and risked the briefest of stares into his eyes.

“No, ma’am.”

She flinched at that drawl. Her gaze dropped to his chin.

His jaw clenched.

“What are you?” she asked him.

“I’m a federal agent.”

“You’re
not
with the FBI.”

“No, ma’am.”

Her eyes slit as they lifted back to meet his gaze. “What’s the EOD?”

He glanced at the sheriff. Yes, she knew that Wyatt could tell her, especially since it seemed that he, Logan and the governor were all suddenly tight, but she wanted to hear this information straight from Jasper. It would be interesting to see what the truth sounded like from him.

“It’s the Elite Operations Division. We’re a hybrid group, mostly ex-military.”

Like her brother. “Why were you hunting Cale?”

He reached for her. She flinched back. He was bleeding. There was blood on his forehead, and she’d noticed that his shoulder looked padded—probably because of a bandage under his shirt.

His hand dropped.

“Why?” she repeated.

“Because Cale is wanted in connection with the murders of three EOD agents.”

She shook her head instantly. “He wouldn’t do that,” she whispered, but she cleared her throat and spoke again, her voice stronger. “Cale rescues people. He doesn’t kill them. He doesn’t—”

“We also think he’s tied to the fire and explosion at the police station, and the murder of the two men who were shot outside the station—the men who attempted to abduct you.” A clipped voice.

She wanted to rage at him, but her voice stayed controlled. Mostly. “
I
was outside that station. Do you seriously think my brother was trying to kill me, too?”

“No, ma’am.”

Veronica
hated
that drawling “ma’am” bit.

“I think your brother is one fine shot,” Jasper continued quietly. “Actually, I
know
he is. That’s why you weren’t hurt that day. He took out his targets, just like this morning, when he aimed only at me, not you.”

Her cheeks felt icy. “I was inside the station when the fire started, the explosion—”

“Your brother had demolitions training when he was in the military.”

She didn’t want to hear this.

“He would have known how to stage that scene. Sydney talked to an arson investigator. The initial flames were set to alert folks in the station. To give us time to get out. But the explosion that followed, that was designed for a specific type of destruction. A bomb was placed, then triggered so that the back of the station would be hit hardest. The bomber knew exactly what he was doing. Hell, we even think the guy used a cell phone to start the explosion in the back.”

The back of the station. She’d been in the front, so...

“Your brother made sure you were clear in that explosion. He protected you, but still went after the men he wanted.”

This couldn’t be true. “I want to see him.” Because Jasper was
wrong.

“Good, because he wants to see you, too.”

Her heartbeat wouldn’t slow down. It was racing too hard in her chest, and her hands were trembling.

Jasper motioned toward the far end of the hallway. “Come this way.”

Fine. She stepped forward. Instantly, Wyatt moved with her. He’d been silent during the exchange with Jasper. Watching, weighing every word. Did everyone but her think that Cale was a monster? A cold-blooded killer?

Soldier...or sociopath.

Jasper slammed his hand into the sheriff’s chest. “Sorry, Wyatt, for now, it’s just her.”

Wyatt frowned at him. “That’s my friend in there. If he’s gone rogue, I can get him to talk.”

He hasn’t gone rogue.

But Jasper shook his head. “For now, I’m only taking Veronica back to interrogation.”

Wyatt’s gaze cut to Veronica. Frustration etched hard lines on his face. “You going to be okay in there?”

She nodded. She wasn’t about to break apart. Yes, Jasper’s betrayal made it feel as if he had tried to carve out her heart, but she
wouldn’t
break. Jasper wrapped his hand around her elbow and guided her down the hall. She didn’t need his guidance. She didn’t need anything from him anymore.

“In here.” He pushed open a door to the left. She entered, rushing in her eagerness to see Cale, only...Cale wasn’t there. The room was empty.

She spun around just as Jasper shut the door behind him, sealing them inside.

“We need to talk,” he said.

Her hands were fisted so hard that her knuckles hurt. “I want to see my brother. You told me—”

“You will see him.” The words were rough. “But first, you’re going to talk to me.”

He started to close in on her. Instinctively, Veronica backed up a step, but then she froze. He wasn’t going to intimidate her, not anymore. “You should wipe that blood away,” she muttered, her gaze rising to his forehead. “It really messes up that whole intense, scary vibe that you’re trying to give me.”

He stopped and frowned at her.

And she was lying. The blood just made him look more dangerous and scary. But so what if she was lying? He’d lied; she could do it, too. Maybe it was childish, but she didn’t care.

“The blood’s a little gift from your brother,” Jasper murmured. “Seems he doesn’t like the fact that we’re involved.”

Her brows shot up. “We’re not.” What had he told her brother? Oh, no, did Cale think that she’d been setting him up, too?

Jasper resumed his stalking moves toward her. “We most definitely
are.
”
The last word was bit out. “Or did you forget that you gave me your virginity just a few hours ago?”

He had
not
just said that to her.

“You waited,” he continued, voice thickening, “because you wanted to be with the right man.”

“You aren’t the right man.” She could barely force the words past her suddenly desert-dry throat. “What you are... You’re a man who lied to me. From the first moment I saw you in that bar, everything has been a lie.”

“Not everything.” He was less than a foot away from her. Not touching. She didn’t want him to touch her. It was hard enough to keep her wall of ice in place. She didn’t want him touching her again and trying to shatter that wall.

“You’re EOD.” She threw that out at him.

He nodded.

“You think my brother is a killer.”

“I know he is.”

“Just like you are.” Her breath heaved out. “He was following mission orders, saving lives. You said yourself that a soldier—”

“I’m not talking about lives taken during battle. I’m talking about murder. About going right up to a man and slitting his throat or stabbing him in the heart.”

She remembered Reed Montgomery’s body. The brutality. The blood. “Y-you’re wrong.”

“I want to be.”

Her eyes met his in surprise. She held his stare. It was the first time she’d looked deeply into his eyes since realizing the truth.

Jasper shook his head. “I want to be wrong about Cale, but the evidence says I’m not.”

“M-maybe the evidence is wrong.” It had to be wrong.

“There’s a lot of evidence, and every bit of it points to your brother.”

Nails in his coffin. Or hers. She forced her hands to unclench. “Why were you sent in?”

“I belong to a special unit at the EOD, a unit some call the Shadow Agents. When the other EOD agents were murdered, the cases didn’t go public. Our boss wanted us to handle this in-house. He wanted my team to find and apprehend the killer.” Jasper’s hand lifted, as if he’d touch her. But when she tensed, his hand fell back to his side. “When we realized exactly who we were after, it was decided that’d I’d be point on the mission because of my past relationship with Cale.”

“And using me, that was just part of the plan, too, right?”

His green gaze glinted. “I knew Cale. I knew how he felt about you—”

“So you knew you could use me.” She tried to walk around him. He grabbed her shoulders. Spun her back to face him.

The ice began to crack.

“I knew that your brother wasn’t just going to cut and run and leave you behind.” His fingers curled around her shoulders, pulling her closer. “I knew that he’d have to come back for you, sooner or later.”

“So all you had to do was wait. Wait, and he’d be here.”
Sooner or later.
She swallowed to try to ease that dang dryness in her throat. “Why did you have to go so far?” Her voice came out too soft. “Why did you have to make love to me?”

“Because I wanted you, wanted you more than I wanted anything else.”

She
wanted
to believe him.

“There’s the mission.” His head lowered toward her. “There’s the job that I have to do and then there’s you and me. There’s what we feel.”

He was going to kiss her. The ice was too weak around her. She couldn’t handle this. Him.

Her hand slammed into his chest. “You lied to me.”

His muscles were rock-hard beneath her hand.

I was falling for you, and now I think everything was a lie.
“I don’t get close to people easily. I—I can’t.” She’d always held back, was too shy, too cautious. “With you, everything seemed easy.” She’d been too trusting. So ridiculously grateful to have someone finally on her side.

“It can be that way again,” he growled. “Veronica...”

“Are you still working me?”

He frowned at her.

“Because I think you are. I think you and the other agents... I think you’re about to take me in there to see my brother, and you’re going to try and use me to get a confession from him.”

She might be trusting, might be too naive, but she wasn’t stupid.

And Jasper wasn’t denying her charge.

“There’s you and me,” she said, pushing his words back at him, “and there’s my brother. There’s his case. It’s all mixed together, and no matter what we might both want...” Because she did wish things were different. “They can’t ever be separate.”

Because touching him burned through her ice, she pulled her hand away from him. “Now, if you aren’t taking me to see my brother, then I’ll go find someone else who will.”

He growled. No other word for it.

Fine. She started walking for the door.

“This isn’t over,” he warned.

Veronica didn’t look back at him, but she did say, “You’re right. It’s not over. It won’t be over until I prove my brother’s innocence.”

The floor creaked behind her. Then he was there, pulling open the door, leaning toward her. His lips brushed over the curve of her ear as he whispered, “I meant between us. You and I aren’t close to being done.”

The words were a threat. Swallowing, she lifted her chin and forced herself to walk slowly, calmly, down the hallway and toward her brother’s holding room.

* * *

“I’
M
GUESSING
THAT
didn’t go so well,” Logan muttered as Jasper followed Veronica out of the room. Logan offered Jasper a white cloth. “For the blood,” Logan said, giving a nod of his head.

Jasper swiped the blood away.

“Focus on the case,” Logan said. “Then go after the girl.”

Because of the case, he was losing the girl. He tossed the cloth into the garbage and followed Veronica down the hallway. She’d stopped in front of Gunner. He was still guarding the door to Cale’s room.

“Is he in there?” Veronica asked Gunner.

Jasper hated the flat tone of her voice. That wasn’t Veronica. There was always emotion bubbling in her voice and eyes.

Not now.

Gunner glanced over at Jasper. He nodded. They had to do this. Logan wouldn’t follow them in this time. He’d hang back, and Jasper knew he would be entering the surveillance room that Sydney had set up. The better to watch and see what was happening. The better to record any confessions that Cale might make.

Jasper saw Veronica suck in a deep breath right before Gunner opened the door and waved her inside.

“Ronnie!”
Cale was instantly on his feet.

Veronica ran toward him with her arms open.

Jasper grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and hauling her back. It was protocol, especially after Cale’s attack on him. No touching. But when Veronica started twisting and fighting in his arms, she broke his heart.

Since when do I have one of those?

“Let her go!” Cale snarled. But he wasn’t advancing on Jasper. Probably because an armed Gunner was blocking his path.

“I’ll let her go,” Jasper snarled right back, then bent to whisper in Veronica’s ears, “I’ll let you go.” He cleared his throat, then said loud enough for everyone to hear, “But you can’t touch him, Veronica. He’s too dangerous.”