Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

February 3 rd

9:55 A.M.

This was chaos.

There was no way to safely deal with this situation without anyone getting hurt or stressed.

A hospital was a stressful enough place as it was. There had been a time when Cassie's parents wanted her to be a doctor, to save lives, to solve medical issues like cancer, but they had all quickly realized she wasn't cut out to be a doctor. It wasn't that she had no people skills, she was great with adults. It was her peers that were her Achilles heel, and that was just because she hadn't been given time to learn how to interact with other kids.

The problem was she couldn't separate her emotions from what she was doing. She internalized everything, which was not an asset if you were going to deal with life and death every day. Compassion was important, but she would never have been able to cope with a career in that field. She would have burned out, drowned beneath the weight of the emotions of the people she was dealing with.

Once they'd accepted that, her parents were pleased when Prey Security, the world-renowned firm that was respected across the globe, offered her a job. It was what they wanted for her, for her to use her intellect to make a difference.

How would they feel now knowing that it was her doing exactly what they'd wanted that had led to her being in the crosshairs of both a dangerous mole and a dangerous weapons dealer?

Would they even care?

As Cassie walked by Luis' side through the busy hospital halls, seeing all the mothers and fathers with their sick and injured children, she had to wonder if they would. Or at least if they would care as deeply as these parents did about their children.

Despite what a depressing place this was, there was a whole lot of love inside these walls.

She wished that the disturbance today wasn't because of her. Cassie would love to be wrong, love to think there was no bomb somewhere in this building that was putting at risk innocent children who had already been through so much in their short lives.

Because it was a hospital and they had no idea if they were right, they were in contact with administration, who had decided to cancel all appointments for the day, anyone who could be sent home was being sent home, and both Prey and the bomb squad were scouring the buildings. Should a bomb be detected, the hospital would proceed with evacuating the entire place and had already been in contact with other hospitals to move ICU patients should the need arise.

It was hard not to feel responsible as they searched through the hospital, and she saw the disappointment on parents' faces as they took home children, missing appointments that they might have waited months to get. Knowing it was all because of her, that she had set this ball in motion, sucked, and she wished there was a way to undo it all while still creating the drug she believed could help save thousands of lives.

"This is taking too long." She huffed in frustration as she stopped walking down the corridor, completely overwhelmed by the mess she had unintentionally created. Worst of all was that Cassie had never thought of herself as someone who was capable of hating another.

Sure, working at Prey, she saw the aftermath of a lot of bad things, but she was a scientist, she focused on collecting evidence, analyzing it, and coming up with answers or information. The people who Prey dealt with were evil, terrorists and others who wanted to inflict suffering to get what they wanted. Knowing that and coming up close and personal with it were two different things.

What she felt for those people was a combination of fear and anger. But what she felt toward the mole was a whole other level of anger. It was pure hatred. They'd taken something she meant for good and turned it evil. Tainted it. And as much as she wanted to put things right, she couldn't because she didn't even know who the mole was.

"I know it's hard, princess, but we're doing the best we can. You're doing the best you can," Luis reminded her, stopping to pull her up against him and drop a quick kiss to her lips.

A sigh that felt like it came from the depths of her soul whooshed past her lips. "I know. I just want to do better."

"The best someone can do is all that can be asked of them."

Because she knew he was right, she nodded, and then shifted out of his hold so they could move on to the next room. As they were about to enter, there was some sort of commotion further down the hall.

Both of them must have been wondering if it was related to the bomb because without an exchanged word, both she and Luis took off down the hall. The further they went the more people seemed to be spilling out into the corridor, and because they were both focused on where they were going and what they were doing, it took Cassie a moment to realize she'd lost sight of Luis amongst the throng of people spilling out into the hall and heading back the way she'd just come.

All of a sudden, something didn't feel right.

Stopping, she scanned the crowd, looking for some indication of what had made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.

Then she spotted her.

Violet.

The sexy woman from Luis' past who didn't seem to be able to let go even though he'd made it clear he wasn't interested in hooking up with her.

There was zero chance that Violet was the mole. She had nothing to do with Prey, had no clue about the Reactivator, and wasn't the one who had set up any bombs that might be hidden in the building. It was better to ignore her, pretend she hadn't seen her, and try to catch up to Luis.

Yet Cassie was feeling confident this morning. She wasn't just any other woman to Luis, she wasn't just a warm body to have fun with and then wave goodbye. She was special, he'd told her that himself.

Fighting through the throng of people, she headed for Violet. She was almost upon the woman when she was noticed, and the glare Violet shot her was pure venom.

But she didn't let that intimidate her.

"Stop following Luis around, Violet," she warned the other woman.

"I'm not here for him." The other woman scoffed, although there was something in her eyes that made Cassie's gut churn.

Violet had been with Luis off and on for years, was it possible …?

It felt like every drop of blood in her body suddenly drained right out of her, even though she knew that couldn't happen without a significant injury.

Only it felt like her heart had suffered an injury.

Suddenly needing to be out of the flood of people everywhere, she shoved through the nearest door and found herself in an empty exam room. Pressing her fingers to her temples, she tried to massage away the headache that had sprung to life.

If Luis had a child, he would have told her that.

Wouldn't he?

If Violet was the mother of his child, he wouldn't have told her several times now to go away and leave him alone.

Would he?

But this was a children's hospital, and Violet was there. Maybe she was just at work? She had no idea what Violet did for a living, she'd been intimidated enough by the sensual, confident older woman that she hadn't been going to ask for her life story.

Maybe she should have.

Maybe she should have questioned why Violet was so intent on getting with Luis even after he brushed her off.

She had no idea when the two of them had last been together before she met Luis, but maybe Violet was pregnant with his baby and there was something wrong with it. Maybe that's why she was here.

The peace and quiet of the room was broken when Violet came striding in all long legs and killer curves, with a wicked grin, and every ounce of confidence she'd lost suddenly back.

Unfortunately for Cassie, the confidence she'd felt just moments ago had completely disappeared.

"Did you really think that a man like Luis was going to choose a virgin like you over a woman like me?" Violet sneered, looking down her nose at her. "You're just a child. A little girl, you don't have what it takes to satisfy a man like him. You're nothing but a distraction, something for him to play with until he gets bored. There's one thing you should know, little girl. Luis always comes back to me. Always. It doesn't matter who he's with in between, he always comes back. Why would I think that this time is going to be any different?"

February 3 rd

10:23 A.M.

Tension mounted inside him.

It wasn't just a sense that something was wrong, he already knew it was, that's why they were there. It was more than that. Ran deeper.

Stopping the first person he could reach, Luis stepped into their path. "What's going on?" he demanded, trying not to sound or look as intimidating as he felt with fear raging inside him.

Startled, the woman looked up at him, tugging the toddler she balanced on her hip closer. "Someone said they smelled gas," the woman explained, moving restlessly, clearly anxious to get her little girl out of the building.

Gas?

If there really was a bomb planted somewhere in the hospital and the mole had set off a gas leak, then that was a disaster waiting to happen.

In fact, depending on the size of the bomb and how much explosives the mole had packed into it, it could be catastrophic.

Had someone already alerted the hospital administration?

"Thanks," he mumbled to the woman, already mentally dismissing her.

"You better grab your partner and kid and get out of here as quickly as you can," the woman said as she scampered around him and hurried off down the hall.

Luis watched her as she went, the throng of people starting to thin out as everyone headed for the relative safety of the outdoors. Although once the bomb went off even that might not be safe. The whole block could be ready to blow up at any moment now. Some of the bombs had timers and others had been set off remotely by the mole. Given the gas leak, there was every chance that the mole had clocked them the moment they entered the hospital and was ready to make their statement with no thoughts as to the innocent children they'd be taking out in the process.

"You were right, Cass," he said, turning to the side where she'd been as they hurried upstream through the sea of people.

Only Cassidy wasn't standing there.

Quickly, he scanned around him, expecting her to be just behind him, or off on his other side.

But she wasn't.

She was nowhere in sight.

Gone.

Vanished.

"Cassie?" Luis called out as he spun in another circle, slower this time as though he'd just missed her, and she was still right by his side where she was supposed to be.

This time yielded no different results.

She wasn't there.

She'd disappeared.

The reason he'd been feeling an increase in tension. His subconscious had somehow realized that Cassie was no longer beside him even though his conscious mind had been too busy focusing on his need to find out what was going on.

Was the mole here in the building?

Had they taken Cassie?

There was no other reason he could think of that she would just head off somewhere on her own when she knew she wasn't safe. She was the one who wanted to go there, the one who thought this could be one of the locations of the bombs. Just because she was learning it was okay to have a life outside of using her intelligence didn't mean this absolutely wasn't her priority. Cassie blamed herself for this entire mess and he knew how badly she wanted to bring it to an end. Especially before anyone else got hurt.

"Cassie!" he called again, louder this time. Loud enough that the people around him shot him concerned looks and scurried past as though he might be close to losing his mind.

They were right.

If he didn't find Cassie soon, he was going to lose his mind.

All the promises he'd made her about keeping her safe, protecting her, never letting anything come between them ran through his mind. Taunting him. Mocking him. Calling him a failure.

With still no signs of his girl, he shoved a hand into his pocket and yanked out his cell phone. If she'd seen something and gone off to investigate it, then he was sure she would have told him. Maybe she'd called out and he just hadn't heard her. Or maybe she'd tried calling him when she saw something she thought was important or sent a text.

She absolutely had a one-track mind when it came to work, and he could see her wanting to check something out if it had caught her attention.

His lock screen was empty.

No missed calls.

No texts.

Nothing.

It was like she had just gone up in a puff of smoke and ceased to exist.

That sent a cold shiver through his body. There was absolutely no evidence at all that anything nefarious had happened to her. While the mole could have followed them there it was unlikely they would have done anything to reveal themselves. So far, they had made keeping their identity a secret their top priority, going so far as to make it look like one of the Athena Team members themselves was the one trying to sell the drug.

The most likely scenario was that his little genius princess had gotten stuck inside her own head and forgotten all about him.

Forcing himself to relax, Luis dialed her number. Once he talked to her and found out what had captured her attention, he'd be able to take a full breath again without feeling like the air was being squeezed from his lungs.

His foot tapped as he listened to the phone ring, a clear giveaway that despite his efforts he was having no luck forcing a calm he certainly didn't feel.

It rang and rang.

And rang.

Until it rang itself out and Cassie's breezy voice came down the line inviting him to leave a message and she'd call him back when she got a chance.

Nope.

Not happening.

There had to be at least two dozen rooms heading off this one hall, plus this hall crossed over another one, it went off to the left and right about halfway down from where he was now. There were at least two dozen rooms on both of those corridors as well. This was a hospital, it was a rabbit warren of rooms, and trying to search each and every one of them on his own, with a gas leak and a bomb waiting to go off, to try to find his girl was never going to work.

Not bothering to leave a voicemail, Luis hung up and then immediately redialed.

Again, the phone rang out until it reached the voicemail message, and this time he left a brief message telling his girl he was worried about her and to call him back immediately.

Feeling no better about the situation he dialed Rocco's number. The SEAL team might have been annoying with their teasing last night when he was on his date with Cassie, but he knew that was all in fun, their way of making Cassie feel part of them. He also knew that there was no one else other than his own team he'd rather have at his back right now.

"Rocco, I need you guys over here now," he said as soon as the man answered the call. While Rocco's team, and his own, and the guys who ran Prey's West Coast office were all there searching the hospital, he knew the grid pattern and how they'd divided it up, and knew that was the closest team to his location.

"What's wrong?" Rocco asked, and then he could hear the man call out to his team in the background.

"I just heard that there are rumors of a gas leak. People are swarming out of the building." As much as he wanted to lead with Cassie's disappearance it was important that piece of information get to hospital admin. Even if it wasn't true, they couldn't dismiss it, not with the possibility of a bomb somewhere in the building.

Rocco swore. "I'll get one of the guys to call Fox, inform him, and have him tell admin, he's the one who's been in contact with them."

"That's not all," Luis continued, rubbing at his chest where an ache was forming. He recognized it for what it was. Unbridled terror. Only once before in his life had he felt that same level of fear. The night he and his brother participated in the robbery that left three dead and Miguel fighting for his life.

That was not how he wanted this day to end, with the woman he was falling in love with fighting for her life.

"Cassie disappeared," he forced himself to say the words aloud, which somehow made them feel much more real.

"What do you mean disappeared?" Rocco asked.

"I mean, we noticed people suddenly swarming in the corridor and we were heading down to where they were all coming from to find out what was going on, and then someone told me about the gas leak, and when I went to talk to Cassie about it she was just … gone," he finished helplessly.

"We'll find her," Rocco assured him. "Chances are she just saw something and is all caught up in her head right now. You know how she gets."

He did, and that was his hope, too.

It was by far the most likely scenario, and yet, the knot of tension in his gut said something else was going on.

Something bad.