Countermeasure (44 page)

They alternated vigil over her, watching for any change in awareness. Trevor’s determination to remain with Cassandra in her room until she woke up was driving the nurses batty. He had lied to them, saying they were engaged, and when they still hesitated to allow him access to her, Robert had supported his claim before leaving to check in to his hotel, but only after Trevor assured him he would call if there was any change.

****

Trevor had been living in hell for three days. The wait had been excruciating. All he wanted was to see Cassandra’s whiskey-brown eyes open again.

Sitting next to the bed, he leaned forward. Holding her hand, he rested his forehead against the bed. He had gotten into the habit of talking to Cassandra whenever they were alone in the room. He talked to her like they did back in Paris, sharing funny stories from his childhood, happy moments with his parents, and telling her he wanted to have similar moments with her. He needed her to wake up. He needed
her
, plain and simple. He kept with his routine, trusting it would eventually break through the new wall Cassandra had built, the same way his love had broken through the old one.

Cassandra was adrift, floating back and forth between dream and reality. She heard Trevor’s voice in her dreams, but every time she hovered toward reality, she shied away from it. She didn’t want to wake up, if waking up meant facing one day losing Trevor. She wanted to remain in her own world where he was alive—where he was bigger than life—where he was hers to keep. He had taught her so much in such a short time. Taught her to face her fears, live in the moment—and yet she still couldn’t handle the thought of losing him. It was even more excruciating than she ever imagined it could be.

His voice spoke to her again in her dreams, she heard his stories and delighted herself with his chuckles at the funny moments he lived with his parents. He also told her over and over he needed her. She needed him, too. He was her anchor, her compass. The memory of their moments together would always be a part of her. The thought she’d had that day hiding under the bed hit her: had she been destined to die then and there, she was grateful for their short time together these past few weeks, and that Trevor had been hers, at least for a little while. She realized he would have felt the same way. He would have wanted her to move on. To be happy and not live a half-life like her father had.

A desire to fulfill his wish incited her to leave her dreams and face the real world. Cassandra broke through the fog shielding her from reality. She was uncomfortable. She tried to adjust herself, but each time she moved something tugged the top of her hand. Her eyes were sticky and she couldn’t seem to open them. She swallowed hard. Her throat was raspy, parched even, and when she ran her tongue along her lips, they were chapped and dry. Listening closely she could hear a voice in the distance.
Trevor?

“Come on, Cassie girl, open your eyes for me!”

Squeezing her eyes tight, the need to open them to search out the origin of the voice was too strong. She blinked rapidly at the bright light shining above.

“Turn the light down and get that beeping away from my ear—then maybe I’ll think about it.” She barely recognized her own ragged voice.

She heard a soft chuckle. When she was able to focus, she found herself looking straight into Trevor’s eyes, which appeared to tear slightly.

“Hi,” she breathed, mesmerized. She wasn’t sure if she was really awake or if her need for him was making her hear things, see things.

Trevor rested his forehead against hers, releasing a deep sigh of relief. “Hi. Sweet Mary! Hi!”

Cassandra lifted her hand to his face and brushed the whiskers along his cheek with her thumb. She touched his warm skin to confirm he was real. It was then she noticed the IV stuck in her hand and the surge of memories invaded her mind—the fight, Trevor being shot at, searing pain, and then everything going dark.

She searched his face, noting the bruises and cuts healing along his cheek, mouth, and chin. Anxiety filled her voice. “Were you hit?”

She tried to lift herself on her elbows to look at him, but a wave of pain took her breath away.

“No,
a ghrá
. Easy,” he urged, pushing her gently back to the bed. “It’s you I’m worried about. What the hell possessed you to jump in front of me? You took years off my life!”

The memory of Niklas pointing the gun at him flashed before her eyes. She realized she had been hit with the bullet aimed at him. He was unharmed. She captured Trevor’s gaze with hers. “I’d do it again, Trev.”

“Excuse me, sir, are you family? You can’t be in the room if you are not family.” The nurse—one who apparently was new to the rotation and who had not been exposed to Trevor’s stubborn refusal to leave Cassandra’s side—asked in heavily accented English. The woman approached the bed, quickly scanned their hands for wedding bands, and looked at him expectantly.

Trevor smiled cheekily and shot a glance in Cassandra’s direction. “I am, if she’ll take me.”

Cassandra wasn’t sure she heard Trevor correctly and her heart almost skipped a beat. “What did just you say?”

Trevor’s grin widened and he tightened his hold on her hand. “I said, I am, if she’ll take me. Will you?”

All those weeks ago when Cassandra walked into the NSA complex intent on capturing Trevor, she never in a million years imagined that in the end her heart would be captured by him instead. She could have sworn in that moment she heard Jessica in her head yelling,
Yes! About time!

Cassandra looked into Trevor’s eyes and could see his love for her reflected in them. Smiling broadly with misty eyes, she squeezed his hand tightly. “Yes. Yes, Trevor! I
will
take you.”

Trevor could barely contain his anxiety as he waited for her reply. He had dreaded she would just run behind her wall again. Instead, he saw a wide smile spread across her face, confirming that his biggest dream would come true. Cassandra would be his wife. He stood and pulled out the little box he had been carrying with him for two days from his pocket. The box contained his grandmother’s ring, which he’d had Stephan courier to him from Ireland. Trevor watched Cassandra’s eyes fill with tears as he carefully opened the box and removed the beautifully crafted Irish engagement ring from it.

His own eyes teared as he stared into hers, took her hand in his, and slipped the ring on her finger. “I love you, Cassandra. I am a part of you and you are a part of me. Now and for always.”

Trevor noticed the nurse slip quietly out of the room, closing the door behind her. Alone at last, he gave in to his need for Cassandra. He leaned down and took her mouth in a deep, long kiss.

Cassandra lifted her left hand to cup his cheek and he covered her hand with his, squeezing his eyes shut. Their lives would likely be filled with chaos when he set course to look for his parents, but they would be together, and that’s what mattered most.

Trevor broke the kiss and inhaled deeply in resignation. “I better call Robert to let him know you’re awake.”

Cassandra looked surprised. “Bob? Here?”

“Yes. He arrived a couple of days ago and has been prowling through the corridors ever since. I sent him back to the hotel to give myself a break from his grumpiness.”

“You
sent
him away? And he actually went?” Her tone of incredulity added a comical air to the question.

“Yep. We’ve had our little heart-to-heart.”

“What do you mean, ‘heart-to-heart’?”

“Nothing to worry about. Let’s just say, he knows how I feel about you. We’ve reached a peaceful agreement.”

She gaped at him.

“He wants to see you…talk to you,” Trevor added.

“Does he know everything? The case?”

“Yes. We had time to talk about all that. Are you ready to see him?” Trevor watched the clouds cover her eyes again.

“I’m not sure what to say….”

“Just be yourself, don’t try to be someone you aren’t just to please him. You should give him a chance,
a ghrá
. He really does care about you.”

Cassandra laid her head back on the pillow and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t think I can, Trev.”

“Yes, you can. Make amends. Strengthen the ties you have with him. Don’t let it become something you’ll regret not having done one day.” His soothing tone compelled her to give it a try. He caressed her face and changed to a lighter tone. “Besides, you’ll want to have him walk you down the aisle, right?”

She nodded as happy tears filled her eyes at the mention of their union. He was sure she would face her fears with a brave heart and conquer them all, just as she always did. They would do it together from that day forward. As he told Robert, he would be her wings or her crutch—whatever she needed him to be.

September 6

“
I predicted you would fall
hard, didn’t I?” Jessica bragged as she smoothed Cassandra’s veil and the tea-length skirt of her wedding dress.

“Yes, you did…never really expect you’d be right, though,” she smirked. Sitting on the padded stool, Cassandra looked at herself in the mirror and couldn’t believe the many changes she saw in herself—the spark in her eyes that hadn’t been there before, the glow in her skin, the smile that always lingered on her lips when she thought of Trevor. Little changes that, when combined, made a big difference in how she saw herself and the world around her.

The circumstances that had brought them together were bizarre, to say the least, and could only be defined as fate. She and Trevor were definitely two parts of a whole.
I am a part of you and you are part of me.
Those words had taken her breath away when Trevor had first spoken them to her. They still had the power to make her feel alive while at the same time scare her to death. Her insecurities were for the most part gone, her fear of commitment and loss a dim shadow in the recesses of her mind, poking and prodding at her only from time to time. The “what-ifs,” too loud at times in the past, had been reduced to a mere whisper, and were totally silent when Trevor held her in his arms.

Standing, Cassandra smoothed the lines of her dress as Jessica fiddled with her veil, straightening it.

“Cassie!” Jessica breathed softly looking into her friend’s eyes in the mirror. “The dress is the bomb!”

 The dress—with its strapless organza bodice, hand-sewn beading across the breast, and A-line skirt in flowing tulle—was soft and feminine. Cassandra had fallen in love with the tea-length wedding dress right away.

Tilting her head to see the full effect in the mirror, Cassandra’s thoughts continued to race around in her mind. The certainties of their future were few, yet she knew everything would fall into place as they shared their life’s journey together—a journey she knew Trevor not only wanted, but needed to finish. Their deep love for each other—more than she ever expected to love anyone in her life—would be the wind in their sails.

“It’s time, Cassandra,” Robert called from the doorway. She and Trevor had opted for a very small, intimate wedding. Their guest list, reduced to a few close friends and family, consisted of Robert, Jessica, George, and Stephan Connellan, who had flown in from Dublin for the wedding.

Jessica and George, their closest friends, would be standing for them as Maid of Honor and Best Man. Trevor had told her the night before that George was so nervous that he’d been carrying their wedding bands on a chain around his neck for fear of misplacing them.

Cassandra’s thoughts turned to family and how little of it they had. Her heart cried out for Trevor. She knew he sorely missed his parents on this important day, just as she missed her mother. She hoped that, wherever his parents might be, whether in hiding or the next life, they would be happy with his choice for life, just as she hoped her mother approved of hers. George was like a brother to Trevor, and she was glad he could be there for him. The same applied to Jessica—she couldn’t imagine taking that important step without her by her side. Robert was giving her away and Stephan had considered it an honor to represent his good friends Conor and Maeve at their son’s wedding.

Absent was Nathan. Upon their return from Paris, Nathan, without any prior arrangement, had been at the airport to greet her. The memory of their confrontation engulfed her.

Nathan had stared at Trevor with hard eyes.
“Let’s go, Cass. I have a car waiting. We need to talk.”

Trevor had moved to intervene, but Cassandra grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Nathan, noticing the ring on her finger, had spat out,
“What the fuck is that? You have got to be kidding me.”

“Watch how you talk to her, mate,”
Trevor had all but growled, stepping forward again.

“Who are you to tell me to watch it?”
Nathan had ignored Trevor and turned to Cassandra.
“Cass, he’s the reason you were hurt—he couldn’t protect you!”

“Nathan, keep it down! You’re attracting attention,” Cassandra hissed and stepped up to him. “I don’t need anybody to protect me. I chose to take the hit for the man I love.”