Then the man had dropped to the male doctor’s side and Cade had managed to clear the back door, evading notice.

He’d been forced back inside the clinic, though, when a man in a suit ran around the back, weapon drawn, shouting “FBI.” The Fed had dropped like a rock when Cade shot him in the leg, the same place the redheaded female Fed had shot Cade.

He’d pulled a stack of flattened boxes over the downed Fed and fled back into the clinic, desperately trying to figure out his next step. And then he’d heard her. The doctor. Dr. Dani Novak, a.k.a. his ticket to freedom.

Now he shoved Novak through the exam room door, jamming the barrel of his gun into her temple with more force than he needed to. Except that he did need to. He needed to hear her gasp, her whimper when she saw the carnage in the hall outside the exam room.

“Supply closet,” he snapped when she faltered at the sight of the behemoth’s body lying facedown beside the shirtless male doctor. A dark stain was spreading on the back of the brute’s sweatshirt.

Diesel. She’d called him Diesel. What the fuck kind of name was that? This was the man he’d heard with Dani Novak the night he’d shot Not-a-Detective Stone. According to the news article on the shooting, the property he’d thought was a safe house belonged to Elvis Kennedy, a.k.a. Diesel.

Well, Diesel was one problem Cade no longer had to worry about.

Cade gave the doctor another shove. “Move it, Dr. Novak. I don’t have all day.”

She stopped abruptly, her breaths coming in jagged pants. “No.”

He tightened his hold on her arm. “No? Did you just tell me no?”

“I did.” She stood ramrod straight now, her body trembling. “I was agreeing with you. You don’t have all day. This place will be surrounded by cops and FBI, if it’s not already.”

“They’ll let me go,” he said. But his hand shook, which made him angrier. “You’re my ticket out of here.”

“No,” she said again. “They won’t let you go.”

He stilled for a moment, then snarled. “Of course they will. Your brother and your cousin will let me go because they want you to live.”

“No, they won’t. They will not let you go to save me.” She drew a shuddering breath. “Not because they won’t want to save me, because they will. And when they catch you, they’re going to make you pay for forcing them to make that choice.”