Sharpshooter (16 page)

Hal hesitated. “Baby?” The gun began to lower.

It was the moment she needed. Sydney leaped out of her chair. With one hand, she grabbed Hal’s right wrist—his right hand still clasped the gun—and she shoved that wrist out wide, making sure he wouldn’t have a shot at her. Then, with her other hand, she brought up her pen, aiming for his now exposed inner arm. She drove the pen into his arm because she knew that his reflex action at that attack would be to drop the weapon.

The gun hit the floor. Just as she’d anticipated. But it discharged on impact, and the shot echoed around her.

Instantly she could hear the scream of alarms. No way would a gunshot be missed in a place like this.

Then, as Hal was howling, she brought up her elbow and slammed it into his nose. She heard the snap and saw the spurt of blood from his nose. Hal backed away from her, crouching and...crying?

Sydney kicked the gun across the room. It skittered toward the entrance. She kept her hands loose at her sides, ready to attack again if necessary.

But Hal wasn’t putting up much of a fight. He was trying to stop the blood that was flowing from his nose and saying—

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

“You’re sorry?” Sydney demanded. The alarm was hurting her ears. “You pulled a gun on me. You leaked classified information. You need to be a whole lot more than just sorry.”

He stood, or tried to stand, but his body kept trembling. His hand went to his side.

Over his shoulder, she caught the movement of the door as it opened.

“I want a name,” Sydney demanded through gritted teeth. “I want a full description of the guy. I want to know exactly who paid you off.”

Hal shook his head. “I—I can’t—”

“Do you know what happens to people found guilty of treason? Do you have any idea just how long you’ll be in jail?” Not to mention the slew of other charges that would be coming against him.

He shook his head again harder this time. “I can’t...can’t go to jail.”

Maybe you should have thought about that before you sold out the EOD and me.

“Give me a name. If you cooperate, then—”

“I
can’t!
” And his left hand came up. His fingers were wrapped around a box cutter. He had been a busy man. “
Muerte,
I—”

A shot rang out.

Sydney was staring right into Hal’s gaze, and she saw his eyes widen in shock. Then his body was crumpling as he fell to the floor. She rushed toward him.
No, no, no!
He couldn’t die. He knew the identity of the man who’d infiltrated the EOD.

She put her hands on either side of his head, tried to make him look at her. “Hal?”

His eyes were wide open with shock and pain.

She moved closer, forcing him to see her. “Hal, give me a name.”

“S-sorry...”

“Don’t be sorry.” There wasn’t time for sorry. “Help me, Hal. Make this right. Give me a name.”

But Hal wasn’t going to give her anything. As she stared at him, all of the life vanished from his eyes.

“Hal?”

He was gone.

“Sydney?”

She looked up. Slade stood just a few feet away, a gun in his hand. Hal’s gun. The gun she’d kicked across the room so Hal couldn’t use it again.

“I—I saw him coming at you, I thought he had a knife....”

The box cutter could have done as much damage as a knife, but she would have been able to knock it out of Hal’s hand. She knew plenty of techniques to disarm him.

“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” Slade whispered. His eyes—filled with horror—were on Hal’s still body. “I just reacted. I just...shot.”

Footsteps pounded in the hallway. She could hear them through the open door. Then Gunner was there, bursting into the room. “Sydney!”

He saw Slade with the gun. He lunged for his brother.

“Gunner!” Sydney called out.

Slade didn’t fight him. Gunner yanked the gun away from Slade and shoved the smaller man up against the nearest wall. Then Gunner turned that gun on his brother. “What the hell are you doing?”

Sydney rose. “Saving me.”

Mercer was there, too, breath heaving from his lungs. She saw Cale and a few other agents.

All too late to change what had happened.

She straightened her shoulders. “Hal attacked me. Slade came in and...he thought he was saving me.”

Gunner glanced back at her. His eyes widened as his gaze swept over her. He put the gun down on a table, and then he was across the room in an instant, his hands running over her arms. “Is the blood yours?” There was a tight, desperate quality in his words that she’d never heard before.

Sydney shook her head. “All Hal’s.”

Gunner’s hand was resting over her stomach now.

“I’m
okay.
” They both were. She looked to the right. Mercer had crouched next to Hal, but the others were watching her and Gunner. Silent, tense.

Gunner locked his jaw, gave a grim nod and slowly dropped his hand.

She heard a ragged gasp and her gaze met Slade’s. He’d seen Gunner’s hand on her stomach. Seen the fear and worry on Gunner’s face.

He knows.

Slade’s head tilted down. His hands clenched into fists.

Tears stung her eyes. Things should never have been this twisted.

“Why the hell did Hal go after you?” Cale asked.

“Because I knew what he’d done. I found it...” She pointed toward the computer. “Hal’s the one who turned off the security feed. Probably so we wouldn’t realize that he was the one here that night, doing the hacking. He used Gunner’s old code. Hal set him up.”

Mercer’s fingers were on Hal’s neck, looking for a pulse. He wasn’t going to find one.

He must have realized that same fact because Mercer swore and glanced up at her. “Did he tell you
why?
”

Mercer wasn’t the kind of man to take kindly to betrayals. But then, who was? Only with Mercer, she knew the retribution for betraying him usually involved death or imprisonment.

“He said...he said he didn’t have a choice. That his family was threatened.” But if she looked into his bank accounts, would she discover that he’d been paid off? Not just threats, but an enticing wad of cash to help him escape from the EOD and start fresh somewhere else?

There was always a price that had to be paid for a betrayal.

“Muerte,”
she whispered.

Cale’s gaze cut to Slade. Slade shook his head.

“That was the last thing Hal said to me.”

“Maybe he was afraid of death,” one of the other agents muttered.

No, she didn’t think he’d been talking about death so much as the drug. With the drug showing up in the shooter’s blood, with that being the last word that Hal had spoken, the dots were connecting in a very deadly way.

“It’s in the U.S.” Mercer stood. He had blood on his fancy suit. “The bastards have it here, and the DEA doesn’t even realize it.” He waved his hands. “I want this room clear. Don’t touch anything, hear me? I’m getting a crime scene analysis team sent in from the FBI. They owe me, and the feds are about to start paying up.”

Sydney eased toward Slade. He looked up at her, his face pale.

“I heard the gunshot,” he whispered. “I was in the hallway. I didn’t...I didn’t even know you were the one in here. The door was ajar...I just slipped in.”

And he’d seen her and Hal in a standoff.

“When I saw the weapon in his hand...” Slade swallowed. “I just fired. I killed him.”

Gunner was at her back. Silent.

Slade’s gaze dropped to her stomach. He swallowed. “There... Is there something you want to tell me?”

No, she couldn’t tell him. Not now. Not in front of all the others. But Slade had just killed to protect her, so she had to say something. “Thank you,” she whispered, and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug.

His hands closed around her. She felt the light touch of his lips on her head. “I’d never let anything happen to you.”

She pulled back, stared into his eyes.

“Never.”

She took a step away from him.

“Slade...” Gunner began.

Slade flinched. “I know I’m about to get busted for firing a weapon in here, okay? Mercer’s going to rip into me—”

“You were here when I wasn’t. I just...” Gunner leveled his stare at the other man. “I’m thankful.”

But there was an edge in Gunner’s voice. One that gave her pause. Maybe because...

She didn’t quite believe what he was saying.

There wasn’t any more time for talking or questions then. As Mercer herded them out, he separated her from the rest of the group and led her to his office.

She knew her own interrogation was about to begin.

She’d wanted to prove that Gunner was innocent, but she hadn’t wanted anyone to die.

Two deaths in the past twenty-four hours.

What would happen next? Because Sydney was sure the nightmare wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

* * *

S
HE
WAS
PREGNANT
.

Slade walked down the hallway, trying to keep his movements slow and easy, even as rage built inside him.

Sydney was pregnant. He’d seen the way Gunner touched her stomach, heard his brother’s desperate whisper.

Cale was walking behind him doing guard duty. Slade had just saved Sydney, been the hero, and they were still guarding him.

Gunner had looked as though he would choke when he realized Slade had been the one to save the day.

Too late this time, brother.
For once, someone else got to be the hero.

Cale’s hand wrapped around Slade’s shoulder. “Mercer wants to talk to you.”

Of course he did. Mercer would want to grill him some more when he should want to pin a medal on his chest.

But Gunner was the one with the medals, and he...he was the one left to rot.

Slade nodded. “Right,” he said timidly. He thought the tremble in his voice was a good touch. Made him look as if he was still shaken after the shooting.

He’d planned to kill Hal that day, one way or another. He’d known the guy was a weak link, and he’d intended to eliminate him at the first opportunity. Only he’d wanted Hal’s death to be linked to Gunner. More evidence and suspicion mounted on big brother.

No matter. At least Sydney was back to thinking he was the good guy. He could definitely manage to use that to his advantage.

As for putting more suspicion on Gunner? Well, he already knew exactly what he’d do on that score. And after the next attack, Sydney would be convinced that her lover was trying to kill her.

Chapter Ten

“Sydney!” She turned at Gunner’s call. She’d been heading for the elevator. It was far past midnight, and she just needed to crash.

“Are you ready to leave?” he asked her.

More than ready. She’d been heading upstairs to find him, but now they could just head out to the parking garage together.

“I had your car brought in,” he told her as they slid into the elevator.

“Thanks.” She knew her smile had to be tired.

Gunner frowned at her, and then he leaned forward and pressed the emergency stop button on the elevator’s control panel.

“Uh, Gunner?” The elevator had stopped.

He pulled her into his arms, kissed her. The kiss was wild, hot, desperate.

His hands were tight around her, his body so hard and strong. He kissed her as if she were some kind of lifeline for him. As if he needed her to survive.

Only fair, since she needed him so very badly.

Gunner lifted his mouth a few inches from hers and growled, “I thought you’d been shot. I thought Slade had shot
you.
”

But no, Slade had been the one to save her.

“There was blood on you...”

She’d switched into some backup clothes that she kept at the EOD. Those bloodstained clothes had caused nausea to roll in her belly.

“I think you scared a good ten years off my life.” His arms were still around her.

Sydney stared up at him. “I didn’t think anything scared you.” Gunner was the tough guy. The one who could stare death in the face and never back down.

“That was before you.” He kissed her again. Still as desperate. “I need you to be safe.”

She needed him to be safe, too.

His gaze searched hers; then he slowly eased back. “Better get us moving,” he murmured, “or Mercer will send out a search team.”

Because security was on full alert at the EOD office.

She gave him another smile and waited as the elevator resumed moving.

Gunner’s fingers—broad, warm—curled around her shoulders, and he began to massage her as they headed down to the parking garage.

Heaven.

But that paradise came to an end all too soon. The elevator’s doors opened. The garage was well lit, with security cameras positioned every few feet. She saw her little car waiting right next to Gunner’s truck.

“You can ride with me,” Gunner said. “I had your car brought in, just like you asked, but there’s no need for—”

“I want to take my car,” Sydney said, cutting through his words. “With everything that’s happening, I want to make sure that I can stay mobile on my own.” If she had to clear out quickly, she wanted the security of knowing that her own ride was waiting for her.

Gunner’s jaw locked, and she knew he didn’t like her answer. “I will be right behind you,” he told her. “I’ll follow you back to our place.” He caught her hand, pressed a kiss to her fingers. “Be careful.”

Our place.
No, it wasn’t, not yet. But maybe they could talk about their place soon. About starting a home for the family they would have.

Sydney tried a faint smile for him. “I’m a federal agent. I can do careful, no problem.”

He didn’t smile back. The worry was there, shadowing his gaze.

She slipped into the car. Gunner closed the driver’s-side door and watched her through the window.

He hadn’t talked about marriage. Hadn’t really talked about their future at all other than to say he wanted to be there for the child.

Did Gunner want a future with her?

She cranked the ignition. He kept watching her as she eased away from the parking spot; then he turned and headed for his truck.

She wanted a future with him. Baseball games and barbecues and Christmases spent around a tree. She wanted to wake up next to Gunner every day, and go to sleep next to him each night.

If only he wanted the same thing.

Her phone rang, surprising her. She had it hooked in to her car’s system so she just had to press one button on her console to connect with the phone system. Frowning, she took the call. “Sydney.”

“Where are you?” Slade’s voice. Rasping.

Frowning, she drove toward the guard booth. She saw Myles, the night shift guard, and she flashed her ID at him. He nodded, then typed in the code to raise the gate.

“I’m...uh...just leaving the office,” she said. Hadn’t Slade gone home hours ago?

“Sydney,
be careful.
”

Her fingers tightened around the wheel. “What’s going on?” She began to ease away from the nondescript EOD building.

“Don’t trust him. I know you think you can, but...
don’t.
”

Gunner. She swallowed. “Slade, why are you saying these things?”

“Because I saw the way he was with her.”

Her? Did he mean Sarah Bell?

“You don’t really know him. Not like I do.”

“I—I thought you and Gunner were getting along—”

His rough laugh cut across her words. “Keep your enemies close...” he murmured.

She glanced in her rearview mirror. Saw Gunner’s truck following her. The flash of his headlights lit up her car.

“Gunner isn’t your enemy.”

“He’s yours.”

Her foot pressed down on the brake as she slowed to a stop. The intersection was clear, so she started to accelerate again. “Gunner isn’t my enemy.” He was many things, but not that. Never that.

“You’re blinded by him, just as she was.” He sounded sad now. “Can’t you see him for what he is? I don’t want him to hurt you.”

“He won’t!”

“He was afraid that you’d go back to me. He’s trying to play the hero—”

His words cut out on her. Bad connection. “I can’t hear—”

“Maybe he didn’t want you to die in the fire. Maybe he wanted to save you” —static crackled across his words— “so you’d be grateful. Then he took out the shooter before he could talk. Gunner got you out of the way
before
the bullet fired—”

She was straining to hear his words.

She lifted her foot to brake as she came up on a curve.

“—he knew the bullet was coming. Playing hero again.”

Her jaw locked. “Gunner isn’t playing anything. Look, I can’t talk now. It’s late and—”

Her brakes weren’t working.

The car wasn’t slowing as it headed into that curve.

Sydney pushed down on the brake again.

Nothing.

She held tight to the wheel and took the curve. She came out with the vehicle pushing too fast. There was another intersection up ahead. A red light shining. She pumped her brakes, trying to get them to work. “I can’t stop.”

“What? Of course you can stop trusting him, you can—”

No. She pumped again. The brake wasn’t working. The pedal was going all the way down to the floor and doing nothing. The light was still red for her. Other cars were whizzing right through the intersection. She was going down a hill. Faster, faster. “
I can’t stop!
The brakes aren’t working!”

The red light flashed to green. Her breath rushed out and her car flew through the intersection. But she had to stop soon. She had to find a place to stop.

Another red light loomed ahead.

Change.

Change.

“Sydney!” Slade’s frantic voice.

The light wasn’t changing.

Another car was going through the intersection.

She spun the wheel hard to the right. The passenger side of her vehicle hit the other car, scraping up against the side, and that crash sent her vehicle careening back, back—

Toward Gunner’s truck.

She turned her head. Saw him coming right toward her. Bright lights.

She braced for the impact.

* * *

“S
YDNEY
!” S
LADE
YELLED
FRANTICALLY
.

She wasn’t talking to him now, but he could hear the scream of metal.

He spun around. Cale was running toward him.

“What’s happening?” Cale demanded.

They were in the lobby of the EOD building. Mercer had finally finished grilling him. “I wanted to catch her before she left,” he whispered. “I had to warn her—”

Cale grabbed his arms. “What’s happening?”

“Sydney.” The phone was still clutched in his fingers. “Her brakes stopped working. I could hear...I could hear her screaming.”

Cale’s eyes widened, and he whirled away. He started shouting orders, calling for a track on Sydney.

But it was too late.

Slade glanced down at his phone. The line had gone dead.

* * *

G
UNNER
SLAMMED
ON
his brakes. The scent of burned rubber filled his nostrils as he jumped from his truck. The accident he’d just seen had his heart thundering in his chest.

“Sydney!”
He ran toward her. Moments before, he’d seen her frightened face in the glow of his headlights.

Her car had raced forward—then smashed into a light pole.

His shaking fingers curled around the door handle, and he yanked the door open. A cloud of white greeted him. The air bag. He shoved it back. “Baby?”

A groan slipped from her.

He started to breathe again.

“Gunner?”

Carefully, oh, so carefully, he unhooked her seat belt and eased her from the car. The other driver was out of his vehicle now. Yelling about fools who shouldn’t be on the road.

Gunner lifted Sydney up against his chest. She felt small and fragile. Breakable. She seemed so fierce most of the time that he forgot just how vulnerable she could be.

He leveled a killing stare on the man who was yelling instead of checking to see if Sydney was hurt. The guy stopped midholler and backed up a few steps. “Call for help,” Gunner snarled.

The guy nodded frantically and pulled out his phone.

Gunner carried Sydney away from the road. More cars had stopped now. Bystanders were trickling toward them.

He put her down on the nearby grass. Brushed back her hair. There wasn’t enough light for him to see her face clearly. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “The brakes didn’t work,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stop.”

Fear and fury battled within him. Another attempt on her life. This time, he’d been helpless.

“An ambulance is coming!” a voice called out. It sounded like the guy who’d been yelling minutes before.

Gunner slid his hands over Sydney’s body, looking for any signs of injury. No broken bones. No cuts. But she winced when he touched her left shoulder. The seat belt would have cut into her there.

When he stopped his exam, she immediately wrapped her hands around her stomach. “I couldn’t stop,” she repeated again.

And he’d been helpless.

This ends now.

He pulled her against his chest and held her until he heard the wail of the ambulance.

When the EMTs rushed toward him, Gunner said, “She’s pregnant. Just...please, make sure she’s all right.”

As she was settled into the ambulance, he finally looked around.

He saw that others had joined the crowd. Cale was there, with Slade.

Slade’s haggard face told Gunner that he’d heard his words. The time for secrets was over.

“Meet me at the hospital,” Gunner called out to Cale.

The other agent nodded.

Gunner wasn’t letting that ambulance leave without him. He climbed inside and caught Sydney’s hand.

“Gunner,” Sydney whispered. “My stomach’s cramping.”

Tears stung his eyes. He held her hand tighter even as he bent and pressed a kiss to her lips. “It’s going to be all right.” The ambulance lurched forward, and Gunner began to pray.

* * *

S
YDNEY
WAS
ON
a special exam table. She was too early in her pregnancy for the doctor to hear the baby’s heartbeat, so an emergency ultrasound had been ordered.

Gunner paced beside her, his expression even more fierce than normal.

The cramping had stopped, but the fear? Oh, yes, that was still there. She didn’t want anything happening to the baby inside her.

Not my baby.

“Gunner, I’m scared.” She could tell him. He was her best friend. Had been, even before they’d become lovers.

He stopped pacing and immediately came to her side. “Don’t be. This baby is fine.” His fingers twined with hers.

She wondered if he knew that she could see the fear in his gaze. Usually he was much better at masking his emotions.

Usually she was, too.

She stared down at her stomach, covered now by a green exam gown.

“I love you.” Gunner’s words were rough and rumbling, and at first, she thought she’d imagined them.

Because she’d wanted to hear them for so long.

Sydney shook her head, an instinctive move. He hadn’t—

“I want you to marry me.”

Now her gaze flew to his. “Gunner?”

His lips hitched up into a half smile. “This isn’t the right place, is it? Not the right time. But I’ve never been
that
guy, Syd. The guy with the smooth lines and the perfect moves. I am the guy who loves you, though. The guy who’d give his life for you. Who’d do
anything
for you.”

He wanted to marry her. Was this about the baby? Or—

“I want you. I love
you.
” That half smile vanished. “Sometimes I think I started falling for you the first time I met you, but you were so far out of my reach then.” He glanced down at their intertwined fingers. His hold tightened. “I still feel like you are. You deserve better than me, but I swear, if you give me the chance, I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.”

A knock sounded at the door; then, a few seconds later, a doctor and nurse were bustling inside.

The ultrasound technician was there, getting everything set up. She lowered Sydney’s bed, angling it.

Sydney stared at Gunner. He was waiting for her answer.

Maybe Gunner had always been waiting, and she hadn’t seen it. She’d noticed his silence, his watchful ways, but she hadn’t realized what any of that meant.

Then she thought about their lives. The way he was always coming to her house in D.C. for dinner. The way he never forgot her birthday or the way he made sure that she never spent Christmas alone.