Sharpshooter (18 page)

Gunner’s hands fisted.

“Instead, he’s been playing with me. Punishing me. Punishing you. Hell, maybe he’s even been testing us, to see how far we’ll go in order to survive.” Her lips thinned. “I won’t be tested again. Mercer is setting up my house in Baton Rouge. We’re getting out of D.C. Making him think that I’m turning my back on you and on the EOD. Making him think that I only want—”

“—him,” Gunner finished for her.

“And if I’m right on this, he’ll come after me. He’ll think we’re alone, and I
will
get him to tell me the truth.”

“Or what—die trying?”

Her hand lifted. Her fingers feathered over his cheek. “That’s where you come in, Gunner. It’s your job to keep me alive. To keep all of us alive.”

He couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. “There’s another way....”

“No, there isn’t. I’m the only one who he might trust here. I’m the one who can get to him. I’m the one who can end this.” Her hand dropped, and he immediately missed the warmth of her touch. “You can have me in your sights every moment,” she whispered. “If you think I’m threatened, if you think I’m in danger—”

“Then I will
end
him.”

Her breath expelled in a relieved rush. “Then you’re in?”

“You aren’t giving me a choice.” He glared at them all. Promised Mercer and Logan all kinds of hell if this turned south. “And there’s no way I’m letting you leave town without me.”

She threw her arms around him and squeezed the breath right out of him. “I love you, Gunner.” A whispered confession that he knew no one else heard.

But it was a confession that he’d never forget.

Chapter Eleven

Sydney had tears trekking down her cheeks as Gunner was loaded into the back of the black SUV. Men in suits were on either side of him. His hands were cuffed.

“Sydney?” Slade’s voice.

She turned and saw him walking up, with Cale by his side. Slade’s steps were slow as he approached her, the limp seeming to give him more trouble today.

She knew that Slade had been in the interrogation room.

She’d been in hell.

It was easy to keep the tears coming. Maybe it was the hormones or maybe she’d always been a better actress than she’d thought. Either way... “Gunner’s being taken in by the feds. They have so much evidence on him...” Her voice trailed away. “I thought I knew him.”

Slade came to her and wrapped his arms around her.

She shoved him back. “Don’t touch me!” Now, that part wasn’t acting. “I can’t stand— I can’t trust anyone. I—I thought I could...”

Pain flashed across Slade’s face. “You can trust me, sweetheart. You always could. I’ve never stopped loving you.”

She blinked up at him, trying to get the tears off her lashes. “After what I did to you?”

What she’d done?
Nothing.
Lived her life, tried to help him.

He’d been lying to her for years.

“Always,” he whispered as he lifted his hand and wiped away her tears.

She’d just told him not to touch her.

Her jaw ached, and she tried to ease the clenching of her teeth. “I have to get out of here.” She let her gaze cut to Cale. She shuddered, and glanced back at Slade. “I need to get away, to think.”

“Where will you go?” he whispered.

A sad smile curved her lips. “To the only home I have left.”

Now he knew just where she’d be.

Would he follow her?

She turned away from him, but not before she caught the curling of his lips.

Yes, he’d follow.

Then come and get me.

* * *

S
LADE
WATCHED
THE
black SUV pull away from the curb, triumph filling him. His brother had been taken into custody. The agents had followed all the bread crumbs that he’d left behind, and everyone there had turned on Gunner.

His brother was alone.

Sydney was sliding into a cab now. She looked so pale. So lost. So...perfect.

“It is safe for her to be alone?” Slade asked, keeping his voice raspy. He’d also done a pretty good job of keeping up his limp, as if that injury really bothered him anymore.

Cale stepped to the edge of the sidewalk. “Now that we have Gunner, she’ll be safe. She...she turned in her resignation when she found out the truth. Sydney doesn’t want to be part of the EOD anymore.”

The cab eased into the flow of traffic.

His Sydney. Going home.

He knew exactly where her home was. Since her place near EOD headquarters had been torched, she’d return to the only safe haven that she had—in Louisiana.

Now would be the perfect time to get to Sydney. She’d be alone, isolated in Baton Rouge as she hadn’t been with Gunner dodging her steps in D.C.

Her guard would be lowered. No more EOD agents trailing underfoot.

Just Sydney.

Just me.

“This is where we say goodbye,” Cale told him.

Slade turned toward him. “No more guard duty?”

“You were the one who was right all along. You’ll be getting a full apology from the EOD, and compensation, of course.”

Of course.

Cale offered his hand. “I wish things could have been different.”

Slade took his hand. Shook it. “Maybe they will be now.” Everything could be different.

He’d once planned to take Sydney away, to start a new life with her. Sure, he couldn’t tell her about what he’d really done down in South America, but why should she ever have to learn that truth?

Maybe it would be the time for them to start fresh. To start over.

Cale walked away.

Slade began to whistle.

And if Sydney didn’t want him...if she refused the offer that he made to her, then, while she was all alone in the swamps that she foolishly loved so much, he’d kill her.

Her mistake to leave all the protection around her. Sydney had always thought she was so smart and tough.

When, all along, he’d been the one pulling the puppet strings.

He walked down the sidewalk, still whistling and planning for his reunion in Baton Rouge.

* * *

T
HE
HOUSE
WAS
too quiet. Sydney stood in her living room, far too aware of the silence that surrounded her. She was back in Baton Rouge, back in the house that she’d loved so much, for so long.

The place seemed to be filled with memories of Gunner.

She turned toward the large window in her den. If Slade showed up—
when,
not
if
—she was supposed to keep him in front of that window. Because this position would give Gunner a perfect shot at the other man.

Exhaling slowly, she looked out of that window. The edge of the swamp and twisting cypress trees stared back at her. She saw no sign of Gunner, but she could feel him.

Watching.

Protecting.

Cale was out there, as well. Stationed at another watch point and staring down his scope, too. They had the main windows under watch so that they could see into the house.

She’d taken care of making sure they could
hear
what was happening inside the house. A bit of surveillance equipment, carefully hidden, and they were linked into the audio feed. They’d hear anything that would be said tonight.

Logan would also
see
what went down, since he was in the surveillance van hidden in her garage, and he was watching every single thing that happened on the monitors in there.

Their intel had already told them that Slade had hopped a plane out of D.C. He was coming after her; it was just a matter of time.

Sydney kept staring out of that window.

When she’d first come home, she’d felt Gunner all around her. Remembered the way they’d made love in that house. She could even have sworn that the sheets in her room still carried his scent.

She’d seen the memory of him at the kitchen table—Gunner staring at her with his dark gaze, watching her so hungrily.

He was everywhere.

Did he understand how completely he fit into her life?

Headlights appeared in the darkness. Her heart beat a little faster.

Almost showtime.

Almost.

She put her hand on the glass.
I’ll be safe, Gunner.

Then she turned away.

* * *

G
UNNER
WATCHED
S
YDNEY
put her hand on the glass pane. His own hand was curled around the weapon in his hand. He could see her lovely face so perfectly through the scope.

“Target is on scene,” Logan said in his earpiece.

Just as they’d planned. So far, everything was going just according to Sydney and Mercer’s plan.

They’d wanted to pull Slade out of D.C., to make him think that he was safe, that no eyes were on him.

Insects chirped around Gunner, and the swamp behind him stretched for miles.

The place was secluded, all right, and Slade would no doubt think it was the perfect spot for him to approach Sydney.

He’d be wrong.

But I still don’t like this.

No way did he want Sydney alone in the room with his brother. Slade had become twisted, whether from the drugs or something else, and Gunner knew there were no limits to what the man might do.

Gunner wouldn’t feel safe until Sydney was in his arms again.

“I have a visual.” This came from Cale. “Target is leaving the vehicle and approaching the house.”

Now they would see just what secrets Sydney would learn, and just how very far his brother had fallen.

* * *

“W
E
’
RE
OKAY
,” S
YDNEY
whispered as she belted her fluffy, terry-cloth robe. The robe was huge, but that was the point, right? To disguise what she was wearing underneath it.

A bulletproof vest.

Gunner had been adamant on that point. He wanted their babies protected. She did, too. She just had to make sure that Slade didn’t see any sign of that vest.

The doorbell pealed. She glanced at the clock. Just a little after midnight. Her hand quickly ran through her hair, tousling it so that it would look as if she’d gotten out of bed. Then she waited a few moments, not wanting to rush to the door too quickly.

The doorbell pealed again.

With quick steps, she made her way to the door. She glanced through the peephole. Saw Slade’s face under her porch light. Her hand flipped the lock and she opened the door. “Slade! What are you doing here?” Sydney thought she did a pretty good job of projecting surprise into her voice.

He smiled at her, the smile that had once made her think he was such a charming guy. The smile she now understood was a lie.

“I couldn’t let you be all by yourself, sweetheart. Not when you were so broken up.” He stepped over the threshold. She eased back, carefully putting distance between them. “You might think everyone has let you down, but I haven’t.”

Yes, you have.

He shut the door behind him, locked it. When he moved, she saw the slight bulge under his jacket. He’d come to comfort her, but he’d also brought a weapon?

He came to kill me.

Her breath felt cold in her lungs. She’d thought that he’d try to keep charming her first. Sydney hadn’t believed that he’d go straight for the kill.

She backed up another few steps. He followed her, falling into line with her picture window. Perfect positioning.

“It’s after midnight,” she told him as she pretended to try to smooth her hair. “You shouldn’t be here now.”

“I needed to see you.” His gaze raked over her robe. He frowned. “And you wanted to see me, or else you wouldn’t have let me in the door.”

Her head moved in a faint nod. “I needed to...I needed to talk with you. About Gunner. I didn’t know that—”

“—he was a monster?” His gaze came back to her face. “Now you do. Now you know you were with the right brother in the beginning.”

The right brother has you in his sights now.

She locked her jaw. “I didn’t think that I could be so blind.” She’d arranged things deliberately in the den. Her hand waved toward her computer. The screen was off now, but papers were scattered across the desk, making it look as if she’d been hard at work earlier in the night. “So I started digging on my own. The powers-that-be at the EOD might be satisfied with the way this scene played out, but I’m not.”

Because she was looking so carefully for it, Sydney caught the faint hardening of Slade’s eyes.

“The EOD did its job.”

But Sydney shook her head. “I’m not sure of that. Gunner was swearing to me that he was innocent, that he’d never hurt me, never do all of those things...”

“He’s a liar, sweetheart.” He stepped closer to her. Her gaze slid down to his legs, then rose.

She held her ground this time. She wanted to make sure they both stood in front of that window. With the lights on in the den, they would be shown perfectly.
Perfect targets.

“I’m sorry, but you were wrong about him.”

Another hard shake of her head. “I—I can’t be wrong.” Then she lifted her chin. “I went back, pulled all the records that I could find on the fire at Sarah Bell’s house.”

A long sigh broke from him. “Why put so much faith in him? You’re only hurting yourself.” His hand lifted. Trailed over her cheek. “Let me help you heal.”

She hated his touch. “I found an old article online. Gunner’s football team...they won the state championship that same weekend. The weekend of the fire at the Bell home.”

His nostrils flared. “So?”

“So the state championship game was held in a city four hours away. Gunner was with his team the whole time. They went on a bus together. They came back on a bus together...He didn’t start that fire.”

His hand fell away.

She shoved her fingers into the heavy pockets on her robe. She had her own weapon stashed in one of those pockets.

“I did more checking,” she whispered.

He spun away from her and paced toward the window. “On damn Gunner? Always...
Gunner.
”

“No. On you.”

His shoulders stiffened. With it being just the two of them, he wasn’t working nearly as hard to conceal his reactions. Maybe because he didn’t care.

He’d also lost his limp.

“Sydney...” He sighed out her name. “I came down here to comfort you so we could be together again. I know you’ve always loved me.”

“I did love you. Once.” That feeling was nothing like what she felt for Gunner.

He was still staring out of the window, and presenting such a fine target. “Before Gunner,” he growled.

“Before you started to change,” she whispered back.

* * *

S
LADE
’
S
FACE
FILLED
Gunner’s scope. The rage there, the hate, was frightening to see.

But Sydney wouldn’t see it. She couldn’t. Slade wasn’t looking at her. He was just staring out into the darkness.

Planning his attack.

Gunner’s left hand pressed against his transmitter. “He’s going to make a move soon. Be ready.” That much fury couldn’t be held in check for long.

They were wired into the audio feed that Sydney had set up, so they were hearing every word that she said. She was baiting Slade, pushing him.

That pushing was working.

Gunner hadn’t been at a state championship game the weekend that Sarah Bell died. The game had been two weekends after the fire. But it looked as though Slade didn’t remember that.

A flaw in his plan.

Then Sydney started talking again, and Gunner felt sweat trickle down the side of his face.

* * *

“Y
OU
MADE
SO
many trips down to South America before—before—”