Sharpshooter (19 page)

“Before Gunner left me for dead?” He turned toward her, his face expressionless. “Let’s not forget that part. Gunner and
you
both left me.”

“I wondered about all of those charter trips. Especially when I discovered that every account you had was empty. Cleaned out.”

His lips curved. The sight was chilling.

“You’d become angry before that last trip, too. I remember the fights we had. You accused me—”

“—of cheating?” he finished. He glanced down at his hands. Both hands had fisted. “I thought you might be sleeping with Gunner back then. I saw the way he looked at you, and the way you looked at him.”

“I wasn’t—”

“Not then. But now?” His eyebrows climbed. “You’re going to try telling me that the baby you’re carrying isn’t his?”

“It is.”
They
are. “And that’s why I had to keep digging. I couldn’t give up on him.
I couldn’t.
”

“You should have.” So soft.

She kept talking. “It was when I was digging, trying to find where all your money went to...that was when I discovered that you’d set up extra accounts in the Caymans.”

He laughed. “You and your damn computers. You could always find out too much on them.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out his weapon. “Like I said, you
should
have stopped.”

* * *

G
UNNER
’
S
FINGER
TIGHTENED
around the trigger.

“Hold!” This was Logan’s order, growled through the transmitter. “She’s still got him talking. We need to learn as much as we can.”

They needed to make sure that not a single bullet so much as grazed her skin.

“Hold, Gunner. That’s a direct order.”

He wasn’t following orders now. He was protecting the woman he loved.

Slade hadn’t aimed the gun at her yet. It was still by his side. The second that gun started to rise...

Gunner would fire. Brother or no brother.

* * *

“I
FOUND
OUT
you were never the man I thought you were. Even before your plane went down...back then, you were drug running, weren’t you?”

He laughed, and completely dropped the mask that he’d been wearing. The twisted fury and hate was there for her to see, burning so hot. “Yeah, I was. I was earning more money than I’d ever made in my life. Those jerks at the EOD had turned me away. Said I was too unstable. Screw that! I was the best they could’ve had, and they wouldn’t even give me a chance.”

Her hand tightened around the weapon that was still concealed in her oversize robe pocket. “So you took your own chance?”

“I took the jobs that came to me. I made connections...money...so much money.” He rolled his shoulders. “You don’t know what it’s like to have nothing.
I do.
I grew up with nothing. Dirt-poor on a reservation in the middle of nowhere. No father. No mother. I wasn’t even raised by my blood. The grandfather that Gunner talks about so much?
Not mine.
”

“But he took you in,” Sydney said. “He helped—”

“My father signed custody of me over to him. Said I’d be with
family.
I didn’t want to be with them. I didn’t want Gunner’s castoffs. Didn’t want to always be in his shadow.”

There was pain there, breaking through the fury.

“I swore I’d do anything I had to do in order to get out of that place. I wouldn’t be poor again. No one would look down on me.” His smile flashed—not the charming one, But the cold grin of a killer. “Do you have any idea how much money I have? How much power?”

“No...”
Tell me.

“I am
muerte.
I found it on one of my runs. I knew I could take over down there. When you and Gunner came for me the first time—”

When they’d all nearly died.

“I was fighting for power then. Your entrance, your backup...it was appreciated.” The grin kept chilling her. “Of course, it would have helped more if you hadn’t abandoned me.”

“You were dead!”

“Actually, yes, I was.”

Her breath burned in her lungs as surprise rolled through her.

“But thanks to the
muerte,
I came back.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My men dragged a doctor to me—some relief worker they found. He brought me back, I don’t even know how...injections, luck. Hell, maybe the devil just didn’t want me. The doc even said that the
muerte
might have saved me, that it was working in my body, stopping the blood loss.”

“What happened to the doctor?”

“When I recovered, I slit his throat.”

Brutal. But she knew that was exactly who—what—Slade was. A brutal killer. “And you became the cartel ruler down there?”

“I am
muerte.
”

“Why?” She breathed out the word as if she was frightened. And she was. The man before her was a walking nightmare. “Why did you want the EOD to come and rescue you? You were free and clear. We thought you were dead. Why—”

“Because I was ready to expand. I knew that you’d taken out Guerrero recently....”

The Mexican arms dealer. Now everything was connecting. Her heart thudded into her chest. “He had links to the drug trade. That’s why you accessed his file at the EOD, you wanted to know—”

“I wanted to know what assets of his I could still use in Mexico, and what assets I needed to eliminate.”

“You mean kill.”

“Yes.” A shrug. “I knew it would be easy enough to get that intel from inside the EOD.”

“So you worked us all...you threatened Hal—”

Another cold laugh. “I paid him. There was no threat. Of course, I never intended for him to live long enough to collect his cash.”

“And the shooter? The man who fired at me—”

“I connected with him while in rehab.” The gun was held loosely in his hand at his side. She was tense, her gaze drifting to the gun far too often, but he acted as if he wasn’t even aware he’d pulled out the weapon. “You can meet the most useful contacts in the oddest places.”

“You hooked the guy up with
muerte.
”

“In return, he agreed to take a shot at you. I
did
tell him to miss, by the way. That was just a scare shot.”

“And at my house? The fire—”

His smile vanished. “I was supposed to be the one to save you.”

“Were you supposed to save Sarah, too?” Whispered.

“No, I wanted her to burn.”

She had never known him at
all.
“What about when we were in Peru—that shot on the beach? That was you, wasn’t it?”

“Guilty.”

How had he gotten the gun then? Had he arranged for one of his men to meet him?

“Figured it was never too early...to start driving a wedge between you and Gunner.” He glanced down at the weapon. His sigh seemed a little sad. “Now, I’m afraid, you are going to have to die.”

She shook her head. “Slade, no, don’t do this!”

“But I don’t have a choice. As soon as I heard what you had to say...that you’d found evidence, your fate was set.” He was still staring at the gun. “You won’t stay quiet, and I can’t take the chance of you ruining things for me. I’ve got big plans. I’ll use the assets of Guerrero’s that will work for me. I’ll bring my trade right up the border...I’ll have so much money and power that no one will ever be able to touch me.” His gaze came back to her. “But you have to die first.”

He was going to do it.

She backed away, easing toward the couch so that she could drop and have some sort of cover. “You still have a chance,” she told him. “Don’t—”

“You’re the only one who knows the truth about me.”

He watched her with the unflinching gaze of a snake, ready to strike.

Sydney shook her head. “No.” Then she dropped her own mask. Let the fear slide away and let her own fury burst free. “The EOD knows, too. Logan, Cale and Gunner? They’ve been listening to every single word that you said. And guess what? You’re in their sights now.”

Eyes widening in shock, he swung back toward the window. Sydney dived behind the couch.

“No!” Slade screamed.

* * *

“Y
ES
,” G
UNNER
WHISPERED
.

Slade whirled from the window and lifted his gun toward the couch.

Gunner’s finger squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew through the window, shattering the glass, and slammed into Slade.

One shot.

The man staggered, then tried to aim again.

Gunner fired once more.

Even as that second bullet found its target, Gunner saw Logan burst into the den. Logan raced toward Slade as the man slumped to the floor.

Over.

Because he’d just put two bullets into his own brother.

* * *

“C
LEAR
!” L
OGAN
YELLED
.

Sydney rose from behind the couch. Slade was on the floor, with Logan over him. There was blood, a lot of it, and she hurried toward the men.

Slade’s eyes were open. He was glaring up at Logan, even as Logan held his gaze and his gun right on the other man. “You’re being taken in,” Logan told him. “We’ve got your confession recorded. You’re not getting away.”

Slade clenched his teeth. “I...I’m not going in! I won’t—”

“You don’t have a choice,” Logan growled. Then he talked into his transmitter. “We need that ambulance. Send the EMTs through.” He leaned over Slade. “The wounds aren’t fatal. You’ll stand trial for what you’ve done.
Muerte
won’t survive—”

“You think...I’ll...roll on the cartels? They’d
kill
me...”

The front door flew open. Sydney glanced up. Gunner was there, racing toward her.

He grabbed her in his arms and held her tight. She could feel the thunder of his heartbeat against her chest. “You’re making me lose too many years of my life,” he muttered.

Not anymore. The nightmare was over. He was clear. Slade was contained. It was
over.

An ambulance’s siren roared outside.

“The big hero...” Slade groaned. “You think this...is how you stop...me?”

Gunner lifted his head but didn’t ease his hold on Sydney. “You’re my brother.” He shook his head. “How the hell did you wind up like this? I was there for you when we were growing up, keeping you safe, making sure—”

“Sure that I was in your shadow.” Slade heaved up. Blood pulsed from his wounds. “No...more.”

Gunner’s body was as hard as a rock against hers. She could only imagine the pain that he had to feel. His own brother had been setting him up, willing to let Gunner spend his life in jail.

The siren kept wailing outside. The EMTs had been kept close, as a precaution, and in moments, they were rushing inside her house.

Logan eased back a step so that they could get to their patient. Logan had already taken Slade’s gun and bagged it for evidence.

But when the EMT reached for Slade, Slade’s body started convulsing. His eyes rolled back in his head. He jerked and twisted. The EMT swore and leaned over him.

That was the moment when Slade yanked out the backup weapon from the holster on his ankle. He moved so fast—so very fast—and had that weapon at the EMT’s head in seconds.

Everyone froze.

Everyone...except Slade and his hostage.

Even as the blood darkened his shirt, he rose to his feet. Slade yanked the young EMT up, keeping the man in front of him. “Drop your guns,” Slade ordered, “or I will put a bullet into his head right now.”

Gunner stepped in front of Sydney, shielding her with his body. He didn’t drop his weapon.

“Drop it,
hero,
”
Slade snarled. “Or watch him die.”

“P-please...” the man begged.

She couldn’t see his face, but she could hear his fear. The tension in the room weighed down on them all. She heard the shuffle of footsteps. Slade and his hostage, backing up a bit.

Backing up...and that retreat would put them right in front of her broken picture window.

Was Cale still positioned on the other side of the house? Or had he moved? She hadn’t been hooked in to their transmissions, and she didn’t know if he’d been repositioned when Gunner rushed inside.

Her palms were sweating, her heart racing too fast.

“I’m not going to...jail...” Slade said. “And sorry, brother, but you’re not getting...the girl....”

Her hands grabbed for Gunner because she knew Slade was about to take the shot. “No!” Sydney screamed.

The blast of gunfire shook the room.

But Gunner didn’t fall.

“Syd...ney...”

Slade’s voice.

Gunner rushed forward, and she saw that Slade had been hit again, only this time, this time she knew the wound was fatal. Slade’s skin was ashen, his eyes barely staying open. The EMT had lurched away from him, and Gunner had caught his brother’s body just as Slade fell.

Sydney glanced toward the window. Another bullet hole had broken the glass.

Cale.

Protecting his team.

“Slade?”

She glanced back at Gunner’s voice. He was curled over Slade’s body holding his brother’s hand.

Slade seemed to be trying to stare up at him.

Two brothers.

“Can we...go in the woods...?” Slade’s voice. Weak with pain, sounding lost. “I want to go...with you...Gun...”

She saw Gunner’s throat move as he swallowed.

“Is...Grandpa comin’?”

Slade didn’t sound like a man anymore. More like a lost child. Maybe in those last moments, he was.

“Grandfather’s already waiting for you,” Gunner said, his own voice rumbling. “Go on to the woods. Stay with him. I’ll join you later.”

“P-promise...?” Slade’s breath rushed out. His chest stilled.

Gunner’s hand clenched around his. “I promise.”

Sydney wrapped her arms around Gunner and held him as tightly as she could.

* * *

T
HE
GRAVE
WOULDN
’
T
be empty this time. Gunner stood, silent, during the service as his brother was put to rest. Sydney was by his side, her small hand cradled in his. Logan was on his right. The friend who’d never doubted him. The friend who’d always be there.