Alpha One (Shadow Agents #1)(37)
Author: Cynthia Eden

So he’d see it each day when he woke?

And right before he went to sleep each night?

“Who were you?” she whispered to the ghost that she could all but feel around her in that room. “And why the hell did you have to leave me?” There had been other ways. He shouldn’t have—

A woman was crying. Juliana’s head whipped to the left when she heard the sobs, echoing up from downstairs.

She rushed from the room, leaving the pictures and memories behind. Her feet thudded down the stairs. She ran faster, faster…

Susan stood in the foyer, her face splotched with color, and streaks of blood were on her arms and chest.

Gunner waited behind her. His face was locked in tense lines of anger.

“What the hell is going on?” Logan demanded as he rushed in from the study.

“Some of the guards near the gate found her….” Gunner picked Susan up and carried her to the couch. “She was walking on the road outside of the house.”

Susan was still crying. Her eyes—they didn’t seem to be focusing on anyone or anything.

“We need an ambulance!” Juliana said, grabbing for the nearest phone. There was so much blood… She could see the slashes on Susan’s arms.

Juliana glanced up and met Logan’s hard stare.

“The bastard just dumped her in the middle of the road, like garbage,” Gunner growled, but though fury thickened his voice, the hands that ran over Susan’s body were gentle.

Juliana started to rattle off her address to the emergency dispatcher.

“No!” Susan jerked away from Gunner and her gaze locked on Juliana. “Don’t let them take me! I don’t want to go! I want—I want to be home!” Tears streaked down her cheeks. “Let me st-stay, please.”

Gunner grabbed her hands and began to inspect the slices on her body.

Juliana hesitated with the phone near her ear. The operator was asking about her emergency.

“Does she need stitches?” Logan leaned in close.

Gunner’s tanned fingers slid over Susan’s pale flesh. He caught her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “Are there any other wounds?”

She just stared at him, eyes wide.

“Susan, tell me…are there any other wounds?” When she still didn’t answer, his hands moved to the buttons on her shirt.

She jerked, trembled. “No! No, there aren’t any more…” Her gaze darted back to Juliana. “I want to be home.” She sounded like a lost child. “Please, I told them that I just wanted to go home.”

Logan gave a small nod. Juliana’s fingers tightened on the phone. “Never mind. It’s my mistake. We don’t need any assistance.” She put the phone away and hovered near the couch. She could see bruises already forming near Susan’s wrists. And those cuts… Someone had definitely used a knife on her.

Susan’s breath choked out. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank us.” Gunner’s voice still shook with fury. “We’re gonna have to take you in.”

Her face crumpled. “Why?” Desperate.

“Because there’s evidence on you,” Logan told her, his own face grim. “The techs can check you. Whoever attacked you—there’ll be evidence left behind.”

Susan’s laugh was brittle and stained with tears. “We both know who attacked me. Guerrero—or rather, his men.” Her lip quivered but she pulled in a deep breath. “He took me from my apartment, threw me in a trunk.”

“He? You saw Guerrero?” Juliana asked, stunned. If Susan had seen Guerrero and gotten away…

Susan gave a slow shake of her head. “I never saw anyone. The man—at my apartment—came at me from behind. Took me someplace, but when he opened the trunk, he had on a ski mask.” Her gaze found Gunner’s again. She kept turning back to him. “I can’t tell you anything about him. I don’t have any evidence or DNA on me. I didn’t touch him, didn’t claw him, didn’t fight.” She swiped her hand over her cheek. “I was too scared.”

“How did you get away?” Juliana asked. She hated seeing Susan like this. She’d wanted to protect her, but…

It seemed she couldn’t save anyone.

“I didn’t know anything.” Another swipe of Susan’s hand across her face. “I didn’t! I kept telling him that, over and over…”

Juliana fired a fast glance over at the grandfather clock. It had been five hours since the press conference.

Five hours of torture for Susan.

“It felt like I was there forever,” Susan whispered. “Then…then he said I could go if I delivered a message.”

Logan’s gaze locked on Susan. “What message?”

“Guerrero…said to tell you…there is no evidence. There’s no escape.” She looked at Juliana. “And you’re going to die.” A sob burst from her. “I’m so sorry!”

Susan was apologizing to her?

“He’s coming…he’ll kill you, and he said he’d kill your lover.” A fast glance toward Logan. “He knows what Logan did. I told him, I had to tell him! He was cutting me and I wanted him to stop. I didn’t have any information on Aaron, and it was the only thing I could say—”

Juliana shook her head, lost. “What did Logan do?”

Silence. Then the grandfather clock began to chime.

Susan’s jaw dropped. “I don’t…” She fired a wild glance at Logan. Then Gunner. Then Juliana.

Juliana gripped the back of the leather sofa. “What did Logan do?” Something was off. Wrong. She could see the fear in Susan’s eyes, and Logan…

Why had the lines near his mouth deepened? Even as his gaze had hardened.

“We should talk,” Logan told her softly.

Susan was still crying. “He knows…” she whispered. “I told him what Aaron…how he kept you away from her…”

Her father had kept Logan away? Since when? Logan had walked away. Hadn’t he?

“The man who took me, he said—” Susan was talking so quickly that all her words rolled together “—he would kill Juliana…make you watch…”

Logan’s gaze seemed to burn Juliana. “No, he’s not.” He jerked his head toward Gunner. “Take Susan upstairs, then call Syd. I want techs out here to check her out.”

But Susan tried to push against Gunner. “No, I don’t want anyone else to see what he did! No!”

Gunner lifted her into his arms once more. “Shh. I’ve got you.”