Alpha One (Shadow Agents #1)(45)
Author: Cynthia Eden

His lips slipped from hers. “I always loved you.” He hadn’t meant for the confession to come out, but as soon as the words rumbled from him, Logan didn’t regret them. It was the truth, one he’d hidden, one he’d carried, and in case Syd didn’t get there fast enough, he wanted Juliana to know.

“What?”

“You deserved better than to be with a killer’s son.” No, he’d tell her everything. No more lies. “You deserved better than to be with a killer. That’s what I am. What I’ve always been, inside. My father, he knew. He saw it in me. Told me I’d be just like him, and when I got in the military…” It had all been too easy for him.

He pulled in a breath. Still tasted her. “You’re the one good thing that I’ve known in my life. I walked away from you because…hell, Julie, how could you not hate me knowing what happened? But I carried you with me every place I went. You were there.” She’d gotten him out of more hells than he could count.

Silence. Then “Logan…”

The footsteps were closer. Their time was up. “Just remember that, okay?” He wanted to touch her, so he kissed her again. “Remember.” No matter what came.

The door creaked open. Light poured onto them. He saw Juliana’s face then, pale, beautiful, but marked by dark bruises near her forehead and on the curve of her left cheek.

“You son of a bitch,” he snarled and turned his head. His gaze locked on the man advancing in that bright light. A man with dark hair, dark eyes and a grin the devil could wear.

“Hello, Mr. Quinn,” Diego Guerrero said, his voice calm and flat. “I was wondering how much longer you’d be out.”

Because he’d been drugged. Yeah, Logan had figured that out fast enough. He remembered the slice of knives, but he also remembered the prick of a needle that had taken him down during the battle. Guerrero had wanted a live hostage. So you could use me against Juliana.

Guerrero was a man who knew how to plan well. Just not well enough.

Logan smiled at him. “Tonight, your empire’s going down. You’re about to lose everything.”

Guerrero laughed at that. Two men followed him into the room. Men who already had knives in their hands.

“No, Mr. Quinn…or shall I just call you Logan? Logan, tonight, you’re the one who’s going to lose…” Guerrero walked over and stood behind Juliana. His hands wrapped around her throat. “You’re going to sit there and watch while you lose everything that matters to you.”

* * *

SHE HADN’T EXPECTED a bloodbath. Sydney Sloan raced through the senator’s mansion, her gun in her hand. Jasper hadn’t been outside. He should have been out there, waiting for her.

Instead, she’d just found the ground littered with bodies. Some still alive, some way past dead. Cops. Men in ski masks. Men with pain contorting their faces.

But she hadn’t seen the two men that she needed most. Gunner and Jasper. Where the hell were they?

She’d called her boss, Bruce Mercer. Federal agents were minutes behind her. Whatever screwup had happened with the local law enforcement, it wouldn’t be happening again. The agents would take care of the cops and men who still lived. She just needed—

A ragged groan came from the right. Sydney tensed as adrenaline spiked through her body. She flattened her body against the wall, sucked in a deep breath.

Then she rushed into the room with her gun ready to fire.

“Freeze!” she yelled.

But the men before her didn’t freeze. Jasper was crouched over Gunner, and they were both covered in blood. Gunner wasn’t moving. He barely seemed to breathe.

She grabbed for her phone. “Where’s the ambulance?” Sydney demanded. This scene—it was too similar to one she’d seen before. Only, that time, she’d lost her fiancé.

She wasn’t losing her best friend.

Sirens wailed outside, answering her question before the other agent on the line could.

“Get those EMTs into the house,” Sydney ordered. “Second floor. First room on the right. We’ve got an agent down, and he’s priority one.”

The only priority for her then.

Sydney dropped to her knees. Jasper had his hands over Gunner’s wounds, trying to keep the pressure in place. She added her hands, not caring that the blood soaked through her fingers. “What happened?”

Jasper grunted. “Susan—she was working with Guerrero. She got too close to Gunner.”

Because Gunner always had a weakness for the helpless damsels. She shook her head and blinked eyes that had gone blurry. When would he learn?

“Guerrero took Logan and Juliana.” Jasper’s voice vibrated with his rage. “I tried to stop them, but…”

Then she realized that all of the blood wasn’t Gunner’s. Her eyes widened.

“I knew if I didn’t stay with him he’d die.” Jasper didn’t even glance at his own wound. He came across as a tough SOB.

And he was.

But he also cared about his team.

“We’ll get them back,” she promised. There wasn’t an alternative for her. She’d lost others she cared about over the years. She wasn’t losing any of her team.

Shouts came from downstairs and drifted up through the broken window. Sirens yelled. The ambulances had arrived. Backup.

“Hurry!” she screamed.

Soon there was the thunder of footsteps on the stairs. The EMTs pushed her back, but…but Gunner grabbed her hand.

His eyes, weak, hazy, opened and found her. “Syd…”

She swallowed and tried to pull back. “It’s all right, Gunner. You’re going to be fine.” He’d have to be.

He tried to smile at her, that disarming half grin that had gotten to her so many times, but his lashes fell closed and his hand slipped from her wrist.

Her heart slammed into her chest but the EMTs were working on him. They got Gunner out of that room, into the ambulance. The lights were swirling. Agents were racing around the scene.

She wanted in that ambulance, too. She wanted to be with Gunner, holding his hand.

But she stood back and watched the lights vanish.

Jasper was behind her. He had barely let anyone see his injured shoulder. He’d just growled, “Back the hell off.”

That was Jasper.

She swallowed and hoped the mask she usually wore was back in place. “You ready to hunt?” she asked him. Not waiting for his answer—she already knew what it would be—Sydney yanked out her phone, punched in the code.