Sharpshooter (Shadow Agents #3)(48)
Author: Cynthia Eden

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.

* * *

GUNNER WATCHED SYDNEY 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.

* * *

“WE’RE OKAY,” SYDNEY 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.”