The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(15)
Author: Cynthia Eden

He wasn’t particularly surprised to see Carmichael blocking the exit. As usual, the detective was glaring.

“Gabrielle told me that you both heard the sound of glass shattering…” Carmichael began.

Cooper nodded. He could confirm that part.

“You kicked in the door,” Carmichael continued, pointing at Cooper, “and when you searched the place, you realized that the perp had broken the window and escaped?”

“Yes,” Cooper snapped.

“Tell me how the hell he did that,” Carmichael demanded. “He was four floors up. There was no fire escape. Am I supposed to believe the guy flew out of there?”

Cooper’s hold tightened on Gabrielle. “The bricks were rough on that side of the building. Just as they were thrusting out a little too much at Lockwood’s place. For a man with the right skills, getting out would almost be too easy. Scaling down would be just like rock climbing.”

The detective stepped aside.

“Let’s go,” Cooper said into Gabrielle’s ear. She was too pale.

They’d taken two steps past the detective when Carmichael mused, “The right skills… Tell me, Marshall, do you happen to possess those skills?”

Yes. “I’m not your killer, and you know it. Gabrielle’s my alibi—”

“And you’re hers, yes, I know that. But I wasn’t asking if you killed the man. I was asking if you could have gotten out of that apartment the same way that the killer did.”

Gabrielle had stopped walking. She stared up at Cooper, waiting.

There was no point in lying. “Yes, I could have. I would have been down that wall and away from the scene in less than a minute. Just like the perp was.”

Then, before the cop could ask him any other questions, Cooper took Gabrielle toward the front of the station.

His motorcycle wasn’t around—one of his teammates would take care of it for him—so he directed Gabrielle into the first cab that he saw.

They raced away from the station.

He glanced back and wasn’t surprised to see a dark SUV slip behind the cab. He knew that his boss had been the one pulling the strings to get him out of the station, and Mercer would want an accounting of the night’s activities right away.

But Mercer would have to wait.

Because there was someone else who needed him first.

His arms tightened around Gabrielle.

* * *

SO MUCH BLOOD.

Before she’d been escorted to the interrogation room at the station, she’d washed and washed her hands, but Gabrielle swore that she could still feel the blood on her skin.

She’d watched Van McAdams die, and she hadn’t been able to do anything to help him.

Just like before.

“It’s not your fault.”

They were in front of the brownstone. The cab’s wheels rolled away, leaving them alone out there. The night was hot, stifling, and Gabrielle thought she could still smell the overwhelming scent of blood.

He opened the door and led her inside.

When he paused, she didn’t stop. Gabrielle headed straight for the stairs.

But Cooper caught her hand, stilling her on the second step. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing?”

Right then, she was trying to run. “Can’t be in fighting form all the time,” she murmured. “Sometimes…sometimes we all need to crash.” That was exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to get inside her apartment where she could fall apart and no one would see her break.

He put his foot on the bottom stair. “Whatever you need, I can give you.”

She shook her head.

Cooper turned her back to face him. His hand lifted, and his fingers curled around her chin as he stared into her eyes. “I can keep you safe. You can crash, you can fall, and I’ll be there to pick you right back up.”

Her lips trembled. She caught her lower lip between her teeth because she didn’t want him seeing that weakness.

Just hold it together a little longer.

But McAdams—those last, terrible moments—had stirred up memories of her own past that she just couldn’t shut out any longer.

There was a reason she took the cold cases. A reason she tried so hard to find justice for the ones who had been forgotten.

“Fall into me,” he told her again. “I’m here.”

When had anyone else ever said something like that to her? She’d stood on her own for so long, Gabrielle couldn’t remember what it was like to have someone else there when the storm hit.

She found herself nodding. “Come…upstairs with me?” So she wouldn’t be alone when the crash hit.

Then Gabrielle turned. She headed slowly up that staircase, and Cooper was right behind her. She could feel the reassuring heat and strength of his body following hers.

She opened the door to her apartment, flipped on the lights, reached for the alarm—

And realized that her place had been trashed.

Couch cushions were cut. Furniture overturned. Her files were scattered across the floor.

“Get back!” Cooper’s low snarl. He didn’t wait for her to comply. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back behind him.

He had his gun in his hand again. She didn’t even remember him getting that weapon back from the cops at the precinct. While he pushed her back, Cooper stepped inside her place.

No. She grabbed his arm. “He could still be here.” Wasn’t that what they’d feared at McAdams’s place? That the killer was there?

“I hope he is,” Cooper whispered back.

Then he advanced.

Fear twisted within her, but she wasn’t about to stay in that hallway by herself. Maybe that was the killer’s plan. Divide and conquer. So when Cooper stalked forward, she leapt right after him.

Her hands fisted around her keys—and the mace attached to that keychain. Having her own weapon made her feel a little bit better.

Until they got to her bedroom.

And she saw the clothing that had been slashed. The other room…it had almost looked as if someone was searching for something in her den. But this—this was just destruction.

Her pillows had been slit open. Feathers covered the floor. Her sheets were cut, her mattresses sliced.

Her dresser mirror was smashed.

All of her drawers had been yanked out and tossed. Her breath heaved in at the sight.

Rage. She could feel it in the room.

Cooper’s body stiffened, but he didn’t speak. He kept searching her home—checking the closets, the bathroom.

No one was there.

The intruder was long gone.