The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(21)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“But someone out there could know what the message means!” This was insane. And this was not Hugh Peters. Not Hugh Print-It-All Peters.

“In its current form, this story will not be published at the Inquisitor.” His eyes, a shade darker than her own, pinned her. “This isn’t your first rewrite, so just get back to your desk and take care of business.”

She was missing something. “You’ve never backed down from a story before.”

He swallowed. His gaze cut to a silent Cooper.

“Did someone…did someone contact you?” she asked. Crazy but…Hugh truly didn’t back down from stories. “Hugh, do you know what the EOD actually is?”

“Bodyguard,” Hugh muttered, “I’m going to insist that you step out of the room, right now.”

“I’m not moving,” Cooper said.

Her heart was about to burst out of her chest. Hugh knows. “Cooper, I want to talk to Hugh. It’s just the two of us here. We’ll be perfectly safe.”

The faint lines near Cooper’s eyes tightened.

“I’m the paying partner, remember?” she managed.

Uh-oh. Wrong thing to say. His eyes went glacial. “How could I forget?” He turned for the door. “I’ll just go play watchdog from outside.”

She hadn’t meant to make him angry. She’d apologize, mend fences and do whatever. After she found out what Hugh was holding back from her.

The door clicked closed behind Cooper.

“Spill,” she demanded.

Beads of sweat lined Hugh’s forehead. “Are you sure your guard won’t try to listen in?”

No, she wasn’t sure of that at all. Actually, she expected him to at least attempt some good eavesdropping. Gabrielle would be rather disappointed in him if he didn’t.

“What do you know? Tell me, Hugh. After what I’ve been through, I think I deserve to know.”

He crooked his finger, motioning for her to come closer.

Frowning, she maneuvered toward him.

“You’re in over your head,” he whispered.

No way would Cooper be able to eavesdrop on that whisper.

“I’ve dealt with killers before.” She tried to sound confident. Like fear wasn’t a tight knot in her gut.

“If the killer is working with the EOD, then he’s like no one you’ve ever faced before.”

He knew.

“EOD…it’s a business?” That hadn’t been the initials for a person’s name, but something else.

“No.” He licked his lips. His gaze darted toward the shut door. “I’ve only heard whispers, because that’s all anyone ever hears. No facts. No proof. Nothing that will ever make it into the press.”

“Hugh.” Impatience hardened his name. “You’re talking in circles, and you’re telling me nothing.”

“The government.”

Hugh had conspiracy theories—a lot of them. She sighed. So much for getting the truth—

“The EOD is a covert unit that works for Uncle Sam. Trained killers. Brutal, cold.”

The killer who’d gone after Lockwood and the others had certainly been brutal. His prey hadn’t even had time to fight back.

“I’ve never heard of the EOD.” She’d been in Washington for seven years. She’d graduated college, then come to the big city.

“You wouldn’t. They’re so far off the radar, most civilians never know about them.”

“But you heard whispers.” An EOD agent. If the killer was as well trained as Hugh was saying, then scaling the side of the apartment should’ve been easy for him. Cooper had said that a man with the right skills would have no problem climbing down those bricks.

The right skills.

“A man came to me with a story once.” Again, his gaze shifted to the door, and he kept his voice low. “He’d been kidnapped off some speck of an island in the Caribbean. He thought for sure his captors would kill him, but then rescue came.”

“This story sounds like it had a happy ending—”

“All seven of his captors died. They were taken out by one man. One. An EOD agent. The guy said the agent moved like a shadow, faster than anything he’d ever seen. Before his captors could fire their weapons, they were dead on the ground.” He sucked in a deep breath. “That’s what they are. Death.”

“It sounds like the agent was saving him—”

“I did some poking around after that case. A message was delivered to me.” His fingers shook. “One that convinced me I wanted to stay away from anything involving the EOD.”

Hugh had been scared. No, he was still scared.

“I’m delivering the same message to you. You’re one hell of a reporter. You’re got more grit and determination than anyone else who’s walked through the doors of the Inquisitor.” His shoulders thrust back. “But I don’t want to see you disappear, and the EOD can do that. They can make you vanish.”

Her fingernails bit into her palms as her hands curled tightly. “The last thing Van McAdams did was leave that bloody message. You’re telling me that the EOD had him killed? Killed his girlfriend? Killed Lockwood and Kylie Archer?”

“I’m saying that if you want to stay alive, then you need to forget about the EOD.”

Like that was going to happen.

“I don’t want you putting any more of a target on yourself. Your life isn’t worth a headline.”

Hugh was a good man. Sure, he blustered, he bulldozed, but he cared about the people who worked for him. He—

“If I have to, I’ll bench you,” he threatened. “I’ll pull you off the crime beat and get you to help Penelope with the gala coming up at the White House.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“To keep you alive, I would.”

Hugh had an evil streak. She’d worked for him ever since she’d come to the city. First, she’d been a barely paid intern, but she’d climbed up the ladder. She’d proved herself.

And she was not going to get benched into doing entertainment pieces. “I’ll take out the EOD reference,” Gabrielle promised.

Relief slackened his features.

“But I am not giving this killer a name—”

Hugh waved that away. “You don’t have to. I already did.” He heaved down into his chair and started tapping away at his computer. “Didn’t you hear me? City Stalker. No, wait, maybe D.C. Stalker—that gets it more specific, don’t you think?” He snapped his fingers together. “I’ve got it now! The D.C. Striker!”