The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(33)
Author: Cynthia Eden

The answer was smooth, and it sounded rehearsed.

“What did the suspect say, exactly, when he called you, Ms. Harper?” the profiler wanted to know.

“He told me not to trust Cooper. The guy said that Cooper wasn’t who I thought.”

There was still no expression in his eyes.

“He told me,” Gabrielle continued, her chest aching now as she realized that she’d been played by a master, “that if I wasn’t careful, I’d trust the wrong man and I’d wind up dead.”

Cooper surged to his feet. “Gabrielle—”

“You’re EOD.” It made sense. So much sense and she felt herself flush. “That’s why Van’s last message was erased at the crime scene. You smeared the blood deliberately, didn’t you? To keep your organization quiet. You destroyed evidence.”

A muscle jerked in his jaw.

But he didn’t deny being EOD. She’d actually expected a denial.

“I think—” Noelle spoke softly as she pulled her files a bit closer “—that we all need to calm down.”

“I’m completely calm,” Gabrielle said. She was. An eerie calm that she hadn’t expected had settled over her.

Gabrielle pulled out her phone. She held it gripped in her hand. She tilted her head as she studied the profiler. “If I call Detective Carmichael right now, is he going to back up your story? Is he going to even know who you are?”

Noelle hesitated.

That was Gabrielle’s answer. “He’s not, because you aren’t working with the local cops. They aren’t the ones who sent you to me.” She rolled back her shoulders and forced herself to meet Cooper’s stare. “The team that you had searching my apartment—they were from the EOD, weren’t they? This guy, this fellow doing the killing, he’s one of your agents.”

Cooper didn’t speak, neither confirming nor denying her charge.

She’d wanted a denial. Crazy, of course, but she’d wanted one.

A woman didn’t like to be that wrong about her lover.

She was.

Gabrielle retreated from him and the FBI agent.

Noelle rose. “I really need to ask you more questions. It’s imperative that I learn as much about this man as I can.”

So that the EOD could catch one of their own?

“He’s fixated on you,” Noelle continued, as Gabrielle took another step back. “The fact that he’s contacting you gives us an advantage. It means—”

“—that you think you can use me as some kind of bait.” Her blinders were definitely off. No wonder Cooper had agreed to be her partner. He was letting her rush out and try to draw the killer’s attention.

She’d been live bait in the EOD’s trap, and she hadn’t even realized it.

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Gabrielle spun away and yanked open the door.

“Gabrielle!” Cooper called after her.

Her eyes were tearing up. Knowing that she’d just been a means to an end for him hurt.

“Gabrielle? Are you okay?” Penelope asked as she hurried toward her.

“I need to get away,” she whispered back.

Penelope handed her a pair of keys. “My car’s in the lot.”

Then Penelope pushed her away—and rushed toward the conference room door. “Is it my turn for questions? Because I’ve got tons….”

Penelope was buying her some time by being a distraction. Perfect. Gabrielle gave up trying to look in control—the eerie calm had totally fled. She rushed for the elevator.

Once she slipped inside, she risked a glanced back and saw Cooper prying himself out of Penelope’s grip.

There was emotion on his face right then.

Rage.

The doors slid closed, and Gabrielle sucked in a deep breath.

It looked like the killer had been right about Cooper.

* * *

THE BLUE CONVERTIBLE squealed out of the lot just as Cooper reached the parking garage. Damn it, damn it, damn it! That interview had gone horribly wrong.

And now Gabrielle was just gone.

How had she found out about him?

He yanked out his phone. Waited with gritted teeth as the phone rang once, twice, then— “What’s wrong?” Dylan Foxx demanded.

What wasn’t? A killer was on the loose. The SOB seemed to be going right after Gabrielle, and now, his lover of less than four hours—four hours!—had just run from him as if he were the very devil.

To her, maybe he was. So much for playing the role of the white knight.

“We need containment,” he said, though he hated to utter those words. But there wasn’t a choice. He couldn’t let Gabrielle run from him.

Someone had tipped her off about him. He had to find out just how much she knew.

With the killer targeting her, Gabrielle couldn’t just vanish.

He wouldn’t let her.

“Gabrielle’s on the move,” he said, aware that his voice snapped with fury. “Heading west from the Inquisitor, driving a blue convertible.” He gave Dylan the license plate number.

“Are you sure containment is what you want?” Dylan asked, his tone guarded.

“Those were my orders.” If he’d become compromised, if Gabrielle was put in too much danger…

He swallowed and tried to choke back the emotions filling him. “Make sure, absolutely sure, that no one hurts her in any way.”

He didn’t want her to be hurt. He didn’t want her to be afraid.

But, judging by the way she’d looked at him just before those elevator doors closed, Gabrielle was already both hurt and afraid.

She’s scared of me.

Because she’d learned the truth about him.

He was just as much of a killer as the D.C. Striker.

* * *

WHERE WAS SHE supposed to go? Back to the brownstone? Retreating to that place really wasn’t an option because Cooper lived there, too.

And she couldn’t go back to work—he was already waiting back at the Inquisitor. Scratch that safe spot from her list.

But she also just couldn’t drive aimlessly around the city all night.

Gabrielle braked to a stop at a red light. She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw a pair of headlights approaching.

The red light changed. She turned left.

So did the car behind her.

Gabrielle took a right turn.

The car turned right.

Her fingers tightened their grip on the steering wheel.

She accelerated. That car accelerated, too.

Fear began to thicken within her. Fury had driven her away from Cooper, and she’d foolishly ignored the threats around her. Gabrielle couldn’t ignore those threats any longer.