The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(39)
Author: Cynthia Eden

He needed a distraction, someone else for the profiler and Mercer to focus on.

He’d change the order of his game. Move his pieces around the board a bit.

Rachel glanced up then. The smile was still on her pretty face as she looked at him.

Time for my attack.

He stepped into her office.

* * *

COOPER BRACED HIS body in front of Gabrielle’s. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said flatly.

Wait, who was he talking to? Gabrielle peered around his shoulder. The older man with the gray at his temples or Agent Evers?

Gabrielle pushed onto her tiptoes and tried to see a bit better.

“No.” Cooper spun around and grabbed her shoulders. “The less you know about him, the better off you are.”

Her heart slammed into her ribs. Just when she’d thought that things surely couldn’t get any worse…

“Don’t be so certain,” the man replied. “I’m here to offer Ms. Harper a very special deal, one that I think she’ll accept, if she wants to keep living.”

She met that man’s stare, feeling a wave of shock sweep over her. “Are you threatening me?”

The man was handsome, tall, fit…and dangerous. The danger clung to him like a second skin.

Noelle Evers stood beside him, and she kept glancing nervously at the fellow.

“I don’t threaten,” the man said simply. “Threats are a waste of time. It’s actions that matter.”

Cooper dropped his hold on her.

Gabrielle shook her head. “Who are you?”

“Let’s just say I’m an old friend of your boss’s.”

Doubtful. “Are you the same ‘friend’ who convinced Hugh to take his little out-of-town trip?”

He flashed a grim smile. “Guilty.”

Okay. Her breath was icy in her lungs. She wasn’t just looking at another agent. “You’re the one in charge here, huh?”

His head inclined.

“You’re in danger,” Noelle said, her words sharp. “I think you’re the killer’s next victim.”

Was that true? Or just the EOD’s way of trying to keep Gabrielle in line?

“I believe that he’s going to come after you—” Noelle advanced toward her “—in order to hurt Cooper.”

Her temples were throbbing. “How would targeting me do anything to Cooper?”

Beside her, Cooper growled. Actually growled.

Her gaze shot to him.

“It would do plenty.” He’d never looked at her quite that way before. The intensity in his eyes scorched through her.

For a moment, Gabrielle was at a loss.

“You need protection.” The big boss seemed definite on this point. “The local cops can’t handle this killer—”

“—because he’s someone you trained, and now you can’t control him?” Yep. There she went. Saying perhaps a wee bit too much to a man who could probably make her vanish in five seconds flat. Actually, he’d already made her vanish.

Mr. Mysterious stared at her.

Just stared.

She stared back, not about to let him think he was pushing her around—even if he was.

“I want this rogue stopped,” he said clearly. “And I also want you to keep living. Despite what you may believe about me, my organization doesn’t target innocents. We save them.”

“The killer isn’t saving anyone, and he’s part of your organization.”

Mr. Mysterious glowered at her.

Noelle focused on Gabrielle. “He’s called you. He’s broken into your house.”

Gabrielle’s eyes darted to Cooper, then back to Noelle. “There seems to be a lot of that going around.”

Noelle’s lips tightened. “The next move he makes could be to kill you.”

She wasn’t in the mood to die.

Cooper’s boss straightened his, well, already ramrod-straight shoulders. “There are over two dozen of my agents currently working undercover missions. They are putting their lives on the line in order to protect innocents.” That gaze of his was practically arctic. “Before we go any farther, I have to know that I can trust you, Ms. Harper.”

Wait. He doubted her? “I’m not the one who’s been pretending here!”

“Gabrielle,” Cooper snapped out.

“Don’t ‘Gabrielle’ me.” She marched right up to Mr. Mysterious. “Look, I’m not interested in blowing the covers of your agents. I’m interested in stopping this killer. I made a promise to Kylie Archer’s little brother. I told him I’d do everything possible to give his sister justice, and I mean to do exactly that.”

“Even if the price you pay for that justice is your own life?” The man asked her. “Don’t you think that price is too steep?” His gaze slid to Cooper. “I can already tell you, he thinks it’s too high.”

“I don’t plan on dying,” she managed to say. “I’m not blowing the covers of your agents, and I’m not winding up in a morgue.” She paused. “Happy now? Can I go?”

“Once you agree to let Agent Marshall stick to your side—24/7—yes, then I’ll be…happy.”

She wasn’t sure anything could truly make this guy happy. “Why are we even playing this game? You’re going to stick me with your agent, no matter what I say.”

His eyes seemed to warm as he studied her. “Cooper was right, you know. The two of you did make a good team.”

Her gaze snapped to the mirror. She’d been in enough police stations to know how those two-way viewing mirrors worked. “I wondered how much of an audience we had.”

Apparently, a pretty big one.

Gabrielle sighed. To get out of that place, she’d be ready to promise plenty. “I agree to the deal.”

“You won’t regret it,” Cooper promised softly.

She already did. Actually, there were quite a few things she regretted concerning Cooper Marshall, but she’d shared enough with these folks.

“We’re going to be monitoring your phone line. If he calls you again, we’ll trace his call,” the big boss said.

“I’m surprised you weren’t already monitoring me,” she muttered.

Cooper’s cheeks flushed. “We were,” he confessed. “After the first phone call—”

“Right, I got it.” She shoved back her hair. “So I’m a target, the killer is coming, and I’m supposed to be the bait to lure him out. I think I’m up to speed now.” Though she’d rather not be just then.