The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(43)
Author: Cynthia Eden

He blinked. “I did. You didn’t answer. That’s why I was so worried. You fit the rogue’s profile—I had to warn you.”

She didn’t buy his story. “You warned me. Now, we’ll talk more tomorrow.” Her immediate plans included a fast and frantic late-night call to Dylan. He needed to know about this little visit.

Thomas nodded. “Stay safe, Mancini.” After one more long look at her, he turned away.

She didn’t move. Not until she saw him head down the stairs.

Then she locked her door. Double-checked those locks. She put the gun down on the end table and hurried back into her bedroom to find her phone.

She grabbed it from her purse. Of course, it was working, it was—

Dead.

Rachel frowned. She’d charged the phone earlier. It should be fine. Damn it. She needed to contact Dylan, but she didn’t have a landline, just her cell.

The floor creaked behind her.

Rachel froze.

She knew every inch of her apartment and just where to step for those familiar creaks and squeaks to sound. Because she knew the place so well, Rachel realized that someone was standing five feet behind her. Right inside the doorway.

The lights flashed off in her bedroom.

She didn’t waste time screaming. Rachel turned and went in for the attack.

Chapter Eleven

Dylan Foxx knew that he shouldn’t be hanging around Rachel’s place.

He was starting to hit stalker territory.

He’d dropped her off thirty minutes ago. He’d left…but come back.

He’d learned about the profile that Agent Evers was working up—she thought the rogue was attacking couples. Eliminating the woman first then going after her lover.

That profile had made him worried.

He and Rachel weren’t lovers, but…

…but I wish we were.

He’d wanted Rachel for years. Keeping his distance from her was impossible for him. He knew that he was too protective of her, that he got too close whenever she was near.

What if someone else had noticed that closeness, too?

What if the desire he felt for her caused Rachel to be put in danger?

His growing fear had driven him back to her place. It had made him lurk in the shadows of her apartment because he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

He looked down at his phone. Maybe he should give her a call, just in case.

Then he heard the sound of footsteps coming quickly toward him.

He glanced up. The moonlight showed him the face of the man approaching—a familiar face.

Thomas Anthony.

In an instant, Dylan had grabbed the other man, jerking him to a stop. “What the hell are you doing here?” Dylan demanded.

He had his gun at the other man’s throat.

Thomas stilled. “Easy…”

“Don’t ‘easy’ me,” Dylan snarled right back. Easy was the last thing he felt. “Why the hell are you coming out of Rachel’s building at this damn time?”

The streetlight fell on Thomas’s face. “That’s why,” he murmured. “I know how you feel, and I thought the killer might, too. I came to warn her.”

Dylan thought he might be looking at the killer. Keeping his gun in place, he yanked up his phone with his left hand. He pressed the screen, instantly calling for Rachel.

“You’re not going to get her,” Thomas told him. “Her phone isn’t working.”

Rachel wasn’t picking up.

He glanced up at her apartment on the top floor—the one on the far left end. All of her lights were off.

His back teeth ground together. “If you’ve hurt her…”

You’re a dead man.

He wasn’t scared of Thomas Anthony. No matter what stories circulated about the so-called Dragon, Dylan didn’t care. He’d take the man down in an instant.

And if Thomas had hurt Rachel…I’ll tear him apart.

“We’re going upstairs,” Dylan snapped. He’d see for himself that Rachel was fine.

Thomas turned around and headed toward the building. Dylan kept his gun at the man’s back. They knew the rogue was EOD, and Thomas—an EOD agent with a shady past—happened to be at Rachel’s place? To warn her? No way was he buying that story.

“I just left her,” Thomas said. “She was very much alive, I assure you.”

They climbed the stairs. No one else stirred in the apartment building.

Dylan’s hands were sweating. He’d been in every hellhole on earth during his time as a SEAL, and he’d been coolly calm during every single mission. Yet as he hurried toward Rachel’s apartment, his stomach knotted and fear thickened his blood.

A few more steps and they were at her apartment. He pounded on the door.

No sound emerged from inside Rachel’s home.

He reached for the knob. Locked.

“Rachel!” He called out her name. Her neighbors could just get angry with him for yelling. He had to see her. “Open the door!”

But there was still no response.

“Something’s wrong,” Thomas said. Fear flashed across his face. “She came to the door within minutes when I was here before.”

Dylan lifted his foot and kicked that door in.

He ran inside. “Rachel!”

A faint moan reached his ears.

He tore through the house, flying to her bedroom. It was pitch-black in there. He hit the light switch.

Dylan saw her crumpled on the floor. Blood was all around her. She was so still. So still.

“No!” The roar burst from him, and, in the next instant, he was on his knees beside her. With shaking hands he turned Rachel over. Her dark hair fell over his arm.

Blood.

“She fought him,” Thomas muttered from behind Dylan. “Not like the others. She had a chance to fight for her life.”

There were stab wounds on her chest, defensive wounds on her arms. And Dylan was afraid that she would die in his arms.

He yanked up his weapon, but didn’t let her go. “You did this,” he said as he took aim at the Dragon.

Thomas had his hands in front of him. No weapon, but that didn’t mean the guy wasn’t carrying a bloody knife. “It wasn’t me, I swear! I came to warn her, just like I said before.” He inched forward. “Let me help her. She helped me once, saved my life…”

“Take another step, and you’ll have a bullet in your brain.”

Rachel’s blood was on his hands. Rachel was dying in his arms.

“I didn’t do this,” Thomas told him. “The apartment was locked from the inside.”