The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(46)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“Did she die?” Gabrielle asked him softly.

“She jumped in front of me.” Deuce was staring at Cooper, but Cooper wasn’t sure the other man actually saw him in that moment. “She took the gunfire meant for me. The bullets—they tore through her body. She jerked and shuddered, and she died.” His breath heaved. “I was holding her in my arms, and more bullets came flying. They hit me. I should have died with her—”

“But we pulled you out,” Cooper said. They’d also taken Vivian. They’d tried to help her, but it had been too late.

And, once he’d recovered, Aaron Porter had become Deuce. The moniker was both for the fact that he could so easily assume the identity of another person…and because he’d been given a second chance.

A chance to kill?

“I lost her,” Deuce whispered.

“So you wanted them to lose, too,” Gabrielle said. She didn’t sound afraid.

She sounded…sad.

Once again, that gun lifted from her head. “Why should they get the happy ending? The EOD took my life away. They didn’t give me a second chance—they took her, and I had nothing.” He smiled at Cooper. A chilling sight. “So I took from them. I took their hope. I let them see what it was like to have nothing, and then I killed them.”

Cooper took a careful step toward him. “They were your friends.”

“They were the men who should have saved Vivian. You were one of those men. You were there, too. If you weren’t going to save her, then you should have let me die with her!”

Deuce wasn’t sane. Not any longer. Too much grief and pain had twisted him. Broken the man he’d been.

Cooper’s phone began to ring, vibrating in his pocket.

“Don’t!” Deuce yelled. “Don’t even think of answering it.”

The phone kept ringing.

“Vivian wouldn’t want you doing this,” Cooper told him, trying to reach the man that Deuce had been. Was Aaron even still in there? “She was in the EOD to help people, not to hurt them.”

But Deuce laughed. “The EOD isn’t what you think. We’re just Bruce Mercer’s attack dogs, nothing more. Well, guess what? I’m attacking on my own. I’m getting my vengeance, and I’m showing the world what’s really going on…”

Gabrielle pulled at the hand around her neck. “V-Van didn’t leave that message in blood, did he?”

Another rough bark of laughter escaped from Deuce. “Now you’re seeing things. That was me. All me.”

“Because you wanted me to find out about the EOD,” she whispered. Cooper still couldn’t look in her eyes. He didn’t want to see her fear. His body tensed as he took another step forward. He had to get close enough to attack.

“You wanted me…to write a story on them, didn’t you?” Gabrielle’s words were distracting Deuce, and Cooper needed the man to stay distracted. Distracted prey was easier to take down.

“You were supposed to show the world…but you didn’t!” Spittle flew from Deuce’s mouth. “Everyone should have learned the truth. At the EOD, we’re all killers! They should fear us. But you didn’t write the story. You just let him—” He pointed the gun at Cooper. “You let him seduce you, and you buried the story!” Red stained Deuce’s cheeks, and, in the light of the apartment, Cooper could see the blood on the man’s hand.

Rachel’s blood.

“He was using you,” Deuce snapped. “You were the assignment.”

Cooper took another step forward. “She’s not an assignment.”

Deuce’s smile chilled Cooper’s blood. “What is she, then? Why don’t you tell us both?”

“You already know.” That was why the bastard was there. Why he planned to hurt Gabrielle. “That’s the way your game works, right? You take the ones that the agents love, so we feel your pain.” He lifted his hands, acting as if he were no threat. “Don’t do it, man. Don’t. I can’t imagine what you went through when Vivian died—”

“No, you can’t!” Deuce yelled at him. “But you will. Now why don’t you tell her that you love her before she dies?”

“Cooper?” Her voice was a soft rasp.

Finally, he looked at her. Because this was it. The last moment. And he wanted her to know how he felt, no matter what else happened.

“I love you.” He wasn’t sure when it had happened. When she’d first started to slip into his fantasies? When she’d come smiling, to his doorstep, offering him her chocolate chip cookies?

Or when he’d seen her choke back her fear—and work to get justice for those lost?

Hell, the when didn’t matter.

He just knew he loved her.

He also knew that he’d die for her.

And he’d kill before he let anyone hurt her.

Her lips trembled. “Don’t…don’t—”

Her warning came too late because he was already moving as Deuce started turning the gun back toward Gabrielle. That gun was not getting to her temple again. He lunged forward. His body slammed into Deuce’s even as his hands fought for the gun.

They tumbled to the floor. Deuce still had a grip on Gabrielle, even though she was fighting him. Cooper grabbed for the weapon—and the gun exploded.

Chapter Twelve

The gunshot echoed like thunder in her ears.

It reminded her of another time, another blood-soaked night.

A night when she’d lost another man that she loved.

Cooper groaned, and his body sagged back.

“You weren’t supposed to be first,” Deuce snarled as he lifted the gun and took aim at Cooper’s prone form. “But if that’s the way you want it, old buddy…”

“No!” Gabrielle threw her body forward and wrapped her arms around Cooper. There was so much blood. The scent filled her nose and had her stomach turning. Cooper’s body was slack. And…cold. His usual warmth seemed to be fading, and that chill terrified her.

“Get away from him!” Deuce rose to his feet. “Now!”

If she moved, he’d shoot Cooper again.

She hunched her body over Cooper’s. His eyes were closed. She wanted them open. She needed to look into his gaze once more. He’d said that he loved her.

“I love you, too,” she whispered, and tears had the words choking out of her. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to love you, but it just happened.” He’d gotten past her defenses. Gotten right to the heart that she’d tried to guard so carefully. “Don’t do this, please, don’t leave me.”