The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(47)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“Don’t worry.” The gun pressed to her temple once more. “You’ll be joining him soon enough.”

Her head lifted, but she didn’t move her body. She was half sprawled over Cooper, trying to shield him as much as she could. She gazed up at Deuce and saw a monster staring back at her. “Killing us won’t give your Vivian any justice.”

His lips tightened. “Revenge is better than justice any day of the week.”

No, it wasn’t. “I’ve done nothing to you! I didn’t even know you until a few days ago.”

“You’ve done nothing,” he said, giving a little nod, “and you are nothing, to me.” Then his gaze slid to Cooper. “But to him, you’re everything.”

She didn’t have a weapon. His gun was jamming into her temple.

This was it, then.

Cooper was too badly hurt to help her. She didn’t even think he was conscious.

She’d attack Deuce. She would fight—she would try. And if she failed, she’d die.

Her fingers squeezed Cooper’s.

He didn’t squeeze hers back, but his chest rose and fell. Cooper was still alive.

I’ll keep him that way.

“It’s over for you, Deuce,” she said, speaking quickly. Distraction would be the key here. “Rachel survived your attack. She’s at the hospital, and she’s going to tell everyone that you were the one hurting her—”

Cooper’s phone rang again.

Gabrielle flinched.

Luckily, Deuce didn’t. If he had, his trigger finger might have squeezed and she could have died right then.

“Th-that could be Dylan. He was at the hospital with her. I bet they already know you’re the D.C. Striker.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he told her, sounding too confident and not at all distracted. “You think I don’t know how to vanish? I’ll just reappear in another city, with another face, another name, and I’ll keep hunting. I won’t stop until I destroy the EOD agents. The EOD took away Vivian, and I’ll make Mercer and his attack dogs pay.”

Distract. Distract. “No one understands why you’re doing this—the public just thinks you’re a serial killer.”

He grunted at that.

She licked her lips. “I can help you to make them all understand.”

The pressure of the gun’s barrel eased. “That’s what you were supposed to do.”

Keep him talking. “It’s what I will do. L-let me get to a computer. I can write your story. I can publish it. I can make everyone understand about the EOD and what they cost you.” If he’d just back away from Cooper, then she’d be able to breathe easier.

Getting him away from Cooper was priority one. Getting that gun away from her head? A definite priority number two for her.

“Yeah, yeah, they need to know,” Deuce muttered. His eyes had narrowed to slits. “We’re gonna tell them.” He grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet.

Then he drew back his foot and kicked Cooper as hard as he could, right in the wound on Cooper’s side.

“No!” Gabrielle screamed.

Cooper didn’t move.

“He’s already dead,” Deuce said and there was satisfaction on his face. “His heart just doesn’t know it yet. A few more pumps, and he’s gone.” Then, seemingly certain that Cooper wasn’t going to trouble him, he started pulling Gabrielle toward Cooper’s computer.

The gun wasn’t at her head.

And Cooper wasn’t already dead.

His phone stopped ringing.

“Come on,” Deuce demanded as he yanked harder on her arm. “It’s time for the world to know—”

The front door smashed in.

Deuce whirled toward that door, shouting, and Gabrielle used that moment—distraction!—to slam into him as hard as she could. He staggered back, and tripped over Cooper’s end table. He crashed to the floor, and, as he fell, Deuce yanked her down with him.

The gun flew from his fingers. Gabrielle scrambled for it, but he caught her around the waist and hauled her back against him. He flipped her over and his hands went right to her throat.

“Let her go.”

That low, lethal voice came from just a few feet away. Deuce didn’t let her go, but he turned his head and stared up at the man who’d just kicked in the door.

The EOD director—the guy Cooper had called Mercer—stood there, with a gun in his hand. A gun that was trained right on Deuce.

“I gave you an order,” Mercer barked. “Get your hands off her and get to your feet, now.”

Deuce slowly freed her, and Gabrielle sucked in desperate gulps of air. Spots danced around her eyes.

“I didn’t expect you to come,” Deuce drawled. His hands weren’t on Gabrielle’s throat, but he hadn’t moved back, either. Actually, his hand was dipping toward his waistband. “I mean, the big boss doesn’t usually get his hands dirty.”

“I made an exception this time.” Mercer had a dead aim at the man’s head. But even though Gabrielle saw that his aim hadn’t wavered, Mercer’s attention had. His gaze was on Cooper.

Deuce laughed. “You’ve always been making exceptions for him. You think I didn’t notice? Hell, from the very beginning…that rescue mission was a suicide job, but you still sent us out to find him. You were desperate to get some jumper out of that hellhole, and I had to wonder…why?”

“I value all of my agents—”

“He wasn’t an agent then,” Deuce pointed out. “Not then, but you risked our lives for him.”

Mercer was still looking at Cooper. A mistake. “Mercer!” She yelled her warning.

His gaze swung back, but Deuce had already pulled a backup weapon from his ankle holster. Deuce didn’t hesitate—he fired on the director.

Even as Mercer fired at him.

The thunder blasted in Gabrielle’s ears. Blood bloomed on Mercer’s chest, and he staggered back.

Deuce fell to his knees. He’d been hit, too, and the blood covered his chest just as surely as it covered Mercer’s.

But Deuce wasn’t done. He turned his head, stared at her. Stared, smiled, and lifted his gun.

They were inches apart.

I won’t go out without a fight.

“No!” A deep cry of fury and fear. Not her cry. Cooper’s.

And—Cooper was there. He lunged at Deuce, with a knife gripped tightly in his hand.

Deuce tried to spin toward the new threat, but Cooper had moved too swiftly. Cooper attacked with his knife, driving it into Deuce’s body.