Way of the Shadows (Shadow Agents #8)(44)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Patrick glared at her. And the smirk is gone.

“You’ll always snap in the end.” Noelle sighed as if she pitied him. She didn’t. She hated him. “Control is your weakness.”

His hands flew out from behind the bars, lunging toward her, but he was too far away to do any damage. His fingers stretched uselessly into the air.

“You think you’ll get power by taking me into the wilderness, leading me on a hunt for Paula, then killing me.” She glanced from his hands to his face. “That won’t happen.”

“Your death is overdue,” he snarled at her.

“So is yours,” Thomas fired right back.

Patrick’s hands jerked backed through the bars.

“I go with you,” Thomas said, voice hard. “You’re cuffed, and you’re within sight at all times. You take us to Paula and—”

“And what do I get?”

Noelle knew it wasn’t really about what he’d get. Obviously, the man planned to try and kill them out there. But she played along, for now. “You get to walk outside once a day when you get to your future prison home. You can see the sun, and not live every single minute pinned behind bars.”

She waited.

Patrick’s jaw was clenched.

“Deal?” Noelle pressed because she didn’t know how much time Paula had left.

“Deal,” Patrick snarled. But his eyes… His eyes were glinting with triumph.

* * *

THOMAS STAYED RIGHT beside Noelle as they approached the cabin. A helicopter had brought them in as they’d followed Patrick Porter’s gritted instructions.

Those instructions had taken them back to the general area where they’d found Sarah Finway’s body. Where Patrick had been waiting to attack them all before.

Had Sarah seen Paula? Had the two women been kept together? And when Patrick decided he needed to make one of them scream, had Sarah been his unlucky choice?

Noelle had seen Thomas’s face tense as they drew closer to the area, and she knew the same questions were plaguing him. Had they been so close to another victim and hadn’t even realized it?

The chopper had landed and it waited a good two hundred yards away. They’d trudged through the snow and the woods. Patrick was cuffed and far too confident.

That confidence was about to end.

It wasn’t the first time a prisoner had offered an exchange to Noelle. It also wasn’t the first time Noelle knew that prisoner was planning a double cross.

A death.

Aaron was shadowing them. He’d been the one flying the chopper, and Noelle knew the guy hadn’t stayed behind. He was just remaining out of Patrick’s sight as he trailed them, waiting for the moment to strike.

They cleared a deep thatch of trees, and Noelle saw the cabin. It was nestled under the broader trees, its exterior nearly covered by thick snow. No wonder they hadn’t spotted it from the sky. It was too well camouflaged.

“Built it myself,” Patrick said as he expelled a rush of air, which appeared as a white cloud before his face. “That way, I knew no one would ever be able to find the place.” He waved his hand. “Go on in… She’s waiting for you.”

Right. As if they were idiots.

Thomas lifted his weapon and pointed at Patrick. “You could have the place rigged to blow. As soon as we walk in, boom.”

Patrick just shrugged. “I could…”

Noelle’s gaze returned to the cabin. Something about this scene nagged at her.

Snow crunched beneath Thomas’s boots. “And that’s why you’re going in first.”

Patrick opened his mouth to reply.

“There’s no smoke,” Noelle said. She glanced around.

“’Course, there’s no smoke,” Patrick muttered. “She’s tied up. She can’t start a fire, and I sure as hell wasn’t starting one. Why give away the place’s position?”

No fire…but also no pile of snow in front of the door. It had been snowing off and on during the past seven hours. It was particularly heavy right after they brought Patrick into the sheriff’s station. If no one had been at that cabin in hours, the snow should’ve piled up in front of the door. Instead, it looked as if the path to the door had been freshly cleared.

Something glinted in the window of the little cabin.

Her eyes widened as Noelle realized she was staring at the barrel of a gun. She started to scream a warning to Thomas, but he was already moving. He grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her, and she slammed back into the ground just as the thunder of gunfire exploded.

Gunfire…and laughter. Patrick’s laughter.

She spat snow out of her mouth and tried to shove up, but Thomas wasn’t letting her go.

“Shooter in the cabin,” he growled into her ear.

Because Patrick had found another partner.

“Can’t see him,” Thomas whispered. “But he has eyes on us.”

Patrick was running toward the cabin.

“Stop!” Thomas yelled at the guy.

Patrick only ran faster. Another shot blasted from the cabin.

And a shot also blasted from Thomas’s gun. The bullet caught Patrick in the shoulder. The man spun around, snarling.

Thunder echoed once more. No, not thunder. The roar was more gunfire, coming from the cabin. The bullet ripped right past Noelle’s head, so close she felt its heat against her.

“We need cover,” Thomas said, “Now. You run for the thicker trees, and I’ll watch your back.”

Translation—she ran and he fired, making himself a target. Not a plan she loved. Not even one she liked. Noelle yanked out her own weapon.

Patrick was stumbling toward that cabin door. He was close, just about five feet away from the entrance.

Gunfire erupted once more. Patrick’s body jerked when he was hit, his body moving like a marionette on a string. Blood sprayed into the snow, turning it red.

Patrick’s partner had just shot him. Noelle sure hadn’t seen that coming. Noelle had thought she and Thomas were the targets.

“Go!” Thomas yelled to Noelle.

Patrick slipped. Fell.

Thomas fired into the cabin. Noelle rushed to the cover of the woods, and Thomas was right behind her.

And—and Aaron was there. She saw the darkness of his hair, and he started shooting, providing cover fire for her and Thomas as they got to safety.

When Noelle turned back again, Patrick was lying in the snow, and the red beneath him was spreading.

“What in the hell is happening?” Aaron demanded. “I thought this was a rescue mission!’