She put her hands on either side of his head, tried to make him look at her. “Hal?”
His eyes were wide open with shock and pain.
She moved closer, forcing him to see her. “Hal, give me a name.”
“S-sorry...”
“Don’t be sorry.” There wasn’t time for sorry. “Help me, Hal. Make this right. Give me a name.”
But Hal wasn’t going to give her anything. As she stared at him, all of the life vanished from his eyes.
“Hal?”
He was gone.
“Sydney?”
She looked up. Slade stood just a few feet away, a gun in his hand. Hal’s gun. The gun she’d kicked across the room so Hal couldn’t use it again.
“I—I saw him coming at you, I thought he had a knife....”
The box cutter could have done as much damage as a knife, but she would have been able to knock it out of Hal’s hand. She knew plenty of techniques to disarm him.
“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” Slade whispered. His eyes—filled with horror—were on Hal’s still body. “I just reacted. I just...shot.”
Footsteps pounded in the hallway. She could hear them through the open door. Then Gunner was there, bursting into the room. “Sydney!”
He saw Slade with the gun. He lunged for his brother.
“Gunner!” Sydney called out.
Slade didn’t fight him. Gunner yanked the gun away from Slade and shoved the smaller man up against the nearest wall. Then Gunner turned that gun on his brother. “What the hell are you doing?”
Sydney rose. “Saving me.”
Mercer was there, too, breath heaving from his lungs. She saw Cale and a few other agents.
All too late to change what had happened.
She straightened her shoulders. “Hal attacked me. Slade came in and...he thought he was saving me.”
Gunner glanced back at her. His eyes widened as his gaze swept over her. He put the gun down on a table, and then he was across the room in an instant, his hands running over her arms. “Is the blood yours?” There was a tight, desperate quality in his words that she’d never heard before.
Sydney shook her head. “All Hal’s.”
Gunner’s hand was resting over her stomach now.
“I’m okay.” They both were. She looked to the right. Mercer had crouched next to Hal, but the others were watching her and Gunner. Silent, tense.
Gunner locked his jaw, gave a grim nod and slowly dropped his hand.
She heard a ragged gasp and her gaze met Slade’s. He’d seen Gunner’s hand on her stomach. Seen the fear and worry on Gunner’s face.
He knows.
Slade’s head tilted down. His hands clenched into fists.
&nbs