p; Tears stung her eyes. Things should never have been this twisted.
“Why the hell did Hal go after you?” Cale asked.
“Because I knew what he’d done. I found it...” She pointed toward the computer. “Hal’s the one who turned off the security feed. Probably so we wouldn’t realize that he was the one here that night, doing the hacking. He used Gunner’s old code. Hal set him up.”
Mercer’s fingers were on Hal’s neck, looking for a pulse. He wasn’t going to find one.
He must have realized that same fact because Mercer swore and glanced up at her. “Did he tell you why?”
Mercer wasn’t the kind of man to take kindly to betrayals. But then, who was? Only with Mercer, she knew the retribution for betraying him usually involved death or imprisonment.
“He said...he said he didn’t have a choice. That his family was threatened.” But if she looked into his bank accounts, would she discover that he’d been paid off? Not just threats, but an enticing wad of cash to help him escape from the EOD and start fresh somewhere else?
There was always a price that had to be paid for a betrayal.
“Muerte,” she whispered.
Cale’s gaze cut to Slade. Slade shook his head.
“That was the last thing Hal said to me.”
“Maybe he was afraid of death,” one of the other agents muttered.
No, she didn’t think he’d been talking about death so much as the drug. With the drug showing up in the shooter’s blood, with that being the last word that Hal had spoken, the dots were connecting in a very deadly way.
“It’s in the U.S.” Mercer stood. He had blood on his fancy suit. “The bastards have it here, and the DEA doesn’t even realize it.” He waved his hands. “I want this room clear. Don’t touch anything, hear me? I’m getting a crime scene analysis team sent in from the FBI. They owe me, and the feds are about to start paying up.”
Sydney eased toward Slade. He looked up at her, his face pale.
“I heard the gunshot,” he whispered. “I was in the hallway. I didn’t...I didn’t even know you were the one in here. The door was ajar...I just slipped in.”
And he’d seen her and Hal in a standoff.
“When I saw the weapon in his hand...” Slade swallowed. “I just fired. I killed him.”
Gunner was at her back. Silent.
Slade’s gaze dropped to her stomach. He swallowed. “There... Is there something you want to tell me?”
No, she couldn’t tell him. Not now. Not in front of all the others. But Slade had just killed to protect her, so she had to say something. “Thank you,” she whispered, and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug.
His hands closed around her. She felt the light touch of his lips on her head. “I’d never let anything happen to you.”
She pulled back, stared into his eyes.
“Never.”
She took a step away from him.
“Slade...” Gunner began.
Slade flinched. “I know I’m about to get busted for firing a weapon in here, okay? Mercer’s going to rip into me—”
“You were here when I wasn’t. I just...” Gunner leveled his stare at the other man. “I’m thankful.”
But there was an edge in Gunner’s voice. One that gave her pause. Maybe because...
She didn’t quite believe what he was saying.