Yes, she was. The rest of the EOD should be, too.
She caught Logan’s gaze. Read the message that her shock had almost blinded her to before.
Then she gave a quick nod. “I—I’m coming.” But she let the faintest quiver slide into the words.
Gunner’s eyes widened.
Slade’s lips curved.
She realized that she’d just used the same quiver in her voice that Slade had used in his words a few times.
Maybe they were both good actors.
They were about to see who was better.
She wasn’t letting Gunner go down for these attacks. No way.
“I think...I remembered hearing my captors talk about the American,” Slade whispered as he rubbed his chin. “I told Cale on the way here.”
He’d just remembered? Wasn’t that convenient?
And bull.
“I think Gunner’s been working with them all along, using his ties to the EOD to bring the drugs into the country.”
“Enough.” Logan’s fierce voice. “We say nothing else until we’re back in the office.”
But Slade thought he’d said plenty. Enough to have her turning her back on Gunner?
The man didn’t know her at all.
Only fair, since she’d just realized that she never knew him, either.
* * *
“SYDNEY CAN’T KEEP being in the line of fire.” Gunner leveled his stare at Mercer. “She needs to be taken out of the equation now.”
“Sydney’s a woman with a very strong mind. Is that what she wants?” Mercer demanded.
Gunner flattened his hands on Mercer’s desk and leaned toward him. “Sydney’s not being risked anymore. Someone is using her to get at me.” And he knew just who that person was.
Did Slade really think he was so smart? That no one saw through his lies?
Even being blood wasn’t going to protect him.
“Haul his butt in here,” Gunner demanded. “Lock him up. Keep him away from her.” And me. Before I tear him apart.
“The house sitter did see you at Sydney’s—”
“Really? Then where the hell was this person when the house was burning? Because no one came running out—no one tried to do a damn thing.”
“She said she was scared. That she kept the doors bolted. She was just a kid, barely over sixteen.” Mercer assessed him. “Why were you waiting outside Sydney’s house?”
“Because I was getting up the damn courage to go and talk to her!”
Mercer raised a doubting eyebrow.
“And the witness who saw you tampering with her brakes?”