“I did some digging with a contact at the DEA. The drug is named after the guy who’s spreading it through South America...a man who reportedly rose from the dead to take over one of the biggest cartels in Peru.”
Slade. Rising from the dead...
“If Slade truly wanted to kill me,” Sydney said, “all he had to do was walk up to me and put a bullet in my heart.”
Gunner’s hands fisted.
“Instead, he’s been playing with me. Punishing me. Punishing you. Hell, maybe he’s even been testing us, to see how far we’ll go in order to survive.” Her lips thinned. “I won’t be tested again. Mercer is setting up my house in Baton Rouge. We’re getting out of D.C. Making him think that I’m turning my back on you and on the EOD. Making him think that I only want—”
“—him,” Gunner finished for her.
“And if I’m right on this, he’ll come after me. He’ll think we’re alone, and I will get him to tell me the truth.”
“Or what—die trying?”
Her hand lifted. Her fingers feathered over his cheek. “That’s where you come in, Gunner. It’s your job to keep me alive. To keep all of us alive.”
He couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. “There’s another way....”
“No, there isn’t. I’m the only one who he might trust here. I’m the one who can get to him. I’m the one who can end this.” Her hand dropped, and he immediately missed the warmth of her touch. “You can have me in your sights every moment,” she whispered. “If you think I’m threatened, if you think I’m in danger—”
“Then I will end him.”
Her breath expelled in a relieved rush. “Then you’re in?”
“You aren’t giving me a choice.” He glared at them all. Promised Mercer and Logan all kinds of hell if this turned south. “And there’s no way I’m letting you leave town without me.”
She threw her arms around him and squeezed the breath right out of him. “I love you, Gunner.” A whispered confession that he knew no one else heard.
But it was a confession that he’d never forget.
Chapter Eleven
Sydney had tears trekking down her cheeks as Gunner was loaded into the back of the black SUV. Men in suits were on either side of him. His hands were cuffed.
“Sydney?” Slade’s voice.
She turned and saw him walking up, with Cale by his side. Slade’s steps were slow as he approached her, the limp seeming to give him more trouble today.
She knew that Slade had been in the interrogation room.
She’d been in
hell.
It was easy to keep the tears coming. Maybe it was the hormones or maybe she’d always been a better actress than she’d thought. Either way... “Gunner’s being taken in by the feds. They have so much evidence on him...” Her voice trailed away. “I thought I knew him.”
Slade came to her and wrapped his arms around her.
She shoved him back. “Don’t touch me!” Now, that part wasn’t acting. “I can’t stand— I can’t trust anyone. I—I thought I could...”
Pain flashed across Slade’s face. “You can trust me, sweetheart. You always could. I’ve never stopped loving you.”
She blinked up at him, trying to get the tears off her lashes. “After what I did to you?”
What she’d done? Nothing. Lived her life, tried to help him.
He’d been lying to her for years.