“I heard what happened.” Slade’s color was better. Not the pale mask of death that he’d looked like when he first came back to the U.S. “I wanted to make sure you were both okay.”
Slade had been given clearance to come into the EOD office. Mercer wanted private updates with him, so Slade had access to some of the floors there.
Gunner carefully studied his brother. Did he know this man now? Had he really known him before? “I’m okay.”
Slade’s lips twisted. “Of course you are. Killing has always been easy for you.” Slade’s words uncomfortably echoed Gunner’s own thoughts. “Aim and fire...” He laughed lightly. “Bet the guy never even saw you coming.”
Gunner stiffened.
“Killing isn’t easy for anyone,” Sydney said, voice stilted. “A life is a life.”
“Yeah, but some trash just needs to be taken out every now and then, right? And this bozo who targeted you...” His gaze focused on Sydney’s face. “I’m glad he’s gone. I don’t—I don’t want you in danger.”
Sydney pulled away from Gunner. Actually, she put her body between Gunner and Slade. Gunner was struck by the fact that...she’d always been between him and his brother. From the first moment he’d seen her and—wanted his brother’s girl.
She’s not his any longer.
“You heard about the fire, too?” Sydney asked.
Slade nodded grimly. “What can I do? I want to help.” He waited a beat, stepped forward, then added, “I need to help.”
“We’re not sure what’s happening yet,” Sydney told him, voice cautious. “Slade, we don’t want you putting yourself in danger. You just got out of the veterans’ facility. You need to recover more. You need—”
“I need to get my life back.” The faint lines near his mouth deepened. “I’m not the kind of guy to sit on the sidelines. After two years, I need to get back in action. I want to be normal again. I want to be me.” His voice roughed. “Let me help, both of you. I want to help.”
Gunner could see the struggle on his brother’s face, but he also didn’t want to put Slade back in harm’s way. Slade wasn’t in shape to handle any dangerous missions, no way.
Slade straightened his shoulders. “I can help here, okay? In the EOD office. I can do grunt work, I can read through files. I can do something.”
“Maybe you can,” Gunner agreed, because he didn’t want to hurt his brother’s pride. Hadn’t he already done enough to him? “We’ll talk to Mercer and see what can happen.”
“Good.” Relief flashed in Slade’s eyes, then his gaze dipped to Sydney once more. “I’m so sorry.” A rasp had entered his voice. “Sorrier than I can ever say. I never, ever should have hit you.”
She stared back at him. “You weren’t yourself.” Her words were flat.
“No, no, I wasn’t.” He came closer to her, caught her hands.
This time, Gunner was the one to tense.
“I’ll prove to you that I’m better,” Slade whispered. “I will.”
Then he seemed to realize that he was holding her hands. He blinked, shook his head and backed away. “I’ll go find Mercer. I want to talk to him first, plead my case, you know?”
He could try. Gunner wasn’t sure that Mercer would allow the guy to do much, not with all the secure intel in the facility. But Gunner would talk to Mercer, too, and see if there was something very low-risk that Slade could do, something to help make Slade feel as though he was helping them.
Slade hurried out of the room. Gunner saw that Sydney had tilted her head, and her gaze was still on the door, even though Slade was gone.
Was she realizing that the man she’d known was fighting to return? It was too late for going back now, too late for them both.
“Sydney...” He exhaled slowly. “About Slade—”
She turned toward him. “Did you ever find out why Slade didn’t make the EOD team?”
He blinked. That was the last question he’d expected from her.
“He seems to want to be here so badly, but he told me...he told me that he withdrew his agent application.”
“That’s what he told me, too.”
A furrow had appeared between her eyes. “That’s when he started taking all those charter trips. He said he was trying to save up extra money for the marriage.”
The marriage.
“But after he disappeared, there was no money in his bank account.”
He knew that. He’d helped Sydney pay for the funeral. But he didn’t like where she was going with these questions. “What are you thinking?”
She bit her lower lip, then shook her head. The smile she gave him didn’t reach her eyes. “Nothing. I’m just worrying over nothing.” She backed up a step. “The techs are waiting for me.”
“Don’t leave the building without me,” he told her, his worry breaking through.
Sydney gave him a little salute. “Wouldn’t dream of it, sir.”
Then she was gone, and he was left with a faint suspicion swirling in his own mind. At the time, he’d wondered why Slade’s bank accounts had been cleared out. Cleared so that only dollars remained, when Slade had been doing charters for almost a year.
His money had vanished.
Gunner had pushed aside the mystery two years ago, but now he was wondering...just where had all of that cash gone?
* * *
SLADE TOOK A deep breath, then knocked on the door that led to Bruce Mercer’s office. Well, the outer office, anyway. Because when he opened the door, he saw the hard stare of Mercer’s assistant, Judith Rogers. Judith looked barely twenty-five, but he’d learned that the woman had the tenacity of a bulldog. He’d tried to get to Mercer before, and she’d blocked him more than once.
When she saw him, her auburn brows rose. “Do you have an appointment?” Judith demanded.
Great. He barely managed to keep his expression polite. Judith annoyed the hell out of him. “No, but he’s going to want to see me.”
“I doubt it.” Crisp. “Mr. Mercer is a very busy man.”
“Yeah, well, I think Mr. Mercer would like to know if he has a killer in his midst, don’t you?” He tossed that out deliberately, knowing that Judith wouldn’t be able to ignore those words. “Of course, if you just want to stand back and let an agent die...”