“She was a nice girl,” he said. “She never seemed to care that my clothes were old or that I had to work two jobs around my school schedule. Sarah...she was good to everyone.”
“I heard she wasn’t so good to you.”
“That’s what Slade said?” Gunner asked. Sydney saw a muscle flex along his jaw.
A nod from Mercer. “He said she rejected you, and you didn’t handle that rejection so well.”
Gunner laughed then, but the sound made goose bumps rise on Sydney’s arms. “Slade was the one who dated her, not me.”
“How’d that make you feel?” Mercer’s gaze bored into him. “Angry? Enraged? A girl who should be with you...but she wound up with your brother.”
Gunner shook his head.
But Mercer wasn’t done. “Then it happened again, didn’t it? Another girl you wanted...” He cast a fast glance toward Sydney. “But she wound up with your brother.”
Enough.
Sydney jumped to her feet. The chair slammed back behind her, and it hit the floor. “Stop accusing him, okay? Gunner didn’t do this!”
“But his access code was used.” Mercer’s voice was still without emotion. “Hal told me what he discovered today.”
“He discovered a setup, that’s what he discovered,” Sydney snapped. “You can’t actually believe that Gunner could be responsible for this—”
“I have to explore all possibilities,” Mercer said again. “Every avenue.”
Sydney huffed out an angry breath. “Why would he access the Guerrero file? He has no reason to do that.”
“He’s not the one talking right now,” Mercer pointed out.
For an instant, Sydney was tempted to go across that table, boss or no boss. He wasn’t just going to sit there and accuse Gunner. Not while she—
Gunner’s fingers wrapped around her wrist. “Easy.”
He must have realized just how close she was to lunging. But the last thing Sydney was feeling was easy at that moment.
“Pull up your security cameras,” Gunner told Mercer. She wondered how he could sound so calm. “You’ll see I wasn’t even at the facility during the time of the breach.”
“Funny thing about that...the cameras weren’t working then.” Mercer’s lips thinned. “This facility is supposedly one of the most secure locations in the world, and our damn security cameras blacked out. You know what that tells me? It says we were hit by a professional, one with covert skills that would let him get in and out of a building without being noticed.” His fingers drummed on the table. “It also tells me that we’re definitely looking at an inside job. Someone knew all of our weaknesses. Someone studied them. And that person or persons exploited them.”
Sydney frowned. Hal hadn’t mentioned that the security cameras stopped working during the breach. He was the one who should’ve had an uplink to those videos. If they went off-line, he should have been alerted immediately. “Did you question Hal?”
Mercer nodded. “Who do you think I talked to first? The man was shaking so hard he could barely answer any of my questions.”
And he’d been so nervous when Gunner came into the room. She’d just written off that nervousness because Gunner truly did make most people tense up, but what if it had been more?
Hal was the one who’d found the evidence linking Gunner to the hacking.
Hal was the one who should have been alerted to the camera failure.
“If anyone knew how to get past the security system,” she whispered, “it would be Hal.”
Mercer shook his head. “His key card wasn’t used for entry that night. Hal wasn’t here—”
Sydney laughed, but the sound held no humor. She was still standing and definitely didn’t feel like sitting. “Hal knows the system in this building from the inside out. If he wanted to slip in, he could.”
Was she throwing Hal under the bus? At this point, Sydney wasn’t sure. She just knew...Gunner hadn’t done this. “I want to look at Hal’s computer.”
Or rather the roomful of computers that he actually had.
“Sydney...” Mercer began.
“I want to check his data. He said the authorization code linked back to Gunner. Well, that code should have been deleted years ago. By Hal. I want to see his computers. I want to find out just what searches he used to find that intel.” Her heart was beating too fast, but Gunner didn’t seem to be defending himself. Why not? So someone had to prove his innocence.
She wasn’t wrong about Gunner. She wouldn’t be wrong. There was no way that he’d tried to kill her.
No way.
Mercer was studying her with his hard gaze. Sydney held her breath, waiting, then... His head inclined toward her. “Go search the computers.”
Yes. She nearly ran for the door. This was what she needed. What she had to do. Gunner was clear. Or he would be, once she was done.
Because she wouldn’t lose faith in the one man who’d pulled her from the darkness. He’d helped her before. She’d help him now.
* * *
SILENCE FILLED THE room after the door shut behind Sydney.
Gunner knew his body was too tense, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood to relax.
“She has a lot of faith in you,” Mercer finally said, voice considering.
Yes, she did. Enough faith to humble him.
“You didn’t seem to have as much faith in her.”
Gunner’s eyes narrowed.
“I mean, you were so sure that she’d go back to Slade, right? You were the one who backed away.”
“Listening to gossip, are you?”
“I listen to everything. In this business, you have to.” Mercer sighed. “I don’t like this.”
“You think I do?”
“I think you’re barely holding on to your control. You’re so worried about Sydney that you can’t even think straight.” Mercer stabbed a finger toward him. “Get your head in the game, Gunner. Stop letting your emotions rule you.”
He’d never let emotions rule him. Not until—
Sydney.
“If the evidence against you keeps piling up, I’ll have to act.”
Those words sounded like a warning.
“My gut tells me you’re clear. I know you, and I don’t want to be wrong about you.”
“You aren’t.” Neither was Sydney.
“Then find my perp. Bring me evidence that I can use to nail him to the wall.”