“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.
“Always,” he whispered as he lifted his hand and wiped away her tears.
She’d just told him not to touch her.
Her jaw ached, and she tried to ease the clenching of her teeth. “I have to get out of here.” She let her gaze cut to Cale. She shuddered, and glanced back at Slade. “I need to get away, to think.”
“Where will you go?” he whispered.
A sad smile curved her lips. “To the only home I have left.”
Now he knew just where she’d be.
Would he follow her?
She turned away from him, but not before she caught the curling of his lips.
Yes, he’d follow.
Then come and get me.
* * *
SLADE WATCHED THE black SUV pull away from the curb, triumph filling him. His brother had been taken into custody. The agents had followed all the bread crumbs that he’d left behind, and everyone there had turned on Gunner.
His brother was alone.
Sydney was sliding into a cab now. She looked so pale. So lost. So...perfect.
“It is safe for her to be alone?” Slade asked, keeping his voice raspy. He’d also done a pretty good job of keeping up his limp, as if that injury really bothered him anymore.
Cale stepped to the edge of the sidewalk. “Now that we have Gunner, she’ll be safe. She...she turned in her resignation when she found out the truth. Sydney doesn’t want to be part of the EOD anymore.”
The cab eased into the flow of traffic.
His Sydney. Going home.
He knew exactly where her home was. Since her place near EOD headquarters had been torched, she’d return to the only safe haven that she had—in Louisiana.
Now would be the perfect time to get to Sydney. She’d be alone, isolated in Baton Rouge as she hadn’t been with Gunner dodging her steps in D.C.
Her guard would be lowered. No more EOD agents trailing underfoot.
Just Sydney.
Just me.
“This is where we say goodbye,” Cale told him.
Slade turned toward him. “No more guard duty?”
“You were the one who was right all along. You’ll be getting a full apology from the EOD, and compensation, of course.”
Of course.
Cale offered his hand. “I wish things could have been different.”
Slade took his hand. Shook it. “Maybe they will be now.” Everything could be different.
He’d once planned to take Sydney away, to start a new life with her. Sure, he couldn’t tell her about what he’d really done down in South America, but why should she ever have to learn that truth?
Maybe it would be the time for them to start fresh. To start over.
Cale walked away.
Slade began to whistle.
And if Sydney didn’t want him...if she refused the offer that he made to her, then, while she was all alone in the swamps that she foolishly loved so much, he’d kill her.
Her mistake to leave all the protection around her. Sydney had always thought she was so smart and tough.
When, all along, he’d been the one pulling the puppet strings.
He walked down the sidewalk, still whistling and planning for his reunion in Baton Rouge.
* * *
THE HOUSE WAS too quiet. Sydney stood in her living room, far too aware of the silence that surrounded her. She was back in Baton Rouge, back in the house that she’d loved so much, for so long.
The place seemed to be filled with memories of Gunner.
She turned toward the large window in her den. If Slade showed up—when, not if—she was supposed to keep him in front of that window. Because this position would give Gunner a perfect shot at the other man.
Exhaling slowly, she looked out of that window. The edge of the swamp and twisting cypress trees stared back at her. She saw no sign of Gunner, but she could feel him.
Watching.
Protecting.
Cale was out there, as well. Stationed at another watch point and staring down his scope, too. They had the main windows under watch so that they could see into the house.
She’d taken care of making sure they could hear what was happening inside the house. A bit of surveillance equipment, carefully hidden, and they were linked into the audio feed. They’d hear anything that would be said tonight.
Logan would also see what went down, since he was in the surveillance van hidden in her garage, and he was watching every single thing that happened on the monitors in there.
Their intel had already told them that Slade had hopped a plane out of D.C. He was coming after her; it was just a matter of time.
Sydney kept staring out of that window.
When she’d first come home, she’d felt Gunner all around her. Remembered the way they’d made love in that house. She could even have sworn that the sheets in her room still carried his scent.