Sharpshooter (11 page)

He was staring at her. He started to make his way toward her.

“You can ask Gunner if he saw anything or anyone before the fire started. I sure didn’t see anything. I thought I was alone.”

“Yet Gunner was here.”

Yes, he had been.
Why?
It wasn’t as if she’d stopped to ask him when they were rushing out of the burning house.

“The chief says it looks like arson. The way the burn marks are sliding across the rooms...” Gunner drew closer as he spoke. “An arson investigator will be out tomorrow to start the investigation.”

“Arson?” Her hand was on her stomach. She dropped it. “Why would someone torch my house?”

“With you in it?” Gunner growled.

She flinched.

“You know the EOD has plenty of enemies.” This came from Logan.

Sydney nodded. Yes, she knew that.

“You’re thinking someone is targeting us again?” Gunner demanded as his stare turned to the other man.

Logan shrugged. “We never found out the identity of the man who sent out the hits before. Just that he was based in South America. We’ve got agents in the EOD who are digging for more intel on him even now.” He paused, glanced toward the charred structure that had been Sydney’s house. “This isn’t random chance, we all know that. I’m going to send out word that all of our agents need to be on alert until we can learn more.”

Sydney was sure that the EOD’s own investigators would be joining the arson crew tomorrow.

“In the meantime, Sydney, do you want to stay with me and Juliana?” Logan asked her.

“I—”

“She can stay with me,” Gunner said instantly.

That sounded like a very bad idea to her. Sydney shook her head. “Thanks, both of you, but I’m perfectly capable of getting a hotel room. Or maybe even going back to Baton Rouge—”

“No.” Gunner was adamant. “If you leave the area, you’ll be on your own.”

In the EOD, you were never supposed to be on your own. The other agents were there to always have your back.

The way Gunner had protected her tonight. He’d fought the flames to get her out.

Tell him.
She had to tell him about the baby. Gunner had a right to know that he would be a father.

“I’ve got an extra room,” he told her, voice stilted. “You’ll have plenty of privacy.”

Logan just looked between them.

She thought of her baby. She thought of the night someone had tried to shoot her on the beach in Peru. She thought of the flames that she could still feel against her skin.

If someone was after her, and it sure was starting to look that way, she wanted protection.

Gunner was the best agent she knew. “I’ll stay with you,” she said softly.

In the moonlight, she could see the expression of relief flicker across his face.

Just what expression would he show when she told him about the baby?

When they were alone again, she’d find out.

* * *

H
E
WATCHED
THEM
from the woods. The firefighters were still running around the scene like ants, spraying everything down with their hoses.

But no one had started to search the area.

They were too busy working on the fire.

His jaw ached, and he realized that he’d been clenching his teeth. Gunner shouldn’t have been there. He’d watched Gunner drive away before. Had
followed
Gunner out there, then waited until he had left.

It had been easy enough to sneak into Sydney’s house. She’d been in the shower. She hadn’t even heard him.

Not when he’d poured the gasoline all over the ground floor of her home.

Not when he’d lit the matches and started that blaze.

He’d escaped, running to his shelter in the woods to watch the flames, but then he’d seen Gunner running into the house.

Always playing the hero.

Always screwing up his plans.

So Sydney was safe now. Or so she thought. But this wasn’t the end. Not even close.

He watched them. Her and Gunner. Their bodies brushed against each other as Gunner led Sydney around the truck and opened the passenger door for her.

Where would Gunner take her? Back to his place?

Bastard.

But he was going to make Gunner pay. By hurting Sydney, he’d be striking blows against Gunner.

He knew Gunner’s weakness, and he was ready to use that weakness against him.

He slipped deeper into the woods. He would attack again, and the next time Gunner wouldn’t be in time to ride to the rescue.

* * *

“D
ON
’
T
WORRY
,” G
UNNER
told Sydney as he unlocked the door to his third-floor condo. “The EOD will find out what happened at your place.”

She brushed by him as she headed inside. She was still wearing just her shorts, T-shirt and sneakers. There was ash on her cheek. Her hair was tousled. Her eyes were huge.

She was so beautiful that he ached.

Gunner squared his shoulders, then shut and bolted the door. “You’ll be safe here. I promise.”

“Are any of us ever really safe?” The quiet question caught him off guard. “You know as well as I do that this world is a very dangerous place.” She turned away from him and paced toward the large glass window that overlooked D.C. “Safety is what we make of it.”

He stared at her back, at a loss. He knew he’d do anything possible to keep Sydney safe, but—

“Why did you come back?”

He took a cautious step toward her. “Because there was more to say between us.”

“More?” She wasn’t looking at him. “Yes, you’re right, there is more.” Then she turned to face him. “There’s something that I need to tell you.”

He braced himself.
There’s something that I need to tell you...
usually didn’t foreshadow anything good.

What was she going to say? He hoped she hadn’t changed her mind and decided to go back to Baton Rouge. He knew Mercer had been pressuring her to remain in the area.

Gunner needed to stay close and keep an eye on Slade, but he couldn’t just let Sydney go off on her own when someone as threatening her.

“I’m pregnant.”

He hadn’t heard her right. Gunner shook his head.

Sydney’s lips tightened. “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. We both know you just heard what I said.” She spun away. “Jerk.”

He rushed toward her and spun her right back around. His hands were wrapped around her shoulders, but he kept that grip as careful as he could. “Say that again.”

“Jerk?”

“Sydney—”

Her breath blew out. “I’m pregnant.” Her gaze held his.

Right then, he finally understood what people meant when they said the world seemed to stop for them.

His eyes dropped to her stomach. Flat, smooth. He shook his head.

“Tina says I’m in the first trimester, and if I go back and count to when we were together in Baton Rouge—”

“I didn’t use any protection.” He’d been so desperate for her.

And...he knew everything about Sydney. Just as she knew everything about him. They had blood work run all the time for the EOD. They’d both been all clear in terms of health, and he’d been desperate, so desperate, that he hadn’t held back long enough to protect her. “I’m sorry, I—”

“I’m a big girl, you know. I could have told you to stop. I wanted you, just the way you were.” She paused, then whispered, “With nothing between us.”

The woman was about to shatter his control, and he’d been trying so very hard to stay in control. For her.

“This is why you fainted,” he said.
Sydney’s pregnant with my baby.
The joy was there, building in his chest, but he didn’t know how she felt. And—

Slade.

Slade wasn’t going to handle this well.

“This is why I fainted,” she agreed.

He wanted to drop his hands, to caress her stomach. Slade was going to be furious. He’d betrayed his brother, taking a risk that he should have never taken but...

My baby.

He couldn’t stop the spread of joy.

“I thought you deserved to know.”

The fire tonight hadn’t just put her life at risk. It had put their baby’s life at risk, too.

“Looks like you’re going to be a father,” she whispered, and she stepped back from him.

He didn’t know what to say. In that heavy silence, her lips trembled and she gave a little nod. Then she was walking away, heading into the guest room. Of course, Sydney knew where his guest room was. She’d been in his condo many times over the past two years, and the place always felt better, brighter, when she was there.

“Looks like you’re going to be a father.”
Her words rang in his ears.

In that instant, he thought of his own father—the way the guy hadn’t been able to get away from him fast enough. His father had ditched him and hadn’t looked back.

He’d ditched Slade, too. Gunner’s grandfather had taken him in. Had raised them both, in that house with the threadbare carpet and the sagging roof. His grandfather had taught them to fish, hunt and hike.

They hadn’t had much money. No fancy clothes or cars.

But...

Grandfather took care of me. Loved me.

Gunner sucked in a deep breath and wondered about his own child. The child that was so small now, barely more than a dream, growing inside Sydney.

Girl? Boy? Would she have Sydney’s smile? His eyes?

“Looks like you’re going to be a father.”

His hands were clenched into fists. He would be a father, but he would
not
be like his old man. He would not abandon his child.

Never.

* * *

S
YDNEY
’
S
EYES
FLEW
open as the last of the nightmare ripped through her mind. “Gunner!” His name tore from her, even though she was more asleep than awake. But she could still see the nightmare. The flames coming for her, trapping her.

And the baby.

Gunner burst into the room, flipping on the lights. He had a gun in his hand and his body was tight with tension. “Sydney?” He searched the room, looking for a threat.

But there was no threat here.

Only a fading nightmare.

She sucked in a deep breath. What was happening to her? “Sorry. Bad dream.” He’d been in the dream. He’d died trying to get her out of that fire. She’d watched him burn.

Then she’d been alone with the flames.

Her hands fisted around the covers.

Gunner took a steadying breath of his own, then carefully put the gun down on the nightstand. “Want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine now.”

He stared at her, then gave a slow nod. “Aren’t you always?”

Sydney wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean.

“I’m...sorry, for earlier,” he said gruffly.

Her head tilted back. “You mean when you got all quiet and looked like you might run from the room?”

His eyes widened. “I didn’t.”

Okay, he hadn’t fled. His face had just gotten even harder, even darker.

“You know...my father abandoned me and Slade.”

Yes, she knew.

“My mother died when I was two, so it was just me and my grandfather for a long time. I used to...used to see the other kids with their dads, and I was so damn jealous.”

She held her body perfectly still. Gunner didn’t talk about his past much. Neither did Slade. Slade had just told her once that his childhood had been a waste, that he’d
never
go back to a life like that.

She hadn’t pushed him for more. If his past was painful—if Gunner’s past was painful—then she didn’t want to be the one stirring up old wounds.

“Gunner, you don’t have to tell me—”

“Yes, I do. You’re having my baby. You deserve to know everything about me.” He came toward the bed, hesitated, then sat down beside her, immediately taking up so much space and making her feel hyperaware of him.

What else was new, though? She always seemed to be hyperaware of him.

“Until I was ten, I kept hoping that one day he’d come back. That he’d realize he wanted me and Slade. That he would try to make us into a family.”

Her heart ached because she could only imagine the pain he’d felt then.

“But at ten, on my birthday, when another year passed and there was no letter, no phone call, I knew it wasn’t happening. He didn’t care about me. He never would.”

She reached for his hand and twined her fingers through his. “That’s his loss.”

“That’s what my grandfather said.” The ghost of a smile lifted his lips. “But when you’re ten and your father can’t be bothered to find out if you’re alive or dead, it can still make you feel worthless.”

“You’re not—”

His fingers pulled from hers and then pressed over the covers that shielded her stomach. “I don’t ever want this baby to feel the way I did.”

She had to blink away tears. “She won’t.” She? He?

“I don’t want to be like him.”

“You aren’t.” He had to see that.

“I want to be there, in this baby’s life.”

Why hadn’t she told him sooner? This man before her, the man whose fingers were trembling as he stroked her stomach, he wasn’t a man who’d run from fatherhood. He was a man who seemed to want it almost desperately.

“I don’t want the baby to feel... I don’t want the baby to be like me.”

He was breaking her heart. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled Gunner down onto the bed with her. She just...held him. “This baby is wanted. Loved already.”

He held her tighter.

She hadn’t expected this from Gunner. He’d—

He kissed her. She shouldn’t kiss him back, not with everything that was going on between them, but she did.

Because she still wanted him.

The nightmare memory of his death was too strong in her mind.

So her lips parted beneath his. She tasted him as he tasted her. The kiss wasn’t rough or wild, but sensual and heavy with need.

As if he were savoring her.

Her body shifted restlessly against his. She’d thought about him so many nights in the past few weeks. Every night. Wanted, and been afraid that she’d never have him close like this again.