The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents 6)

“Call an ambulance!” Cooper barked. He grabbed for the man, rolled him over.

Gabrielle flinched when she saw the man’s neck. Fumbling, she yanked out her phone and managed to dial 911.

“Don’t do this,” Cooper growled. “Don’t.” Blood poured through his fingers as he tried to staunch the wound on the man’s neck.

The man—Van McAdams?—his eyelids twitched.

He’s still alive.

“What is the nature of your emergency?” the cool voice on the other end of the line asked Gabrielle.

“A man’s been attacked! He’s dying, please, get help here, now!” She threw out the address even as she tried to get closer to Cooper. His head had bent. His ear was right above the wounded man’s mouth.

Surely McAdams couldn’t talk with that kind of wound.

“We have an ambulance en route, ma’am,” the operator told her.

“Get more than an ambulance!” She fired back. “Call Detective Lane Carmichael! He needs to get here, too.”

“Gabrielle!” Cooper snapped out her name.

She blinked.

“I need you to put pressure on the wound.” A muscle jerked in his jaw. “I have to search the apartment. The SOB who did this...he could still be here.”

The breaking glass... Her gaze flew to the floor. There was no glass around McAdams. Someone else had made that sound.

“Gabrielle!” he snapped again.

She jumped to his s

ide.

He positioned her hands. “Keep the pressure on him. Van, you look at her, okay? You stay with her.”

Van wasn’t looking at her. He wasn’t looking at anyone.

Cooper surged to his feet. He had his gun with him as he ran down the hallway.

“It’s okay,” Gabrielle lied to the man who didn’t even seem to be breathing. “Help’s coming. You’re going to make it. Just keep fighting. Stay with me.”

Blood. So much blood.

It reminded her of another night.

No, don’t go there. All of the scenes had reminded her—too much—of her past.

But...this scene... Her eyes were on the blood. Her breath froze in her lungs. Had Van...written something in the blood? It looked as if he had. An E. An O.

She squinted as she tried to make out the last letter. D?

What in the world was an EOD?

“Van, please, stay with me,” she whispered to him as her hands pressed against his wound.

She leaned toward him, and felt something press into her knee. Her gaze darted from Van’s pale face to the pool of blood.

Metal was there. Glinting. Rectangular in shape.