The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents 6)

“I’ve dealt with killers before.?

? She tried to sound confident. Like fear wasn’t a tight knot in her gut.

“If the killer is working with the EOD, then he’s like no one you’ve ever faced before.”

He knew.

“EOD...it’s a business?” That hadn’t been the initials for a person’s name, but something else.

“No.” He licked his lips. His gaze darted toward the shut door. “I’ve only heard whispers, because that’s all anyone ever hears. No facts. No proof. Nothing that will ever make it into the press.”

“Hugh.” Impatience hardened his name. “You’re talking in circles, and you’re telling me nothing.”

“The government.”

Hugh had conspiracy theories—a lot of them. She sighed. So much for getting the truth—

“The EOD is a covert unit that works for Uncle Sam. Trained killers. Brutal, cold.”

The killer who’d gone after Lockwood and the others had certainly been brutal. His prey hadn’t even had time to fight back.

“I’ve never heard of the EOD.” She’d been in Washington for seven years. She’d graduated college, then come to the big city.

“You wouldn’t. They’re so far off the radar, most civilians never know about them.”

“But you heard whispers.” An EOD agent. If the killer was as well trained as Hugh was saying, then scaling the side of the apartment should’ve been easy for him. Cooper had said that a man with the right skills would have no problem climbing down those bricks.

The right skills.

“A man came to me with a story once.” Again, his gaze shifted to the door, and he kept his voice low. “He’d been kidnapped off some speck of an island in the Caribbean. He thought for sure his captors would kill him, but then rescue came.”

“This story sounds like it had a happy ending—”

“All seven of his captors died. They were taken out by one man. One. An EOD agent. The guy said the agent moved like a shadow, faster than anything he’d ever seen. Before his captors could fire their weapons, they were dead on the ground.” He sucked in a deep breath. “That’s what they are. Death.”

“It sounds like the agent was saving him—”

“I did some poking around after that case. A message was delivered to me.” His fingers shook. “One that convinced me I wanted to stay away from anything involving the EOD.”

Hugh had been scared. No, he was still scared.

“I’m delivering the same message to you. You’re one hell of a reporter. You’re got more grit and determination than anyone else who’s walked through the doors of the Inquisitor.” His shoulders thrust back. “But I don’t want to see you disappear, and the EOD can do that. They can make you vanish.”

Her fingernails bit into her palms as her hands curled tightly. “The last thing Van McAdams did was leave that bloody message. You’re telling me that the EOD had him killed? Killed his girlfriend? Killed Lockwood and Kylie Archer?”

“I’m saying that if you want to stay alive, then you need to forget about the EOD.”

Like that was going to happen.

“I don’t want you putting any more of a target on yourself. Your life isn’t worth a headline.”

Hugh was a good man. Sure, he blustered, he bulldozed, but he cared about the people who worked for him. He—

“If I have to, I’ll bench you,” he threatened. “I’ll pull you off the crime beat and get you to help Penelope with the gala coming up at the White House.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“To keep you alive, I would.”