Sharpshooter (Shadow Agents 3)

But Gunner pulled her back. The bullets were hitting the ground around her, sending chunks of dirt flying into the air. They had no cover, no backup and it sounded as though more enemy reinforcements were coming in.

Shouldn’t have been here. Shouldn’t have happened. How had everything gotten so messed up? Their cover had been blown pretty much from the get-go.

“Gunner, no.” She tried to pull away from him. “Can’t...leave...”

Another bullet hit her. Driving through her upper shoulder and sinking into Gunner.

She choked, barely managing to breathe as the pain swamped her.

“He’s dead,” Gunner gritted out. She was in his arms then. He was holding her tight, bruising her. “You...won’t be.”

Sydney fought him, using all the strength that she had, but she didn’t have enough. Gunner was wounded, too, but nothing stopped him. Not ever.

So he ran right through the gunfire, holding her in arms like steel. He ran and ran, and then they were in the heavier, denser part of the jungle, evading the men who chased them. No jeeps could follow them here.

Gunner wouldn’t let her go, no matter how much she begged him.

He didn’t speak to her again. Didn’t say a word.

And behind them, in that nightmare, Slade remained in the dirt.

Dead.

His eyes had never opened. From the time she’d fallen by his side, he hadn’t moved. Hadn’t spoken. Hadn’t even been able to open his eyes.

They never would open again.

* * *

GUNNER GOT HER out of that jungle. Patched her up. Stopped the blood flow. She wasn’t helping him. Sydney was barely moving at all.

“Shock,” Gunner told her, voice terse.

Yeah, that was it. She had to be in shock. Because she’d just seen her fiancé die in that trap. She and Slade had fought before, and for him to die with that anger between them...I’m so sorry.

“You lost too much blood.” Gunner’s fingers curled around her chin. She didn’t know where they were now. Some kind of hut? A run-down shack? Just some shelter he’d found them. Gunner was good at finding shelters. “You won’t die.”

Hadn’t he said that before? It was hard to remember. Her tongue seemed so thick in her mouth, but after three tries she managed to say, “Slade...”

Gunner’s fingers tightened on her. “He’s gone.”

A tear leaked down her cheek.

Gunner’s jaw clenched. That hard jaw. That dangerous face. “I’ve got you, Syd. I’ll take care of you.”

She was breaking apart on the inside. The mission was over. They’d failed.

He pulled her into his arms. Held her against his chest. Gentleness? He’d never seemed the kind for that. “I’ve got you,” he said again, voice deepening.

And it was there, in his arms, that she finally let herself go.

She cried until there were no tears left to shed.

Chapter One

Two years later...

The kidnapper had a gun pressed to Sydney’s head.