Sharpshooter (Shadow Agents 3)

Always.

He hated the pity in Logan’s eyes. He’d rather have seen the guarded mask come back.

“She wants you,” Logan said.

Gunner stiffened. “She wanted to marry him.”

Maybe it’s not him. But Logan wouldn’t have said that he thought it was, not unless the evidence he had was compelling.

Logan exhaled on a rough sigh. “We go out in an hour.”

Gunner’s head jerked in a nod.

“Gunner—”

He held up his hand. “Let’s just get him free.” That was all he could think right now. Do the mission. Save the hostage.

Let everything else go to hell.

“Okay.” Logan’s sigh was rough. “But you’re to stand back on the actual extraction, got it? You’ll provide the cover for the team.”

The way he always did. Shooting, killing, from a distance.

“I’ll need you and Syd to survey the area more. When I left, it looked like they were bringing in more men.” He paused. “Are you going to stay in control?”

Sydney was the only one who could make him lose control. Sydney...who wasn’t his.

“Yes.” He didn’t want the word to be a lie.

And maybe it wouldn’t be.

He didn’t walk back into the room with Sydney then. He walked down the hallway, went outside.

I shouldn’t have touched her. I should have stayed away.

Because now—now he knew what he’d be losing.

What he’d lose, even as he found his brother again.

I’m sorry, Slade. Because he’d just taken the one thing that his brother loved most.

* * *

HER EAR WAS pressed to the door. The resort might be fancy, but the room doors were thin, and Sydney could hear every word that Gunner and Logan said.

There is no me and Sydney.

The words hurt her, pounding through the numbness that had surrounded her ever since Logan had said that Slade might be alive.

Alive? How was that even possible? Gunner had been so sure that he was dead, and she’d seen Slade’s injuries. Too many injuries. Too much blood.

Slade had been dead. She’d been sure of it. If he hadn’t been...

We left him alone? For two years?

A tear trekked down her cheek, and once more, she heard Gunner’s gruff words echo through her mind.

There is no me and Sydney.