Sharpshooter (Shadow Agents 3)

Sydney slid from the table. Took the container and didn’t answer her.

Five minutes later she had the results. Was she okay? Not exactly.

Tina stared at her, waiting. A friend, not a doctor.

She was pregnant.

Chapter Six

Sydney kept a small house just outside D.C. It was about a forty-five-minute drive, but the quiet privacy she received out there was well worth the trip.

Considering all that was happening with Slade, Mercer hadn’t wanted her to leave the area yet. No trip to Baton Rouge, no returning to her real home, not yet, anyway.

It had been three weeks since she found out about her pregnancy. Tina had done some additional testing and taken some blood samples, and she’d told Sydney that all seemed well. The changes in Sydney’s body were small. Some increased sensitivity in her breasts, a little light-headedness in the mornings. Nothing too extreme so far.

And so far, only Tina knew about her condition.

She hadn’t told Gunner yet, because she didn’t know how he’d react.

The fact that he’d been avoiding her as if she were some kind of plague? Yes, well, that didn’t e

xactly make telling him any easier.

Sydney sat on her porch, staring at the setting sun. The sky was red and orange, the hues stretching for as far as she could see. Her fingers were lying over her stomach. Just...there.

A baby.

Her baby.

A vehicle’s engine growled, the sound too close. She tensed as her gaze darted toward the road. This was a dead-end street. Her house was on the end, and her only neighbors were out of town for a second honeymoon.

She wondered just who her visitor could be.

Then she saw Gunner’s truck, coming slowly but steadily toward her.

Sydney didn’t rise to her feet. Didn’t rush out toward him, the way she had done too many times in the past. She just kept swinging, nice and casual, and soon Gunner was in her driveway. He climbed out of the truck and headed toward her porch.

As he approached, he didn’t start speaking. Just stared at her with those dark eyes. What had made him come visit her? Had he finally decided that he just couldn’t live without her? Because she’d had that fantasy a time or twenty in the past two weeks.

She forced her hand away from her stomach. “Gunner, I—”

“Slade’s better.”

Sydney blinked. “That’s wonderful.” She’d called for updates but hadn’t learned much. The doctors had sequestered Slade during his treatment.

“They did an experimental therapy with him, to help push him through the worst of the withdrawal symptoms. Mercer says that while it won’t be one hundred percent, Slade should soon be more like the man we remembered.” He climbed onto the bottom porch step. The old wood squeaked beneath his boot. “He’s going to have to deal with PTSD, but he can get through this, Sydney. He can be the man we knew.”

She rose to her feet. “That’s so good to hear.” Because she was tired of seeing nightmares in which Slade came at her with fury on his face and with his fists swinging. “I hope he can find some peace.”

“He wants to talk to you.”

Now, that surprised her. “And what? You’re his errand boy? Last I heard, he was screaming that you were the enemy.”

“We’re making progress on that.” A pause as his gaze seemed to linger on her face. “He’s out now, still under supervision from the EOD, but he’s in his own apartment. He—he said you won’t talk to him.”

Because he’d attacked her. Because she knew this was a delicate situation, and with the news of her pregnancy, she had to do everything possible to protect her baby. “I’ve called and talked with Mercer and the doctors.”

“But you don’t want to talk to him, not anymore?”