Sharpshooter (Shadow Agents 3)

As she climbed down, Gunner realized that he was holding his breath.

Then the lattice started to crack. He heard the wood groaning.

Hurry, Syd. Hurry.

Her feet touched down on the ground. “Come on, Gunner!”

He was already out the window. He grabbed the lattice and double-timed it, and when the wood snapped, when the lattice broke in two, he leaped the rest of the way to the ground.

No broken bones. No burns. They were both damn lucky.

He caught Sydney’s hand, and they rushed away from the fire, heading toward Gunner’s truck. The hungry blaze was destroying that house, burning higher and higher with every moment that passed.

If he hadn’t come back, would Sydney have been able to get out on her own? He hadn’t heard any alarms sounding in her house. If she’d been sleeping...

She might never have wakened.

He pulled her into his arms, held her close against his chest. His heart was racing, and fear had sent adrenaline spiking in his blood.

Too close.

He never wanted Sydney that close to death again.

* * *

THE FLAMES WERE sputtering out. Sydney stared at the charred remains of her home. Gutted. The firefighters were still using their hoses, and the scent of ash filled the air.

Sydney stood by Gunner’s truck, her shoulders hunched. The blaze had spread quickly. She’d been in bed, drifting off to sleep, when she’d heard Gunner shouting her name.

Her eyes had flown open. She’d run to her bedroom door, and only then had she felt the heat of the flames and smelled the smoke.

“You’re sure that you had fresh batteries in your smoke detector?” The question came from Logan. As soon as he’d heard about the fire, he’d raced out to the scene. Good thing he’d still been in D.C. Logan and his new wife, Juliana, divided their time between D.C. and Juliana’s beach home in Biloxi.

“Yes, I’m sure.” She’d checked it a week ago. The smoke detector had been working fine then.

It had just failed her tonight.

“Good thing Gunner was here,” Logan murmured. “I think he saved your life.”

Again.

She nodded.

“Uh...just why was Gunner here?”

Her gaze slid to the right. To Gunner. He was talking to some of the firefighters and looking pretty angry.

“Sydney?”

She snapped her attention back to Logan. “He was... He came out earlier to tell me that Slade was doing better, that he was doing outpatient rehab and counseling now.”

Logan nodded. “He is. I saw him at EOD headquarters just yesterday. Seems like a different man...” His words trailed away. He tilted his head to the right. “So...Gunner came out and just...decided to stay with you?”

Why was he asking her all of these questions? “No, he left. I didn’t even realize he was back until—until I heard him yelling my name.” Her gaze slid back to Gunner.

He was staring at her. He started to make his way toward her.

“You can ask Gunner if he saw anything or anyone before the fire started. I sure didn’t see anything. I thought I was alone.”