Glitter and Gunfire/Bulletproof (Shadow Agents 4)

Too bad for them. Cale took a step forward. Cassidy was behind him. He was afraid the woman might try to lunge in front of him and save her friend. He couldn’t have that. He couldn’t risk Cassidy, not when the end was finally in sight.

His gaze slid toward Logan as he tried to get a read on the other agent’s thoughts.

A sniper? If there was a sniper out there, then the best spot for him would be the building on the right. A sniper would have a good position up on the third floor.

But the sniper wouldn’t be able to take out both him and Logan. If the sniper was even real.

I’ve heard better bluffs before.

Cale straightened his shoulders. “It’s okay, Genevieve. You’re going to be fine.”

The sun was starting to rise higher. He could see the desperate hope so clearly on Genevieve’s face. Hope, but no bruises, no other injuries at all from what he could make out.

Just that wild hope.

“You’ll drop your gun?” she whispered.

Cassidy had crept closer to Cale.

Trust me.

He sure hoped that she did.

“This is how it works,” the gunman shouted. “You send me the pretty blonde. She gets in that car.”

The vehicle had screeched to a stop.

Cale shook his head. “That’s not happening.” He was adamant.

If Cassidy got in that car, she was dead.

Not going to happen.

Cassidy’s fingers pressed against Cale’s back.

“You don’t make the rules!” the man shrieked, his accent becoming more pronounced. “You don’t tell me—”

“It’s been more than five seconds,” Cale snapped, “and your sniper hasn’t fired.”

He wasn’t there. A damn bluff.

Yet even as he said those words, a man was leaping from the front seat of the backup vehicle. He had a gun clutched in his hands.

Logan fired his weapon instantly, and that man crumpled.

The gunman, the one still trying to hold tight to a now frantically squirming Genevieve, lifted his weapon away from her chin.

That was just what Cale had been waiting for. “Drop!” he yelled.

Genevieve fell.

The gunman brought up his weapon. “No, she’s the—”

Cale fired on him.

The shot ripped into the man’s chest. He stumbled back, gasping, then hit the ground.

Genevieve hunched her shoulders, shuddering. But then the injured man reached for her. He was struggling to rise, trying to get her within his grasp once more.