And Slade.
“It’s time for his world to be ripped apart.”
No, no, it wasn’t time for that. Sydney hurried toward the sliding door and left her villa. She wasn’t going to be able to sleep until she talked to Gunner. Things were going to be rough for them all, but they would get through this.
He’d heard her say that she loved Slade. She did love him, but her feelings weren’t the same as they’d been two years ago. She wasn’t just going to abandon Slade, but she also wasn’t planning on losing Gunner.
He meant too much to her.
Her footsteps were quiet on the sand. Any sounds that she made were instantly swallowed by the pounding surf. Cale and Slade were in the second villa, Logan and Gunner in the third.
She walked past that second villa.
The moonlight shone down on her. There were no clouds tonight. No dense jungle. Just beauty, stretching all around her and—
A sharp retort cut through the night, the sound popping like a firecracker. Sydney knew exactly what that pop was, and even as her arm burned from the bullet as it grazed her flesh, she was diving down into the sand.
Gunfire.
Had the rebel group found them? They’d put so many miles between them, switched vehicles, made a false trail.
They shouldn’t have found us.
Then more gunfire came, kicking up the sand near her. She tried to hunch down, to make her way closer to the shoreline so that she’d have at least the slope of the sand to hide behind.
She hadn’t even thought to bring a weapon with her. Amateur mistake. But she’d just been going to see Gunner. Taking a quick stroll had seemed safe enough.
Now she was a target.
The shots were coming from the right, from the dense shadows just past Gunner’s villa. Her breath heaved in her lungs. The bullet had just grazed her. She’d been lucky.
Very, very lucky...especially considering the big target she must have made as she walked down the beach.
Then there were more shots, but not coming from the right near the last villa. Her team was rushing to help.
Cale was beside her in seconds. He crouched down, even as he kept his gun aimed at the spot where the shooter had been. “You all right?”
What was a little scratch? “Fine... Slade?” Because maybe he was the real target. Maybe the group wanted their hostage back.
“He was gone. He went out for air.” His head lifted, just a bit, as he scanned the area. “Logan was going round, trying to get behind the shooter.” His words were a mere whisper.
Silence. The pounding surf kept pummeling the beach. She expected to see Gunner come rushing up to join the fight.
He didn’t.
After a few more minutes, Logan appeared. “Get to better cover,” he ordered, and they rushed for the nearest villa.
Gunner still wasn’t there. Neither was Slade. Sydney licked dry lips. “Gunner?”
Logan glanced toward the door. “He needed some time alone.”
Her heart was racing too fast. “We have to find him! If he’s out there, he could be in danger.”
“It looks like the shooter is already gone.” Grim. Only there was something about Logan’s eyes, that hard, brittle glare that had Sydney on edge. “Just one shooter,” Logan muttered. “Just one, and he cleared out fast.”
“You think he tailed us?” Cale asked as he glanced carefully through the blinds.
Logan gave a quick shake of his head. Then his gaze fell on Sydney’s arm. “He hit you.”