She was so consumed by guilt, so preoccupied by the horrible pain she’d seen in Hunter’s eyes, she didn’t hear the sliding glass door slip open behind her. In fact, the first indication she had she wasn’t alone was the warm barrel of a weapon as it kissed her temple.
Warm because it’d been recently fired.
“Here you are, little rabbit.” The Russian’s breath was hot in her ear and stinking of stale cigarette smoke. His accent made the words sound that much more malevolent. “Did you doubt I would find you?”
Her heart hammered so hard it made her ribs ache. Still, she shook her head, ever so slightly, wincing when the move rubbed the barrel of the pistol against the skin of her temple.
Shehadn’tdoubted Orpheus would find her. She’d just hoped by the time he did, her name would be cleared, they’d have found the double agent inside the government, and she’d have the entire Federal Bureau of Investigations backing her up to bring him down.
“Good girl.” He reached into her shoulder holster and pulled out her weapon.
Any other time, her jaw would’ve clenched at the condescension in his tone. As it was, she couldn’t bring herself to care about anything other than getting out of the house. GettingOrpheusout of the house.
“I’ll go with you,” she whispered frantically. “I won’t fight. Just…please leave Hunter alone.”
“Sorry.” That one word hit her ears like a death knell. “My instructions were clear. No witnesses.”
She closed her eyes, her mind spinning in a million different directions, searching for the path that would allow Hunter to live. But each route led to a dead end, emphasis on thedead.
Except for maybe…one.
There was one thing she could think to do that might give Hunter a fighting chance.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the framed photo of Dale and Sissy sitting atop the credenza. It was a picture of them with their arms thrown around Hunter on their fiftieth-fifth wedding anniversary. She knew it was their fiftieth-fifth because of the banner behind their heads, and the couple looked so happy andaliveand glad to have Hunter there with them.
She hadn’t been able to save Dale and Sissy. She hadn’t been able to save Stewart. Maybe she could save Hunter.
Calm washed over her as she drew in a steadying breath. The instant she opened her mouth, Orpheus would send a bullet straight through her brain, but she didn’t care.
All she cared about was warning Hunter and, hopefully, giving him the upper hand against the assassin. Hunter, who was so good and brave and loyal and strong. Hunter, who hadn’t thought twice before entangling himself in the messy web that’d become her life.
Hunter, the man she loved.
There was no longer any reason to deny it.
She’d fallen for him three years ago. And this past day had shown her exactly why all her feelings were justified.
“Run Hunter!”she screamed so loudly her voice frayed. “He’s h—”
That’s all she managed before her head exploded and she knew no more.
28
Hunter had been scared plenty of times in his life.
He’d been six years old the first time his parents had gone on a bender for five days, leaving him alone with only a jar of pickles and a sleeve of saltines. He’d been twenty-six the time in Afghanistan when he’d been well outside the wire, cut off from his unit and listening to the boots of his enemies crunch around in the gravel barely two feet from where he’d hidden himself in a crevice. And he’d been thirty-one the time Sam had been bleeding out in his arms and their damn extraction team had been late arriving at the LZ.
But nothing had ever chilled him to the bone like the horror in Grace’s scream. Nothing had ever made his blood run cold like the sound of her little cry of pain and then…silence.
He appeared in the doorway to the den in time to see her go limp in a stranger’s arms. A thick trickle of blood slid from her temple down her pale cheek to drip from her chin.
The only thing that kept him from flying across the room, propelled by mindless rage, was the certainty she wasn’t dead. There’d been no report from the silencer held tight against her temple.
Plus, had she been dead, the Russian would’ve dropped her. Instead he held her tight to him, using her as a human shield. Which had undoubtedly been the point. Incapacitate her and use her as cover while taking out Hunter.
Enough!he roared in his head as his grip on his pistol tightened. Too much innocent blood had already been spilled in this house, and he’d had enough.
He was going to end that sorry sonofabitch. He knew it as surely as he knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west. As surely as he’d known he’d do anything Grace asked when he’d first heard her voice on the phone. And as surely as he knew he was ass over teakettle in love with her.
