Would she have a day in her life anytime soon whereshe could live free of all this? Have peace. Not just the smallamount she was willing to accept from God right now, but the peacethat came from knowing the past was done. Knowing she wasn’tresponsible for the evil committed by sinful men.
Did she even want it?
Adrian ducked in the front door. An office. Nosecurity guard. Probably no surveillance cameras either. Maybe acleaning crew.
He found the elevator and pressed the button for theeighth floor. Longest elevator ride of his life. When the dooropened, they heard yet another crack of a shot being fired.
The shooter was determined. Everyone outside waspinned down, taking cover. Still they would watch the exits. Andmaybe El Cuervo didn’t yetknow what was happening outside. Perhaps there would still be theopportunity to catch him.
He prayed there would be.
Adrian wasn’t going to assume the shooter hadn’theard the elevator ding on this floor. He hugged the wall, thenmotioned for Megan to stay behind him. She shook her head, thathaunted look still in her eyes, then motioned for them both to gotogether.
Adrian moved. They didn’t have time to argue,whatever the outcome would be. He wasn’t going to win the battle toget her to take cover behind him. Realizing that might save themtime, but it didn’t make him feel better. He pushed his feelingsaside as they cleared room after room on this floor. Where was theshooter?
Finally he found a room with the window open—somekind of kitchen, or break room. A round table had been dragged tothe window. Spent shell casings littered the floor.
But the shooter was gone.
“He stopped firing, at least.”
He nodded. She was right, and it was a good thing.“Let’s check the stairs.”
They cleared the rest of the rooms, in case theshooter was hiding there, and then found the stairs. In the dankstairwell, he stopped. Listened. Below them was the sound ofsomeone taking the stairs at a rapid pace. That staccato patter offeet going faster than the brain said was wise.
Adrian set off down after the person. He stowed hisweapon as he ran, figuring he had some time—but not much. He pulledout his phone, dialing with the hand he wasn’t using to keep steadyon the downward descent around corners, between floors.
“Cromwell.”
“It’s Walker.” He huffed the words out, descendingthe stairs rapidly with Megan right behind him, keeping pace likethey did this every day. She’d been hit by bullets twice.How was she not even out of breath? “Our shooter is about to exitthe stairwell. Need agents there to cut him off.”
“Copy that.”
Adrian hung up, stowed his phone away and pulled hisweapon again. They were on the third floor now. Were they too late?Had the shooter already gone outside?
He prayed they didn’t lose him. That he and Megan, orother agents, would see the shooter and catch him.
At the exit door, he pushed the bar still runningfull speed and launched out into the night. Gun up. He spun bothways and ran right into agents sprinting around the corner.
“Did you see him?” One of them asked.
Adrian shook his head, thankful he didn’t have toexplain who he was. He glanced at Megan. “Let’s go see if we canstill catch him.”
They took the opposite direction from the agents. Theothers would have seen the shooter, unless he’d gone this way.
Adrian rounded the corner, his breath coming inheaves. His side starting to hurt. “Think I need an uptick in mycardio.”
Megan huffed out a laugh. They stopped and glancedboth ways. Back street. No one around.
Didn’t hear anything. Couldn’t see anything.
“What..?”
He spun to Megan, and saw the look on her face, thenimmediately glanced the direction she was looking. A beat up oldsilver Ford pulled onto the street. Tires smoked as it screechedaway. No license plate.
“Did you see him?” Adrian asked it even as he movedinto the street to watch where it was going. “We can get an APBout. Have local law be on the lookout for the car.”
He walked back over to her, ready to head back andget a situation report. Then he realized she stared at the carstill. “Megan.”
She jolted, then glanced at him. “Yes?”
“Explain.”
Her face blanked. Trying to hide something.
“What is this? Did you see the shooter?” She hadknown he was in the car before the car even pulled out.
She sucked in a breath and lifted her chin. “I didn’tsee who it was.” Then she turned away too fast. She set off, makinglong strides so he had to trot to catch up.
He didn’t believe her.
What reason would she have for lying? He didn’t know.But he did know she had looked straight at his face just then, andshe’d lied her pretty little butt off.
Adrian followed her like a whipped puppy dog. Heworked his jaw back and forth. He’d thought it was worth it tostick around, make sure she was safe. If Megan was going to lie tohim, then maybe not.
His team was hard at work trying to locate Zimmermanand figure out where he would hit next. What was he doing?Babysitting Megan. He could see why she didn’t like it. And he’deven thought he was doing them all a favor. Keeping her guarded,keeping up with what Double Down knew about the blackmailer andZimmerman. Following up on leads.
Yes, his feelings had been involved. Part of himhoped that eventually she’d let her guard down. Talk to him aboutWill. Let him in. Maybe something would develop from that, maybenot.
He could hope.
Adrian was still frowning when they got back to theSUV. Hank glanced between them. “You guys okay?”
“Are you okay?” Adrian asked. “Was anyonehurt?” There should be ambulances here if anyone had been.Right?
Hank shook his head. “No, thank goodness. We dodged abullet there. Literally.”
A sniper who had missed? Maybe deliberately. “Couldbe it was a distraction,” Adrian suggested.
“You think he pinned us down so El Cuervo could get away?”
Megan’s body snapped taut. “He got away?”
Hank nodded. “Slipped out a side exit while theagents were occupied by the sniper. There
