The Sniper

by Kimberly Van Meter

  So tenderhearted. “No, you didn’t kill him. But when he wakes up he’s going to have one heck of a headache.” He picked up the man’s feet and gestured for her to do the same with his hands. “I need to ask him some questions and his answers will determine whether he lives or dies.”

  “You’re going to kill him?” Jaci looked appalled. “That makes you no better than him. And if you kill him won’t that be messy? There will be blood everywhere.” She put a hand to her mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Jaci, focus.” They dragged the man over to the sofa and dumped him on it. Nathan secured his hands and feet with plenty of rope and once their attacker was trussed safely Jaci realized that Nathan was bleeding.

  “Oh, my God! You’ve been shot!” Jaci dragged him over to the sink and began to gingerly wipe the wound with a wet washcloth. “We need to get you to a hospital,” she said, her brow furrowing with concern. “I can’t believe you were shot and you still fought him. What are you, a superhero?”

  He tried not to put too much stock in her praise but he had to admit it felt good. “It’s not that bad,” he said gruffly. “Trust me, I’ve had worse.”

  “Worse? Wonderful. I forgot in your line of work people shoot at you.”

  “Actually, I’m usually the one doing the shooting. But when I served in Iraq my unit got caught in some rebel cross fire and I ended up taking a bullet to the leg. Nearly bled out before they could get me to a medic. So this?” He gestured to his shoulder. “Is nothing. We can douse it with antiseptic and butterfly it shut and it’ll be fine.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure?” she asked, and he loved her for it.

  “I’m sure.” And because he couldn’t help himself, he pulled her in for a quick kiss. She softened beneath his touch and when he pulled away she had lost some of the fear in her eyes. “See? I’m fine.”

  She nodded and drew a halting breath as her gaze strayed to the destroyed kitchen where bits of broken eggs littered the floor along with several glasses and plates that’d been knocked over during the fight. “I’m going to clean up the mess,” she said and Nathan knew she needed to regroup to process what had just happened. She stopped and turned suddenly. “Please don’t kill him in the living room.” The pleading in her eyes softened his stance and he nodded in agreement. She offered a brief smile in thanks and then began to wipe up the eggs and shattered kitchenware.

  An hour later the man began to stir and Nathan tossed a glass of water in his face. He came to with a quick sputter and a glare reserved for Nathan as he hunkered down to stare him in the eye. “You’re going to tell me who sent you or I’m going to make giving you pain my new favorite game,” Nathan said.

  “You’ve been in this business long enough to know that the people who hire us don’t appreciate tattletales. I’m dead either way.”

  “Yes, but there’s dead and then there’s dead. What matters is how you arrive at that final destination. I can offer you the same deal you offered me—tell me what I want to know and I’ll make it quick and painless. Jerk me around and I’ll make you wish you were never born.”

  “Tempting, but I prefer to be the master of my own fate.” The man’s grim smile puzzled Nathan until a second later; the man’s jaw worked and he clamped down hard on something inside his mouth.

  Nathan jumped back and stared in frustration as the man began to convulse as the poison caplet, which had been inside his tooth filling, did its job of killing him.

  Jaci came skidding into the living room, her eyes wide with horror. “What happened?” she asked.

  “Cyanide caplet. I should’ve known,” he said, irritated. “Now he’s useless to me.”

  “Now there’s a dead guy in the living room!” Jaci shrieked. “A dead guy. A freaking dead guy! What are you going to do with him?”

  “I’ll dump his body deep in the woods. The critters will eat him.” At her mortified and disgusted expression, he added, “Trust me, that’s better than this piece of crap deserves. Make no mistake, he was going to kill us both but he would’ve done worse to you. I saw the look in his eyes and what he wanted. Frankly, he’s lucky he took the easy way out.”

  Her eyes watered and he didn’t understand why she was crying over a bastard who’d wanted them both dead. “Don’t waste your tears over this guy,” he said sharply, which earned him a dark look from Jaci as she wiped at her eyes and stalked from the kitchen.

  “What?” he asked, wanting to follow her but knowing he didn’t have time. Pretty soon this corpse was going to start leaking and he did not want to deal with that. He hefted the body over his shoulder and left the cabin. He tossed the body in the back of his truck and fired up the engine. Would he ever understand that woman? Likely not. He sighed and rumbled down the driveway to find a good, secluded place to dump a body.

  * * *

  She wasn’t crying because the man was dead but because she’d been so useless in the fight. Sure, she’d hit the guy with a frying pan but not before nearly peeing herself in the beginning. When she’d felt the muzzle pressing into her back, her brain had frozen. Why hadn’t she tried to jam her elbow in his solar plexus or stomped on his instep? She’d taken a self-defense class once and yet, in the heat of the moment, she’d done nothing but shake in fear. How could she explain to Nathan that she was embarrassed for being a hindrance rather than an ally in that fight? How could she possibly consider herself a strong woman when she’d acted like a ninny back there?

  Her shoulders shook as tears coursed down her cheeks. Shock was setting in. She’d watched a man die. Her stomach cramped. The memory of Sonia dying right in front of her came back to haunt her. She could smell the sizzling flesh; she could see her best friend’s sightless eyes as she’d crumpled to the dirty pavement. Jaci ground her fists into her eyes as if she could wipe away the memory with the heel of her palm but there was no ridding herself of what was stuck in her head.

  She’d been stupid and naive to allow herself to think that when this was all over they’d still be alive. Two hours ago she’d been blissfully happy, floating on a cloud of sexual satisfaction, completely glossing over the fact that they were on the run and that someone really bad wanted them both dead. Now nothing felt safe.

  Nathan had been shot—what if the bullet had pierced his heart? Dodging bullets might be commonplace for Nathan, but for her it was a shocking event. And if that man hadn’t killed himself, Nathan would have done the job for him. Nathan had tried to tell her that he was a killer but for some reason the cold hard fact hadn’t completely registered in her brain. Coming face-to-face with the knowledge that Nathan took other people’s lives for a living suddenly smacked her in the nose. She hadn’t realized how long she’d been sitting on the bed staring at her fingers until Nathan returned and found her sitting that way. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  She looked up at him. “Am I okay?” she repeated, her voice rising. “No, I’m not okay. I didn’t ask for this. I’m a graphic designer, not a spy. I shop at IKEA because I like the cafeteria but not so much that you have to use their warehouse to find the items you want to buy and I always thought that someday I would meet a guy I would want to marry and have kids with but never imagined that that man would be someone who kills people for a living.”

  “Don’t fall apart on me now, Jaci,” Nathan warned. “I need you to focus. The cabin isn’t safe anymore. We have to leave.”

  “And go where? This was your safe house! This was the place that no one could find! Where do you suggest we go? The moon?”

  “I don’t know. But for the time being we will go back to the safe house on the edge of the city. No one will think to look for us there.”

  “That’s because no one in their right mind would stay there.”

  He shrugged. “Whatever it takes. If it means staying in the worst place on this planet to keep you safe, I’m wi
lling to do that. Staying alive is what’s important.”

  She buried her face in her hands and cried openly. She wasn’t cut out for this. “I was so scared,” she admitted with a hiccup. “I tried to move but I was paralyzed with fear. He thought I wasn’t being cooperative because I wouldn’t call you downstairs but the truth of the matter was I couldn’t get my vocal cords to work. I wasn’t being sly or deliberately difficult, just scared silly.”

  Nathan heard the mortification in her voice and came to sit beside her, pulling her into his arms. She went willingly and sobbed against his shirt. “You were great back there,” he murmured. “No one knows how they will react in a crisis. But you did exactly the right thing.”

  “You’re just saying that so I don’t feel so pathetic,” she said with a watery sniff. “But it’s not working because I know how pathetic I was. I want to be a kick-ass woman so you don’t have to constantly worry about me being in danger. But I wasn’t kick-ass at all. I was weak and stupid and...I don’t know, not very brave!”

  “You hit him with a frying pan,” he reminded her. “That took balls!”

  She wiped her running nose and looked up at him. “It was the only thing I could think of to hit him with,” she admitted, adding morosely. “I should’ve grabbed the gun.”

  He surprised her by hooking her chin with his knuckles and forcing her to hold his stare. “Listen to me—I would never want you to suffer under the guilt that follows when you take a life, no matter how vile that life was. I would gladly bear that burden so you never have to.” Tears continued to stream down her face and his lips twisted in a subtle smile as he said, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re cute even when you’re crying?”

  She laughed at that ridiculous question and knew he was just trying to distract her from the horror of what had just happened but she loved him for it. “Next gunfight, I will totally kick ass,” she promised with a tremulous smile.

  He kissed her and said, “I know you will.”

  She burrowed into his embrace and squeezed her eyes shut, knowing what he didn’t say.

  The next gunfight, neither might survive.

  Chapter 17

  For the first time ever Nathan didn’t have a plan of action. With his assignments, the objective had been clear and he’d always set out with a clear plan but now, he had no idea which way to turn. And the fact that he had Jaci tagging along only made the pressure that much greater.

  “I’m going to set you up in the safe house and then I’m going to go to ID alone,” he said as they drove. Her alarmed expression was expected but he pushed forward in spite of her immediate protests. “They aren’t expecting me to walk through the front doors. We need an admin password and the only way I know how to get one is through ID.”

  “I think that’s a terrible idea,” Jaci countered hotly. “Even if they aren’t expecting you to walk through the front door, wouldn’t that be like having their quarry tied up nice and neat with a bow? And furthermore, you’re not leaving me in that haunted house with nothing more than the rats for company, so think again.”

  “It’s not up for discussion. If I walk in there with you, they’ll know something is up. I’m banking on the fact that whoever is after me doesn’t realize that I know about this latest attempt. Besides, I need to talk to Tom. If he’s behind the hit I want to see it in his eyes.”

  “Stop with the macho bullshit. I don’t want you doing anything that can get you killed and walking up to the man we suspect is behind all of this is just plain stupid.”

  “You don’t know Tom like I do. He was there for me when no one else was.”

  “You’re still hanging on to the hope that he’s innocent,” she said, shaking her head. “If the shoe were on the other foot and I kept clinging to the hope that someone who obviously looked guilty was actually innocent, what would you say to me?”

  “I’d say you’re being stupid,” he agreed. “And maybe I am being reckless but I have to know.”

  Tom had been like a father to him over the years. It hurt to even think that Tom might have something to do with the plot to kill him but if Tom was guilty, Nathan was going to make him look him in the eye before he killed him. “It’s just something I have to do. I’m sorry you don’t understand.”

  “And just like that, discussion closed. Damn you Nathan, this is what I was talking about—you can’t just make arbitrary decisions that affect the both of us. What’s going to happen if you die and I’m left sitting in that moldering house? Am I supposed to just sit there like a lump until someone else comes along and finishes me off?”

  He didn’t have an answer for her and the fact was he didn’t have anything that he could say that would justify his actions in her eyes. And he didn’t want to try. “Have you heard from James?” he asked, changing the subject. She glowered at him but shook her head. “Call him on the burner and let him know we’re on our way.”

  She nodded sullenly but otherwise remained quiet as she dialed her friend’s number. After a few rings she hung up. “Voice mail.”

  Seeing as he hadn’t answered his phone the last time they called, Nathan wasn’t too worried. Either the man had suffered an aneurysm or he was simply too engrossed in his work to bother with the phone—hopefully it was the latter. He’d hate to have another one of Jaci’s friends go down because of all this. But the stark truth was Nathan was willing to sacrifice every single one of her friends if it meant she remained safe. Of course he valued his nuts so he kept that sentiment to himself.

  * * *

  Jaci knew that Nathan was trying to protect her. And given everything that had happened in the past few hours, she didn’t blame him for being overprotective. If the situation were reversed, she’d probably feel compelled to do the same but as much as he wanted to protect her, the idea of something bad happening to Nathan made her blood run cold. There had to be something she could do to help. “So what’s your plan?” she asked, trying to seem as if she were on board. “Just walk in with a smile?”

  “Pretty much. I figure I need to act as normal as possible.”

  “Have you contacted Tom through all of this?”

  “Once. I sent him a quick email and told him I’d be in touch.”

  “So you didn’t give him any details on what was going on?”

  “No.”

  She let that information sink into her brain for a second and then said, “So as far as anyone at the office is concerned, you’re just taking a few days off. Right?” At Nathan’s nod, she continued, “And no one knows about me and Sonia in the alley because only Sonia was found by the police, right?”

  “Yeah. What are you getting at?”

  “I think we should walk in together as a couple.” She let the bomb drop and as expected, he balked. He sputtered and shook his head but she pushed forward in spite of his reaction. “Hear me out. They aren’t expecting you to walk in, happy and acting like nothing’s wrong. It could give you an advantage because if they sense you’re on the defensive, they’re going to step up their game. You need to act like nothing’s wrong and that the reason that you’ve been incommunicado is because you and I’ve been too busy shacked up in your little love cabin.”

  She held her breath and just when she thought he was going to shut her down completely, he began a slow nod. “As crazy as that sounds, the idea has merit. The only person who would know differently is the one person who has been making all of this happen. I might be able to tell from their microexpressions who the true culprit is.”

  She couldn’t help but be impressed. “You know how to read microexpressions?”

  He shrugged. “Just one of the many skills taught to me, courtesy of the U.S. government. It comes in handy when people are trying to swindle me...or kill me.”

  She smiled at his tiny bit of humor. “Listen, I know that I didn’t rise to the occasion ve
ry well when we were attacked at the cabin and I had a mini meltdown but I can handle being your girl for the day. How about you? Can you pretend that we’re blissfully in love for the sake of putting on a show?”

  “Yeah, I think I can handle that.”

  “Good.” She tried not to feel a pinch when she realized she wouldn’t be acting. “So, when we stop by James’s place I’ll get dressed in something more appropriate and then we’ll go to your headquarters...that are probably secret and underground.”

  He laughed. “Our headquarters are not underground. It’s just an old building that looks like a bunch of accountants work there. It’s really quite ugly. We don’t even have any nice art on the walls.”

  “Well, I guess that’s good. You certainly wouldn’t want to advertise that you’re a bunch of killers for hire.”

  “True. We found putting that on a business card was far more effective.”

  It was her turn to laugh even though her nerves were strung tight. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  This was her chance to show him that she could handle being his girl. For real.

  Now if only she didn’t feel the need to throw up.

  * * *

  They arrived at James’s place and Jaci used her key to open the door. Jaci locked the door behind them and startled when she saw James slumped over his keyboard. “Oh, no!” She rushed forward but Nathan prevented her from going to James until he’d determined the coast was clear. “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Stay here.” Nathan wanted to make sure a trap wasn’t in place before he let Jaci near her friend, if even to check if he was alive. Nathan checked his pulse and found a steady beat. He looked to Jaci. “He’s fine, just passed out.”

  Jaci settled down with a hand on her chest in open relief. “Oh, thank God,” she murmured. “I automatically thought the worst.”

  “Understandable considering the circumstances. He probably hasn’t slept in days. Or eaten anything beyond sugarbombs.” He gestured to the wrappers of candy and soda cans littered around the desk and Jaci agreed.