Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(115)

“Call Mark, too.” The dim kitchen light faded into shadows. His mind drifted. “Where’s Zack?”

She eased him flat to his back, her tears falling like rain. “Zack took Kelsey to Richmond and Mark’s home sleeping, remember? Hold still. I’ve got you now.”


The shock of his predicament set in. Of all the damned luck. Find the woman of my dreams. Die to save her. Lose her anyway. Doesn’t seem fair.

He had so much to tell this woman, so much of his heart he hadn’t given her yet. He clutched her fingers, needing her to know one thing for sure. He gurgled, his throat and mouth filled with spit he couldn’t seem to swallow. “I love you, Shell. Know that. Be sure.”

“And I love you, Gabe. You know that.”

“I... do.” He sucked in a wretched pull of pain that in no way resembled breathing. Shadows filled the room. Ghosts.

“You’re going to be okay,” she cried.

No, I’m not. Not this time, Shell.

She knelt over him, and the damned ceiling spun round and round until he had to close his eyes before he fell off the—floor.

Her hands on his chest hurt so damned bad. He pushed her away, but Shelby wouldn’t back off, and he didn’t have the strength to make her. Then he knew. The bullet was still inside. Still hotter than hell, and his heart wouldn’t stop pumping until every last drop of blood eked out of him through the hole in his chest.

Still, he had to ask. “Am I... dying?”

“No, no, no.” The tears dripping off her chin denied her words. “I won’t let you.”

Silly girl. You can’t control this. None of us can. I am too dying.

He pulled her down for one last kiss. “’S okay, Shell. Don’t... cry. Love you, my... silly... beautiful girl.”

She dipped her head into his face, her eyes swimming with heartache. “I love you, Gabe. Don’t go. Don’t leave me.”

“Shh.” He pressed his lips to hers, needing the touch of her mouth and the taste of her lips to fasten him to this reality. This earth.

Her fingers clutched the side of his head. The kiss she blessed his mouth with burned in a really good way. He inhaled the scent of her into his soul. One last time. Roses and vanilla. His favorite flavor and now his last memory.

With a ragged breath, his mind flew home to the One Star State. Mom. Dad. I’m not coming home like I promised. I’m so damned sorry. Don’t cry, Mom. Please, don’t cry.

Shelby lifted up out of his arms and morphed into—a guy?

Gabe squeezed his eyes tight, then opened them again, seeing things for sure. The guy was still there. But who? Zack? No. Not Zack. Not Mark. Who then?

He pressed harder on Gabe’s wound than Shelby had. The heels of his palms dug in. He growled like a sonofabitch, “You’re not dying, damn it. You hear me, junior agent? Not tonight.”

Gabe blinked at the fierce scolding. He’d heard one just like it once or twice before. Kind of.

His world contracted. The hole in his chest became everything. Blackness welled up through the floor. It overwhelmed him, with tentacles that wrapped his body limb by limb until only blurry vision remained. Blurry vision he couldn’t trust. Who is this guy?

Icy-cold shadows sat upon his chest, tapping impatiently to be off. He tried one more time to push the hard hand away, but he couldn’t make it move. It seemed at war with the shadows. Sad blue eyes lasered through the blurry darkness.

No. It can’t be. You’re... dead.





Chapter Thirty-Five


Talk about the nick of time.

Shelby tried, but there was no resisting the fierce man who’d banged Kelsey’s back door wide open in a rush, dropped his gear bag beside the kitchen table and commenced emergency first-aid on Gabe as if he knew exactly what to do. The guy simply knelt opposite Shelby and covered her blood-drenched hands with his. Together they compressed Gabe’s bleeding chest wound.

Alex.

He’d glared at her with frosty eyes that took her breath as quickly as they’d taken stock of Gabe’s shirt she wore, the state of his house and the dead man on his front room floor. Alex should’ve glowed. He radiated enough anger and hostility.

“Any air bubbles?”

“No, but I’m afraid he’ll die if the paramedics don’t hurry.”

“Like hell he will.” Alex brushed her hands out of the way. “Not one more goddamned time. Not now. Not ever again! Sonofabitchin’ bastards. None of this should’ve happened.”

Shelby sat back on her haunches and watched him work, her heart in her throat. Alex seemed to think he held the deciding vote, that Gabe couldn’t die just because he’d said so.

“You’re Alex.”

He nodded with one short sharp glance, his hands cupped over the cloths she’d used to staunch Gabe’s bleeding. “Where’s my wife? Where’s Kelsey? Is she safe?”

Shelby wiped her tears with the back of her bloody hand. “Yes. Zack took her to Richmond.”


“Good. Damned good. Good man, Zack. Gabe, too. I only hire the best, and I’m not going to change.” Alex pressed with all his might into Gabe’s chest. Veins bulged up his neck and across his forehead. “Live, damn you. Don’t you dare die on me,” he hissed.

“Kelsey believes in you,” Shelby offered, needing to connect with this intense man before the paramedics arrived. “She loves you.”