Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(116)

He closed his eyes, his lower jaw jutted forward. “God, I’ve hurt her. Too much this time.”

“You left the rose, didn’t you?”

Alex nodded, the anguish in his voice raw. “Bastards killed me. Kept me under. Wouldn’t let me leave so I showed them. I left. Had to. They kept finding me. I kept breaking out. Damn them all to hell.”

He couldn’t seem to speak without cursing, but Shelby didn’t care. The man knew what he was doing. He’d stopped the blood flowing from Gabe’s wound.

“She knew you’d never hurt her,” Shelby assured him, placing her hands over his again. “She never doubted you, Mr. Stewart. Not once.”

A siren shrilled in the distance. Help was on its way. She focused on Gabe. His breathing had shallowed, but remained steady. He’d grown pale, his handsome features sunken, and his lips gray. Shelby pressed her mouth to his ear and let her broken heart speak. “Please don’t die on me, Gabe. Not yet. Please—”

“He’s not going to die, damn it,” Alex growled.

A heavy fist pounded at the front entry. Shelby hurried to let the first responders in. Cautiously, she unlatched the bullet-riddled door. Three men in paramedic uniforms stood on Kelsey’s steps.

“Your badges, please.” Trust was no longer a given. What had happened to Alex would NOT happen again, not on her watch. All three handed over their badges. Good enough. They were who they claimed to be.

She stepped aside and allowed access, pointing to Gabe. “Two GSW victims. One survivor. Take care of him first.”

Alex came to stand with her, his bloodied hands fisted at his side while the medics dropped to the floor and worked frantically on Gabe. One inserted an IV line into his arm while another applied a pressure bandage to the hole in his chest. The third barked stats into the two-way radio on his collar, communicating with the hospital.

“Fallon?” Alex sneered at the sheet-draped body beneath the window.

“Yes. He was inside when I got up this morning. Said he wanted Kelsey, but Gabe intercepted him. Fallon shot him without remorse. Gabe returned fire, but Fallon wouldn’t give up his gun. Gabe kept shooting until he did.”

“Good,” Alex spat. “Rat bastard deserved to die.”

Shelby winced. The rage emanating off Alex was so strong, she couldn’t picture Kelsey with him. Kelsey was everything he was not.

Alex stood alone. He seemed out of place, as if he wasn’t sure if he should stay or leave. A growl rumbled deep in his chest, no doubt an internal curse that had more to do with his wife not being where he needed her to be. He’d come home for her, not the aftermath of a bloody shootout in his front room.

Shelby reached for his hand. “Can I ask where you’ve been all this time?”

He accepted just the tips of her fingers in his grasp. “In the service of the damned President of the United States. Like I had a sonofabitchin’ choice.”

“You were there last night, weren’t you? You were at the World War II Memorial when Sam and Gabe diffused the dirty bomb. You know Mr. Becker.”

Alex snorted. “Hell, yeah. Bastard killed me. Stop asking. I can’t talk about it.”

“Gabe saved the world. At least he saved D.C.” She needed Alex to know what kind of a man his junior agent truly was.

“If that shirt you’re wearing means what I think it does, you’re a damned smart woman.” He released her fingers. “Damn it to hell. I want my wife.”




A good Marine does not waste time lying around in a hospital. Yes, Gabe had been shot. Yes, he was a little slow on the uptake and tired easily, but so? Leathernecks don’t lie around waiting to heal. They keep on keeping on. Forward. Charging ahead. All that crap.

Gabe knew it now. Fallon never meant to kill him—at least not with that first shot. The bastard’s bullet missed Gabe’s lung upon entry, but shattered. One pesky fragment had ricocheted off his left clavicle and lodged against a rib while another pierced his lung. Not a big deal for a hardheaded Marine who had already survived the loss of his foot. One little bullet hole was damned near nothing.

The good doctor in the emergency room dug the bullet out, along with the other pieces, and sewed him up. Gabe spent the night flat on his back with Shelby close by while two units of blood dripped into him along with whatever was in that IV bag. By then, he’d been pumped full of antibiotics and pain meds. He was feeling a little worse for wear, but good enough.


Besides—Alex was alive! That news alone gave Gabe the energy he needed to get back on his feet. Shelby had whispered it to him the moment he woke up from surgery. Kelsey had been right all along. Alex was alive!

The local news coverage blaring across all channels filled in the details. While Gabe and Shelby were busy helping Sam Becker diffuse the bomb and save D.C., Vice President Winston went and got himself killed. That was the explosion they’d heard.

It seemed the VP was in a hurry to leave D.C. He’d ordered his helicopter to standby on the White House lawn, then showed up with three Secret Service agents and a stranger on his heels. The helicopter pilot’s account of the events made for sensational news.

Winston had said he needed to be in the air within minutes. “Make it so.”

Once the chopper lifted off, the VP got a little weird. He ordered the stranger to shoot one of the three Secret Service agents. When the stranger refused, the other two agents turned on him and fired.