Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(122)

Gabe blew out a breath through pursed lips. Damn. The President was behind this? Who’d have thought?

President Adams turned slowly and looked each agent in the eye. “I needed a man I could trust without reservation—someone the Vice President would find believable as well. Winston had to think that Alex was fed up with governmental bureaucracy enough that he’d deserted his wife and joined a subversive underground terrorist cell. It actually worked very well. Once Alex was eliminated, so to speak, he was able to infiltrate Winston’s inner circle while Sam Becker worked Fallon’s. Can you believe my VP was arrogant enough to think a man like Alex would turn on his wife and country?”

He took a deep breath. “I thought Winston would be a good fit for the compromises this administration needed to make. These are tough times. We all need to work together. I chose wrong. As it turned out, the bastard also wanted your boss to work for him as an undercover assassin. Once I was out of the picture, Alex was supposed to eliminate Fallon and Sam Becker. Winston wanted an enforcer, a hired gun in his new regime. Someone without a conscience. Someone like him.”

President Adams paused to shake his head. “God bless us all if he’d been successful.”

He glanced toward his contingent. “By the way, I’d like you all to meet my newest Secret Service agent.”

Becker stepped around the army of security, offering that annoying devil-may-care smirk. “G’morning, Mark. Winston thought it was his idea to recruit your boss, so we let him think whatever he wanted, didn’t we, Alex?”

Alex grunted. “Bastard.”

Gabe wasn’t sure if he meant that term of endearment for Winston or Becker. It fit either. Murmurs of appreciation and wonder filled the room. The TEAM’s hostility was gone. Alex was back—in more ways than one.

“By the way.” Becker stepped closer to Alex. “You have something that belongs to me.”

Alex passed whatever it was in a gripping handshake with the man who’d shot him. Gabe guessed maybe video or audio evidence. Maybe a USB drive. The look in Alex’s eye, however, wasn’t one of friendship. Becker was still the assassin who’d taken him down. Alex would most likely never forgive Becker for what Kelsey had gone through. Gabe couldn’t. Didn’t plan to even try. Sam Becker might be one of the good guys, but he would always be scum to Gabe.

Becker gripped Alex’s hand tightly. “It’s been a privilege working with you. I’d appreciate the chance to do it again. I hope you’ll consider that.”

Alex didn’t return the compliment.

“Any more questions?” Becker asked.

“Just one,” Mark said to Alex. “Was that you on the riverbank or not?”

Alex nodded, his lips pursed tight, his gaze drifting to his wife. “Me. We intercepted a phone call—some jerk luring Kelsey. Almost didn’t make it in time, damn it.”

“You lied about the boots. He never gave you his boots, did he?” Kelsey glared at Becker. “It was Alex all along. I knew it.”

Gabe looked for Shelby, and damned if the girl wasn’t already watching him. He winked, needing to connect with those pretty violet-blues. Just because. She came to his side, her hand gentle on his shoulder.

“You’re the bastard who tied me up,” Izza accused.

Becker’s shoulder lifted in a half-shrug. “Yes. It was me. I meant it as a sign that we weren’t hostiles.”

“Those smiley faces smacked more of crazy,” Steven muttered.

“I guess we all share a touch of crazy, don’t we? I mean we do kill for a living.”

“Only if we have to,” Alex added.

That seemed to catch Becker short. “Believe me, if there had been another way—”

Alex pinned him with those icy-cold blue eyes, and Becker had the good sense to break the connection first.

“Why were you trying to get inside Kelsey’s house?” Mark asked.

“I promised this guy I know that I’d find a way to let his wife know he was still alive. I wasn’t supposed to get caught.”

“But you were never actually inside, were you?” Zack asked.

“Hell, no,” Becker replied. “I couldn’t get close enough.” A shadow of regret flickered over his face. “The collateral damage on this op was worse than any of us anticipated, but we had to protect our President. Our country. I am sorry for what I put all of you through, and especially you, ma’am.” He turned to Kelsey. “But I would do it again if it meant saving my country.”

“What I don’t understand is why Whisper and Smoke didn’t make a sound when you approached Stewart’s backyard fence,” Gabe said. “How’d you trick them?”


“Believe me, I almost didn’t. It was pure luck that I was downwind. Never would’ve gotten close otherwise.”

“Agent Houston,” President Adams interrupted the questioning, taking firm hold of Mark’s hand. “You and your team have been badly used. There is nothing I can say or do that will relieve the pain you must’ve felt. Not only did I steal your boss and let you think he’d been murdered, but I also stole your information technologist and let you think she’d quit.”

Gabe turned at the sound of the elevator. Everyone else, too. Great timing. There stood a very sheepish-looking Mother. She waved a five-finger fluttery kind of a wave, her head ducked into her shoulders as if afraid to join her team. She mouthed ‘sorry’ to Mark from her safe distance.