Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(77)

“I’ve got it handled.” Gabe flipped the chair next to Shelby backwards to sit and face her. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, and he understood. The ambush was one of those come to Jesus meetings, when a guy’s whole perspective gets changed, whether he’s ready for it or not. Gabe had seen it happen plenty overseas. Being shot at tended to shake a person up.

Until now, Shelby had believed in law and order. Truth. Justice. All that crap. She’d thought all she needed to do was call the police and they’d run to her rescue. That honest, hard-working citizens didn’t need to protect themselves. Yeah. All that crap.

He laid a hand over her trembling fingers. The woman breathed hard, her eyes wide, the pupils big and black. Shelby was well on her way to coming undone.


“Hey,” he said softly. “We need to move. Come on. I’ll help you pack.”

Wordlessly, she lifted out of her chair, but froze again. He tugged her into her room and stuffed everything he could find into her roller bag while she stood, white knuckled at the door. “Anything I’m missing?”

She shook her head, still not meeting his eyes.

He crossed the room to her, the roller bag trailing behind him. Gabe lifted her glasses out of his collar and set them on her nose. “These will help.”

The poor thing didn’t seem to notice. She gulped, still shaking so hard she could barely stand still.

He cupped her chin to get her to look at him. “Hey. Settle down. We’ve got work to do.”

She flung herself at him, her arms wrapped around his waist and the rest of her squeezing him like her life depended on it. “They blew up my car. They really wanted to kill me. Me.”

He dropped the suitcase handle and wrapped her up good and tight against his chest. “Yes, but you’re safe now. Stop thinking about it.”

“You saved me.” Her body vibrated with adrenaline, her face pressed into his shirt.

There was no sense sugarcoating what she’d done. “That’s why there are rules. Zack and I can’t keep you safe if you don’t follow orders. We shouldn’t have humored Kelsey by staying here in the first place. This house was never safe or smart.”

Shelby pressed closer, burrowing against him as if she wanted to crawl inside his body and hide if she could. Her tears spilled onto his shirt, warming his skin. “You saved me.”

“And now we have to leave,” he said firmly. “You need to listen up.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Yes, it is.” He cupped her chin to draw her face upward, needing Shelby to open those eyes behind the smudged lenses and re-engage. “Kelsey needs you. You’re still alive, and I’d like to keep it that way. Are you working with us or against us?”

Shelby lifted her gaze, blinking through her tears, but hot damn. The strangest thing happened. “Do you have an extra gun?” she asked.

A smile tweaked his lips. Hell, it tweaked his whole face. “That’s my girl.”





Chapter Twenty-Three


Gabe was right. Kelsey needed her, although it seemed the other way around as they made their getaway in his Land Rover. Kelsey dragged a small roller bag behind her with two pillows and a navy-blue travel blanket strapped to the top of it with a red bungee cord. Shelby hurried to keep up.

Gabe knelt on all fours, peering under his SUV. The sight of his butt on display, his head down and his knees slightly spread should’ve done more for her libido than it did. Tears sprang to her eyes instead.

Mom was wrong. Guys in cammies who played with guns were good men, too. They knew things most people didn’t, and the world wasn’t safe. Any minute now the police would be there, but they’d still arrive too late to change what had happened.

“What’s he looking for?”

“More bombs,” Kelsey answered.

Shelby shivered. Gabe could’ve died today. It would’ve been my fault.

Sirens screamed in the distance. It wouldn’t take long. By the time the police arrived, the Stewarts’ home would be empty. According to Gabe, Mark Houston would arrive in time to pick up the pieces and deal with the authorities. That was his job. Hers was to accompany Kelsey and do what she was told.

She took the seat behind the passenger seat, mostly to avoid Zack. He couldn’t see her if she sat behind him. Kelsey sat with her in the back seat, directly behind the driver’s seat.

Her dogs were loaded in the rear of Gabe’s Land Rover, a wire partition between them and the passenger seat. Shelby was almost glad to see them, but she’d rather have a gun like everyone else. The need to defend herself had surfaced with a powerful vengeance. No one would shoot at her again and get away with it.

Gabe said he’d give her one, but he hadn’t. For now, his and Zack’s guns were holstered, but darn. Both guys had gone straight after the shooters. Not once had they hesitated or flinched. She’d never witnessed a display of bravery before. It literally overwhelmed her.

She couldn’t get warm enough, despite the summer sun shining through her window. The memory of Gabe’s hard body stretched over hers on the front lawn lifted goose bumps up the back of her neck. Her nipples hardened at the thought of him in that very intimate position on top of her.

Excitement was a powerful aphrodisiac, but the awful reality of what could’ve happened stilled her physical reaction. He’d been pumped full of blood, every inch of him hard as a rock and taut with rage. He’d fired round after round, ready to protect her. To die for her. But she’d heard the thunder in his chest. She’d felt it beneath her fingertips. He’d turned primitive and deadly, but he’d been scared, too. All because of me. I did that to him. I put everyone at risk.