Page 55 of Echo, the Sniper (Men of PSI #2)

“Look, lady, you should be thanking me for killing those two losers before the police arrived,” Gary said piously while my stomach hit the forest floor and the tears I’d been fighting finally fell, scalding my frozen cheeks.

“Tying them up like that? Technically that was a form of kidnapping. If I’d left them alive, they would have identified you to the police, and then your delicate little ass would have wound up in prison. I saved you from that. You’re welcome.”

In stunned horror I remembered Josiah, pinned to the kitchen floor and insisting he would have been happy to live with Edward in that little house for the rest of their lives.

He’d given up everything to be with the man he loved, and I had left him completely helpless.

He hadn’t even been able to fight off his execution.

Another scalding tear streaked down my cheek, and for the first time the reality of my situation fully hit me. These men... They were killers. They talked about it openly in front of me. They even laughed about it, clearly not worried that I would tell the authorities.

Why?

Because they were going to kill me once they got what they wanted. That was what killers did.

If I didn’t think of something— do something—I wasn’t going to survive this.

At least Echo isn’t here , came the wayward thought, and the relief cut through all the hurt and confusion with a clarity that was staggering.

The thought of him being killed wounded me even worse than his betrayal, because at the end of the day I loved him.

That was probably my ultimate toxic flaw, loving the worst men ever , but in that moment I couldn’t pretend otherwise. I loved Echo, and I wanted him to live.

That thought—that he would go on—made my imminent death somehow a little less horrible. It even made me smile, though I wasn’t aware of it until Dane scowled at me for not daring to show the expected terror.

“What the fuck are you smiling at, you stupid cunt?”

Charming . “I’m smiling at what a fool you are, unable to remember something as vital as bank account passcodes. How ironic that you need me to recall it for you. Guess that doesn’t make me that stupid, after all.”

“You’re a freak that retains numbers like Rain Man, but that’s all you can do. You’ll never outsmart me.”

“Maybe, but you would think with three billion dollars socked away in an offshore account, you would have at least tried to memorize the particulars on how to get your hands on it.” I actually had no clue how much money Dane had poured into that offshore account; certainly my inheritance from my parents had vanished into it, something totaling around ten million.

But if throwing a ridiculous number out there had even the tiniest chance of sparking chaos, I was more than happy to do it.

Then I could look for a chance to escape.

“Three... billion ?” Gary’s voice was a mere ghost of itself.

He goggled at me before turning to Dane, realization—with an unhealthy dose of rage—blooming in his expression.

Very carefully, I slid my foot back, aiming for a thick stand of trees about ten feet behind me.

I could no longer feel my feet and my skin felt tight and frozen and basically turning blue, but if it came down to saving my own life, I’d run like hell and not stop until I hit freaking Denver.

“What the actual fuck , Dane. You told me there’s only a quarter of a billion was in that account—an account you promised to split with me fifty-fifty if I went all in with you. ”

Dane, in turn, looked at me with pure murder in his eyes. I froze, not wanting for him to notice my inching retreat. “Aurora, what the fuck are you doing? You tell this man there’s only $250,000,000 in that account. Do it now .”

“Whoopsie.” I put a frozen hand to my mouth and made wide eyes at Dane, fighting to keep the force of pure vengeance from curving my mouth. “Was he not supposed to know how much money you actually hid away? Well, this is awkward.”

Dane was stunned for a moment before understanding bloomed in his narrow-eyed gaze. “Oh, you bitch.”

Not bad for a stupid cunt.

Without missing a beat, Dane swung toward his partner in crime. “She’s lying, Gary. She’s trying to pit us against each other. Don’t fall for her mind games.”

“ Mind games ? From a woman you described as an idiot with the brain of a five-year-old? She had no clue how much you said was in that account, so why would she lie about it? Oh, no.” Smoothly Gary pivoted and leveled his gun right at Dane.

Silently I took a few more mini steps back to the stand of trees, even as I thought I glimpsed movement behind the men, moving from tree to tree. What the...?

“Never trust a criminal,” Gary breathed, still smiling but it was obvious there was nothing friendly about it.

“Isn’t that the saying? Never. Trust. A criminal .

Jesus Christ on a crutch, I should have that sentiment tattooed on my forehead, shouldn’t I, Dane old pal?

But I’m just too nice of a guy. Too trusting.

You almost had me believing we were like two besties in one of those buddy movies, because I fucking swallowed that spiel you fed me about us being underappreciated for our talents.

Can you believe it? I thought we were pals , Dane.

Just the two of us against the world. Man, I’ll bet you had a good ol’ laugh at me over that one. ”

I was almost there, but again my gaze bounced to a shadow slinking closer, now less than ten feet from Gary and Dane.

Shit . Even as irrational hope surged that I was no longer alone, the last thing I wanted was for Echo to be anywhere near this madness.

Sure, he was military-trained and my sort-of bodyguard, but—

All thought vanished when a strong arm snaked out from behind the stand of trees I’d been aiming for, and literally yanked me off my feet. Stunned, I gaped up into Echo’s shadowy face, when I’d been so sure he’d been sneaking up on the men from behind. If Echo was here, then who...?

Mary Jane.

“Listen to me very carefully.” He moved as silently as a shadow, pinning me to the thickest tree trunk and the best possible shield at hand. “Stay here and do... not... move.”

“Schuller has a gun—”

“So do we.” He took a fleeting moment to search my face. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but he looked like he was in some kind of agony. “I’ll make you safe, baby girl, I swear it. I’d do anything to make you safe.”

But who’s going to make me safe from you?

Before I could ask the question screaming through my head, I heard raised voices.

“Shit, where’d she go?” That, from Dane.

“She’s rabbiting!” Two shots ripped through the stillness of the night and I stifled a scream behind the frozen hands I clapped over my mouth.

Echo’s delicious warmth blanketed me as he pressed himself over me so that I was completely covered by him and the massive tree trunk.

“Jesus, hiding behind a fucking tree, bitch? I’ll mow you down for this—”

“We need her alive , Gary!”

“Killing her to make you suffer will be so fucking worth it!”

Footsteps crunched rapidly through the snow toward our hiding spot.

Then all hell broke loose.

I heard Mary Jane call out Gary’s name. A jumbled succession of several more gunshots, a genuine firefight, and the world seemed to fall into madness.

“Stay down.” Echo pushed me down to lie face-first in the snow—at this point I was so cold I barely felt it—before he spun out from behind the tree. “Freeze, Schuller, you’re surround—”

Another shot sounded and I lifted my head in time to see Echo’s body jerk.

No.

NO!

“Echo!” My world crashed to the ground along with Echo’s knees hitting the forest floor, I shot to my feet to throw myself in front of him.

I didn’t think. I didn’t care. I just acted, putting myself as a human shield in front of the only man I had ever loved, because if he died there was no point in living on without him.

“No,” Echo croaked, trying to push me behind him, but his movements were weak, when he was a man who didn’t know how to be weak. “Rory... no. Get back. Run.”

“No.” Frantically I searched his jacket-covered body for damage.

His jacket itself was black, so in the gloom I couldn’t see any wound, and my numb hands certainly couldn’t feel anything wrong.

For a fleeting moment I foolishly allowed myself to hope Echo had simply slipped in the snow, and that was why he was on his knees.

Then I realized my icy hands had come away from his body covered in blood, and my world shattered.

I’d lived this nightmare before, only this time it was real. “No, no, no, no...”

“Don’t. Worry.” An arm came around me and held me to him while his breathing became labored, and it sounded wet and wrong. “I. Told you. I’ll. Make you s... safe. Forever .”

“Well, now. It looks like I’ve finally got you back on your leash where you belong, doesn’t it, Aurora?”

Dane’s cheery voice mere feet away wrenched my head around, and what I saw had my stomach plummeting.

Behind Dane, Gary Schuller lay facedown and unmoving in the snow, a large puddle of blood spreading darkly around his head.

I couldn’t even see where Mary Jane was, alarming me, but not as much as the sight of Dane with Gary’s gun trained right on us.

Yeah. That was definitely more alarming.

“Say that you’re back on my leash, Aurora,” Dane pressed, raising the gun higher and smiling with that sadistic glee that haunted my nightmares. “Say the words so your fuck-boy can hear you admit it, or I’ll start pulling the trigger to see how many bullets Gary left in the clip.”

“Three,” Echo said, surprising me when his voice sounded so strong. Maybe he wasn’t that bad, I thought frantically. Maybe he was okay, just a flesh wound... “But as you know... you piece of shit... I only need one.”

Dane had enough time to widen his eyes.

Echo’s free arm raised lightning-fast before a shot rang out.

I cringed, my ears ringing before I looked back at Dane.

Time seemed to slow as blood bloomed in the middle of his chest, just like in my nightmares.

His mouth opened, but no sound came out as he stared in disbelief at his chest before his gaze rose to meet mine in a terrible, eternal moment.

Then, with blood flowing from his mouth in a tarry spill, he fell forward into the snow, and didn’t move.

“Told you. I’d kill you for real. If you ever came for her.” Grim-faced, Echo scowled at the body of my former husband, before he too, sank backward into the snow, his eyes closing as he fell.

“Echo!”