The Agent Next Door (18 page)

“Stop this now, Kallus, and I might spare
your life.”

“Strong words for a man who wasn’t able to
save his beloved from being shot dead in the middle of the road.
No, I think this will be a memorable day for you, not me.”

Kallus drew the pistol from his side.

A shock of ice cold fear ran through Erin’s
veins. Her mind ran riot with the memory of dreams she never
followed, words she'd never said, all because she'd been too
afraid. She’d wasted her life in the name of safety, and yet, her
life was about to end anyway.

“Kallus,” John's voice was strained, but
calm. “What happened to your wife was horrible. I understand why
you hate me. But Erin has nothing to do with this.”

“On the contrary, Ryman. You know that she
has everything to do with it. You took what I love and now I do the
same to you. There is an elegant kind of symmetry in it. Justice, I
believe you would call it. Surely you must appreciate that.”

“This isn’t justice,” John said. “There has
to be another way. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll make sure
you get it.”

Erin had the impression that John was trying
to keep Kallus talking. Didn't he realize that by stretching out
the inevitable, he was only giving her more time to dread what was
coming? She was already shaking, badly. Her resolve was almost
gone.

And it seemed Kallus was out of patience. He
put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her down. Her knees scraped
against the pavement. The sharp fragments of the blacktop cut
through her jeans and into her skin. Erin hung on to the sensation,
fearing it was her last.

She wrapped her hands behind her back. No one
noticed the move this time. It was strangely fitting. Didn't most
executed people take a similar stance, submissive to their
fate?

Except she wasn't surrendering anything. Not
yet. She had one last job to do.

Erin curled her fingers around the gun.
Kallus was too wrapped up in the ecstasy of revenge to notice her
hand sliding back toward him underneath her shirt. Erin cradled the
Glock against her stomach and tilted the muzzle up.

“Enough talk. Say goodbye to your precious
Miss Holliday.”

“No—”

The desperation in John's voice was cut short
as a single gunshot ripped through the air. The sound echoed off
the surrounding hills.

Erin fell on her butt from the recoil. Kallus
dropped his gun. His hands covered the hole in the center of his
belly. A quickly widening red stain blossomed on his crisp white
shirt, growing larger with each breath. He stared at her with
confusion in his eyes. His mouth opened, but nothing came out.

Kallus turned toward his men. Their eyes went
wide with surprise. No one it seemed had expected this turn of
events.

A second later, Kallus crumpled to the
ground.

Erin scrambled backwards. The bodyguards’
shock wouldn’t last long. She kicked her feet wildly against the
blacktop. Little rocks skittered out from beneath the soles of her
shoes as she pushed away from Kallus.

She'd done what she'd come to do. She'd slain
the dragon. At the cost of her own life, she was sure, but she'd
done it all the same.

No one else would have to suffer at this
madman’s hands.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she waited
for the shots to rip into her.

But nothing happened. There was still some
confusion.

Erin closed her eyes and dove for the bumper
of her car as two shots rang out. She waited for the pain to come,
for the blackness to overtake her.

But it didn't come.

She opened her eyes and looked down her body.
She didn’t see any blood. She didn’t feel any pain.

It wasn’t over yet.

Erin dragged in a shaky breath and then
another, but there was still only silence. No heavy footsteps
coming to finish the job. Just the sound of a faraway engine.

Erin risked a peek over the hood of the car,
and saw nothing. Or, more accurately, no one.

She lifted her head a little higher. The
thugs were crumpled on the ground, lifeless. Pools of blood wet the
ground beneath their heads.

How?

Erin stood. A black sedan was stopped at the
crest of the hill. A man hung out the passenger window, gun in
hand.

Erin narrowed her eyes.

Not just any man.

John.

He'd found her, and not a second too
soon.

Erin didn't realize that she was crying until
she tried to stand. Her legs went wobbly beneath her and she
grabbed on to the hood of her car for support. The sedan sped down
the road toward her.

John flung his door open before the car came
to a stop. He ran over to her. Erin collapsed against his chest as
his arms wrapped around her.

He clung to her for a long minute before he
pushed back her hair, and looked down at her face.

“Thank God, you’re okay,” he said.

Erin nodded. She couldn't find words. Not
yet. She just gulped in air, grateful that she was breathing. She
looked at his face, the one that she had been certain that she
would never see again.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he asked.
Erin figured he was pissed, but all she heard in his voice was
relief.

“Kallus set this up. His decoy in the
warehouse, the raid, the threats against Marianne, it was all to
get me,” she said in a rush.

“Hush,” John said, and pressed a flurry of
kisses against her forehead. “Everything’s all right now.”

She stared into John’s eyes. “I killed
him.”

“I know.”

“I had to. He was going to shoot me and then
go after you.”

“I know.” John smoothed back her hair with
long strokes of his hand.

Another car door opened, and Erin looked up
to see Ty get out of the driver's side.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“We followed the GPS on your phone,” Ty
said.

“Th-thank you.” A wave of guilt crashed over
her. “The agents that were following me. They—”

“They’re fine,” Ty broke in. “I don’t think
that they’ll be joining the Erin Holliday fan club anytime soon,
but they walked away from the crash.”

“Sorry,” she said. “Seems pissing off the FBI
is kind of a Holliday family tradition.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Ty said. He crossed his
arms and leaned his hip against the car.

Erin turned back toward John as police sirens
began to wail in the distance.

“Are those for us?”

He nodded. “Everything is going to be
okay.”

She laid her head against his chest and
listened to the steady thump of his heart.

Of course it would be.

John was with her. She was with him.

And in the end, that was the only thing that
mattered.

Chapter 13

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Erin lifted her head from the pillow as three
loud raps echoed down John’s hallway. She rubbed her eyes and
glanced to her left.

John’s eyes were closed, but he wasn’t
fooling anyone. Erin knew he was awake. She kicked him under the
blankets.

“It’s your turn to answer the door,” she said
in a groggy voice.

“Like hell it is.” Without opening his eyes,
John pulled the sheet up over his chest and tucked it beneath his
chin. “She’s your friend.”

Erin rolled her eyes. She knew when he was
digging in his heels.

“But it’s your house,” she argued.

“Is it?” He rolled over.

Erin threw back the sheet and stepped on the
floor.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“I’ll be there in a second,” Erin called down
the hall. She pulled a silk robe over her camisole and panties. It
would have to do. It was all that she had the energy for.

She used to wake up with the sun, but now it
was all she could do to pull herself out of bed before the morning
news was over. She blamed John for that. He was the one who kept
her up all night after all.

Not that she minded.

A full week had passed since her showdown
with Kallus, and John still held her tight all through the night.
She was starting to get the feeling that he wasn’t ever going to
stop.

Erin threw back the deadbolt and opened the
front door.

“Good morning, Marianne.”

Marianne peeked around her from the porch.
“Is Muscles up yet?”

Erin shook her head. “Not yet. You still want
to come in?”

“Might as well,” Marianne said, shrugging her
shoulders. She thrust a stuffed shopping bag at Erin as she swept
past her and into the living room. “I picked up something for you
yesterday.”

“Of course you did,” Erin whispered.

Every morning for the past week, Marianne had
arrived on John’s doorstep bearing gifts. Erin liked to pretend
that it was all for her, but, deep down, she knew that Marianne was
just trying to steal another glimpse of John without his shirt
on.

Erin couldn’t blame her. He was a hell of a
sight.

Erin smiled as she pulled two fluffy, pink
throw pillows out of the bag. Silver threads shot through the
material in beautiful spirals. They were just the kind she would
pick out.

At least Marianne brought over good excuses.
Yesterday, she’d delivered a trio of flower pots overflowing with
snapdragons and pansies for the front porch. The day before that
she’d brought a china tea set.

It seemed that everyone was settling into the
idea that she was going to be calling John’s place home for a
while.

Erin had been a little nervous about John’s
reaction to Marianne’s gifts, but he’d smiled at the first
rose-colored area rug that Marianne had lugged through the door. He
hadn’t said a word about any of the other gifts that had made their
way into his house.

“What is this one for?” Erin asked as she
walked to the couch. She tucked the pillows into opposite corners
of the dark leather sofa.

“Didn’t you see?” Marianne said. “The last of
the neighborhood guard has finally left the streets of Emerald
Glen.”

Erin cocked her head to the side. She went to
the front window and pulled up the blinds. She looked out over the
empty court. She let out a long sigh.

John and Ty had been adamant that the FBI
security detail stick around for at least a week after Kallus’s
death, just in case the tattered remains of the Mustaar
organization tried one last stab at revenge.

But the last seven days had been quiet. The
only texts and phone calls had come from friends and family. There
had been no unusual activity on the streets of Emerald Glen. She
had even been cleared to go visit her mom again this upcoming
Sunday.

“It looks like the workmen are making good
progress across the street,” Marianne said.

“They sure are.” Erin nodded as she looked
over the plot of land that used to hold her house. The demolition
of the wreckage was going well. It would only take a couple more
days before the lot was completely cleared.

“Do you know what you’re going to do with the
place yet?”

“Rebuild, I guess,” Erin said. “I’ve been in
touch with a couple of architects.”

“What are you going to do with a new house?”
Marianne asked.

Trust her friend to get straight to the heart
of the matter. Erin opened her mouth, ready to say that time would
tell. But someone else answered before she could.

“I hear there’s good income in rental
property.”

Erin turned around to find John standing just
outside the hallway, his shoulder propped against the wall. His
dark eyes softened as he gazed at her.

“Muscles!” Marianne exclaimed from the couch.
“And you didn’t bother putting a shirt on for company. This
is
my lucky day.”

“Good morning, Marianne. I put on another cup
of coffee for you.”

“Never let anyone tell you you’re not a
gentleman,” she said and turned back to Erin. “That reminds me.
There’s a summer gardening class going on at the Community Center
later this afternoon. I was wondering if you wanted to come with
me?”

“I’d love to.”

“Good. I was hoping you’d say so,” Marianne
said with a twinkle in her eye. “I hear Milton Howard is going to
be teaching it. I’ve had my eye on him for a while now, and I need
you to be my wingman.”

A bubble of laughter escaped Erin’s lips.
“I’d be honored.”

“And I’ll go get that coffee,” John said with
a sigh.

Marianne slapped the cushion next to her.
“See. Things are getting back to normal around here after all.”

Erin smiled and lowered the blinds. She
wouldn’t say that things were back to normal. Her life had changed
so drastically, she wasn’t sure she could ever go back to the way
things were, even if she’d wanted to.

Fortunately, she didn’t want to.

She’d experienced things that just a couple
of weeks ago she would have never been able to imagine. She’d
learned so much about herself. She’d finally realized how strong
she really was. She’d never hide away from life again.

All that, and she still got the perk of
falling asleep next to the most gorgeous man on Shannon Court.

Yeah, it looked like life outside those
boxwood walls could be pretty beautiful after all.

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