Read Eye for an Eye, an (Heroes of Quantico Book #2): A Novel for Free Online

to her nose and inhaled, closing her eyes as a contented smile softened her lips. “I love the smell of roses. Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.” He drew the side chair close to her bed and sat. “Tell me how you’re doing.”
    “I tried to convince them to let me go home.”
    “I heard.”
    “They said my blood pressure was too low.”
    “I heard that too. You lost a lot of blood.”
    “Is there anything you haven’t heard?”
    He grinned. “Being with the FBI has its advantages.”
    “I’m beginning to realize that. And I hope that means you can fill me in on what happened. No one’s told me a thing.”
    “There isn’t much to tell yet. The incident is being investigated as we speak. We think it was a single shooter. He was gone before the police arrived.”
    “Who would do a thing like this?”
    “We aren’t sure.”
    “Was it someone trying to make some sort of statement, like you hear about on the news once in a while?”
    “It’s possible. But not likely. Those kinds of shooters tend to pick crowded places and try to inflict as much damage as possible. He only fired two shots, and there was no one around except you and me.”
    Some of the color left her cheeks. “You think he was shooting at us specifically?”
    “That’s one of the theories we’re considering.”
    “Why?”
    He debated how to answer, choosing his words with care. “In my line of work, you make enemies.”
    “Do you have a suspect?”
    “No. But we have some ideas about where to start looking for one.” He hadn’t planned to bring up the convenience store debacle, but he saw no reason to keep it from her. Once his connection to today’s shooting was discovered by the press, she’d hear about it anyway. “I was involved in an incident several months ago that generated national press—and a lot of hate mail to me and the Bureau.”
    Her brow furrowed. “I don’t remember seeing anything in the media. I would have recognized your name. When did this happen?”
    “Early May.”
    “That explains it. I was in Europe for a conference. I must have missed the coverage.”
    “Just as well. The media frenzy died down in a few days, but the public reaction continued for quite a while.”
    She fingered a velvety petal. “Is that why you’re in St. Louis instead of Quantico?”
    “Yes. The powers that be wanted to let the dust settle. And I needed a few weeks to recover.”
    “Is that new-looking scar on your leg a souvenir of the incident?” “You were looking at my legs?” He tried for a teasing tone, hoping a touch of levity would ease the tautness in her features. “It seemed fair enough. You were looking at mine.” A smile whispered at her lips.
    He chuckled. “Guilty as charged. And not the least bit repentant.” “You have changed. Whatever happened to that shy boy I knew once upon a summer?”
    “He grew up.”
    “I noticed.” A dimple flashed in her cheek, but before he could respond, she shifted the conversation back. “You haven’t answered my question about that scar.”
    “Yes. It’s a souvenir. I was shot.”
    “Do you want to tell me about it?”
    In truth, he’d rather forget the whole thing. And her gentle question suggested she wouldn’t press the issue if he declined to talk about it. But he’d learned that refusing to discuss it wouldn’t make it go away. And that forgetting wasn’t an option.
    “My partner Coop and I were on our way to work very early one Monday morning. We stopped at a quick shop for some coffee. I went in, and while I was filling the cups, a guy pulled a gun on the teenage clerk and demanded the money in the cash drawer.” He swallowed. Cleared his throat.
    “I was one of three customers. The others were an older man and a pregnant woman. The gunman had the clerk in a choke-hold, and he told us he’d kill him—and us—unless we did exactly what he said. From the way he was sweating and the wild look in his eyes, it was obvious he was an addict in