send the hitman after the sources to set up the Volkovs? And me?”
“No.” Porter shook his head but kept his gun on her. “I have nothing to do with that, I swear.”
“Stand down. This wasn’t the plan, Echo One,” Roman’s voice cut through the line, quickly followed by the roar of A.J.’s BMX bike flooding her ears over the comm. Most likely on his way to her.
“You walked me down the aisle at my wedding. How could you?” A part of her wanted to shoot him right there.
Anthony walked backward and planted himself against the wall and out of harm’s way.
“It’s not what you think. Everything I’ve done since I met you has been to protect you, I swear.” Porter’s voice was strained, pleading. “I’m going to lower my gun, and how about you lower yours?”
“I can’t do that.” She did her best to remain calm and firm. The FBI agent. But so much of her was the sixteen-year-old girl who lost her parents at that moment. Shaky and emotional. “You took money from the Russians to do their bidding. You still are, I assume.”
Porter slowly pointed his weapon toward the ground. He took one step forward, and she took an immediate step back. No trust left. He was more than just a liar. He was an enemy of the state. The mole at the Bureau. He sold her out and set her up. Used her history and played on her emotions to get to the ledger and key. “Please, let me explain!”
“I’m on my way,” A.J. rushed out over comms. “Forty-five more seconds.” Panic filled his voice so loud it competed with the engine of his bike.
But no, she had to face the man who fucked up the last fifteen years of her life herself.
“We need the ledger and key to keep you safe.” Porter’s voice broke when he spoke. “You don’t understand.”
The door suddenly flung open, but instead of A.J. barging in, it was Anthony making a run for it. Shit. Porter peered at Ana, then tossed a look back toward Anthony.
“Don’t shoot me in the back, Ana. But we can’t let him get away.” He bolted toward the door, leaving her wrapped in a cocoon of shock.
The snap-snap of two shots fired pulled her from her stupor, and she ran toward the open door but halted at the sight of Porter lying on the ground.
“Stay down. Stay down. Enemy fire from an unknown origin,” Finn hollered over the line.
“There’s movement on the south side,” Chris added. “Echo Two, you have the wheels. You’re our best chance at catching the shooter.”
Anthony was nowhere in sight, but Ana heard the humming of the BMX closing in.
“I need to get to Ana!” A.J. insisted.
“I’m okay! Go,” she pleaded as she ran toward Porter, then crouched at his side. “Target Two took off. He’s somewhere in the woods. We need him!”
“Roger,” Chris said. “I’ll find him.”
“Get back in the cabin until we find the shooter!” A.J. commanded, but she couldn’t leave Porter’s side until she had answers.
She lifted Porter’s shirt to find a bulletproof vest, but most body armor wouldn’t stop a full metal jacket steel round from a sniper rifle, and today, it hadn’t. It nailed him in the abdomen. The second shot must have missed.
Porter’s eyes opened and closed as he winced in agony. “I’m sorry, Ana.” He slowly lifted his hand, and against her better judgment, she set her gun down and locked hold of his palm. “I never wanted to pull you back into this.” His tone was fading. “I had no choice. He would have killed you. I was trying to protect-protect you. You need to get the ledger and key. It’s the only way you’ll survive.”
“I don’t understand.” She squeezed his hand tighter and bent over his body to better see his face. “Please.”
“You did become like a daughter to me. It should never . . . have come to this.” Porter’s eyes closed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Please, tell me—” She let go of her words when he lost consciousness. He still had a pulse, though. “We need an ambulance now. Tell them we have a GSW in the abdomen. Male. Fifty-two. Takes blood pressure medicine,” she rushed out over the radio. “Need a helo to medivac him to the hospital.”
“On it,” Harper responded as Ana applied pressure to the wound, not sure what else to do. “You need to get out of there, Echo One. You’re in the open!”