Something tapped his shoe and he jerked. Looked back to see the officer motioning him inside. He scooted back until he was inside. The cop still held his gun on him.

“My name’s Gavin Black. I’m with Black Ops Security. The woman being held hostage is one of my clients because I dropped my guard.” Stupid, stupid. He should have checked the closet.

“ID?”

Gavin carefully removed his wallet and tossed it to the man, who caught it midair. He gave it a quick once-over. “Military, huh?”

“Yeah. Three tours in the Middle East.”

“Special Forces, I’m assuming.”

“Part of the time, yeah.”

The officer hesitated, glanced at his partner, who was supervising the paramedics loading the woman on the gurney. “All right. Let’s get you out of here.”

Gavin shook his head. “I’ll let you guys do your job, but I’m not going anywhere until I know Sarah’s safe.” Right now, he still had a view of the weapon and Sarah. “Is SWAT here?” he asked.

“Yeah. We actually have a guy with us who’s a fill-in sniper on the SWAT team when they need someone. He’s the one on the roof.”

Gavin let his gaze scan the tops of the nearby houses and finally spotted an officer on top of the house next door, a rifle to his shoulder.

Gavin swung his attention back to Sarah and found her attacker had turned, allowing Sarah to see him. Her gaze locked on Gavin’s. The terror in her eyes seared him, but the hint of steel mixed with it encouraged him. She’d be okay. She had to be. God, don’t let him pull that trigger. On purpose or by accident. Please.

The man shifted once more, trying to see where the officers were. He spotted the nearest one and removed the weapon from Sarah to point it at the cop. “I said get back!”

Sarah slammed the back of her head against his chin.

Her captor jerked, stumbled away from her, even as he turned his weapon back toward her.

He fired as Sarah dove for the ground.

Gavin let out a harsh cry and shot to his feet and out onto the deck, ignoring the shout of the officer behind him.

The rifle on the roof popped and the gunman went down just as Gavin vaulted over the side toward Sarah—who was scrambling to get out of the way.

He bolted toward her while the officer behind him yelled at him to get down. The others raced for the gunman. Gavin dropped to his knees beside Sarah while two officers cuffed the bleeding man.

“Are you okay?” Gavin demanded, looking for a bullet wound—another one—and finding nothing new. The shot had missed her.