“Is that what this is about—S8?” His tone was angry. “S8 nearly got me killed. You and your team fucked me over good. I was in it before I knew what happened. So don’t talk to me about taking one for the team.”
“We’re more than that and you know it.”
“I know that I like to work alone. I’m built that way.”
She grabbed the folder. “All these jobs you’ve done are just for you?”
“Yes.”
“What about Drew Landon?” she asked. “He had nothing to do with this?”
He grimaced.
“He’s pulling your strings and you’re letting him. And I don’t know why.” She would push him now, because she did know. “You’re not man enough to stand up to him, to tell him no. Does he scare you that much, Gunner? Are you that weak?”
After those words, everything became one big blur.
Gunner wasn’t sure what made him angrier—the fact that he was scared of Landon hurting her, or the fact that he’d taken the least weak way out he knew. Avery’s face blanched when she realized what was happening, as if she knew she’d gone too far, miscalculated.
It was probably his one and only chance to escape, once he knocked her out and beat the shit out of Jem.
He’d been working on the cuffs for two days. Getting Avery close enough to get a paper clip off the file to fall to the floor had been easier than he’d thought. A gift she hadn’t known she’d given him.
And even though he could’ve gotten out of the cuffs half an hour ago instead of admitting shit better off kept to himself, he hadn’t. Now he moved fast, his limbs protesting after being held in one position for too long. Didn’t matter, because he wasn’t losing the upper hand.
She tried to run from him, but he had her around the waist, then pinned to the steel table close to the double-paned window, aware that the cameras—and Jem—would see all of this. He didn’t have much time before the man came in.
His body covered hers, one of her legs curling around his waist. He had to give her credit for trying to control a situation she’d very much lost control of. His hand splayed over her throat even as he pinned her tightly to him.
“You need to forget this. Forget me,” he growled, hating the desperation in his voice.
“I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth,” she told him. Pushed up so her face was so close to his and he leaned in.
Would be so easy to kiss her. Sink into her. Let her promise she could fix everything when he knew damned well no one could.
Not even him.
“Don’t do this,” he told her as she rubbed against him.
“Why not? You used me as your scratching post once. Why can’t I do the same?”
Because you’re not like me, he wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t. Dammit, she was dangerously close to breaking down the hard-won walls he’d built, brick by brick, over the past months.
He didn’t move away though. “Goddammit, Avery—you can’t—”
Jem burst in then at the same time Gunner spun with Avery, holding her back to his chest and her throat with his palm still.
“You won’t hurt her,” Jem said.
“You’re going to count on that?”
“Yeah, I am.” Jem walked out, slamming and locking the door behind him, leaving him with a hostage who was the worst hostage ever, because she kept rubbing against him.
Frustrated, he let go of her, pushed away carefully, extricating himself from any and all contact with her body. “What do you want from me? An explanation? A promise to stay with S8 forever?”
“Sure, that’s a start.” He noted that her hands shook, despite how confident she sounded. He hated himself for being the one to do that to her.
Gunner didn’t know what to do at all. Maybe if he was honest with her, really, truly honest, she’d forget him. Let him go. Realize that he was never right for S8, or for her, anyway.
He sat in the chair he’d been tied to. Avery watched him warily, hoisted herself up on the table so she faced him.
“Everything in that folder? It’s true. And there are maybe a hundred more jobs out there that I’ve done too. I did them for the man I was given to by Powell. It was a way to get the guy you know as DL—Drew Landon—off his back, because he’d screwed the man in a business dealing. Giving him me seemed the best way to appease him.”
“Your father . . . traded you? That’s sick.”
He shrugged. “In those circles, shit like that’s more common than you think. Everyone just wants to stay alive, stay in the game. Most don’t care what that takes.”
“Powell thought you were dead. So did Landon, until . . .”
“Until cameras caught me on Powell’s island,” he explained. “Powell and Landon never really believed I was dead. For added security, they had their tapes sent to each other if the facial-recognition software alerted them to my presence. No amount of hair dye’s going to avoid that kind of detection.”
“You knew going back to that island would trigger this.” She hopped off the table and moved closer. Knelt, her hands on his knees.
“I didn’t have a choice. Not after what Grace had gone through. I couldn’t let her lose Dare. I know what that’s like.”
He trailed off, and Avery was up, in his lap. Straddling him. Kissing him. This time, it was the best kind of torture and he knew he was true and well done for.
“I know you’re trying to scare me away. It’s not going to work. It’s never going to work,” she told him in between kisses.
He tried to hold out, to not touch her. To push her away. But in the end, he did none of those things.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
Jem cleared his throat from the doorway and pointed at the two-way glass. “Dude, there’s no way for me not to see what’s about to happen.”
“You could close your eyes,” Gunner growled over her shoulder. Avery laughed softly, pulled back a little.
Gunner stared between Avery and Jem and wondered what the hell he’d done. He had to tell them the truth. Keep them safe.
“Damn you both—I was taking care of shit.”
“Yeah, that was going really well,” Jem told him. “We don’t need you babysitting us.”
“There are women involved,” Gunner told him.
“I can certainly take care of myself,” Avery echoed, then softened. “I appreciate the sentiment, Gunner, but Landon didn’t keep his promise to you. Not this time, and not with Josie.”
Instead of answering, Gunner got up and threw the chair across the room. It slammed into the wall and Jem said, “Dude, this place is rented. I want my security deposit back.”
“Rented? From what—Interrogations R Us?” Gunner asked.
“Something like that. You know, that’s not a bad side business.” Jem rubbed his chin and Avery shook her head.
“We’ll get right on that, Jem.”
“Sarcasm. There’s a new one,” Jem muttered. “We don’t have to pay for another full day if we vacate in the next couple of hours. Think you can pull it together before that, Gunner?”
“I’m still going to kill you.”
“You had your chance. Do you know I broke you in less than two days? Christ, I would’ve lasted weeks,” Jem said.
“Because your pain sensors are all fucked up,” Gunner pointed out.
“Just jealous. But I do I have a question, G,” Jem said.
“You did not just call me G.”
“Did. Anyway . . .” Jem leaned forward on his elbows on the table. “Why not just kill the motherfucker and be done with it?”
“Landon’s got a lot of enemies, but a hell of a lot more associates who make a hell of a lot of money with him. Taking him down would put an entirely new bounty on my head.”
“How about giving him over to the CIA?”
“Guy’s bulletproof. Other people, like me, do the dirty work. If I kill him, I might as well kill myself.”