“Do not even go there, my love. What we both went through was horrible.”
“Do you have nightmares?”
“Yes.”
“Gunner does too. But I don’t think they’re all from me. I think . . .”
“Living with Rip is enough to do that to anyone,” Grace whispered.
“I guess we’ve got our very own support group,” Drea said softly.
“Ah, dammit.” Grace took the doctor’s hand in hers. “The Fates have a way of bringing those we need right to our door.”
“Or they have Jem do it,” Drea said, and that got a laugh from all of them. “My ex is abusive, just like my parents. You’d think I’d have learned to avoid the wrong kind of people.”
“I think maybe you’ve finally found the right kind of people,” Grace told her. Avery noticed that she sounded so sure of herself, wondered if Grace’s sixth sense was kicking in something fierce about Drea, or if, like Avery, she just sensed that the doctor needed them.
Either way, it didn’t matter. For the moment, they had one another.
Chapter Twenty-four
Jem made a few calls and the next morning, he got an e-mail file he printed out for Gunner to see.
“These are Maria Landon’s hospital records from the night she gave birth,” Jem told him.
Gunner took the seat next to him. “I hope you don’t run out of favors anytime soon.”
“No chance of that,” Jem assured him. “Doctor’s notes indicate that the second birth was a surprise.”
“How the hell can you read that chicken scratch?” Gunner asked.
“Been reading hospital records my whole damned life, Gun.” Jem ran his finger along the lines of scrawl. “Okay, yeah, so second baby came five minutes later. Doc was delivering the placenta when Mom started yelling and contractions started again. Said baby was blue when first delivered but roused quickly. No permanent damage.”
“Yeah, right,” Gunner muttered. “How would we know if they’re identical or not?”
“Look, DNA testing wasn’t done back then. Obviously, there wasn’t an ultrasound or no one would’ve been surprised. Doc notes that twins shared the same placenta, but that’s not always an indicator of anything. Nurse noted that footprints looked alike.”
Gunner leafed through the file and pulled out the inked markings from the two boys and held them up, side by side.
“Why the hell wouldn’t Landon have mentioned the fact that he’s a twin to you?” Jem asked. “I mean, an identical twin’s not exactly run-of-the-mill.”
“I guess he never thought the guy would try to impersonate him.” Gunner thought back to what Landon used to say about family. From his first moments on the island, when Gunner stood stiffly in Drew’s office, not sure what the hell to do, Landon had gone out of his way to be kind.
“Your father didn’t have to do this,” Landon told him. “I never asked him to.”
“But he did,” Gunner bit out. Wondered why it was so important that Landon tell him all of this.
“Sometimes family has their reasons.” Landon motioned to the helo that was waiting on the lawn. It arrived after Powell’s had left, and now Gunner watched a man walking toward it, carrying a bag slung over his shoulder. The man never looked back, but Landon had looked so damned sad.
“I asked my brother to leave,” he said.
“So maybe you don’t give a shit about family either,” Gunner told him, waited for the slap or maybe he’d been secretly hoping Landon kicked him off the island too.
Instead, the man looked at him with a sad look. “James, I care too much about family. Maybe someday you’ll understand, maybe you won’t. But our family can be the most fucked-up part of our lives. If we’re not careful, they can ruin us.”
“I thought he was trying to tell me he understood about my father being the biggest prick on the planet,” Gunner said.
“And here I always thought my pops won. But hell, yours does have him beat by a mile,” Jem said, and Key clinked his beer to Gunner’s, said, “Hear, hear!”
Gunner shook his head. “So glad to win this round of ‘my family’s got the biggest asshole.’”
Jem shrugged. “Safe to say none of our childhoods were peaches and cream.”
“Except Avery’s seems like it was pretty damned sweet,” Key said, then turned to Gunner and added, “Yours too, until your mom died.”
“Both our parents were poster children for don’t spawn,” Jem added.
“My mother could earn a spot on that poster,” Drea said quietly. Gunner had seen her come to the doorway a few minutes earlier, was sure the brothers had noticed it too. But rather than scare her or go silent, they’d continued talking in the hopes that she’d be comfortable enough to join in.
“Come have a beer, chère.” Jem grabbed one from the fridge without leaving his chair. She only hesitated for a moment before joining them, taking the vacant chair next to Jem. She took a long sip and then said, “So, is the prerequisite for being a supersoldier—”
“I was a sailor,” Gunner pointed out, but she continued. “—a shitty childhood?”
“Most of the time, yes.” That was Dare, coming in from his run. He gave Drea a small smile. “What doesn’t kill us, right, Doc?”
“So far, that’s been right,” she told him. “I’ll let you guys get back to your work.”
When she left the kitchen, Gunner filled Dare and Key in on what else they’d discovered.
“We’ve got to protect Gunner from the CIA,” Dare said.
“In all of this, the CIA’s the least of our problems,” Jem told him. “Landon’s got a hell of a lot of protectors. They’ll all turn on Gunner, because if Donal’s killed Drew and he’s impersonating him, they probably have no idea.”
“There’s one other scenario,” Gunner told them. “What if Drew and Donal have been in on this from the start?”
“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Jem said. “I’ll go through the bank accounts.”
Gunner’s phone buzzed on the table. He glanced at the number. “It’s Landon.”
Jem hooked it into the computer so they could trace it and nodded. Gunner pressed and said, “What do you want, Landon?”
“You.”
Avery knew something was wrong. She’d always been intuitive, but after working with Dare and Jem and the others, her instincts had gone into overdrive. She’d hauled herself out of bed and limped toward the kitchen, holding her side.
The men were so focused they didn’t hear her. If they had, she didn’t doubt that one of them would’ve carried her away from here.
Landon’s voice was in the room. She clutched the doorjamb as a wave of panic hit her. She knew he was on the phone, not there in person, but she hadn’t realized that his voice alone would have such an effect on her.
And if he was in front of you, how effectively could you hurt him then? a small voice inside her asked harshly. You have to handle this.
“You’re not getting me, Landon. You broke too many goddamned promises,” Gunner was saying, his voice calm and controlled. She knew by the set of his shoulders he was anything but.
“I’m guessing you don’t want your friends safe?” Landon asked.
“Oh, I do. But that’s not going to happen by doing anything for you,” Gunner told him. “Hear this—we are coming for you. As of now, you’re the one who’s being hunted. I’d make sure I kept looking over my shoulder if I were you. One of these times, you’re going to see me. And I’ll be the last thing you do see before you hit the ground.”