Sharpshooter (7 page)

“Don’t, Sydney.” His warning.

A warning that came too late for her.

She stared at his face. At his lips. She’d heard another woman once say that Gunner had cruel lips. Tight. Hard. She’d never found them to be cruel. She’d never found him to be cruel at all. Controlled and dangerous, yes. Cruel?

Not Gunner.

“Your lip is busted.” She reached for another cloth, blotted the blood away. “You didn’t even try to defend yourself.”

Voices rose and fell from the outer room. Logan and Cale, questioning Slade.

Slade.

For months, she’d dreamed of him being found alive. Of him coming home to her. And she was glad, so glad, that he’d been rescued. She would have risked her life a dozen times to get him out of that camp.

But...

She would also risk her life a dozen times—gladly—for Gunner.

That wasn’t right, was it? A woman shouldn’t feel so torn between two men.

A man she’d once said she’d marry.

And a man...a man who had carried her through the darkness. A man who made her ache, even now, for
him.

The door she’d shut banged open against the wall. “Sydney!”

Slade’s voice.

“Get away from him,”
Slade ordered.

She blinked and realized that, yes, she was pretty much draped over Gunner. Her hands were on him, and he—he wasn’t touching her with his hands. His hands had flattened against the bed.

Slowly, she eased back and stood on her feet, deliberately positioning herself near the bed. Near Gunner.

“Did you get the bullet?” Logan asked her, voice cautious.

Sydney nodded. “He’s good now.”

“No, he’s
not!
” Slade lunged forward, and Cale actually had to grab him and hold him back. Slade had been going forward with his hands clenched into fists and rage blazing in his eyes. “He’s a bastard who deserves to suffer!”

“He just saved you,” Logan said, putting his body right in front of Slade’s. “Listen, I understand that you’ve been through hell—”

Slade’s brittle laughter broke through his words. “You understand
nothing.
You hear me?
Nothing!
You think that guy over there is your friend? That you can trust him? Hell,
no,
you can’t. He’ll turn on you, just like he turned on me.” Spittle flew from his mouth.

Gunner eased from the bed. He was shirtless but still wearing his pants and boots.

His body brushed by Sydney’s as he headed toward Slade.

“Yeah, yeah,
come on!
” Slade dared him. “Fight me like a man. Take me on...and don’t just leave me to rot in a jungle like you did before!”

Leave me to rot...

“He didn’t!” Sydney cried out, shaking her head. “Slade, we thought you were dead! That was the only reason we left. If we’d known the truth, we would never have left you in that jungle.”

His twisted grin called her words a lie. “
He
knew.”

What?

Slade pulled away from Cale and pointed one shaking finger at Gunner. “That bastard, my
brother,
knew.”

Sydney shook her head.

Gunner just stared back at Slade.

“It’s easy enough to tell if a man’s breathing or not,” Slade continued. “Especially for someone with Gunner’s special training.”

Sydney took a step forward. “We
both
thought you were dead! We were in a firefight. You went down, and there was so much blood...”

Slade yanked open his shirt, revealed the scars on his chest. She knew those marks. Bullet wounds. “I was down, not dead.” Then he looked back up at Gunner. “But you were hoping I’d die, right? Just leave me to bleed out, and that way, you never had to get your hands dirty.”

This was crazy.

She met Logan’s stare. Logan looked...angry? But guarded. Why? He was Gunner’s friend. He knew better than to believe these accusations. They all knew better. “You’re traumatized,” she told Slade. “Not thinking clearly. When we get back to the States, everything will be—”

“He wanted you.”

The words fell heavily into the room.

Gunner tensed. She saw the muscles of his chest and shoulders tighten.

She cleared her throat. “I—I know things are confusing for you, Slade.”
Two years of hell and pain.
“But Gunner loves you. He would never have left you if he’d known—”

“He. Wanted. You.”

Slade’s blazing stare seemed to scorch her skin with his rage.

Sydney shook her head.

“I was in his way,” Slade said. His eyes were bloodshot. Wild. “So he saw a way to take me out.”

“This is crazy! We were in Peru back then to
save
you. Your plane went down. We came in to get you out! Why come in at all if we just wanted to leave you to die?” Surely he’d realize that his words didn’t make sense. He’d start to understand, to see reason.

But his hands were fisting again. “
You
wanted to save me. He followed you here, because he couldn’t stop you then. He was waiting for his moment, just waiting...willing to do anything to get you.”

Gunner had asked her not to tell Slade about them. But Slade was acting as if—

“He got you, didn’t he? I can
see
it in his eyes.”

Her cheeks burned.

“Enough.” Gunner’s snarl.

“Not even close,” Slade fired right back. “They tortured me, for
two years.
And during all those months, just how many times did you make love with my—”

Gunner lunged forward. This time, he was the one who had to be pulled back. Logan grabbed him and held on tight.

“Let him come at me! Let him take me on...instead of running away with
my
girl!”

“Stop.” The quiet word broke from Sydney. Her head was throbbing. For all of the times that she’d imagined Slade’s rescue, she’d never imagined
this
scenario. “Just...
stop.
”
Then she was marching toward Slade. “He had to drag me out of the jungle. I almost died, too. He was shot, so many times, we were both barely moving.” Why couldn’t he understand what had happened?

Slade glared down at her. “You moved well enough to survive.”

Her chin lifted. “Search parties were sent after you. Again and again. We kept looking.”

“Not hard enough.”

The rage in him seemed to burn past any control.

“Get him out of here,” Logan ordered, giving a jerk of his head toward Cale. “Put him in the second villa, guard him and make sure he cools down.”

Cale put a hand on Slade’s shoulder.

Slade immediately jerked away from him. “Don’t believe me?” His voice rose. “None of you believe me? You think you can
trust
him? That I’m crazy?” He laughed again. The sound was rough and wild. “Then just...
ask him.
”

She glanced at Gunner. Logan had released him, and now Gunner stood as still as a statue. The white bandage was a stark contrast to his tanned skin.

“Ask him, Sydney. You do it,” Slade urged. “Because it’s all about you, right?”

“No, it isn’t.” The throbbing in her head was getting worse.

But Slade kept talking. This wasn’t the man she remembered. So much rage. “Ask him!” Slade yelled. “Ask him if he wanted you, even then.”

She stared at Gunner. His eyelashes lifted and his gaze held hers.

She couldn’t bring herself to ask the question.

“Take him out,” Logan ordered again.

“I saw the way you looked at her then. The way you look at her now! I was in the way!”

Cale pulled Slade toward the door.

Slade kept shouting. “You saw your chance, and you took it. You played hero to her, but you left me to die! You got just what you wanted—
her!
”

Sydney flinched.

“Tell her!” Slade was fighting against Cale’s hold. “Tell her the truth. She deserves it! We both do! Look at her. Look at Sydney and tell her how you felt about her...tell her about all the times you’d watch her when you didn’t think anyone saw.” His voice dropped. “But I saw. I always saw.”

His voice was ugly and mean and he was so far from the Slade that she’d remembered. Captivity could twist a man—or a woman—she knew that. It would take months, maybe even years of therapy before the Slade she knew returned.

If he ever did.

“I knew you wanted her, but she wanted
me!
She wasn’t going to you, not while I was there. So you got me out of the way.” Slade’s chest heaved.

She stared at him, seeing past the long hair and beard. His nose had been broken. She could see the rough bump along its bridge. There was a long, thin scar under his right eye. Another scar bisecting his left eyebrow. And that limp...

“Tell her!”

But Gunner wasn’t talking.

Cale had Slade near the entrance to the villa now, but all of a sudden, Slade stopped struggling. His cheeks were flushed dark red, his eyes glittered, but his body just froze.

Then he looked at Sydney. “Shouldn’t he be defending himself?” Now his voice was flat. From screaming to flat.

Sydney shivered.

“Shouldn’t he be trying to tell you that I’ve got it all wrong?” His voice seemed hoarse. “Why isn’t he talking?”

Why wasn’t she? Sydney cleared her throat. “You’re confused, Slade.” She tried to make her voice sound soothing. But her words broke because her control was fracturing.

“Did he wait a few months...or did he go after you right away?”

The question had her gasping. “It wasn’t like that!” Gunner hadn’t gone after her at all. Not for two years. Not until...

The last mission.

When she’d told him that she’d moved on.

They’d been moving on, together.

“You’re wrong about him,” Sydney finished, voice quiet. “You’ll see that, soon.”

Gunner still hadn’t spoken.

“No,” Slade exhaled on a low breath. “You’re the one who’s wrong, and
you’ll
see that...soon.”

Then he was leaving the villa. Cale followed on his heels.

The door shut behind them with the softest of clicks.

Silence.

Sydney was still staring at that shut door. Her body was tight and aching, as if she’d just been through another vicious battle. Maybe she had.

“Gunner...” Logan’s voice. “Gunner, you know it’s the stress. Slade is going to have PTSD, he’s going to—”

Gunner shook his head. “He meant what he said.”

“Yeah, well, if he meant it, he was wrong.” Logan was adamant. “I know you, and that...hell...that’s not the way you operate. You don’t leave a man behind, especially not your brother.”

She couldn’t read Gunner’s expression.

“But I did leave him behind,” Gunner said softly. “Isn’t that why we’re all here now?”

She wanted to grab him and shake him. “You tried everything you could!” If it hadn’t been for Gunner, she would have died on that mission. He’d barely managed to get them both to safety.

“Rescue teams went back. They saw no sign of him.” Logan’s sigh was ragged. “Stop beating the hell out of yourself over this.”

“You already let Slade beat the hell out of you.” Sydney didn’t even know why she said those words, but...

Gunner glanced at her. The darkness of his eyes was a banked heat. “Why didn’t you ask me?” Soft.

Logan whistled. “Okay, I’m going to check in with Mercer. Syd, you, uh, finish up in here, and then we’ll talk about our exit strategy.”

Then he was gone. Pretty much rushing in his haste to get away.

Gunner rolled his shoulders, as if pushing away a painful memory. Then he stalked toward her.

She didn’t move, even though she had the urge to flee.

“He told you to ask me,” Gunner said. “So why didn’t you?”

Because she hadn’t wanted the others to hear his answer. Because some things should be between the two of them.

“You thought he was right, didn’t you?”

“Not about you leaving him,” she whispered. Logan was on the phone in the outer room, but still close enough that she worried he’d overhear them.

A muscle flexed in Gunner’s hard jaw. “You thought I wanted you.”

This was the hard part. The part that would tear her pride to shreds, but what did pride matter now? “No, but I knew I wanted you.” That was her secret shame. She’d been with Slade; she’d met him first...

Then
she’d met Gunner.

And in the beginning, Gunner had made her nervous. He’d put her on edge, every time that she was near him.

Slade had been the one to offer quick compliments. To take her out on fun dates.

She hadn’t exactly had a whole lot of fun in her life up to that point.

Her parents had always been so strict, her dad an ex-colonel who ran a tight ship.

Then her mother had died. A sudden heart attack when Sydney was just fourteen. Her dad and his tight ship...they became lost after that. Broken. She’d had to be the caretaker, growing up too fast.

Until her father had slipped into a bottle and not come out again.

She’d been eighteen when he crashed his car.

She’d joined the air force just two weeks later.

Slade had been the Ortez brother she met first. The one with the ready smile, the big dreams.

But it had been Gunner whom she was always so intently aware of. Gunner who put her on edge with his heated stare.

She’d agreed to marry Slade, though, because she
did
love him, and he’d said that he loved her.

While Gunner...back then, he’d barely seemed to tolerate her at all.

Gunner wasn’t saying a word now. Just staring at her. And she’d already said enough for them, hadn’t she? “Get some rest,” she told him, and turned away. She was supposed to stay in another villa, the one on the far end. Only she wouldn’t be going there first.

She needed to talk to Slade. Alone.

She headed for the door. Logan had his back turned to her as he talked into his phone, but she had no doubt that he’d heard every word she said to Gunner.

“You don’t have to lie.” Gunner’s flat words. Stopping her.

Insulting her. “Is that what you think I’m doing?” Her fingers curled around the doorknob. “Then maybe you don’t know me half as well as I thought.”