But now things were coming to a critical point. With Avery resting in the other room with Drea, and the door partially open, the other members of S8 sat at the table and listened to the story Gunner and Jem laid out.
Gunner felt like he was in front of the firing squad—would’ve been, if Jem hadn’t sat next to him, as if ready to defend him.
Crazy, but loyal to a fault. Even when Gunner couldn’t have blamed him if he wasn’t.
So he laid out what happened to Dare, Grace and Key, pausing in places to keep himself together, especially when he spoke about Avery’s attack. “I shouldn’t have left her alone like that. But I’d always been safe there. No one followed us. I don’t know how in the hell Landon knew about that place.”
Dare was struggling with what had happened to Avery. This was his flesh and blood, his responsibility. She’d been brought into this through no fault of her own.
He stared into the man’s eyes now. “Dare, I’m sorry.”
“And you didn’t call us immediately after Avery and Jem brought you back
Dare watched her leave, then stood and faced away from the group. Several long moments later, he sat back down, his eyes red rimmed. “She’ll be okay,” he said firmly.
“She will,” Jem echoed, and Gunner knew they were somehow talking about both Grace and Avery. Key was sitting there silently, staring at his hands.
This group had already seen enough for a thousand lifetimes, and somehow Gunner had caused the worst of it all.
“It’s my fault,” he said hoarsely.
“And it’s mine too.” Dare cut him off before he could say anything else.
“Fuck, Dare. I never thought . . .” He pulled himself together. “I love your sister.”
“I know. She loves you too. But the future of this team . . . fuck, this isn’t going to work. Not with what happened to Avery,” Dare told them all.
“I agree,” Gunner said quietly. Jem sat back in his chair, arms crossed, not meeting anyone’s eyes, but Key . . . Key was staring at all of them, his expression tight.
“You can’t take that away from her,” Key said in a low, forceful
“It’s not that easy, Key,” Dare started, but Grace’s voice cut him off. Gunner didn’t know when she’d come back into the room, but it didn’t matter, not when she echoed Key’s sentiments.
“It might not be easy, but it has to be that easy.”
“Avery’s the reason S8 came together. She’s the reason we all pulled together. She’s the goddamned glue of this team, and she dealt with all of our shit and forced us to pull it together,” Jem concurred. “We can’t let her down now.”
“Give her a chance to heal, Gunner.” Grace’s hands were on his shoulders. “Stop blaming yourself. She won’t be able to heal if she knows you’re doing that.”
Gunner knew she was right, but it was so much easier said than done. For a long while, there was silence in the kitchen. Grace went about making coffee quietly, put the first cup down in front of Dare. When she caught his eye, she smiled and Gunner watched the man’s face light up.
Dare smiled at Grace and said, “Avery brought me back from the edge. If it hadn’t been for her, I don’t know what would’ve happened when I met Grace. I was angry. Unpredictable. Living in solitude and she woke me up.” Dare sounded broken.
Grace put her arms around him, stared at Gunner and asked, “How are we going to take Landon down? Because if we have a plan in place to present to Avery, I think she’ll feel less like we’re doing this for her.”
“I have a copy of Landon’s file from the CIA.” Jem left the room and came back just as quickly, placing the CIA confidential folder on the table between them. “It’s mainly about Gunner—James, actually—his jobs from the past six months. I don’t think there’s anything in there that ties him to Landon.”
“Let me look,” Gunner said quietly. He didn’t want to. Knowing he’d done all the things written on paper was bad enough, but to have to revisit them in black and white . . .
For Avery, he would. He sat and opened the file. Pushed his anger back and he read until his eyes blurred, until he’d gone over each and every detail of his missions in living, breathing color. He could still smell the blood, taste the fear of the men he’d taken down. He knew every single reason why he’d done these jobs.
None of that made it right.
“Anything?” Dare asked. He’d been pacing until Grace led him gently to one of the couches. Gunner had been so engrossed he hadn’t realized that they’d all been staring at him. Waiting.
He looked back down at the two pages he’d pulled. They didn’t have much more detail than the others, but they had location points he hadn’t noticed before.
He flipped the page so the others crowding the table could see it. Jem had a map out, pointed to the coordinates. Gunner nodded. “We start here.”
“Where’s that?”
Avery’s voice.
“What the hell is it with women and sneaking up?” Jem demanded. “If we can’t tell Grace or Avery’s coming, maybe it is time we all retired.”
“Or maybe we’re that good,” Grace told him, and Jem snorted.
Gunner had already gotten out of his seat to help Avery. “You shouldn’t be up.”
“You’re all making plans without me,” she said.
“We’re making plans that include you,” Gunner corrected.
“Landon’s mine,” she told them all, and Gunner felt the anger coming off her in waves.
“Why not let us help, Avery? It’s what we do,” Key reminded her.
“And you should’ve called before this,” Dare added, but gently. “Fuck, don’t ever do that again to me, sis.”
Avery smiled at her brother. She was leaning heavily on Gunner and he looked toward Drea, who shrugged and mouthed,
There was too much truth behind that statement.
“We had months to decide. I wasn’t going to pull you all back for this. You had to make your decisions without duress. I couldn’t do to you what we ended up doing unwittingly to Gunner,” Avery told them all.
Dare flinched. It was apparent he felt as guilty as Avery did about that.
“I’m in,” Key said.
“You already know my answer,” Jem added.
“Someone’s got to keep an eye on all of you.” Dare crossed his arms.
“I want you all to know that I’m a better shot than Dare,” Grace told them, breaking the tension.
Dare turned to her in mock frustration. “One time. My hands were acting up.”
Grace took Dare’s hands into hers and rubbed them. “I want to be involved. You have to let me. Even though it might not be by blood, Gunner’s my brother.”
“We’re all family,” Avery said quietly. “And this is what family’s supposed to do for one another.”
“Section 8’s as much about protecting its own as it is about protecting the innocent. We’re all legacies. We all deserve to be a part of this,” Dare said.
“Let’s start thinking of ourselves as lucky to be a part of it instead of cursed,” Jem said, throwing a sideways glance at Key. Gunner was sure he’d eventually find out what that was all about. For now, all he needed to know was that they were bound by pain and pride. They would always know one another’s deepest, darkest secrets, a fact born of necessity. All secrets weren’t uncovered, not yet, but they would need to be put on the table. Because secrets could be used against the team.
Avery looked up when Grace came into the room. Drea had given her another pain pill without Avery having to ask. Now she’d settled back against the pillows, glad she’d forced herself to make the trip into the kitchen. She needed to show them that she was all right. That she would be.
Whether or not she truly felt that way would be her secret for now. Hers and Drea’s and Grace’s, since she
