Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“How is she?” Talon and Zombie both stood as soon as he opened the door of his suite. From the second they’d arrived in Agadir from Yemen, his brother and the dog had made it their business to guard the door.
“Sleeping.” Gunnar jerked his chin toward the inside of the room.
“Will you and Zombie stay here while I go downstairs?” The last thing he wanted to do was leave her, but he had no choice.
He doubted Michaels had many answers for him, but he wanted the man to look him in the eye and tell him he didn’t.
“Of course.” Talon clicked his fingers and pointed to the door. Zombie took his owner at his word and brushed past Gunnar’s knee and into the room.
By the time Talon had come in and the door was shut, Gunnar caught a glimpse of Zombie’s tail as he disappeared into the bedroom.
“Shit.” He crossed the room, ready to call the dog back, but when he peered into the room, it was to see Zombie curled up next to Jorja and his woman’s fingers buried into the dog’s fur.
The dog lifted his lips, showing his teeth as if daring Gunnar to order him to move.
All right, you can stay.
“He didn’t wake her, right?”
“Nope.” He shook his head in response to his brother’s question. “He curled up next to her like she’s his. Asshole even growled at me.”
Talon smirked. “You’ve got competition, bro. Zombie saved her. As far as he’s concerned, she is his.”
“Hah.” He’d boot the dog’s owner in the butt first, because booting a dog was never in his box of tricks. If the dog overstepped, it was his owner’s fault. Period. “You sure you don’t mind staying?”
“Nope.” Talon flopped onto the couch and picked up the remote. “Me and Zombie are good for a bit. Go do your thing.”
“Thanks.”
Talon waved him off. Gunnar paused outside the door of the suite and pressed his hand to his chest. This pretending he wasn’t hurting thing was a ball ache. He tugged up his t-shirt and peered down, wincing at the massive bruise he could see on his chest.
No wonder I hurt every damn where.
He called the elevator and got in before he allowed himself to slump.
Even though there were cameras in here, he hoped it just looked like he was lounging against the wall without a care in the world.
Although he figured there wasn’t a man among them who would believe it for a second, he was totally on board with gaslighting himself into believing he didn’t hurt everywhere.
Colt was waiting for him when he stepped out of the elevator on the basement floor where the holding cells were. What was it with his brothers ambushing him at doors and shit?
“Jorja is okay?”
How the heck was he supposed to be pissed when they all showed so much concern for the person who was rapidly becoming the one who meant the most to him? “Yeah, she’s sleeping.”
“Don’t kill Michaels.” Colt paused outside the cell door. “I believe him.”
Fuck.
He really needed and wanted to punch something.
Michaels was a target he could get on board with.
Not that he was in any physical condition to take on another SEAL, mind you.
But he’d make the fucker regret his involvement before he passed out or resorted to using a weapon. “Why do you believe him?”
“Because Remi confirms everything he said.” Colt kept his palm against the door, preventing him from opening it.
“All of it?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s true,” Dory confirmed as he approached from further down the hall. “My guys double-checked everything. Michaels didn’t have a fucking clue what he was getting into…”
“Then he should have checked better before he took the job.”
“I agree, he was an idiot,” Dory said mildly. “I’ll get that out of him real fast.”
Huh?
It took a second or two for the words to make sense. “Absolutely not.”
“He’s a solid operator,” Dory reminded him.
I beg to differ.
“And when he figured out who she was, he made sure you all knew where to look.”
Any decent human would have.
“And he kept her out cold so nothing happened to her until you could get to her,” Colt chimed in.
“Seriously?” He wasn’t sure what pissed him off more, that Dory was being logical or that his brother was fucking helping him be freaking logical. That should never, ever happen. Logic had never been something either of those two possessed, which was why they made such good operators. “You too?”
“I’m telling you, Grizz, if he knew beforehand, he’d have turned down the job.”
Colt kept himself between Gunnar and the door. “If he’d turned it down, we—you might not have your woman sleeping in your bed upstairs.”
I fucking hate when everyone makes sense but me.
He spun on his heel. “Put him through the selection process,” he ordered Dory. “If he fails one step, I mean it, one.” He held up one finger. “Then he’s gone. I won’t have an asshole who fucks up on this level on our teams.”
“Understood.”
“And…” He paused and looked over his shoulder. “…If having him around freaks Jorja out or upsets her, he’s gone too. Because I will not tolerate her being afraid in any of my homes. That will never be acceptable to me, ever. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Sir.”
He didn’t buy Dory’s agreeable attitude for one second, never mind for a minute, but he’d take it.
Their monthly meeting next week was going to be fucking fabulous…
not. Gunnar jabbed his finger on the call button for the elevator more times than was necessary, and grumbled under his breath at the three seconds it took for it to open.
His phone rang just as he stepped into it. “Talk to me, Remi.”
“Our KIA tango is confirmed to be Arthur L. Brant.” Remi took him at his word. “He had a mental breakdown after his son died. From what his records show, he stopped filling his prescriptions about two months ago, and missed the last couple of appointments with his therapist.”
“Did nobody follow up?”
“Hell no, that’s like asking if the Easter Bunny is real,” Remi replied. “Our best guess is he had some kind of psychotic break and decided it was your fault…”
“It was my fault. I was team leader. I didn’t bring his son home alive.”
“Bro.” Remi sounded exasperated. “We all know when we sign up that the possibility is there that we don’t come back.
We know it and we do it anyway. Unless you are telling me you lied on all your reports, which I know you didn’t, or you pulled the plug on that IED, then quit blaming yourself for what you can’t change. ”
He stepped out of the elevator and stopped outside his door to finish the conversation before he went in, or Talon would join Remi on the ‘don’t blame yourself’ bandwagon. “Sure.”
“Which means you are going to brood and sulk about it and still blame yourself for it.”
Hah, his brother knew him so well. He changed the subject, bringing them back on track. “And the list threat? What’s happening with that?”
“I was able to hack through from Jorja’s computer and find the source files,” Remi said. “I killed it. I’m still gonna keep an eye on it for a while and make sure it doesn’t pop up somewhere else. But for now, consider it a nonissue.”
“Thanks, Rem. Will there be backlash for…”
“None. I verified with POTUS.” Remi was ahead of the game this morning. “He fired first, you acted in self-defense and to save Jorja. There will be no charges or other shit to deal with.” Remi’s voice changed from all business to softer. “How’s our girl?”
While he loved that his brother seemed to have claimed Jorja as one of their family, he had to work more than he would like to push down the twinge of jealousy. “She’s sleeping.”
“Then what the hell are you on the phone with me for?” Remi scolded. “Go be with her.”
“I’m on my way there now.” He scuffed his toe on a mark on the carpet and made a mental note to tell Dory to send the cleaners in here when they left. “Make sure you triple verify everything on Michaels,” he ordered. “Dory has his eye on him for a team.”
“And you want to rip his head off, but you trust Dory, so you haven’t yet?”
That pretty much summed it up in a nutshell. “Yeah.”
“Already on it,” Remi replied. “I’ve reached out to our contacts. Nothing happens until we hear back from all of them.”
“Good.”
“What are we doing about the hitman?” He heard a ruffling of paper as if Remi was flipping through his notes “Tristan van Dodewaard?”
“Make sure none of the agencies are looking for him,” Gunnar said. “If not, cut him loose.”
“Consider it done.” Knowing Remi, he probably scribbled it down. “That’s all I’ve got for now. Everything else can wait until you are back home.”
“Good. Talk to ya later.” He ended the call and opened the door to his suite.
Talon lifted his head off the couch and looked at him.
“Go back to sleep, it’s only me.” His youngest brother nodded and laid back down.
Gunnar heard his soft snores before he made it to the bedroom door, telling him Talon was either relaxed enough or exhausted that he could sleep in a space which wasn’t his and Zombie’s.
Gunnar ignored Zombie’s raised lip. The woofer could grumble at him all he wanted. His own human was in the next room. He went around the other side of the bed and sat on the end to take off his boots before climbing in behind Jorja.
As if she sensed him behind her in her sleep, she scooted back against him, placing her butt back against his groin.
His dick immediately took notice, but what the hell, he was a man whose woman had her peachy ass against his cock.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that he wouldn’t pay attention.
He wrapped his other arm around her side, his palm splaying across her soft belly and sighing in relief.
There would never be a time when he curled up around her which didn’t feel like home to him.
“Huh…”
“Shh, beautiful, it’s only me.”
“Gunnar?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“I was so scared.”
“I know,” he whispered against her neck. “You are safe now. I won’t let anything happen to you again.” God, he hoped he could keep that promise.
“I want to go home.”
“I know, baby, I’ll make it happen. I promise.”
“Will you come with me?”
“I…” That was the moment his heart shattered. She didn’t mean his home; she meant hers in Germany. “I’ll do my best to visit.” He could feel her soft tears dripping onto the arm under her head. “We’ll figure it out, I promise.”
“I don’t want us to be over.” She shuddered as a sob racked through her. “I just want to go home.”
He didn’t want them to be over either, just as he understood her need to bolt to a place where she felt safe. “We’ll figure it out. I swear.”
“Yeah.”
They lay curled together, both of their hearts breaking. Neither having the words to fix each other. Both knowing what was to come would make or break them, and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it.
* * *
“I never thought I’d have to say this, but you are a fucking idiot.”
Gunnar ignored Talon as he stood next to him, watching as Jorja disappeared through the security gates to board their private jet which would take her back to Hamburg.
Breathing hurt. Just existing hurt. If it killed him, he’d give her what she needed.
“She asked to go home. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Go with her.” The ‘dumbass’ was implied by Colt’s tone. “That’s what you should have done… go fucking with her. You don’t let a woman like our Jorja walk away without a fight.”
“She didn’t fight either.” Gunnar turned away, leaving them standing behind him at the gates.
He wanted to see the plane take off. But if they thought he was letting her just leave without following behind her…
they were dead wrong. How the hell did they think her car was getting from Italy to Hamburg?
He wasn’t going to use a service, damn it.
He was going to drive it up there himself.