Chapter 15
LUNA
Luna had spent years studying trauma. She understood panic responses, hyper vigilance, and survivor’s guilt all too well.
She understood how war could twist a person into someone unrecognizable, but standing inside that cabin listening to Gunner speak through the back door—well, that wasn’t just trauma.
It was an obsession, and somehow that made it worse.
“I like her.” The words crawled over Luna’s skin like something filthy. Rocco reacted instantly. His entire body went rigid, every muscle locking tight while something vicious flashed across his face. Not fear, but murder—actual murder.
Luna saw it happen in real time. The careful, gentle man she knew had disappeared beneath raw protective instinct, and suddenly she understood why everyone kept watching him so closely, because if Rocco lost control right now, someone was going to die.
“Easy,” Tony warned quietly from the front of the cabin. Rocco didn’t answer him. Hell, he didn’t even blink. Instead, He just stared at the back door like he could already see through it.
Outside, Gunner laughed softly again. “You always get this attached?” he asked casually.
“Or is she special?” Luca muttered a curse under his breath, and Jonesy stepped closer to Luna subtly, positioning himself between her and the windows, protecting her.
They were all protective, which honestly should have comforted her, but instead, it made everything feel more real.
Rocco’s voice came out low and deadly. “You say one more thing about her—”
“What?” Gunner interrupted. “You’ll kill me?” Another laugh filtered through the back door. “That’d just be another brother dead because of you.” Rocco flinched like he’d been punched straight in the chest. Gunner seemed to know exactly how to hurt him.
Without thinking, Luna crossed the room quickly and grabbed Rocco’s arm. He looked down at her immediately, and there was the man she knew, still buried underneath all that rage. But he was barely holding on.
“Don’t let him inside your head,” she whispered.
Rocco’s jaw flexed violently. “He already is.” The honesty in that answer hurt because she knew he meant it.
Outside, footsteps creaked slowly across the porch, circling as though he was pacing while he figured out his next move.
If she had to guess, Gunner was enjoying himself.
Luna’s pulse pounded harder every second, not because she thought Gunner would break in, but because she was starting to realize this wasn’t random.
This man didn’t want a quick confrontation.
He wanted psychological warfare. He wanted Rocco to unravel piece by piece, and judging by the look on his face, it was working.
“You know what the worst part was?” Gunner asked through the door quietly.
Nobody answered, so he continued. “You moved on. You got your peace while I was buried alive.” Rocco inhaled sharply, and Luna’s stomach twisted.
Oh God, if he were buried alive, that would explain why he seemed so broken now.
That would bring any sane person to the brink of destruction.
“You don’t know what happened,” Rocco said tightly.
“No,” Gunner snapped suddenly, barking out his laugh. The shift in his tone made everybody tense. “You think I forgot screaming for help?” he shouted. “You think I forgot waiting for my team to come back for me?”
Luna saw real pain crack through Rocco’s expression then. He seemed devastated because a part of him believed every word that Gunner was saying. “That’s not on you,” she said firmly to Rocco.
Gunner laughed bitterly outside. “Of course, the therapist says that.” Luna stiffened. He knew who she was. She wasn’t just some random woman because he knew details about her.
Rocco realized it at the same time because his face darkened instantly. “How long have you been watching us?” he asked quietly.
“Long enough,” Gunner said. Cold slid straight down Luna’s spine. How long had this man been outside the gym, or outside her office, or her apartment, watching them fall for each other? The thought made her feel sick.
“You’re sick,” she snapped toward the door before she could stop herself. Everybody turned toward her instantly. Even the pacing outside paused.
Gunner laughed softly. “So, the doctor is capable of losing her temper.”
Rocco stepped in front of her so fast she barely caught the movement. “Enough,” he snarled.
The cabin fell silent again as the sound of boots descended the porch stairs slowly. He was moving away, but nobody relaxed, not even a little. Tony finally spoke first after almost a full minute had passed. “Think he’s gone?”
“No,” Rocco answered immediately.
Luca nodded grimly. “Agreed.” Because men like Gunner didn’t just leave, not after all this.
Luna looked up at Rocco carefully. The man looked wrecked, and underneath it all, he looked terrified—for her.
That was the part she couldn’t stop seeing.
Not fear for himself, but fear that she’d become collateral damage in whatever nightmare he dragged home from war.
Rocco suddenly stepped away from everyone else and dragged both hands down his face roughly. “I can’t do this to you.” Luna’s chest tightened instantly. She crossed the room before he could spiral any further and grabbed the front of his shirt hard enough to make him look at her.
“You don’t get to push me away because things got scary,” she insisted.
“Luna—” Rocco started to protest, but she shut him down immediately.
“No.” Her voice shook slightly this time. “I’m already in this, Rocco.”
Pain flashed across his face. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” That nearly broke her, because he meant it. Every protective instinct inside him was tearing him apart right now.
Luna touched his face gently despite the adrenaline still screaming through her body. “You listen to me very carefully,” she whispered. “I am not afraid of your scars.” His eyes closed briefly. “And I’m not leaving you alone with this.”
For a second, Rocco just stood there breathing her in like he was trying to survive everything.
A loud crack echoed from outside, and Rocco pushed her behind his body.
“Gunshot,” he shouted. Every light in the cabin exploded instantly, and Luna knew for certain that the war had just started, and there was nothing that she could do about it.
The cabin exploded into chaos. Glass shattered inward as every light went dark at once, plunging the room into blackness so complete that Luna couldn’t even see her own hands. Someone grabbed her, and Luna gasped before Rocco’s voice hit her ear immediately.
“Down,” he breathed. The force of his body took her to the floor just as another gunshot cracked outside.
Wood splintered somewhere above them, and her heart slammed violently against her ribs while instinct screamed at her to panic.
But Rocco’s arm locked around her waist like steel, grounding and protecting her.
“Everybody good?” Tony barked from somewhere near the front of the cabin.
“Fine,” Luca answered immediately.
Jonesy cursed nearby. “That son of a bitch is trying to flush us out.”
Rocco stood half over Luna’s body while listening carefully to the silence outside.
And suddenly she realized—he wasn’t afraid anymore.
The guilt and grief were still there, buried underneath everything, but his survival instinct had fully taken over now.
This was his territory, and Luna hated how natural he looked in the middle of it.
“You hit?” he asked quietly against her hair.
“No,” she said.
“Stay low,” he ordered. Another gunshot cracked through the woods. It was closer this time. Luna flinched automatically, and Rocco tightened around her instantly.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. The lie would’ve been sweet if it weren’t completely ridiculous. Nothing about this was okay.
Outside, footsteps crunched slowly through the gravel again as Gunner casually walked towards them.
It was as though Gunner knew he already owned the situation.
“You know what’s funny, Roc?” Gunner called through the darkness.
Luna felt Rocco go perfectly still above her.
“I used to think you left me because you were scared.”
There was another slow crunch of boots outside the cabin, and she felt like she was holding her damn breath, waiting for him to continue.
“But now?” Gunner laughed softly. “I think you just wanted a new life more than you wanted your old one.” She knew that some terrible part of Rocco believed what Gunner was saying.
“No,” she whispered fiercely before he could spiral again.
Rocco’s head turned slightly toward her in the darkness, and she framed his face with her hands.
“You don’t owe him your guilt.” His hand found hers, and he held them tightly, as though he was trying to anchor himself.
Like he needed the reminder of everything that they had worked on since he got back home.
Outside, Gunner sighed dramatically. “You know what the problem is with you, brother?” he asked. “You always needed somebody to save.” Another shot slammed into the cabin wall. Luna jerked violently.
“Jesus Christ,” Tony snapped.
“Can I shoot him now?” Luca growled.
“Not yet,” Jonesy barked sharply. Rocco slowly shifted away from Luna, just enough to crouch beside the broken window.
Every movement looked controlled as moonlight cut through the shattered glass now, barely illuminating the hard lines of his face.
He looked dangerously beautiful and terrifying.
Luna’s stomach twisted because she knew exactly what he was thinking.
He wanted to end this and protect everyone.
He was going to destroy the threat, and judging by the coldness settling into his expression, Rocco was getting very close to doing exactly that.
Another silence stretched outside, and then Gunner spoke again. Only this time, his voice sounded closer—too close. “You really love her?” Luna stopped breathing, and Rocco went deadly still.
Outside, Gunner laughed quietly. “There it is,” he murmured. “Knew it.” The realization hit Luna like something physically attacking her. He’d been provoking Rocco on purpose. He was pushing him to test him to confirm exactly how much Luna mattered to him. And now he knew.
Rocco stood abruptly. “Rocco,” Tony warned instantly, but he was already moving toward the back door.
Every muscle in Luna’s body locked as she scrambled up and grabbed him hard before he could reach it. “You are not going out there.” Rocco looked down at her, and the expression on his face terrified her. It wasn’t rage, but resolve—cold, horrifying resolve.
“He won’t stop,” he said quietly.
Luna shook her head immediately. “Neither will you if you walk out that door.” Something flickered in his eyes then, because he knew she was right. The truth sat ugly and raw between them. If Rocco got his hands on Gunner tonight, one of them wasn’t surviving it.
Outside, Gunner laughed again. “C’mon, brother,” he called. “You know you wanna finish this.”
Luca appeared beside them instantly. “Don’t,” he warned.
Rocco’s jaw flexed violently. “He’s baiting me.”
“No shit,” Tony muttered from the living room.
Jonesy moved closer slowly, the older man’s face hard in the dim moonlight.
“You walk out there angry,” he said quietly, “and that boy already won.” Rocco looked wrecked.
He looked pulled apart from the inside, because Gunner wasn’t just threatening them, he was dragging Rocco backward into every dark place he’d fought to crawl out of.
And Luna suddenly realized something horrifying—Gunner didn’t just want revenge, he wanted Rocco broken again.
A loud metallic clang echoed outside suddenly, and then a car engine roared to life somewhere deeper in the woods.
Everybody froze. “What the hell?” Tony muttered.
Headlights flashed briefly through the trees before disappearing again, and silence followed—real silence this time.
There were no more footsteps, no taunting voice, nothing.
Luca moved carefully toward the side window. “He’s leaving.” Rocco didn’t relax, not even slightly, because Luna could see it now. Gunner wasn’t done playing with him—not even close.
Rocco’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and every person in the cabin went still. Slowly, carefully, he pulled it out and looked at the screen. Luna’s stomach dropped instantly as Rocco opened the message and silently read it to himself. His face went completely blank.
“What?” she whispered. He turned the screen toward her. It was a photo, taken through the cabin window just minutes ago, of Rocco holding Luna against him on the floor, and underneath it was one sentence.
Now I know where to aim.