"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, chere." 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."
Gunner reached out, severed the connection, and there was dead silence in the room. She wanted to back away, but she couldn't be quick enough about it.
"He will never hurt you again, Avery," Gunner said then. "Do you hear me?"
He'd known she was there the whole time. "I do."
As she'd spoken the words, the house began to rumble under her feet. She didn't know exactly what was happening, but she saw the war in all the men's eyes, and then they were moving fast.
Later, she'd look back and not understand how they'd managed to escape so efficiently. She didn't know that Jem, Dare, Gunner and Key had an emergency plan in place, that they had supplies in the cars they kept in a garage around the corner. That they didn't leave anything in this house they weren't prepared to lose, information-wise.
Now all she knew was that someone grabbed her and they were running. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming, from fear and pain, and whoever carried her knew that. Because as soon as he put her down, Drea was next to her, injecting her with a mild pain med-that's what she told Avery. And then the truck was moving, fast.
She heard the explosion-it rattled the car windows, shook the road beneath the truck. Saw the fire reflected in the back window.
"Please . . . did everyone . . ."
"Everyone's out," Jem said. "Gunner's in the other car with Dare and Grace. You've got me and Key here, with Drea. We're all safe, Avery."
As he said that, the sound of the chopper's whirring blades grew clearer.
No, they weren't safe at all.
It had always been part of the plan to separate Gunner from Avery if something went down. Although Gunner wasn't happy about it, he understood the reason for it.
Now, as the dark trucks with the tinted windows tore down the road toward the highway, Gunner glanced back and watched the chopper hover over the house.
They'd gotten away-that was the most important thing.
"How did they find us?" Dare demanded, and that was the second most important thing, because hell, if Landon found them this many times, this easily, it was no coincidence.
"Gunner's phone's clean," Jem said over the speaker of Dare's phone. "We only forwarded the number, but it's a new everything else."
"Can't he ping the number?" Key asked.
"Not the way I have it set up," Jem said.
"They're still coming," Grace said. The whoompa of the helo's blades was relentless in the night. Even driving without their headlights on, the helo was tracking them.
He heard Key's voice. "Gunner, pull away from us. See which way the helo goes."
Gunner did, taking the corner fast, the truck shaking. He flew down the highway, mixing in with other cars in the hopes that Landon wouldn't be taking out everyone on the highway.
His worst fears were confirmed. The helo was following the truck Avery was in with Jem and Drea.
Avery heard the chopper's blades follow their truck, not the one Gunner was in, and she knew they were in trouble. "It's got to be me," she said.
"How the hell are they finding you?" Jem asked.
"It's not possible," Avery said. "I have nothing left from before. Everything's new."
Drea was staring at her. "Tell me about the stitches under your right arm."
"What stitches? The ones you gave me?"
"Doc, no offense but-" Jem started but Drea waved him off. She moved Avery's short sleeve up and pointed to a row of black heavy stitching.
"I didn't stitch that," she told Avery. "I saw it, figured you guys were in a dangerous business, so I didn't think to mention it."
"Why would Landon slice her and then stitch that one spot?" Key asked. "Unless he planted something in there."
"No fucking way," Jem muttered. The chopper was closer now, and Jem swerved off road into a wooded area to try to slow them down.
Drea was probing Avery's arm with her fingers, lightly at first and then harder, a frown on her face. "I can't feel anything. He could've put it in deep enough so a doctor wouldn't."
"And he counted on her having so many cuts she wouldn't notice one extra. He was hoping the doc who helped her wouldn't notice," Jem said, and Drea let out a nice long string of curses that Avery knew were directed at Landon.
"Motherfucker didn't know who he was dealing with," Drea muttered as she rifled through her bag. She held up a syringe and a scalpel. "You ready?"
"Get it out," she told Drea.
Key climbed over the seat to help them. Both he and Drea gloved up after Drea numbed the area.
"It's still going to hurt," she warned Avery.
"Doesn't matter," Avery told her, and Drea didn't hesitate with the scalpel. With the car jostling, which couldn't be helped, her concentration had a razor focus.
Key was holding a pressure bandage at the ready and Avery hissed as she felt the probing of Drea's fingers. The car shimmied hard and Drea pulled away.
"Jem, you have to stop. For just a few seconds," Drea said. "I don't want to damage anything by mistake."
Jem cursed and braked hard. Drea didn't hesitate. Avery concentrated on Drea's face instead of the pain, and Drea's eyes widened.
She nodded, talked to herself under her breath as she gently moved her fingers around in the underside of Avery's arm. In the next ten seconds, she pulled out completely, handed the chip to Key and held the pressure bandage to Avery's arm.
"We got it," Key said.
The truck began to move again, fast, and Jem said, "And I know just the place to put it for the perfect distraction."
The truck bounced along the ruts and Drea just held her arm as both women had their eyes on the ceiling, as if they expected the chopper to come through the roof of the truck at any moment.
Key was wrapping the chip to the side of a gun; then he moved to the window, opened it and waited until Jem said, "Now, Key."
Avery propped herself up to see what was happening, but it was so dark she couldn't.
"There's a river," Drea told her. "We're driving right alongside it."
"It'll keep the chip moving," Avery said with a nod. The truck continued at its frantic pace, but the sound of the chopper got fainter.
"It's following the chip." Jem sounded relieved, and Avery figured he was talking to the other car. "She's okay."
"I'm okay," she called. Because she was. The fight inside her had been renewed even as her head spun with the knowledge that Landon had known where she was the entire time.
Chapter Twenty-five.
Staying together might be the worst idea ever, but now that none of them was carrying a GPS chip inside their body, no one thought to voice a difference of opinion.
Avery didn't even know what time it was when the truck stopped moving and Jem helped her into a new safe house. Later, she'd ask what state and city they were in, but for now, she went into the bathroom and let Drea stitch her up.
Gunner stood in the doorway, watching, until Drea asked for his help. He caught Avery's eye, waited until she nodded before coming forward to assist.
Within half an hour, Avery had a new bandage, some more pain medicine and a newfound sense of teamwork, especially when Gunner said, "We need to meet now. Whether you're up for it or not."
Good. He wasn't treating her like glass. "I'm definitely up for it."
"Drea, you can join us," Gunner told the doctor. "You deserve to know what's happening before we go farther. And if you want out, as in away from us, no one will blame you."
Drea nodded, stripped her gloves. "I'll be right there."
Avery let Gunner guide her into the kitchen, where everyone else was sitting around the table. Grace had made some eggs and bacon and toast. She pushed coffee in front of Avery when she sat, and Avery drank it gratefully.
Despite what they'd been through that night, coming out safe on the other side always made for more of a happy atmosphere, no matter how bad the danger still was. This time, there was no immediate danger, but it was imminent just the same.
"Where do we start?" she asked quietly, as if she was waiting for any of them to tell her she wasn't ready for this.
But no one did. Gunner was sitting next to her, but he turned and spoke directly to her. "We don't know if Donal's killed Drew and is impersonating him, or if the men are working together. It doesn't matter, because the plan's the same. Rather than going directly after Landon, our best bet it to start by taking out his customers. Then his suppliers. Hit him where it hurts, which makes things safer for us."
"We'll have to do it fast," Key said.