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“Sir.”Don’t do it! It’s a trap!
“Clear the field. Don’t hit the target.”
Fuck me! LISTEN! Don’t do it. It’s a trap!“Don’thit the target, sir? Do not. Confirm?”
“Confirm.”
Don’t fire. Don’t start.
Her finger slid over the trigger.Don’t clear the field, don’t let them know the trap worked…
She fired. One. Uranium.No!Two. Zinc.Dammit!Three. Tungsten.No!Four. Gabriel turned…no.
He wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there.
The mantra repeating in her brain cut off when the world exploded. Heat ballooned out and crashed over her. She flew backwards and slammed into the man behind her. He hit the wall—bone crunched and blood soaked her. So much blood.
Twisting, she stared through the haze of red, muddy light into Gabriel’s lifeless eyes, then the ground swallowed her, rocks falling and slamming into each other. She couldn’t breathe. Flesh beneath her fingers remained chilled, but she found his jawline, then the column of throat and pressed her fingers to where the pulse should be. Hellish red filled her vision, and Brad stared up at her. “You pulled the trigger…” His face morphed, and Gabriel’s lifeless eyes robbed her of speech. “You pulled the trigger.”
Merc ripped away one of the rocks, his ruined face right in front of her. “You don’t get to die, Sachi,” he ordered. “You hear me? You pulled the fucking trigger. You killed them all. You don’t get to die.” He hauled her up by her arm, until she was face-to-face. “You get to rot in hell, but you don’t get to die.” Then she fell, and the building collapsed, and she was pinned.
Nothing remained but dust and blood and the sound of her own breathing…
Hands shackledher wrists and weight pinned her down. She fought her way through the murk, struggling to be free. Twisting, she slammed her head forward. Fresh pain stabbed through her skull, and the figure pinning her grunted. “Sachi!”
No, don’t make a sound.Don’t let them know they got to her. If they wanted to torture her… The weight on her chest shifted, and her struggle renewed. The binding on her wrists relaxed, and she struck with fists against shoulders—no, a back. Arms tightened around her.
“Sachi, it’s okay. Wake up.” The coaxing softness in the black arrested her. Blinking—she fought to wake, but a hazy orange-red light filled the room. Flickering flames, log walls, wooden floor—Gabriel. She shuddered and stopped hitting him, locking her arms around him and holding on tight. Across the room, sitting up from his bedroll, was Brad and his expression was pained and worried.
Brad is alive.
Memory and reality slammed together. Pulling her gaze from him, she slid her palms against Gabriel’s chest. The man holding her eased back a little to meet her gaze.
“I dreamed again,” she whispered. Even the vapors of her earlier drunk were utterly gone. The numbed feeling she’d achieved had let her find oblivion, then plummeted her into madness. Sweat slicked her arms and soaked her hair. Despite the fire and the layers of clothing, dampness soaked her skin.
“I know. You’re safe.”Steady. Gabriel was always so steady. Even when faced with the reality she might have to kill him, nothing rocked him. The only time she’d glimpsed real fear had been a half-elusive tangential memory when the team pulled her out of the building. The haunted look in his eyes when he’d met her gaze. They never discussed the moment, or how he was gone moments later. She understood the why, he’d gone to cover their exit and to make sure no one remembered the team had been there.
He’d done it without hesitation, even knowing they were taking her and he might never see her again.Would you have gone back for him?Brad’s question shimmied loose from the cloud buzzing in her mind. She’d refused to answer him earlier—not because she hadn’t wanted to answer, but because she hadn’t known. The nightmare jarred her, and she trembled.
Fisting Gabriel’s shirt, she stared at the bruise on his face and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Shh, nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart. It’s not our first rodeo.” The reminder of the few times she’d woken with a silent scream and how he’d been there, shaking her out of the nightmare dragging her back into hell, grounded her. Except, it was the first time it had happened since Brad wasalive,and…she never told Gabriel the content of her dreams.
“Yes, there is.” She grabbed her courage and her balls, and stopped running from the fear clawing her alive. “Brad asked if I would have gotten you after the hotel blew up—if I’d have contacted you and brought you into this life.” This close, she couldn’t miss the minute change in Gabriel’s expression. His eyes tightened, and his mouth compressed. Brad aggravated him, and he had every right to the aggravation. “And I didn’t know then if I would have, but I don’t think I would have gone back for you. I would have wanted to—I would have wantedyou, to see you, to hold you, to be with you—but I wouldn’t have done it.”
She did not turn her head. She didn’t want to know what Brad’s thoughts on the subject were because, fuck him, as much as she still loved him, she did love Gabriel, too.
“I wouldn’t have done it. Not because I didn’t care, but because I love you, and I can’t be responsible for your death, too.”
Rather than pull away, Gabriel’s arms squeezed her tighter. His narrowed eyes softened, and he leaned in to brush a kiss to her forehead. “Sweetheart, you aren’t responsible for anyone’s death.”
“I fired the shot.” Dammit, he didn’t understand. Digging her fingers into his shirt, she tugged on the fabric. “Don’t you see? I was the reason Cobalt was in that damn room. I fired the shot. The one that got them all killed.”
Gabriel pressed a finger to her lips, and his expression grew grave. “Stop. Brad—come here.”
Suddenly Brad was there on the floor at their side.
