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“Because… I…” He licks his lips and sends me hurtling back to that day in the gym. “Jesus. I dunno. Because I was gonna go number two in my pants. Fuck, Lib.” He leans closer and presses shaking lips to mine. “He fucked it up. He always fucks it up.”
“Did he fuck the other vest up?”
He leans over me to grab the cutters Jay abandoned earlier. Almost like he’s in contemplation, he snaps the lock from my cage and goes to work on the third. “No, he got the other one right.”
“So if you’d guessed wrong on the other one, we’d all be dead?”
He nods. Snips. And leans over me to cut my cuffs. “Yes. We’re running on fifty-fifty odds at this point.”
“That’s just…” I draw in a long breath when he releases my hand with one fast snip. “Jesus, Gunner. That’s not good enough.”
“I know. Come on.” He climbs off my hips and helps me sit up. Unlatching the cage with gentle hands, he helps open it up and feed my arms through. “Careful, babe. It should be dead, but I’m doubting myself.”
“Don’t doubt.” My voice cracks as I escape the contraption and move as far from it as possible “Don’t doubt. We don’t have time for doubt. Come on.” I grab his hand when all he does is sit on his haunches and study the allegedly-dead vests. “Let’s get out. We’ll send the bomb squad in to dispose of them.”
“Yeah.” He slowly climbs to his feet and turns to study the rest of the messy club. Olly’s Colt lays discarded on the dance floor like some odd memorial to a war we never signed up for. Blood splatters form a pattern up the glass where liquor bottles are displayed for patrons’ delight.
The world is silent, because everyone has already been sent back six blocks.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been in such a silent world before.”
“They left us,” Gunner murmurs as we approach the doors. “They left us like mongrel dogs tied to train tracks.”
“No, they…” I frown and try not to let his words hurt us. “No, they were ordered back. We’re alive. Let’s be happy that–”
“Let us pass!” Kane Bishop’s booming voice brings our eyes up as soon as we open the club door. He and Jay fight against Spence and Romeo’s holds. The soldiers use all their strength to push the brothers back, but it’s a battle that the Bishops refuse to lose. They fight dirty against their friends and make headway with every second that passes, but then the door slams shut at our backs, and four sets of eyes come to us in the otherwise silence.
Romeo trips forward, because Jay stops fighting him. Spence spins, and when his eyes stop on us, he releases the oldest brother and drops his hands to his knees as though he needs to catch his breath.
For the first time in Gunner’s life, armed to their teeth and running at full pelt, his brothers run toward him with acceptance and love in their eyes, rather than hatred.
