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“You might oughta tell your wife that, you know, since she divorced you and all. Speaking of Grace—”
“Were we?”
“Tell me what’s going on. Why’d you bring her in?”
Gabe took a long drink of beer, his gaze constantly moving, looking for threats that weren’t there. “Because I was afraid the rumors might be true. I thought bringing her back into a legitimate game might—I don’t know—make her not so hell-bent on the path of self-destruction. She’s not that person. I have to at least try.”
Love was a ridiculous thing, Jack thought. For something that, in his mind, didn’t even exist, to have the power to make a man like Gabe Brennan vulnerable when the worst terrorists in the world had been trying and failing for the last sixteen years.
“You can’t choose the timetable for a person to heal after trauma. Have you considered she might not be ready for this?”
“Yeah, I have. We can’t do this job without her. There’s not a marine sniper or an agent anywhere in the world who’s as good at the long shots as she is.”
“I agree with you. But you’re leaving something out.” Jack signaled for another beer and waited Gabe out patiently for the full story.
Gabe sighed. “She only agreed to come with me if I promised to help her take out Kamir Tussad.”
Jack took an unfortunate swallow of beer just before Gabe dropped that bombshell, and the bitter liquid lodged in his throat. He coughed until he caught his breath and then said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you both so desperate to die?”
“It was only a matter of time. If I could have gotten to him before now, I would have taken him out, but the man knows how to disappear. I have contacts who still keep me informed of his movements.”
“Gabe,” Jack said, shaking his head.
“You don’t understand.”
“I do, my friend. There’s never a more powerful motivator than revenge. But sometimes it’s hard to see the outcome from the red haze clouding your vision.”
Gabe’s knuckles turned white as his grip tightened on the bottle. “He ripped my life to shreds with one bullet, Jack. I lost my daughter and my wife because of him. I lost everything. Grace has just given me the excuse to do what I’ve been dreaming about. And I can do it easier with her than without her.”
Jack closed his eyes and damned all friendships to hell. That’s what happened when people started mattering. The checks and balances system never got even.
“Count me in,” he said. “You’re going to need me. I’ve been across every square mile of Iran with my SEALs.”
“Thanks. I’ll owe you.”
“They don’t take paybacks in hell.” Jack scooted out of the booth. “You want some advice?”
“Not particularly.”
“Go make love to your wife. Watching the two of you makes me feel like a voyeur.”
“Yeah, except that my wife hates my guts and blames me for the death of our child. And she has every right.”
Jack slapped Gabe hard on the shoulder and said, “I’ll put my money on you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I hate to keep a lady waiting.”
ChapterFive
Sleep eluded Grace.
It had been a long time since she’d slept a full night through. Her mind never seemed to be able to rest. If it wasn’t nightmares, it was memories. And she’d take the nightmares any day. She hadn’t been that lucky tonight.
She woke up in her bed, her flesh clammy and her mind disoriented. The weight of Maddie’s limp body against her own and the stickiness of blood as it soaked both of them was vivid in her mind—as if she were truly reliving the event.
She rubbed her hands over her dry, cold face. She wasn’t able to cry anymore. She wasn’t sure she’d really cried for two years. But it wasn’t the lack of tears that worried her. It was her hands. They shook violently. And she was useless without the steadiness of her hands.
This was all Gabe’s fault. It had to be. There had to be someone to blame, and he was the only person available. He was the only one who could make her face a past she so desperately needed to bury.
How could she have been so stupid as to end up with someone like him? Frank Bennett had introduced them her first year on the job. She’d been so young—barely twenty-one—and Gabe had been her first lover. And her first commander on an assignment, which was never a good combination. But it had been fireworks from the first moment they’d touched, and somehow, they’d managed to keep their relationship a secret from everyone except Frank. That man never missed anything.
