Page 4 of Liam

Decker nodded but didn’t say any more, just lifted his chin at Jack.

“What is this favour?”

“I need you to find my sister and rescue her. I thought I could do as they asked but I can’t. I can’t lose her either.” His anguish and pain were on display for all to see, and Liam noted the dark circles under Gunner’s eyes. The man was exhausted, hanging on by a fraying rope. Liam thought of the women in his life, those he thought of as sisters and wondered what he would have done. He liked to think he would’ve done things differently, but would he? He didn’t know, and much as he hated it, his ire at Gunner faded just a fraction.

“Who are they?”

“A man who calls himself the Count. He has his headquarters at a strip club in London. Always has a team of highly trained muscle around, not Spec Ops but I’m guessing ex-military. He also has an Irish guy that just came on the scene. He seems high level, but I don’t know a lot about him, just that the Count trusts him.”

“Is the Count the top man?” Liam asked.

Gunner shook his head. “I don’t think so. He talks about his boss but never mentions any details. He is meticulous about it. I’m not convinced he even knows who it is.”

As Jack took all the information in, Liam knew Lopez would be working night and day with Will to uncover who the Count was, as well as trying to trace Bás.

“What did they ask you to do that you can’t?” Alex stood straight from the wall as he asked the question.

“They wanted me to kill Reid and Callie Lundholm.”

“And?”

“They want me to weaken Eidolon by taking out your partners. I’m sure you figured out I sabotaged missions.”

“We did. What we couldn’t figure out was why you failed. You had plenty of opportunities to do us all real harm, and you failed. Why?”

Gunner looked at Jack with a pained expression. “You were my brothers, the closest I had to family here. I didn’t want to succeed and hurt anyone. I was trying so hard to walk a thin line, but they must have figured out what I was doing. They sent me a video of a man standing over Milla’s bed.” Gunner swallowed, and Liam knew this was painful for him. “They asked if she was a virgin.”

Liam’s lip curled in anger at the thought of the vulnerable woman being terrified by such a threat.

“I had to go all in after that.”

“And if we do this favour, what will you do for us? Favours are for friends, family, or team members, not traitors.”

Jack was being a hard ass, and Liam understood his stance and why he was forcing Gunner to work for this.

“Whatever you want. Name it, and I’ll do it.”

“I need you to stay undercover, go about your business and get me all the information I need to take these motherfuckers down.”

“What about Milla?” Gunner looked scared but was holding his own with Jack.

“We’ll make sure Milla is safe.”

“You need to hurry. I can’t hold off doing something and keep her safe.”

Jack tipped his head to Decker, who moved forward with the laptop and hit play. They all looked on as Gunner watched the video of Fortis rescuing Milla.

He looked at Jack with hope in his eyes. “She’s safe?”

“Yes.”

Gunner sagged as if he was a balloon with all the air sucked from him, his head hanging as he sucked in vast pulls of air. “Thank you.”

Liam could see his old teammate was sincere as the tension left his shoulders in a visible sigh. Liam was pleased they could do that for him even though he’d betrayed them. He could see now Gunner wasn’t evil, misguided maybe, but he’d lost his way. If he were honest, there had been many a time when he’d been close to losing his own way.

“They won’t believe I had nothing to do with this. How will I repay you?”

“Because this is the video the men who are blackmailing you will see.” Decker hit play and Gunner watched, before he looked away, his face ashen.