Page 22 of Gunner

Chapter 11

Gunner trudgedthrough the woods behind Lacey’s house looking for more signs of the men who’d been watching and found nothing. True to their word, the men of Eidolon had come through and every night since the attack on Lacey’s sanctuary there had been someone there at night.

He’d hardly left her side since that day, either. Choosing to do his work from there on a computer Will had set up for him in the spare room. Lacey had her home office, so it worked well. The two times he’d gone into Eidolon to make it seem to the two idiots watching him that he was indeed working his way back in, he’d left Lacey with either Evelyn or Roz and Kanan.

Roz might be heavily pregnant, but she was still the deadliest woman he knew, and he wouldn’t cross her even now. Her husband Kanan was ex-MI5 and equally deadly. He now worked for Fortis Security, a friend of Eidolon’s and their frequent ally.

Gunner looked up, trying to find Waggs, his former or maybe current teammate; he wasn’t sure what the state of play was yet. They’d been treating him like they forgave him, but he could still sense the undercurrent of wariness in some, especially Blake. He understood it, probably more so now he had Lacey.

If anyone had watched her take the same beating that Pax had and not stopped it, he’d lose his damn mind. It was one of his biggest regrets, and he had a lot of them. He’d tried to apologise, but in truth Blake wasn’t ready to hear it yet, and Gunner respected that.

Waggs stepped out in front of him, and he almost jumped out of his skin. The man was spooky the way he could just appear like that, and he was one hell of a medic. Each man on the Eidolon team owed him their life at least once.

“Fucking hell, Waggs, you scared the shit out of me.”

Waggs had been the quickest to accept him back, and he would never betray that trust ever again, not any of them, he’d die first.

Waggs smirked and shrugged. “Losing your edge, Viking.”

“Nah, just things on my mind.”

“One of those wouldn’t be a certain ex-model, would they?”

Gunner cocked his head. “That obvious?”

“Duh, you’ve hardly been discreet about it, but I wasn’t sure if it was for the benefit of anyone watching from the Carmine camp or if it was real.”

Waggs and Gunner continued walking through the woods toward the river, checking all the wires were in place and satisfied they were, began the walk back to the house.

“Oh, it’s real, alright. I’ve never felt like this about a woman before.”

Waggs angled to look at him. “I thought you two would get together at Skye and Nate’s wedding, but then everything happened, and your life blew up.”

“I think we might have, but I guess things happen for a reason.”

“You believe that?”

Gunner shrugged. “I have to. Otherwise, all the shit that’s happened is for nothing. If Lacey is my reward for surviving, then it’s worth it. My penance is living with what I’ve done to those people I care about.”

“You think that’s enough? Just to live with what you’ve done and go on and have a perfect life with Lacey?”

Gunner stopped and focused on Waggs, seeing no condemnation or blame just a question in the other man’s eyes.

“No, I don’t and if there were a way to make what I did good then I would, but there isn’t so I have to live my life as best I can. If I’m lucky enough to have a woman like Lacey care about me, don’t I owe it to her to give the same back?”

“Yes of course and I’m not talking about you, I just mean in general. We all know you’ve punished yourself for what happened. Have you been to see Milla yet, since you got back?”

“No, I haven’t had time.”

Waggs just lifted his head but stayed silent. He knew the truth, so he didn’t need Waggs to spell it out. He was ashamed to go and see her knowing that once again, her life had been affected by his actions.

“You should go.”

“Yeah, I will when all this is sorted out.”

They had reached the large back lawn now and were walking toward the house. Lacey waved at them through the office window, and he smiled, feeling his heart jump at the smile she gave him. He waved back and knew Waggs was watching him and didn’t feel the slightest bit self-conscious.

He walked into the house and saw Waggs head around the side, blending back into the land surrounding the house and keeping watch. Taking the stairs two at a time, he headed to the office and grinned when he saw Lacey was on a video call with Skye. He tried to back out and give her privacy, but she turned.