Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(26)
No more avoiding what they still felt for each other.
He flattened a hand on Liam’s Jeep while his buddies unloaded their gear in Gavin’s garage. The scent of motor oil hung in the humid air. He could hear Radar and Disco playing in the corner with Rachel, wrestling while they got to know each other. “There’s no way I can thank you enough.”
Liam clapped him on the shoulder. “You don’t have to. Right, Hugh?”
“Truth,” Hugh barked, a no-nonsense guy with a huge soft spot when it came to women and kids. “We’re just gonna unpack our gear, get some surveillance equipment set up. We’ll get this place locked down and secure. Then we’ll set out the tech breadcrumbs to draw him right in. Just point us to our quarters, and we’ll get to it.”
Social media worked both ways. People worried so much about having securities in place to keep people out that they missed the beauty of lowering security to let people in. Jared Lewis would be taunted and shown exactly where to look.
Gavin’s place. His turf.
He owned the whole duplex and hadn’t rented out the other side, yet, since he’d planned to advertise it as furnished. “The other side of the unit has all the necessities, no frills, but the mattresses on the beds are new. I can’t guarantee things match. My color-coordinating skills are pretty much shit these days.”
Liam thumped his shoulder again, always thoughtful about keeping Gavin oriented. “Thank God you’re alive.” His voice hitched for a second before he continued, “That’s the only thing that matters.”
“I realize that.” Gavin slumped back against the Jeep, thinking about all the times they’d gone four-wheeling, feeling invincible. “Every damn day I know I’m here and Jablonski isn’t. That doesn’t make me feel much better.”
Hugh’s heavier tread sounded, and he stopped beside them. “I never took you to be a self-pitying sort.”
“Easy for you to say.” Gavin couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice, then felt like hell for it. Hugh’s first wife and child had died in an accident. The man well understood about dark places.
Liam stepped into the breach, ever the peacemaker. “What about Stacy, what does she mean to you? Clearly a lot for you to call us.”
He’d considered these men his best friends, as close as family, and yet he’d never told them about her. “We used to be a couple back in high school. Her ex will try to kill her. I have no doubts about that.”
Hugh cracked his knuckles. “And why isn’t he in jail?”
“Can’t prove anything,” Gavin answered, frustrated as hell. “The best she’s been able to manage is a restraining order.”
Rachel rested a hand on his arm. “Then with luck, we’ll flush him out, easy enough to do using the Internet and some strategic leaks. Let this guy set himself up, and we’ll be here to keep her safe until the police arrive. You’re not in this alone.”
A strange concept for him to wrap his brain around. Even as part of the pararescue team, he’d usually held himself apart, the quiet dude. Stacy had always been the one to pull him out of his shell. Like she’d done now, having him reach out to his friends.
“I want him in prison where he belongs.” And he wanted to hurt him. Bad. With a rage so intense it threatened to overwhelm him. Maybe that was why he’d brought his friends, too. To make sure he didn’t kill the bastard. Because he could. Even blind. He could. Slowly. Painfully.
Yeah, he definitely needed his friends to keep him in check while they pulled this off. Because if he killed Jared Lewis, life would be over for Gavin, too. And for the first time since he’d lost his sight, he considered the possibility of a future.
? ? ?
Stacy stacked paper plates and tucked them into the trash can, still a little overwhelmed by the people who’d dropped everything to help her—or rather help Gavin. “Your friends are nice.”
“Almost felt like a normal supper.” Gavin wiped the kitchen table, feeling with one hand ahead of the damp rag.
A normal supper? Like a normal couple having a dinner party. How things could have been if she’d been brave enough to leave town with him. If she hadn’t been so stubborn. If she hadn’t been foolish enough to throw away the love of this incredible man for some idea of home and family that had never happened for her anyway.
She shook off the regrets that gained her nothing. Focus on the present. She’d been able to get to know Gavin’s friends over pizza and tea, learn a bit about his world since he’d left her. And to her surprise, they’d also spelled out a plan to lure Jared out of hiding sooner rather than later. The prospect made her gut knot with terror, but the thought of living her life in limbo was even more unpalatable. “Lucky turn that you own this whole duplex.”
“So you can have your own room here on my side?”
“I didn’t say that.” She folded down the three pizza boxes and tucked them in the trash as well, only two slices left to store in the refrigerator. During that brief time that she and Gavin had lived together on their own after turning eighteen, they’d shared midnight snacks of leftovers. Those two pieces of pizza called to her to make new memories.
He walked to the sink, his hip brushing hers as he passed, then pitched the rag over the faucet with an almost perfect aim, leaving three-fourths of it trailing off the side. “Why did you marry him?”