Into the Lair (Falcon Mercenary Group #2)(28)

“So back up to the part where Gabe helped you dispose of the body,” Ian said grimly. “He just took off afterward and left you to fend for yourself?”

Katie furrowed her brow. “He made sure I was safe, and he taught me how to take care of myself and how to always look over my shoulder. What else was he supposed to do? He couldn’t go AWOL, he damn sure couldn’t quit because his sister murdered someone, and he couldn’t just start hanging out with me either. Together we attracted a hell of a lot more attention than me by myself.”

“She has a point,” Braden conceded.

Ian scowled. “I fail to see how Gabe is the good guy here. He left her by herself with a deranged ass**le who wanted her blood. He had other options, and he damn sure didn’t use them.” He looked hard at Braden. “If she was your sister would you have left her behind like that?”

Braden pursed his lips, then glanced at Katie. Finally he shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Katie said firmly. She wasn’t about to let them rag on Gabe’s decision. He’d kept her alive, and that’s all she cared about.

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” Ian said with a nod. “What does matter is that we get the hell out of the country before crazy-ass de la Cruz catches up with us.”

She cocked her head and stared up at Ian. “Why out of the country, and where are we going?”

“Can you think of a better place?” he asked calmly. “Or maybe you want to hang around and let Ricardo play target practice with our asses?”

She shook her head. “But I don’t have a passport. Right now I don’t have much beyond a driver’s license.”

“We can handle that,” Braden said. “We’ll worry about it when we’ve put an ocean between us and Ricardo.”

She nodded shortly then stared between the two brothers. “Now it’s your turn. Who are these people supposedly after me? You said Gabe sold you out but in the next breath, you say he took a bullet for you. So which is it? Is he a hero or a traitor?”

Chapter Fourteen

Braden grimaced. “He’s both.”

Katie stared up at him, pain and confusion brimming in her eyes. After hearing what she’d endured at the hands of the de la Cruz brothers, he had no desire to cause her more distress.

“He betrayed you for me? I’m to blame for his death?”

Ian cursed and backed away from the bed, his fists clenched tight at his sides. “You’re not to blame for the choices Gabe made, Katie. Gabe was a big boy. He didn’t have to do things the way he did. He could have come to us or to Eli. We’ve been out of the service for a while now. There was no reason to keep you a secret any longer.”

She blinked in shock. “What? He wasn’t enlisted anymore?”

Braden blew out his breath. Gabe was causing way more trouble dead than he’d ever caused alive. It was too bad he wasn’t around because Braden would be tempted to kick his ass for the way he’d taken care of Katie.

Hell, she’d been little more than a kid. Completely alone save a few visits when Gabe was on leave. The rest of the time she was left to fend for herself. Instead of doing the right thing when she was forced to kill a man in self-defense, Gabe only ensured that she’d spend the rest of her life running after he covered up the deed. Damn fool. He could have asked his team for help. They would have gladly given it.

And here she was, grateful for whatever morsels Gabe had doled out. Yeah, maybe he’d taught her to survive in a tough world, but he damn well should have been protecting her from predators like de la Cruz.

“No, he wasn’t enlisted any longer. None of us are, Katie. It’s why he damn sure should have come clean about you. We could have helped. We certainly could have gotten you the hell out of the country where you’d be safe.”

She twisted her hands in her lap and stared down at her fingers. “He talked about taking me to Argentina. But that was a while ago. Right after that he got weird. More distant and…paranoid. It went beyond the stuff with Ricardo.”

Braden exchanged glances with Ian. It was obvious that Gabe hadn’t told her shit about what had gone on during their mission to Adharji or the consequences. Which meant she didn’t know of her brother’s ability to become invisible or of Braden’s and Ian’s unstable shifts to big cats.

Ian cleared his throat and shook his head in warning at Braden.

A peculiar expression crossed Katie’s face followed by the slow downturn of her mouth. “If he wasn’t enlisted, why didn’t he come home? What have you been doing all this time? Or was this recent? Why did he keep so much from me?”

If she only knew just how much he’d kept from her.

Braden threw Ian another desperate look. Ian ran a hand over his head then settled on Katie’s other side.

“Look, Katie. I don’t know why Gabe did half the shit he did,” Ian said. “I can only tell you what I do know. He sold us out because there were threats against you. But in the end, he stepped in front of a bullet meant for us.”

“And he asked you to find me?”

“He wanted us to make sure you were safe,” Braden said gently.

She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. She rubbed tiredly then dragged her fingers through her still-damp hair. “Okay, so you swoop in and save me from the bad guys. What then? You say we’re leaving the country. That’s all well and good but I’ve got to come back sometime. What about these people you say are after me?”