“Worked up?” he yelled.
She winced.
“You have no idea just how ‘worked up’ I can get.” His smile was mean. Not the flirtatious grin that she remembered. “But you’re all about to find out.”
The door opened behind her. She figured it was Cale, coming back inside to check on her because he’d heard Slade’s raised voice.
Slade’s eyelids flickered. “Sydney, do you still love me?”
The man’s moods were shifting constantly. Too fast. A break because of his captivity? Or something more? His eyes were bloodshot, lined with deep shadows.
“Sydney?”
“Of course,” she said, and it was true. “You have to know that a part of me will—”
The door closed again.
Not Cale.
She spun around, yanked open the door and saw Cale standing to the side and Gunner stalking toward the beach.
“Now he knows,” Slade said, sounding satisfied, “and now it’s time for his world to be ripped apart.”
* * *
SLADE STARED OUT at the pounding surf. He couldn’t remember the last time that he’d seen the ocean. The scent of the salt water was strong, and a million stars glittered down on him.
He’d shaved his beard and used a knife to cut his hair. He still didn’t feel quite human, but then, he hadn’t felt so for a very long time.
Sydney was gone. She’d headed back to her villa.
But not back to Gunner.
He wouldn’t let her go to Gunner. His brother actually thought that he hadn’t realized how Gunner felt about her. Slade had known. He’d always known.
I had something you wanted. He’d enjoyed keeping Sydney on his arm, showing Gunner what he’d never have.
His big brother, the one who was supposed to be so strong and tough and perfect.
Sydney would now see that Gunner wasn’t perfect.
They’d all see.
Slade was a survivor. He was the strong one. And Gunner...
He was the one who’d be destroyed.
Chapter Five
She couldn’t sleep. Sydney threw off the sheet that she’d yanked over her body, and climbed from the bed. She was wearing a pair of old jogging shorts and a T-shirt.
Sydney ran a hand through her hair. She’d been in that bed, tossing and turning, for hours. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Gunner.
And Slade.
“It’s time for his world to be ripped apart.”
No, no, it wasn’t time for that. Sydney hurried toward the sliding door and left her villa. She wasn’t going to be able to sleep until she talked to Gunner. Things were going to be rough for them all, but they would get through this.
He’d heard her say that she loved Slade. She did love him, but her feelings weren’t the same as they’d been two years ago. She wasn’t just going to abandon Slade, but she also wasn’t planning on losing Gunner.
He meant too much to her.
Her footsteps were quiet on the sand. Any sounds that she made were instantly swallowed by the pounding surf. Cale and Slade were in the second villa, Logan and Gunner in the third.
She walked past that second villa.
The moonlight shone down on her. There were no clouds tonight. No dense jungle. Just beauty, stretching all around her and—
A sharp retort cut through the night, the sound popping like a firecracker. Sydney knew exactly what that pop was, and even as her arm burned from the bullet as it grazed her flesh, she was diving down into the sand.
Gunfire.
Had the rebel group found them? They’d put so many miles between them, switched vehicles, made a false trail.
They shouldn’t have found us.
Then more gunfire came, kicking up the sand near her. She tried to hunch down, to make her way closer to the shoreline so that she’d have at least the slope of the sand to hide behind.
She hadn’t even thought to bring a weapon with her. Amateur mistake. But she’d just been going to see Gunner. Taking a quick stroll had seemed safe enough.
Now she was a target.
The shots were coming from the right, from the dense shadows just past Gunner’s villa. Her breath heaved in her lungs. The bullet had just grazed her. She’d been lucky.
Very, very lucky...especially considering the big target she must have made as she walked down the beach.
Then there were more shots, but not coming from the right near the last villa. Her team was rushing to help.
Cale was beside her in seconds. He crouched down, even as he kept his gun aimed at the spot where the shooter had been. “You all right?”
What was a little scratch? “Fine... Slade?” Because maybe he was the real target. Maybe the group wanted their hostage back.
“He was gone. He went out for air.” His head lifted, just a bit, as he scanned the area. “Logan was going round, trying to get behind the shooter.” His words were a mere whisper.
Silence. The pounding surf kept pummeling the beach. She expected to see Gunner come rushing up to join the fight.
He didn’t.
After a few more minutes, Logan appeared. “Get to better cover,” he ordered, and they rushed for the nearest villa.
Gunner still wasn’t there. Neither was Slade. Sydney licked dry lips. “Gunner?”
Logan glanced toward the door. “He needed some time alone.”
Her heart was racing too fast. “We have to find him! If he’s out there, he could be in danger.”
“It looks like the shooter is already gone.” Grim. Only there was something about Logan’s eyes, that hard, brittle glare that had Sydney on edge. “Just one shooter,” Logan muttered. “Just one, and he cleared out fast.”
“You think he tailed us?” Cale asked as he glanced carefully through the blinds.
Logan gave a quick shake of his head. Then his gaze fell on Sydney’s arm. “He hit you.”
“Barely a scratch,” she whispered. “Look, we have to find Gunner and Slade!” They were the priority, not her flesh wound.
Logan’s fingers curled around her good arm. “You were in the moonlight, walking on the beach?”
She knew where this was going. “Good thing he was a bad shot, huh?”
Logan didn’t speak.
“Incoming,” Cale murmured.
Then Gunner was there, rushing inside. “I heard gunfire!” His gaze flew to Sydney, dropped to her arm. “You’re hit!”
She pulled away from Logan. “It’s nothing.”
Slade followed behind him, rushing in just a few seconds later. His chest was heaving. “Shots...there were shots...”