“Understood.”
“And…” He paused and looked over his shoulder. “…If having him around freaks Jorja out or upsets her, he’s gone too. Because I will not tolerate her being afraid in any of my homes. That will never be acceptable to me, ever. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Sir.”
He didn’t buy Dory’s agreeable attitude for one second, never mind for a minute, but he’d take it. Their monthly meeting next week was going to be fucking fabulous… not. Gunnar jabbed his finger on the call button for the elevator more times than was necessary, and grumbled under his breath at the three seconds it took for it to open. His phone rang just as he stepped into it. “Talk to me, Remi.”
“Our KIA tango is confirmed to be Arthur L. Brant.” Remi took him at his word. “He had a mental breakdown after his son died. From what his records show, he stopped filling hisprescriptions about two months ago, and missed the last couple of appointments with his therapist.”
“Did nobody follow up?”
“Hell no, that’s like asking if the Easter Bunny is real,” Remi replied. “Our best guess is he had some kind of psychotic break and decided it was your fault…”
“It was my fault. I was team leader. I didn’t bring his son home alive.”
“Bro.” Remi sounded exasperated. “We all know when we sign up that the possibility is there that we don’t come back. We know it and we do it anyway. Unless you are telling me you lied on all your reports, which I know you didn’t, or you pulled the plug on that IED, then quit blaming yourself for what you can’t change.”
He stepped out of the elevator and stopped outside his door to finish the conversation before he went in, or Talon would join Remi on the ‘don’t blame yourself’ bandwagon. “Sure.”
“Which means you are going to brood and sulk about it and still blame yourself for it.”
Hah, his brother knew him so well. He changed the subject, bringing them back on track. “And the list threat? What’s happening with that?”
“I was able to hack through from Jorja’s computer and find the source files,” Remi said. “I killed it. I’m still gonna keep an eye on it for a while and make sure it doesn’t pop up somewhere else. But for now, consider it a nonissue.”
“Thanks, Rem. Will there be backlash for…”
“None. I verified with POTUS.” Remi was ahead of the game this morning. “He fired first, you acted in self-defense and to save Jorja. There will be no charges or other shit to deal with.” Remi’s voice changed from all business to softer. “How’s our girl?”
While he loved that his brother seemed to have claimedJorja as one of their family, he had to work more than he would like to push down the twinge of jealousy. “She’s sleeping.”
“Then what the hell are you on the phone with me for?” Remi scolded. “Go be with her.”
“I’m on my way there now.” He scuffed his toe on a mark on the carpet and made a mental note to tell Dory to send the cleaners in here when they left. “Make sure you triple verify everything on Michaels,” he ordered. “Dory has his eye on him for a team.”
“And you want to rip his head off, but you trust Dory, so you haven’t yet?”
That pretty much summed it up in a nutshell. “Yeah.”
“Already on it,” Remi replied. “I’ve reached out to our contacts. Nothing happens until we hear back from all of them.”
“Good.”
“What are we doing about the hitman?” He heard a ruffling of paper as if Remi was flipping through his notes “Tristan van Dodewaard?”
“Make sure none of the agencies are looking for him,” Gunnar said. “If not, cut him loose.”
“Consider it done.” Knowing Remi, he probably scribbled it down. “That’s all I’ve got for now. Everything else can wait until you are back home.”
“Good. Talk to ya later.” He ended the call and opened the door to his suite. Talon lifted his head off the couch and looked at him. “Go back to sleep, it’s only me.” His youngest brother nodded and laid back down. Gunnar heard his soft snores before he made it to the bedroom door, telling him Talon was either relaxed enough or exhausted that he could sleep in a space which wasn’t his and Zombie’s.
Gunnar ignored Zombie’s raised lip. The woofer could grumble at him all he wanted. His own human was in thenext room. He went around the other side of the bed and sat on the end to take off his boots before climbing in behind Jorja.
As if she sensed him behind her in her sleep, she scooted back against him, placing her butt back against his groin. His dick immediately took notice, but what the hell, he was a man whose woman had her peachy ass against his cock. There wasn’t a chance in hell that he wouldn’t pay attention. He wrapped his other arm around her side, his palm splaying across her soft belly and sighing in relief. There would never be a time when he curled up around her which didn’t feel like home to him.
“Huh…”
“Shh, beautiful, it’s only me.”
