My mom appearedin the doorway, face red, hands on her hips. “Who blew up my flower bed?”
We were all seated in the living room, watching a game on TV. I didn’t care much for football, but since I was sitting next to Gunner and he was playing with my hair while talking to Gabriel, I didn’t care what was on.
Dinner had gone well. As well as it could go, anyway. The guys had left their guns in a pile on the hallway table—apparently, this was a new rule instated by Mom after guns had been pulled at the dinner table one too many times—and nobody threw any knives.
Dad interrogated Gunner until evenIthought he’d done something wrong. But Gunner took it all in stride, not letting my family unsettle him.
“I didn’t think the grenade was still working,” Jude grumbled, avoiding Mom’s look.
“We told you it was,” Gabriel said before shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth.
“Just like you told me at the last job that the gun was loaded?” Jude asked, raising a brow at his brother.
Gabriel grinned. “Not quite like that. Since the gun wasn’t really loaded.”
“Which you fucking knew,” Jude exploded and shot out of his chair.
Gabriel followed, and not two seconds later, they were both on the ground, Jude in a headlock while punching Gabriel’s ribs.
“Take it outside,” Mom said and turned on her heels. “And clean up the mess you made,” she called over her shoulder.
Killer hopped in front of the couch, going up on his back legs and sniffing Liam’s hand, which he’d placed on the couch next to him. I’d brought Killer with me, feeling guilty for not spending more time with him.
There was also no grass at Gunner’s apartment, and I knew how much Killer enjoyed roaming in my parents’ expansive backyard.
I tensed, hoping Liam hadn’t taken his gun back from the hallway table yet.
But instead of trying to get rid of Killer, he bent down, picked him up, and sat him on his lap. He commenced brushing his hands over my bunny’s back in slow strokes, and Killer settled right in.
My jaw dropped, and I blinked a few times. I decided not to say anything since I didn’t want to disturb the unusual peace. Gabriel and Jude had gone outside to settle their argument, and nobody was fighting or trying to shoot anything.
“Is there good hunting at the cabin?” Liam asked, initiating a conversation with Gunner.
Who is this person?The brother I knew was standoffish and didn’t do small talk.
Gunner glanced at my bunny and cleared his throat.Is that guilt I see on his face?“There’s deer and elk around, but mostly it’s smaller game like cottontail hare, raccoon, and coyotes.”
I sat up, looking at him, thinking how small the animal he’d hunted was. “I ate rabbit when you cooked the mystery meat at the cabin, didn’t I?”
Gunner grimaced and avoided eye contact.
Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have asked.
“There wasn’t much else around, and I didn’t have much time,” he mumbled, still not looking at me. “And Killer is a different breed. No relation to the hare we ate.”
“Not sure that makes me feel better,” I said, feeling like throwing up while silently apologizing to my beloved fluffball.
“You’re not a vegetarian, Fey. If you can eat cow, you can eat rabbit,” Liam put in, matter-of-fact as usual.
“I disagree,” I said, glaring at him. “I ate Killer’s relative.”
I could have survived on baked beans for a bit longer. They weren’t all that bad. But instead, I’d eaten a tiny, innocent rabbit.
Liam mumbled something under his breath, but I didn’t get a chance to start an argument since Gunner pulled me back to his side and put his lips to my ear. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but you needed to eat something that didn’t come out of a tin. We didn’t know how long we’d be at the cabin, and there just wasn’t anything else around.”
He sounded upset, and I melted into him. I turned my head so our lips were almost touching. “Don’t apologize. I didn’t want to know what the meat was when I ate it. This isn’t anyone’s fault but my own.”
Because I really only had myself to blame.
