“Fuck.” Gabe rubbed his palm over the scruff on his jaw.
“Look, man. I may not know her very well, but from what I’ve already seen, your wife is one brave woman.” Matt grinned. “I mean, she shot Adrian Fucking Walker without blinking an eye. Pretty sure she’s strong enough to handle whatever else comes her way.”
“She is strong enough,” Gabe admitted. “She’s survived more pain and heartache than you know.”
“I figured as much.”
The two men shared a look. One Kole picked up on immediately.
“I have a feeling you two need to talk.” Kole slapped Gabe on the shoulder. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Gabe waited until Kole was out of earshot before speaking again. “Look, Matt. The story I told you back when Kat was in trouble…about why my marriage to Ellena didn’t work out—”
“Was bullshit.” Matt smirked. “Yeah, I sorta got that impression when I found out you were still married.”
Feeling chagrined, Gabe tried to explain. “A little over three years ago, Ellena found out she was pregnant.” He smiled sadly. “We were ecstatic. Not long after, we had a name picked out and the room all painted and ready to go. I couldn’t wait to be a dad. But then a couple months into the pregnancy, I came home from my morning run to find Vic, a former SEAL teammate of mine, in our kitchen. He had a gun to Elle’s head.”
“Ah, shit.”
“He, uh…” Gabe swallowed. “He’d been having a lot of issues. Erratic behavior on missions. Going off half-cocked and not following orders. Vic had a couple close calls early on, and he didn’t handle it or the aftermath well. I tried talking to him about it. Offered to get him help, but he blew me off. Said he was fine. For a while, that seemed true, but then while we were on a particularly bad op, Vic ended up executing one of our prisoners in cold blood.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.” Gabe could still see the man’s face right before the bullet entered his brain. “Of course, I had to remove him from the team. He was brought up on charges and was set to go to trial. His JAG attorney was planning to use Vic’s PTSD as his defense, but either way, Vic’s military career was done.”
“And he blamed you, so he went after Ellena in retaliation.”
Gabe nodded. “Ellena fought him off long enough for me to get a clear shot. Vic died instantly, and we thought it was over, but then about an hour later, Ellena started having these pains…”
“Shit. I’m sorry, brother.”
His heart ached, the pain still as raw and fresh as the day it happened. “I couldn’t bear the thought of another enemy of mine using her for retaliation, so I left.” Gabe looked out into the trees. “I also didn’t want the men I’m supposed to be leading to know what a chickenshit I was.”
This made Matt laugh. “No more than the rest of us. We’ve all got our own shit, Gabe. You should know that by now.”
“I do.” He met his friend’s stare. “Now.”
Matt offered him a tip of his head. “So you and Ellena. All that time apart and you stayed married.”
“I couldn’t file.” Gabe shrugged. “I couldn’t bring myself to sign a piece of paper stating I didn’t want to be married to her anymore. It would’ve been a lie.”
“Lucky for you, she felt the same way.” Matt grinned. “Otherwise she would’ve been the one to—”
“She did.” Gabe cut him off. “I got the papers a few weeks ago.”
Matt blinked. “Oh. Damn. So uh…what does that mean?”
“We’ve had some time to talk since coming here.” Gabe shoved his hands into his pockets. “Elle says she wants to give it another go.”
“That’s great!” Matt slapped him on the shoulder. “Congratulations, man.”
“Thanks. It would be a helluva lot easier to celebrate if someone wasn’t hell bent on killing her.”
“We’ll figure it all out, man.” Matt blew the concern away with confidence “That’s what we do. The important thing is she still loves you and is willing to give you a second chance. Believe me, I know what a gift that is.”
Gabe thought back to everything his teammate had to go through to finally get his happy ending. Maybe he should listen to the guy. After all, Matt and Katherine were proof that second chances really could work out.
“Fuck me.” Gabe grabbed the back of his neck again. “I can’t believe I’m actually considering letting her do this shit.”
