“You know where he’d go?” Luca’s question cut through the noise in Rocco’s head.
He looked up slowly. “What?”
“If he’s been hiding all these years,” Luca said carefully, “there’s gotta be somewhere he’s staying.” Rocco’s brain finally started shifting away from pure rage and back toward strategy, which was good because he needed to think, not react.
“He hated cities,” Rocco muttered slowly. “Always talked about disappearing somewhere remote after deployment.”
Tony crossed his arms. “You mean like cabins, or campsites?”
“Yeah,” Rocco said.
Jonesy nodded once. “That narrows things down a bit.”
Luna stepped closer again. “You really think he’s been planning this for years?”
Rocco looked toward her, and the truth hit him hard. “No,” he said quietly. Everybody looked at him, and Rocco swallowed hard. “I think seeing me move on with you broke whatever control he had left.” Silence filled the cabin again, because deep down they all knew he was probably right. Gunner hadn’t reached out when Rocco was drinking himself numb. He hadn’t shown up when he was barely surviving. No, he waited until Rocco found peace. He found boxing and Luna. He finally had something worth losing, and that’s when Gunner struck.
“Obsession escalates when threatened,” Luna said quietly, slipping unconsciously into therapist mode. “If Gunner sees your relationship as replacing him emotionally?—”
“He’ll keep escalating,” Tony finished grimly. Rocco looked at the shattered window again and then down at the picture still glowing on his phone. Luna in his arms, where she was both protected and targeted. The thought made him sick.
“You should leave,” he said suddenly. The cabin immediately went tense.
Luna stared at him. “No.”
“Luna—” he started.
“No.” Her voice cut in instantly. “Stop trying to sacrifice yourself every five minutes.”
“I’m serious,” he demanded.
“So am I,” she said.
Rocco dragged a hand over his face roughly. “He’s fixated on you now.”
“And abandoning me somewhere won’t fix that,” she said. Damn it, she wasn’t wrong, and that was the worst part. Gunner already knew who she was and what she meant to him. There was no walking this back anymore.
Luna stepped directly in front of him now, forcing him to look at her. “You do not get to decide alone what happens next.” Rocco stared down at the stubborn set of her jaw and the fear she refused to let control her. He looked at the woman who walked straight into chaos and still chose him, and suddenly, the rage inside him shifted. It wasn’t gone. Hell, it would never be gone, but it was focused now on protecting her.
He touched her face gently, his thumb brushing beneath her eye. “I swear to God,” he said quietly, “if he touches you?—”
Luna grabbed his wrist immediately. “He won’t.” The certainty in her voice cracked something open inside his chest, because she believed in him completely. Even now.
Outside, thunder rolled low across the woods suddenly, the storm finally breaking overhead. Rain slammed hard against the cabin roof seconds later, and somewhere deep in the woods, a single gunshot echoed back in answer. Gunner
The storm hit hard. Rain slammed against the cabin roof in violent sheets while thunder rolled through the woods like distant artillery. Somehow, that made everything worse, because it reminded Rocco too much of deployment. Too many nights spent soaked to the bone with a rifle in his hands, waiting for enemies he couldn’t see. Only this time, the enemy wore the face of his dead best friend.
Another crack of thunder shook the windows, and Luna flinched beside him. Rocco’s hand found the small of her back instantly. Tony sat near the front window, cleaning his weapon with unsettling calm while Luca paced near the fireplace like a caged animal. Jonesy remained seated at the kitchen table, watching all of them with sharp, knowing eyes. Nobody had relaxed after the gunshot in the woods, not even a little.
“You think he’s circling back?” Luca asked finally.
“Probably,” Rocco answered quietly.
Tony glanced up. “You sound really calm about that.”
Rocco laughed once under his breath because he knew that it didn’t sound sane. “I just know how Gunner thinks.” The room went silent after that, because they all understood what he meant.
Luna moved closer beside him until her shoulder brushed his arm. He found that tiny contact to be grounding. Rocco looked down at her briefly. She looked exhausted already, and they hadn’t even survived one night yet. Guilt twisted violently in his chest again. She should be home right now—safe. Sleeping peacefully in her own bed instead of being trapped in a cabin with armed men and ghosts from his past.
