Stephanie Tyler - Unbreakable

“Thank God.” He let Gunner help him out of the last of the cuffs, and then Gunner led them both across the grass toward the guesthouse.

“Where’re Jem and Key?” Dare called.

“Looking for Drea,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ve got this—go help them.”

He watched Dare break away, but Avery remained with him. He slammed into the guesthouse and found it empty on first look. Together, he and Avery searched every inch of the place and found nothing.

As he looked around, his phone beeped. He looked at the text message from Jem.

Place is set to blow. Drea’s the trigger.

“What is it?” Avery asked. He showed her the message and she grimaced. “Can they defuse it?”

“I’m sure they’re trying. The faster we can find Drew, the better. We have to know if he’s still going to be out there after all of this.”

“Where else could he be? Is there a basement, like in Powell’s house?” she asked.

He stopped cold, a sudden memory flashing. “No, there’s no basement. But there’s someplace else. Come on.”

He grabbed her hand, pulled her along the lawn, looking for the small statue that was nothing more than a square monument that listed the name of the house and the date it was built. Innocuous, but in an odd spot. One night, Gunner had figured out why.

Now he yanked on the rock, pushed and pulled and heard the mechanism under the grass begin to move. Slowly, he rolled back the AstroTurf to reveal the opening. Then he went down first, with Avery following close behind.

The catacomb tunnels were narrow, claustrophobic. It was damp down here, and Gunner was almost certain it flooded during high tide. The lapping of the water along the floor as they rounded the corner told him he was right. Both their boots sloshed in the water that grew progressively deeper as they approached a hallway with several closed, locked doors.

Gunner kicked open each and every one of them, Avery holding her weapon, covering him. When they got to the last door, he kicked and saw the body lying in the water on the floor.

The man’s skin was deathly pale. There was blood coming from his nose and his ears. But still, Drew Landon had the strength to turn his head to look at him.

* * *

Key was next to Jem and both men got as close as they could to check out the mechanism.

“Gotta be attached to the main house in several places,” Key said quietly. There was no way to not let Drea know what was happening, and hell, they were certainly in this together.

“I’m not leaving you, Drea,” Jem told her. “Not leaving you here.”

He turned back to Key. “Is it timed as well as triggered?”

“Yes. Near as I can tell, we’ve got about four minutes left before it blows. The weight of the stone means it’s not going to go down all that fast. We can get out. But it’s going to be tricky.”

Is she wired to blow? he mouthed, and Key’s expression tightened. He nodded, pointed a finger at the red and green and yellow wires that snaked into her shirt.

“If we cut them?”

“The main bomb goes.”

Jem cursed and texted Gunner as Dare yelled for them before he came into the room.

“Where’s Gunner?” Jem asked.

“Looking for Drew.”

“He’s not answering my texts.”

“We’ve got to cut the wires, Jem,” Key told him. “Waiting’s not going to save anyone. They’ll have time to get out.”

Jem took the cutters from Key and nodded. “Go, brother—you and Dare, get a head start.”

“No fucking way, Jem.”

He looked up and Dare shook his head. He cursed, then smiled at Drea. “Once you’re free, I’m going to carry you out of here. I’m going to run like the wind, baby, so you just hang on as best you can and know I’m not letting you go.”

And then he held his breath and cut the yellow and the green wires, effectively stopping the trigger that would cause the bomb attached directly to her to explode.

Things happened so fast after that. The rumble started under their feet as the explosions went off in a series, rather than all at once. He cut her loose and put her over his shoulder. With Key in front and Dare behind, the men flew down the steps as fast as they could, bricks and stones slamming around them down the narrow passageway. The floor was shaking under their feet and they had to get to solid ground.

When a column fell in front of them, nearly trapping them on the stairs, Key managed to shove himself through.

“Hand her to me, Jem,” Key said, and Jem did so. She was so cold and pale, but thankfully she was malleable enough for him to get her through the small space. He crawled forward, Dare right behind him. Jem put Drea over his shoulder again and as they landed on the last step, the stairway collapsed with a loud boom behind them, the air in front of them a dustbowl they could barely see through.

“Keep moving forward,” Key shouted. Jem hooked a hand onto his brother’s shoulder, and Dare did the same for him.

“I have her mouth and nose covered,” Dare told him after he let go of Jem for a second. As he followed Key, he realized that this was exactly what they meant by blind faith.

* * *

The sound of the explosion was magnified down in the catacombs. Avery grabbed Gunner’s arm and they both looked down the hall. The main doorway wasn’t blocked. Yet. But the way the rumble sounded, it wouldn’t be long.

Gunner went to Landon, a hand on his chest.

“Donal . . . never right,” Landon managed. “I tried. Always . . . got burned.”

“I know he killed Josie.”

Landon’s eyes fluttered. “Never . . . believed me.”

“I didn’t. Not until now.”

“Tried . . . to make you . . . feel like family.”

Gunner couldn’t tell him he didn’t want to be a part of Landon’s fucking family, but would never do that to a dying man. A dying man who’d done his best to help Gunner in his own sick way.

Drew gasped; then his eyes closed.

“Is he dead?”

“No, he’s still alive.” Gunner felt the weak pulse and raised the man’s eyelids. “Barely.”

He sat back on his heels as the walls started to crumple around him, stared at the man who would no doubt rather be dead than paralyzed. His entire business was ruined, an empire brought to its knees by careful, vicious planning.

S8 had made a name for itself over the past months by taking down everything Drew Landon had worked so hard to build, and all because he couldn’t extricate himself from his family.

Leaving him here might be the kindest thing Gunner could do for him.

“Gunner, we have to go. Now.” Avery touched his shoulder. “Do you want to take him with us?”

So much fucking understanding in her voice. He stood, took her hands. “I love you, Avery. Have from the first second I saw you.”

“I love you too, Gunner. Always will,” she murmured, and they stared at each other, even as the walls began to crack around them.

“We’ll leave him. He always said he wanted to be buried here. Should get his wish. And we leave him behind. We start new.”

When he looked back at Landon again, the man had passed. Gunner didn’t know how he knew, but he just did. And the cycle was broken, just like that.

Jem made it out of the building with Drea, Dare and Key just in time to watch the tower where Drea had been for the last day and a half crumple. He glanced behind him and kept running until they were at a safer distance, knowing that Dare and Key had broken off to run back toward the collapsing mansion.

“Drea, honey.” He put her on the ground, brushed the hair from her face. She was pale. Barely breathing. In shock for sure. He’d suspected as much in the tower, but didn’t want to risk breaking her out of it and having her possibly panic and flail and set the bombs off.

But now . . . “Come on, you’re okay. You made it. So fucking brave.”

He rubbed her arms, her face, rough touches meant to bring her back, but she sat like a stone. He took off his jacket that had all the ammo and weaponry in it, wrapped it around her, but she still shivered, even under the warm sun. Not a good sign.

He looked back and saw no one coming toward them. Grace was texting him, asking for an update.

He had nothing to tell her. Dare must’ve texted her as they’d gotten free from the building so she wouldn’t worry. At least not any more than what they’d already put her through.

All he could do was hold Drea, tell her it was okay, over and over, and pray he was right. And finally—fucking finally—the rest of his team appeared. They were running from the building that was leaving a thick cloud of dust in its wake and Jem picked Drea up and began to run toward where they’d left the boat.

“He wired the ground!” Key was yelling as they all ran, got into the water as Gunner dragged the boat. They were floating maybe ten feet from shore as they watched the grass they’d just run on go up in flames.

“Jem, lay her down—raise her feet above her heart,” Gunner was saying. Jem grabbed some of the cushions from the seats, threw them on the floor as he lowered her. Avery came over and held up Drea’s legs, as Gunner instructed.

“Check her, Gun—make sure,” he said as Avery held on to him. “Did you get them?”

“They’re both dead,” she confirmed. “Drew wasn’t in on it.”

“Still deserved what he got,” Jem said, and Gunner nodded. “You’re free, Gun. Finally free.”

Gunner put a hand on Drea’s forehead. “At what cost?”

“She’ll be okay. She has to be,” Jem said fiercely, because he couldn’t believe anything else. And when they pulled up to the boat, Grace was waiting for them.