Page 60 of Rescuing Ally: Part 2

Honest, heavy regret.

But I’m not ready to hear it. Not now. Not with her missing. Not with all of them gone and everything unraveling at the seams.

“You don’t get to tear us apart when she needs us the most.” My voice shakes, not from weakness, but from the weight of everything crumbling between us.

“I know,” he mutters, wincing as he sits up straighter. “I fucking know.”

“Then why the hell did you say it?”

He doesn’t answer. Just sits there in the grit and rock, blood smeared along his mouth, and for the first time in eight years, I don’t recognize him. And that scares the shit out of me more than any mission ever has.

Because if I can’t trust him now—when everything’s on the line—then what the fuck do we have left?

And if this falls apart… We all do.

Gabe wipes at his mouth again, smearing blood along his jaw. He still doesn’t stand. Doesn’t argue. Just looks up at me likehe’s trying to find the right words in the middle of the wreckage he created with a single goddamn sentence.

Then, finally, quietly, he says, “She’s not mine. Never was. She’s ours. She chose both of us, and I know that. I knew it was wrong when I said it—I just… I was scared. Fucking terrified. Of losing her. And now…”

“What about now?”

“Now, I’m losing you and that fucking kills me, all because I should’ve kept my mouth shut.” His voice cracks on the last word, and it lands like a punch in my chest.

But I don’t let it show. I can’t.

Not now. Not with Ally missing. Not with the others gone and time slipping through our fingers like sand we can’t hold onto.

I drag in a breath, slow and shaky, chest still tight from the swing I threw and the ones I didn’t.

“We’re not doing this.” My voice comes out low, rough. “You broke something, and I don’t have time to figure out if it can be fixed.”

He nods once, like he knew that was coming. Like he knows he deserves it.

“Ally needs us whole.” My gaze stays on him, brutal and unflinching. “I’ll do whatever the hell it takes, and I know you’ll bleed for her just like I will. This thing between us needs to take a back seat. It’s a distraction that’s dangerous.”

“I know.” Gabe presses a hand to his ribs and nods again, slower this time. He understands, and maybe that’s all I need right now.

I step back, chest heaving, pulse still pounding like a drum in my head. The crunch of boots behind us snags my attention, heavy and purposeful.

I glance down at Gabe—still on the ground, blood running from his mouth, and feel the weight of everything we almost lost. Everything we still might lose. Eight years of side-by-side, live-or-die trust. Of knowing without speaking. Of never once having to question where we stood. Until now.

I hold out a hand, my breath burning in my lungs. Gabe takes it, and I pull him to his feet. We turn and find Ethan watching us. He’s still a few feet back, arms crossed, jaw tight. He doesn’t speak right away. Just drags his gaze from Gabe to me and back again.

“We got a problem here?” Ethan’s voice cuts through the salt and wind, sharp as ever. “You said you were good. I can’t have this?—”

“We’re fucking right as rain.” The words are steady, but they’re not enough.

“I need more than that.” Ethan doesn’t blink. “Tensions are high enough without this shit between the two of you. The whole team is rattled. We’re all dealing with the same shit. Our women are missing, and two of my best guys are throwing punches in the dirt. Don’t tell me the two of you are“right as rain.”Don’t fucking insult me. I’m going to ask once, and you better answer me clean—do we have a problem that’s going to fuck with the success of this mission?”

“We’re good.” Gabe doesn’t look at me when he speaks.

“We’re good,” I echo Gabe’s words.

Ethan watches us a second longer, like he doesn’t quite believe it. Then he shakes his head, snorts under his breath, and mutters, “This is why you don’t share women.”

It hits harder than it should, even if it’s meant half as a joke. Gabe doesn’t react, but the words land between us like another grenade, just in a different place.

Ethan doesn’t get it. None of them do.