air he breathed.
He wanted normal, but as every shrink since the dawn of time had pointed out, normal was relative.
The one thing they did agree on was that he was just enough outside of that box for them to keep agreeing to take him in.
How all this crazy—as his family always called it—skipped Key, he’d never know. But he was grateful for it.
“What did you do this time?”
“Nothing major,” Jem assured him, which he knew was no reassurance at all. “Did I screw up your leave?”
“I’m out.”
Key had been a great Ranger—and he’d been up for a promotion to the Delta Teams once he passed the necessary tests. Jem didn’t know if Key knew that and decided not to even ask. No matter what, he’d done Jem proud.
It had been his brother’s life, and now Jem needed to be there to put the pieces back together, before the family curse took out Key at the knees.
If it was a rescue Key needed, that’s what he’d get. If he needed to drink and fuck his way through New Orleans before he felt better, they could do that too. But Jem would be damned if he’d watch Key self-destruct and sit by and do nothing about it.
“I don’t understand it. You saved a guy’s life,” he said finally. He hadn’t been able to help Key all that much. Jem had tried to pull some strings, but he’d met with a hell of a lot of resistance, enough to make him suspicious that this was far more complicated than Key simply disobeying a direct order.
“The SEAL didn’t bother to show up to testify,” Key said tightly. “Didn’t answer letters. No one could find him to serve the subpoena.”
“Sure he’s alive?”
“When I find him, he’ll wish he wasn’t,” Key muttered.
Jem didn’t bother to try to talk Key out of that—didn’t tell him that he was out of a job as well. Until you lost it all, you had no idea how much you were willing to give. Owning next to nothing had always worked for Jem. Having some money in the bank for emergencies was also important. “Where are we headed?”
Key gave a small twist of a grin. “Home.”
Most of New Orleans was still shot to shit, which left it a perfect hiding spot for vagrants and lawbreakers.
Luckily, he could be both.
Chapter Four
Two months later
New Orleans
The cabdriver didn’t want to drop her there, asked her three times if she was sure she had the right place.
“Really, I’m fine,” Avery told him firmly, watched him press his lips together in the rearview mirror as he pulled over in front of the address Dare had given her.
She was fine, because after everything she’d been through, she’d be damned if anyone would stop her now, no matter how hard they were prepared to try.
She knew there were nice parts of New Orleans as well as tougher ones, as was the case in any city. But after Katrina, things were different, her mother had said in that wistful tone she always got when talking about this place.
Avery had wanted to come here for as long as she could remember but had been half-afraid, thanks to Mom’s warnings.
New Orleans makes you do crazy things.
“Ma’am, just go directly into the shop—don’t stop to talk,” the driver said now, as she glanced out the window to get her bearings.
There were two men standing a few doors down from where she needed to go, and a larger group a block down, all of whom stilled when the cab pulled up. She paid the fare and exited the car, kept her head up as she walked toward her destination. But it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“I have to be useful. I can’t cower and let you protect me forever,” she’d argued to Dare earlier.
“It’s not forever.”
“Give me a job. I don’t want to be helpless.”
“I get that.”
“You said we need to get crazy. Let me get crazy.”
Now she was sure she felt Dare’s eyes on her as the closest two men moved toward her swiftly. Maybe she screamed tourist or maybe it was simply because she was a woman alone.
Crazy indeed.
She flexed her hands by her sides and kept moving forward, as did they.
She took the first man out easily because he wasn’t expecting her to kick his ass. One swift chop of her hand across his throat and a second hard kick to the groin and he was on the ground, moaning like a girl. She managed a second kick to