Page 20 of Crossfire Creek Siege

He pushed back his chair and stood, the muscles in his arm tugging against the fresh stitches. The smell of antiseptic and burned metal still clung to his clothes, but sitting still was worse than the pain. He needed to move, needed to check on Rena.

He crossed the room, stopping beside her chair. “How’s the arm?”

She glanced up, the corner of her mouth twitching. “It’s fine. Missed anything vital.”

“Yeah, well, you still bleed prettier than most people.”

Her brow arched. “That your idea of bedside charm?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

That earned him a small smirk, which was a hell of a lot better than the haunted look she’d had in the hangar. She set down her coffee cup and leaned back, eyes sharp but amused. “You’re fishing.”

“Maybe,” he said, then sobered a little. “But seriously, you saved my life back there on the rafters.”

Rena waved it off, light but not dismissive. “Guess we’re finally even. You pulled my ass out of that crash two years ago.”

Before Gage could respond, Noah’s voice carried from across the room. “No one’s keeping count.”

Both Rena and Gage turned toward him. Noah was watching them with that mix of stern authority and weary affection.

Rena shot back without missing a beat. “We are.”

“Definitely keeping count,” Gage added, grinning.

That drew a low chuckle from Noah, the first hint of levity all night. “Fine. Just make sure you two don’t rack up any more points.”

“Working on it,” Rena said dryly.

Gage looked at her then, really looked. There was a ghost of a smile on her lips, the kind that told him she wasn’t okay but she was standing. Breathing. Fighting.

And right now, that was enough.

Ruby ended her latest call with a crisp “copy that,” and slid her phone into her pocket. Her expression had that razor-sharp calm when she turned toward Noah.

“You’ve got Maverick Ops for as long as you need us,” she assured him.

Across the room, Owen was still talking quietly on his own phone, but at that, he looked up. “Strike Force, too,” he said, ending his call. “We’re in this together.”

Noah nodded, the gratitude clear in his eyes even if he didn’t say it out loud.

At the table, Lily looked up from her coffee, still pale but steady. “I want to be like you,” she said to Ruby, her voice soft but certain.

Ruby’s expression softened for the first time all night. “That’s kind, sweetheart, but I think you’ve got plenty of fight of your own.”

Lily smiled faintly, and Gage couldn’t help himself. “For the record,” he said, “I want to be like Ruby Maverick, too. You looked like a warrior from hell when you came through that corridor.”

Ruby shot him a wry grin. “That’s one description I’ll take.”

“Seriously,” Gage went on, “the full body armor, the goggles, the smoke rolling in behind you… if I hadn’t known it was you, I’d have surrendered on the spot.”

Ruby chuckled low in her throat. “You give me too much credit. I got lucky. The second the attack started, I was already moving toward headquarters. Managed to slip inside before the locks went down.” She nodded toward Isla, who was still at her station, fingers flying across the tablet screen. “Found Isla in the command center. While I suited up, she was already unjamming doors and restoring power. Once the systems came back online, she stayed with the kids while I went to help.”

Isla glanced up long enough to give a short nod, the look in her eyes saying Don’t make a fuss.

“Still,” Gage said, leaning back against the table, “you showing up when you did probably saved all our asses.”

Ruby gave him a look that was half-amusement, half-warning. “Don’t start handing out halos, Kellan. We’re not out of this yet.”