Page 6 of Protecting Salvation

He liked how she didn’t give him any false bullshit or platitudes. Now he had to go back out there and tell his team what was going on.

Savannah wagged her finger at him. “No rugby for the rest of the day.”

He smiled as he gave her a cheeky salute.

He watched her walk back to her husband and kiss his cheek and knew that the conversation they’d just had would be completely confidential. He was showered and changed and moving to slip away when Titan jogged towards him.

“Hey, you headed back to base?”

“Yeah, you need a lift?”

“Yeah, if you’re okay to drive or I can drive.”

Hurricane gave his friend a glare. “You babying me, bruh?”

“Nah, asshole, I’m being a friend, but you can drive just for that.”

Hurricane considered that and if he’d act any differently if the roles were reversed and knew he wouldn’t. “Fine, you drive, but none of that shit music you like.”

“Man, it’s old school garage. How can you not enjoy that?”

“Whatever, just drive the damn car.”

The drive back was quiet and thankfully Titan didn’t ask any uncomfortable questions. But the man was very much like him in that he liked his privacy so he’d never invade someone else’s. He headed to his apartment and Hurricane threw down his sports bag, knowing he’d need to clean it out before it stunk up the place. But first, he needed to take his meds and change into some shorts. He hated wearing jeans when he was home.

He’d barely pulled on clean shorts when there was a bang on the door.

“Hurricane, open this damn door before I kick it in.”

He smiled before opening the door to reveal Lotus, who was glaring and looked more exhausted than he could ever remember seeing her. Rykov’s death had hit them all hard but especially Lotus because of their history. “What’s up?”

Lotus folded her arms across her chest and stared him down and he tried not to chuckle. She was mean when she was mad and right now she was mad, even if it was out of fear.

“You gonna explain or what?”

A sigh fell from him and he nodded. “Let me grab a shirt and I’ll come talk to you. Are the others back?”

“Yeah, getting food. Val is cooking her Mexican chilli recipe.”

His mouth watered at that and he grinned as he stepped past Lotus and bopped her in the nose, drawing a growl from her as she fell in step beside him.

He slung an arm over her shoulders and the fact she let him showed just how off his friend was. “Stop worrying, Lotus.”

“Then start talking.”

The main kitchen, where they ate as a group when they wanted company, was full of his team, including those who had homes outside of the compound, all except Watchdog. His big personality left a huge hole he wasn’t sure would ever be filled if his friend didn’t recover from the trauma of his kidnapping and the things they’d done to him. The noise was loud but it comforted him and he moved to sit beside Bein, who had Aoife on his lap.

“Can you get them to shut it for a second? I want to say something and I only want to do it once.”

Bein stood and whistled loud enough to make Scout and Monty raise their furry heads in attention. “Hey, wind yer necks in. Hurricane wants to say something.”

The room quieted and sweat broke out on his brow as all eyes came to him. He was used to people staring, being the only black kid in his school and his size, it was something he was familiar with. These were his friends though, his chosen family and he needed to be honest. “Listen, I know I scared the crap out of you all earlier, but I don’t want you to worry.”

“What happened, mate?” Reaper was watching him from behind the island where he had an arm hooked over Lucía’s shoulder.

“I fainted. I have something called a Craniopharyngioma.”

Aoife sucked in a breath and he glanced at her, knowing she’d most likely learned about it at her job as a student nurse.