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“What I did?” Levi replied, stung. “Who was the one staring at my mouth like you were thinking about the back of my throat?”

Ben took the rifle back roughly, pushing the safety back on with a glare. He stood, and Levi stood with him.

“Look,” Ben said, and then paused to hiss and grab his knee, which was predictably fucked from crouching for so long.

Levi stabbed a finger at him triumphantly. “What did I say? I told you you’d fuck up your knee, didn’t I tell you?”

“Levi,” Ben said. His teeth were gritted, and Levi couldn’t tell if it was from his knee or from Levi. “This isn’t a good idea.”

Levi laughed. The noise echoed through the trees, and Ben looked around like he was expecting someone to come running at them.

“You’re trying to reject me?” Levi drawled, defaulting to loud and campy so Ben didn’t see that he was actually hurt. He stepped closer, making sure to sway his hips as much as he could in this bulky clothing. He backed Ben into a tree, gratified when Ben let him. Probably because Ben was holding a rifle between them and clearly didn’t want to do anything with it, but still.

Levi stretched onto his tiptoes, watching Ben’s pupils fill, covering the brown.

“We’re stuck here for weeks, Daddy,” Levi said. “And now you know how good I can be. How long do you think you can hold out?”

A predatory expression crossed over Ben’s face.

“There we go,” Levi said. “You look like you’re thinking of spanking me right here in the snowy fucking woods. I’d let you do it. I’d let you do so much shit to me.”

“Levi,” Ben said. It sounded like a warning, but he was so obviously distracted. Levi wanted to crow in triumph. Then Ben’s face changed, and not to the domineering expression Levi had been hoping for. There was a moment of shock, then blinding panic. It happened so fast that Levi couldn’t react.

Ben grabbed him, shoving him onto the forest floor. At the same time, a strange bang echoed through the forest. It sounded a hell of a lot like a gunshot. Which was impossible, since the safety was on.

Levi landed hard, the wind knocked out of him. Ben was on top of him, crying out on impact. The sound was so pained that Levi sat up as soon as he could. “Shit, are you okay? Is it your knee?”

Ben shushed him roughly. Then he dragged Levi behind a tree and started patting him down with the hand that wasn’t locked around his rifle. At first Levi thought it was to piss him off, but Ben’s expression put that to rest. Ben was pale, his face pinched as he ran his hands over Levi’s chest and arms, checking for injuries.

“Are you hurt?” Ben demanded.

“I’m fine! Whoa, hey!” Levi held up his hands with a nervous laugh. “Calm down, dude. I’m…”

He trailed off, his stomach lurching as he spotted the blood staining Ben’s sleeve. There was a hole in it. Correction: there was a hole in Ben’s fucking arm. There was so much blood, bright red and sickening, as it dripped into the snow.

Levi’s vision swam, his head tunneling.

Ben grabbed Levi’s shoulders as he started to sway. “Hey! Look at me. Do not pass out.”

“Cool, yeah,” Levi said faintly. “Totally.”

Then he passed out, falling straight into Ben’s waiting arms.

CHAPTER 11

Ben wiped a smudge of blood off the radio receiver and swore.

Static came through the radio, followed by Dominic’s sharp voice. “What is it?”

“Nothing. Just… fucking bleeding.” Ben twisted to examine the shirt he’d wrapped around his arm. The bullet had passed through the meat of his upper bicep, just under his shoulder. Ben would go out later to search for the bullet, footprints, anything to help them know what they were dealing with—after he’d cleaned up and given himself some stitches.

Ben’s knee throbbed under the cramped table. It was a good distraction from the burning agony of the gunshot wound, so he curled his leg harder, trying to focus on the familiar ache.

“What the fuck did I miss?” Ben hissed into the receiver. “I haven’t found any evidence of anyone around. Not until that fucking red dot.”

“This shit happens.”

“He almost died,” Ben spat. He pinched the bridge of his nose hard, adding his blunt nails to the rough chorus of pain singing through his body. He already knew the memory would come back to him at night: that horrifying red dot appearing on Levi’s forehead, killing Ben’s erection in an instant. If he had acted one second too late, Levi would be dead in the dirt. That was how it would happen in his nightmares. He always dreamed about his near misses, watching how they could have played out in the worst possible ways.