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“You shall not hurt him?” the female said from behind the mesh covering her face.
Rio shook her head gravely. “No, never. I just . . . want to help.”
“I never dared to try to secure any of that.” The nurse pointed out from under a voluminous sleeve, her gloved hand shaking as if she were emotional. “It’s secured and difficult to obtain, and if you are found with it, the consequences are dire.”
“I understand. Do you have any distilled water? Or boiled water?”
“Yes, here. Come.”
As the females disappeared behind the draping, Lucan crossed his arms so that the gun in his hand pointed out behind his armpit. “I’m not going in there.”
“I am.”
When Apex started forward, Lucan snagged the male’s heavy arm. “You don’t hurt her. If this goes bad, and something happens to Kane, it’s not her fault.”
The other prisoner lowered his chin and glared out of his deep eye sockets. “That depends on what she does. And how he responds.”
Lucan bared his fangs. “You can’t blame her.”
“I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
“Not with her you can’t.”
There was a brief, surging tension. And then Apex pulled away, parting the drapes and disappearing through them. As the lengths of fabric resettled themselves, there were murmurs from the other side.
Pacing seemed like a good idea, so Lucan walked down the lineup of beds. Came back. Went down again. Came back. Meanwhile, Mayhem just stood where he was, staring at the fall of sheets.
Maybe the prisoner was projecting good vibes into whatever the hell was happening at that bedside. Maybe he was having a stroke and hadn’t fallen over yet. Maybe he was thinking about absolutely nothing at all.
Total toss-up.
Lucan went to the door that opened out into the corridor. Cracking the panel, he double-checked that there was no one coming. When that didn’t seem like enough, he stepped outside and went all the way down to peer into the stairwell.
No sounds. No scents. But that could change at any moment.
All he could think about was how much he didn’t want this exposure for Rio or this wasted time. No offense to Kane.
When he reentered the clinic, Mayhem looked over at him.
“You know,” the male said, “this place is going to be in chaos when the Executioner’s body is discovered. And we need to get rid of the guards in the quarters. For one, it’ll keep things tidy, for another, they’re going to start to smell. But the real reason is the head of the guards. If they know we killed that kind of personnel? It’s going to make everything harder.”
The guy did have a point. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Of course, if you deliberately want to stir up shit, we could just put ’em on the wall. Hang ’em like paintings—oh, we could make a decoration with them. How about high-fiving. Shooting a basket—”
“No.”
“You’re boring.”
“You think this is a Mr. Popular competition?” Then Lucan shook his head. “You’re right, though, we should dispose of them. If the head of the guards doesn’t know where they are, and we’re not obvious about what we did, they won’t know who did the coup right away and what went down. They’ll have to check all the troops, and because some live off-site, it’ll take some time—which we’ll use to get Rio out of here. If only there was a way to get them outside. We’ve got another hour of sunshine left.”
“Rio could do it.”
Looking over at the guy, Lucan said, “No, she can’t—”
“What can’t I do?” Rio asked as she emerged from the draping.
“Nothing—”
“Help us take those two guards outside,” Mayhem cut in. “That back entrance from the private quarters is—”
“She is not—”
“—going to make it simple and you wouldn’t have to take them far.”
“—taking them anywhere.”
“Sure,” Rio said. “I’m strong. I’ll move them.”
“No,” Lucan snapped. “It’s too fucking dangerous.”
“And you can relax with that.” She looked between him and Mayhem. “I heard what you said. I think it makes a lot of sense. The more confusion, the better, especially if you’re worried about the head of the guards, whoever he is.”
Mayhem shot Lucan a smarty-pants look. “Great, we’ll go back to the quarters and—”
The draping around the bed was whipped aside.
Apex locked eyes with Rio, with an intensity that was so great, the male was trembling from it, his huge, lethal body poised to leap on the woman.
“No!” Lucan barked as he threw himself between them. “I told you it’s not her fault!”
“What happened?” Rio shoved him out of the way . . . then dug into the pockets of his pants. “I have the Narcan—”
With a surge, Apex jumped forward.
And wrapped his arms around Rio. Letting out a choked sigh, he dropped his head into her neck . . . and held on like she was the only thing keeping him on the planet.
