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“You don’t have to watch me, Angel,” I said, picking up the tourniquet and tying it around my bicep.
“Does it hurt?” she asked, her throat moving heavily on a swallow.
Rix and I both nodded.
“Extremely,” I said. “But it’s like that addictive pain, you know. Like a good burn in the legs when you deepen your squat or when I bite your nipple just a touch too hard and it blossoms into a throbbing heat you want more of.”
Her cheeks got pink from the mention of how much she liked it when Rix—or I—bit her nipples. She’d also started tugging and twisting them herself when Rix or I were otherwise occupied.
A determined expression crossed her face as she nodded in understanding. She wasn’t going to turn away.
I slid the bevel of the syringe into my exposed vein. My eyes locked with Haina’s, and she gave me an encouraging smile. Taking a deep breath, I pushed down the plunger.
The serum flowing into my veins was like liquid fire. Everything inside me got unbearably hot, sweat broke out on my forehead, my muscles locked, and my eyes slammed shut as I chased the high.
The only time fear really set in was when that liquid fire reached your brain and it felt like it was swelling inside your skull. Everything got bubbling hot, and the idea of your face melting away from the bone seemed like a clear and likely possibility. But that terror only lasted about ten seconds before the exquisite euphoria took over, leaving that irrational fear as only a blurry memory.
I could feel the mental sharpness and acuity returning, the same with the enhanced strength, and now I could hear the heartbeat of a squirrel on the metal roof of the cabin.
I opened my eyes, smiling at Haina to reassure her I was okay, since the look in her eyes was full of nothing but worry. It was the same way she’d looked at Rix after he’d come down from the rush.
I reached for her, hurt by her momentary hesitation, but then comforted when she came to me anyway, wrapping her arms around my waist. “I’m okay, Angel,” I said, pecking her on the forehead. “Nothing to worry about.”
Her breath rattled out of her, and she squeezed me tighter. “Is it more intense when you get a full dose?”
“Yes,” Rix said before I could confirm it. “And they give us even more before we go on a mission.”
“It looks so painful,” she said.
“It is, but then it’s not,” I said plainly, kissing the top of her head once more. “Are you okay to stay with Grumpy Penis while we go down and try to deal with the boat?” I released my hold on her and stepped away, reaching for my now lukewarm mint water from the counter.
She nodded and grabbed her mug as well, holding it in both of her delicate hands and bringing it to her mouth. “Yeah. I’m going to go check on him. Might start heating water in the kettle and go try to clean him up a bit. He’s covered in blood.”
“You know that’ll be like trying to bathe a cat,” Rix said with a snort. “Possibly worse.”
“Never tried to bathe a cat,” she said blandly. “Is it difficult?”
I smacked a kiss to her cheek, finding it near impossible to keep my lips off her, then Rix copied me and kissed her other cheek. “We understand and accept our fate if you get so angry you have to kill him. We won’t hold our deaths against you. Trust me, we’ve considered it a few times ourselves with him.” I squeezed her bicep affectionately, then followed Rix out the door of the cabin. We followed the path and the ramp to the dock.
“Boat’s still floating,” Rix said, tugging the long line that connected the sailboat to the dock. “That’s a good sign.”
The tide had come in enough that the keel on the bottom of the boat didn’t scrape the rocks, so we could maneuver the boat parallel to the long side of the dock, and with each of us on either end, me on the bow, Rix on the stern, we tipped it over until the port side touched the dock, then carefully dragged it up the rest of the way on its side.
With a full dose in each of us, it would have been zero issues. I probably could have done it myself, but with only a half dose, I was really having to exert myself. So was Rix.
But we managed and eventually got the boat on its side and up out of the water completely.
“With Haina’s strength, we wouldn’t have had such a hard time,” Rix commented, climbing up onto the railings of the boat to inspect the hull below the waterline for bullet holes.
“I know, but she’s tired, and she and Zane have to sort out their shit.”
“I still can’t figure out what the fuck his problem is with her,” I replied, pointing out a bullet hole to Rix. “Probably where the leak in the bathroom is coming from.”
He nodded.
“He doesn’t trust her. But what I want to know is,why?I didn’t think we kept anything from each other as brothers and teammates. Secrets get people killed. But Zane seems to be chock-full of secrets. Maybehe’sthe one who can’t be trusted.”
I glanced at my brother, his brown eyes uncharacteristically serious, which made my blood begin to turn icy in my veins. “You think?”
