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Butch was quiet for a time. Then he said, "I think that's why I like Jane."
"Huh?"
"When you look at her? You actually see her, and when's the last time that's happened for you?"
V geared himself up, then stared hard into Butch's eyes. "I saw you. Even though it was wrong. I saw you."
Shit, he sounded sad. Sad and... lonely. Which made him want to change the subject.
Butch clapped V on the thigh, then stood up, as if he knew exactly what V was thinking. "Listen, I don't want you to feel bad. It's my animal magnetism. I'm irresistible."
"Smart-ass." V's smile didn't last long. "Don't get your romantic side fired up about me and Jane, buddy. She's human."
Butch's jaw dropped and he pulled a bobble. "No, really? That's such a shocker! And here I thought she was a sheep."
V shot Butch a f**k-ya stare. "She's not into me like that. Not really."
"You sure about that?"
"Yup."
"Huh. Well, if I were you I might test that theory before you let her go." Butch shoved a hand through his hair. "Listen, I... shit."
"What?"
"I'm glad you told me. About the sex stuff."
"None of it was a news flash."
"True. But I figure you came out with it because you trust my ass."
"I do. Now drag it back to the Pit. Marissa's got to be coming home soon."
"She is," Butch headed for the door but then paused and looked over his shoulder. "V?"
Vishous raised his stare. "Yeah?"
"I think you should know, after all this deep conversatin'..." Butch shook his head gravely. "We still ain't dating."
The two of them busted out laughing, and the cop was still yukking it up as he disappeared into the gym.
"What's so funny?" Jane asked.
V braced himself before looking at her, hoping like hell she didn't know how hard it was for him to front like he was level. "My buddy's just being an ass. It's his life's work."
"Everyone needs a purpose."
"True."
She sat down on the bench across the way, and his eyes ate her up like he'd been in the dark for ages and she was a candle.
"Are you going to need to feed again?" she asked.
"Doubt it. Why?"
"Your coloring is off."
Well, having your chest this tight will do that to a guy. "I'm good."
There was a long silence. Then she said, "I was worried in there."
The exhaustion in her voice made him see past his attraction for her and pick up on the fact that her shoulders were slumped and there were dark circles under her eyes and her lids were low. She was clearly wiped.
You need to let her go, he thought. Soon.
"Why were you worried?" he asked.
"Very tricky area to fix in a field situation. Which was what this was." She rubbed her face. "You were great, by the way."
His brows popped. "Thanks."
With a groan, she tucked her feet up under her butt, just as she had back in the bedroom in that chair. "I'm concerned about his sight."
Man, he wished he could rub her back. "Yeah, he doesn't need another liability."
"He has one already?"
"Prosthetic leg - "
"V? Mind if I talk to you for a sec?"
V's head shot around to the gym's doorway. Rhage was back, still dressed in his fighting leathers. "Hey, Hollywood. What's up?"
Jane uncurled herself. "I can go into the other - "
"Stay," V said. None of this was going to be permanent for her, so it didn't matter what she heard. And besides... there was a part of him - a sappy part that made him want to clap himself on the head with a liquor bottle - that wanted to milk every second he had with her.
As she settled back into place, V nodded at his brother. "Talk."
Rhage glanced back and forth between him and Jane, his teal eyes too shrewd for V's taste. Then the guy shrugged. "I found an incapacitated lesser tonight."
"Incapacitated how?"
"Gutted."
"By one of its own?"
Rhage glanced at the PT room door. "Nope."
V looked in that direction and frowned. "Phury? Oh, come on, he would never pull any Clive Barker shit. Must have been one hell of a fight."
"We're talking field-dressed, V. Surgical cuts. And it's not like the thing had swallowed the brother's car keys and he was looking to get 'em back. I think he did it for no good reason."
Well... shit. Among the Brotherhood, Phury was the gentleman, the noble fighter, the one who was Boy Scout - tight about things. He had all kinds of standards for himself, and honor in the combat arena was one of them, even though their enemies didn't deserve the favor.
"I can't believe it," V muttered. "I mean... shit."
Rhage took a Tootsie Pop out of his pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and pieholed the thing. "I don't give a crap if he wants to shred those f**kers like tax returns. What I'm not into is what's driving the behavior. If he's knifing like that, there's some high-level frustration going on. Plus if the reason he got cracked in the face tonight was because he was so busy playing Saw II, then it's safety issue."
"You tell Wrath?"
"Not yet. I was going to talk to Z first. Assuming everything goes okay with Bella tonight at Havers's."
"Ah... that's Phury's why, then, true? Anything happens to that female or the young inside her and we're going to have to deal with both of them like you read about." V cursed to himself, suddenly thinking of all the pregnancies in his future. Fuck. That Primale shit was going to kill him.
Rhage bit down on the Tootsie Pop, the crunch muffled by his flawless cheek. "Phury's got to cut that obsession with her."
V looked down at the floor. "No doubt he would if he could."
"Listen, I'm going to go find Z." Rhage pulled the white stick out of his mouth and wrapped it in the purple wrapper. "You two need anything?"
V glanced at Jane. Her eyes were on Rhage and she was sizing him up as a doctor would, taking note of the composition of his body, doing his internal math in her head. Or, at least, V hoped that was what was doing. Hollywood was a good-looking bastard.
As V's fangs throbbed in warning, he wondered if he was ever going to get his calm and cool back. It seemed like he was jealous of everything in pants with Jane around.
"No, we're good," he said to his brother. "Thanks, man."
After Rhage left and closed the door, Jane shifted around on her bench, stretching her legs out. With a ridiculous surge of satisfaction, he realized they were sitting in exactly the same position.
"What's a lesser?" she asked.
He called himself a loser as he looked over at her. "An undead killer who's trying to hunt my kind into extinction."
"Undead?" Her forehead bunched up, as if her brain were rejecting what she'd heard. Like it was a widget that hadn't passed quality control. "Undead how?"
"Long story."
"We have time."
"Not that much." Not much at all.
"Was that what shot you?"
"Yup."
"And what attacked Phury?"
"Yup."
There was a long silence. "I'm glad he cut one of them up, then."
V's eyebrows danced with his hairline. "You are?"
"The geneticist in me abhors extinction. Genocide is... utterly unforgivable." She got up and went to the door to look in at Phury. "Do you kill them? The... lessers?"
"That's what we're for. My brothers and I were bred to fight."
"Bred?" Her dark green eyes shifted to his. "What do you mean?"
"The geneticist in you knows exactly what I mean." As the word Primale pinged around his skull like a loose bullet, he cleared his throat. Shit, he was so not in a big hurry to talk about his future as the Chosen's stud with the woman he actually wanted to be with. Who was leaving. At, like, sundown.
"And this is a facility for training more of you?"
"Well, soldiers to support us. My brothers and I are a little different."
"How so?"
"Like I said, we were specifically bred for strength and endurance and healing."
"By whom?"
"Another long story."
"Try me." When he didn't reply, she pressed, "Come on. We might as well talk, and I'm really interested in your kind."
