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“Or when they hurt you,” he said.
He set his forehead on mine and did one of those deep breaths that people did when they were trying to keep their cool.
“They are lucky they still have their heads,” he said softly.
I stared into his eyes and felt something stir inside of me.He surrounded me with his presence, gently wrapping me in his protection.No matter how much I tried not to overthink it, I saw in his gaze how much I meant to him, and it wormed into my head, testing my resolve to keep him at arm's length.
“A puffy lip is nothing compared to what will happen if we can’t reason with them,” I said.“Or if they get their hands on you.You should leave, Molev.If you die, we all die.”
“What she said,” Steve said, entering the hallway.“Some of them are starting to come to in here.Let us deal with this for now.”
Molev’s fingers twitched in my hair.
“I will be close,” he said softly.
And then he was gone again.
“Come on,” I said to Steve.“Help me unstack them.If they wake up in a slightly more dignified way, hopefully, they’ll be less afraid.”
“And how does that help us?”
“Fear leads to mistakes.I think they’ve already made enough of those, don’t you?”
The rest of the team helped spread out the personnel, so they woke in groups.One of us with each group.I got the general by himself in the room I’d occupied.I found a fridge somewhere else in the building and grabbed a soda can to use as an ice pack for the lump on his head.
When he came to, he was just a confused man for a few minutes.
“What happened?”he asked.
“You have a lump on your head.How are you feeling?Nauseous?Headache?”
“Yeah, a little of all of it,” he said.
“You might have a concussion.But I’m not a medic to say for sure.”I handed him the soda can so he could hold it to his head or drink it if he wanted.
“Do you know your first name?”I asked.
“Yeah.Thomas.Tom.”
I knew his brain was a little scrambled then.
“Tom, I’m Andie.Do you remember me?”
He focused on me for a long moment, and I could see exactly when the switch flicked in his brain.That open confusion disappeared, replaced by a slow boil of anger and calculation.His gaze swept the room, taking in the table and the chair he sat in.My chair.
“I see it’s starting to come back,” I said, straightening away from him.“The soldiers are across the hall.Steve’s helping them.You might want to take another minute before you try standing, though.”
“What happened?”he repeated, this time in his signature commanding tone.
“You were knocked out.But I think what happened is less important than why it happened.”
“Enlighten me, Miss Wells.”
“My friends call me Andie.”
The silence lengthened as we stared at one another.
“I’ll be back when you’re ready to listen,” I said.
