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“The Commander’s,” Logan answered, tossing his pack through the air until it hit the white leather sofa. “Shower and sleep, Laz. In a few hours, we’re back up and at it, then we’re back at the island by night tomorrow and the new team will take over.”
A new team. Ten guys in total. Ten of Logan. I just held his gaze, then nodded.
“I’ll take the couch,” Freddy volunteered, and strode toward the kitchen.
“I’m showering and sleeping. Wake me when you’re up,” Finley muttered, his boots tracking mud along the shining marble tiles as he headed for a bedroom and closed the door behind him.
Then, resigned…I followed, headed toward the main bedroom and closed the doors.
* * *
The speedboat carriedus toward the bright lights of the Institute, swerving side to side, whipping my hair one way, then another. I stared at the lights until my eyes stung and blurred with tears. My hands were shaking…my body numb.
We’d said nothing as the boat pulled up against the dock and waited as we climbed in.
There was nothing left to say.
We’d covered barely two islands in the last eighteen hours of smashing down walls, then people.
Eighteen hours of nothing more than blank stares and the shaking of heads. Eighteen motherfucking hours while we waited for Logan’s team to hit Mauritian shores, until the Commander called and summoned us back for a full briefing. And it looked like I was about to have a meeting with Sebastian VanHalen, Kat’s father.
I tried to feel something other than detachment. Tried to remember this was a man’s daughter we were dealing with. He’d be distraught. He’d be sick with rage and fear. I tried to think how my father might react and came up withterrified.
I’d need to make a good impression there. I looked down at the creased, bloodied shirt that the hot shower twelve hours ago had tried to fix. But no matter how much scrubbing I did, it didn’t help. I looked how I was; nothing more than a barbarian, nothing more than a thug, not worthy of his daughter’s presence, let alone her goddamn heart.
It didn’t matter…she had mine.
I looked away as the boat’s motor eased, idling hard as we rode the waves, turning sideways until we bounced hard against the dock. There was a man waiting, ready with the rope. But I was already rising from the leather seat at the rear.
“We’ve got time for a shower,” Freddy suggested.
I just nodded, followed him up onto the pontoon, and looked over to where the luxury cruiser was docked. The same cruiser that had ferried her here just days ago. Days, fuck it felt like a lifetime. Maybe that was hope speaking? I wasn’t sure anymore.
I made my way toward my building, my steps slow and heavy, my head hanging low.
“I’ll have a shower, fill Anna in, and meet you there,” Finley said, his words slurred with exhaustion.
I just looked up, then nodded.
My enemy was now my ally.
Go fucking figure.
I followed Logan and Freddy into the elevator at the building, then was hit by something hard and heavy, something that took the wind out of me. I slammed my eyes closed, remembering the last time we rode this elevator, desperately searching for her.
And the thought of going up there, seeing the mess of our sheets, and the scent of her lingering in the air was almost too much to bear. “You won’t have time to go to both apartments,” Freddy muttered. “Best you just shower in ours and I’ll grab your things from upstairs, yeah?”
A tear slipped from the corner of my eye as I nodded, slow, thick, barely a tear, more viscous like blood.
Maybe it was blood.
Tears of blood.
A heavy weight settled around my shoulders as the elevator came to a stop and Logan walked me inside.
“You fucking reek, brother,” the low growl came from beside me. “I was praying for us to go faster on the trip over here so I didn’t need to smell you. But now we’re here, double shampoo, yeah?”
I gave a hollow bark of laughter as he shoved me toward the main bedroom Freddy had called shotgun on, and kicked off my boots. It was a different decor, white tiles on the floor, where upstairs had been black. Subtle touches, still it made all the difference—to my heart at least, as I peeled off my grimy shirt and dropped it to the floor. Jeans were next, the bottoms covered in thick mud.
