“Christ, Wiley,” Row said as he came around me. “Give me that.”
“I’ve got him.” But I handed the gun over anyway.
“It’s done. We’re going up.” He pointed behind me, and I realized it was eerily quiet. “Go get your…bat.”
Hamilton stood there, heaving for breath, covered in blood, and reaching for me. I didn’t care if he was gooey with the ick of our enemies, I ran over to him and held his hand with a smile.
Chapter
Twelve
WE WERE YOUR ALLIES
Thirty-five naked men—not all of whom were actually human—tromped up the narrow stairwell with one snake-man, a mini-Godzilla, and a centaur who, I swear to god, was going to break all four of his legs on the steps. As it was, two guys were pulling his arms, while two others were pushing his giant horse ass. He maybe should’ve taken the elevator, but I totally understood why he didn’t want to do anything alone at the moment. That the others had shifted into their human forms seemed mostly because the stairwell was so small, though some of them could’ve done it to heal, too. I had to assume Snake, Godzilla, and Centaur didn’t have human forms and where the ones who’d been living and working at the Parnell headquarters.
“Hey,” I said and gave Hamilton’s bloody hand a tug. “Should some of us go down and look for more captives? Like, is this everyone?”
“We can do that after we take the ship.” He paused on a landing to look left and right before continuing up. “You’re right that it’s possible there are more.”
“Everyone from Parnell is here,” Row said beside us. “Dude,” he snapped and elbowed the guy behind him.
Quillan, now in giant human form but who has still hella furry, blushed red. “Sorry,” he mumbled and backed off from taking the next step until there were a few more between them.
“Oh, come on,” I grouched at Row. “Stow your homophobia, Sergeant.”
“I’m not homophobic!” he said with a blush and full affront. “I just don’t want anybody rubbing up on me. Not after…what I thought was going to happen.”
Before I could retract my accusation, Quillan said, “You’re safe now, Sergeant. I promise.”
The two shared a look, Row nodded, and my little heart started shipping the hell out of them. If Hamilton and I could make a love connection in a secret government lab, then why couldn’t Row and Quillan get all mated up, too?
“Oh, my god!” I hollered and accidentally stopped everyone in their tracks. “Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to?—”
“What’s wrong?” Hamilton asked with a frown as he scanned the stairs like I might’ve seen something dangerous.
“Well, um…” Oh, fuck it. I stepped up on the same level as him and took both of his hands. “I love you, too.”
Hamilton chuckled, a couple other guys did as well, and somebody totally unromantic groaned. My mate pulled me into a hug and kissed me, but I was way too conscious of the fact that he was smearing blood all over me from my face down to really appreciate the smooch.
“I know you do,” he said and gave a brief attempt to wipe the blood off my chin. “Once we’re safeand clean, we can show each other how much love we feel.”
“Deal.”
I gave Row a haughty sniff before everyone got moving again. He rolled his eyes at me, but I knew he was jealous because, when Quillan got right up on him again, Row didn’t say anything.
The stairwell ended in a thick door that the men at the front threw open and rushed through. I gulped a bit, worried that anything could be out there. When I didn’t hear gunshots or shouts, the line moved forward, and I followed Hamilton out.
We were on the main deck with huge cargo containers, giant barrels, and stuff wrapped up on pallets creating what looked like a maze in front of us. The soldiers did their thing by scoping the area and taking cover, while the rest of us followed their lead. That we were all naked was seriously distracting to me, so it was probably good that no one had returned my gun to me. I could hear distant voices shouting about a boat, but nothing that sounded like they knew we were here.
And then I caught sight of the fact that the sky was getting lighter. Sunrise.
“Hamilton?”
“I know.”
There was probably no way he was going to sit this out in a dark corner somewhere, so I just hoped he knew what he was doing to keep himself safe.
Row rushed back to us. “They’re leaving.”
