“Pick up the pace!” I shouted when the wind nearly sent me flying back inside.
“I’m doing my best,” he finally spoke.
I bit back whatever stupid remark I had to say, fearful of what it might have been.
Roys got to his feet just when a bolt of lightning battered the top of the rover. A scream tore through my throat. The scent of burning meat and something acidic seared my nostrils. My visor shrieked, heart rate skyrocketing and warning of medical assistance. Then Roys was there, clinging to the door and shoving me into the rover.
I tumbled over the console, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I pushed off without our seatbelts. Roys put both of ours on, neither of us uttering a word as I drove through darkness with brief intervals of lightning.
My eyes burned from the red in my visor blinking, blinking, blinking. Lightning struck around us, setting fire to the flora that the rain doused. It wasn’t until we breached the dark cover of the storm that I realized Roys had a hand on my thigh. He held firm, fingers pressing against my tense muscles that eased under the slow rubbing ofhis thumb.
Ryker came over the commlink shouting about shitty equipment. I muted him because I couldn’t deal with his dramatics or much of anything other than driving. I focused on getting us back to the habitat, continuously checking our scanner. Out of the storm, the scanner worked fine, blaring about a severe storm. Fucking worthless.
“Ethin, stop the rover,” Roys said, still catching his breath. He removed his visor, letting it drop to the floor between his feet.
I drove faster. The rover groaned, having taken a beating from the storm already. My eyes focused on the words blaring across my visor;exoskin damaged. Seek medical assistance.
“You’re bleeding.”
An abrupt surge of agony made my right arm twitch. My fingers released the wheel until I gripped tight enough to make the appendage ache. “We can’t stop. That storm came out of nowhere.”
“I just want to use the med spray to stop the bleeding. It will take a second.”
“No—”
“Ethin.”
“You’re not going back down there!” I shouted. His fingers flexed on my thigh. “I don’t know why you went in the first place. Do you have a fucking death wish?”
I looked at him as if he should answer. He didn’t. There was blood on the console, more peeking out from the seat under his thigh. My eyes were heavy but refused to close.
I shifted my attention between him and the path ahead. “You must, because only a complete idiot would have done that. We were going to die in those caves, and you jumped back in to get buried or lost or drowned! You should have sent someone else. Better yet, not send anyone at all! Tellthose stupid geologists to send the fucking droids or they can go down there on their own. You aren’t risking your life for them.”
“Okay.” He squeezed my leg. “I won’t, but you need to stop. Ease up for a moment.”
When I didn’t, he took my right hand, still twitching with pain, and pried each finger off the wheel. The slight movement made my arm scream and burn. The rover slowed, as did my breathing until we stopped. Roys explained to the others how we were stopping for a moment while leaning over the console.
“Let’s get your arm out. Careful,” he whispered, assisting me to peel my arm out of the exoskin.
I bit back a groan. The lightning fried pieces of my exoskin off. The jolt hadn’t hit me directly, but the force had been close enough to cause damage. Beneath the broken bits of exoskin was a long gash surrounded by charred skin. Blood dripped from my fingers onto the seat. A horrendous smell, a foul odor like meat grilled too long and left out, made my eyes water.
Roys frowned while holding the med spray. “This will sting.”
My head fell back on the seat, eyes shut from the added burn of the med spray. Roys ran his knuckles down my back, enticing my skin to break out with goosebumps. I hated it.
I didn’t want him to stop.
The pain lessened to a dull throb. The cradle would have to do the rest of the work, but the bleeding stopped. My arm remained weak, and my fingers numb.
“How about I drive?” Roys repeated the slow caress against my back.
“I can do my damn job.”
“I’m not saying you can’t, but you should rest, and tomorrow, I’ll send the droids.” Roys cheated by removing my visor to take me by thechin for a kiss, smooth and simple and nothing like what happened. Every ounce of tension melted under his soothing attention. He settled his forehead against mine. “We won’t go near that cave, okay?”
“Never again?”
Another kiss. “Never,” he whispered.
