Then Hunter’s face comes into view, gazing down at me with a ragged kind of fear that makes me reach up to cup his cheek with my hand. He isbeautiful. Smooth brown skin, his full lower lip caught by his teeth, tousled hair falling into his eyes. He’s big, broad-shouldered, but so gentle in his strength.
He grabs for my wrist and squeezes it, and makes a sound like a sob, and that’s what brings the memories back.
Suddenly I hear my own sobs inside my helmet, and I remember my chest burning, and I … my suit.My suit.I twist my body, wrenching up my arm to see the gash in the fabric. It feels like a nightmare – like it happened to someone else, someone I know.
‘How …’ My voice is a rasp, and the word hurts my head.
‘I don’t know,’ he manages, running his fingers from my temple down my jawline, as though he has to touch me to be sure I’m real. ‘I just … I got you here, somehow. I thought you were going to die. I thought maybe you’d already decompressed. But I couldn’t leave you there.’ His voice firms. ‘I wasn’t going to leave you there.’
Tears spill down my temples again, my breath releasing in a shaky exhalation.
I couldn’t leave you there.
Everybody leaves me. They die, or they run, and then I’m on my own again, fending for myself.
Everybody leaves me. But Hunter …
Hunter stayed.
I reach up, curving one hand around the smooth skin at the back of his neck, and without a moment’s hesitation, I pull his mouth down to mine. He lets out a soft breath of surprise, but he doesn’t protest – in fact, it’s like the bonds that have been holding him back have suddenly snapped.
He buries his hand in my hair, his lips soft on mine, his skin so warm, so alive. His thumb brushes gently against my cheek, grounding me in the here and now, his heartbeat like an anchor.
I make a faint sound, and he offers something wordless in return, my pulse quickening as I let myself take shelter in his arms. He holds me like he wants to shield me.
I lose myself in the taste of him, in this moment that’s just ours, and let everything else fade away as he sets my skin on fire.
Just for a moment, the weight I carry – the weight of my past – falls away, and I let myself fly.
22.
HUNTER
2 HOURS, 53 MINUTES REMAINING
I’M LOST IN THEwarmth of Cleo’s skin, in the way her hand’s wrapped around the back of my neck to keep me close, and I’m clinging to her just as hard. Every moment of this kiss is short-circuiting my brain, sending shivers of pleasure straight down my spine, and I—
‘Hustle!’ The voice is distant, and it takes me a moment to understand it came from outside the bubble the two of us have made for ourselves.
Then my head snaps up and I meet Cleo’s startled gaze. That shout came from somewhereinsidethe base. The mercs are on their way.
‘Shit,’ she whispers, shoving me away, and I scramble to climb off her and clamber to my feet. I reach down to pull her up, but her knees nearly give as she stands, and I’m forced to wrap my arms around her.
‘You think they saw the outer doors open?’ I whisper.
We’re already moving together, and I wrap my arm around her shoulders to support her as we hobble out of the individual garage and into the main facility. It’s bigger than the one on the east side, filled with maintenance benches, equipment abandoned mid-repair.
The doors hum closed behind us, the little space we just left now ready for Rover to drive in. But if she does, she’ll find herself at gunpoint.
‘We have to warn her,’ I say.
‘We have to hide,’ Cleo replies, still clinging to me, her hair mussed from where I ran a hand through it. ‘Can’t help her if we’re dead.’
I look around wildly – there are plenty of spaces to try to hide, but nowhere that’ll be out of sight if they truly start searching. And if they saw that door open, they will. Then my gaze lifts and I feel Cleo shift her weight as she locks onto the same solution in the same moment. The balcony. We hid there in the east garage to spy on the mercs, and we can hide there again now.
‘I can do it,’ she says before I can ask the question. Her ability to keep going is nothing short of staggering.
We stumble across to the balcony together, and I drop to one knee, making a stirrup out of my hands.
