“Well, that too. And there’ll be more where that comes from. Me and Cam, we missed our calling. In another life, we’re gonna be the most epic dinner ladies.”
I could see that. Kept my mouth shut, though. Rubi relieved me of my empty bowl and let me go, so I left him in the chapel and gave taking a nap in Locke’s bed more serious thought than I did Rubi’s offer of a seat at the Rebel Kings’ table. I thought about Decoy too. Of course. He’d be gone for a few days, and when he got back...
My imagination fired, eclipsing my fatigue. Maybe he wouldn’t want me in the house, but even hanging out on his doorstep all night had its merits. The knowledge that he was inside. That he wassafe. The addictive zip in my blood every time I thought about how close he was. Not that he needed to be close for my body to do odd things. I’d discovered that years ago.
I reached the clubhouse and ducked inside.
Embry was on one of the couches, elbows on his knees, face pale. He didn’t like people getting up in his business, but he looked rough enough that I couldn’t walk on by.
I pulled up a chair and gripped his wrist, pressing two fingers into his pulse point, gauging his temperature with my other hand. “You’re pretty cold for a hot day.”
Embry grinned a little. “Maybe you’re just hot, brother.”
“That’s a stretch at the best of times. Did you eat yet?”
“Hmm?”
“Wait here a sec.” I got up and moved further into the bar. In the back, I found one of the medical bags I’d helped Saint stash all over the compound.
Combat medic kits.
I took it back to Embry and dug out a glucometer and a test strip.
Embry let me prick his finger. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice, but the reading came back fine, so I moved on to his blood pressure, and...
Bingo. “That’s low, dude. What’s your baseline?”
“My what?”
“Do you know what your normal range is?”
Embry snorted. “No fucking clue. I’ve had problems with it being low for a while, though. I’ve got some pills somewhere.”
“Where? You take them yet today?”
“In my pocket, and nope. They make me even dizzier. I just need some water, man.”
That, I could fix. I put the kit away and swiped two water bottles from the bar.
Embry took one and slowly drank it. “Where did you learn your medic skills? I’m guessing it wasn’t Google like Saint?”
“SBS troops are all trained to paramedic standard. Even if you’re the explosives guy.”
“Is that what you were?”
“Drink up and I might tell you.”
Embry drank more water.
I waited for him to drain the bottle, then elaborated. “Explosives were one of my specialties. I was a pretty handy sniper too, but I didn’t need that as much underwater.”
“Diving?”
“Yeah. Royal Marines. Special Boat Service. I like getting wet, clearly.”
“I knew that about you already. Not the rest of it, though. Why is that?”
“You never asked.”
