Up and down the corridor, Amaryllis heard doors opening.
“They’ll throw you both in jail for public disorderliness!” she cried when Reese tired of slamming Cain into the wall and wrapped his hands about the other man’s throat. Catching hold of one of Reese’s arms, she tried to pull him loose from Cain. He ignored her, tightening his grip on Cain’s neck.
Someone grabbed her around the waist from behind, snatched her loose from Reese, and set her aside. The world spun dizzily. Amaryllis reached out blindly for the wall to support herself, gasping and coughing and blinking the dust from her eyes.
Dante, she saw, was trying to thrust himself between the two men to break them apart and she realized that it was he who’d pulled her from harm’s way.
The dizziness didn’t subside. It intensified until blackness surrounded her. Her body felt so heavy she couldn’t seem to move. Her last thought was that she needed to sit down before she fell. She didn’t even feel the floor when she hit it.
* * * *
“If you’ve hurt her, you son-of-a-bitch, I’m going to kill you.”
Amaryllis frowned, trying to identify the voice.
“Silence! No one hit her. She fainted. She is coming around now.”
It took more of an effort to open her eyes than she would’ve thought possible. Her eyelids felt as if they’d been glued shut. Darkness greeted her when she finally managed to open her eyes a crack, but it began to clear almost at once and she saw Dante was leaning over her. Reese and Cain, both coated with dust and as white as ghosts, stood on either side of him, peering down at her as Dante was.
Her head felt like it was going to explode. “What happened?”
“You hit your head on the floor when you fell.”
“I fell?” she asked blankly, lifting her hand with a great effort and trying to feel for the lump on her head.
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
Amaryllis stared at the huge hand that was shoved in front of her face. “Two,” she said slowly.
“What day is it?”
“How the hell would I know that? I haven’t seen a clock or a calendar since we landed,” she snapped irritably.
Dante’s lips flattened. “I should take you to the med center to make certain you don’t have a concussion.”
Amaryllis was instantly completely alert. “No! I don’t have a concussion. I’m fine.”
Dante rose to his full height and looked around and Amaryllis realized that she was lying on her bunk in her quarters. She frowned, but she couldn’t remember getting from the corridor to the room. One of them must have carried her in after she’d blacked out.
“I’ll stay with her and make certain she’s alright,” Dante announced.
Reese and Cain exchanged a challenging glance. “I’ll stay, too,” Cain said tightly.
Reese balled his hands into fists. “Over my dead body,” he growled.
Cain’s lips curled upward. “Gladly.”
Amaryllis struggled up onto her elbows. “OUT! All of you! Don’t youdareeven think about starting again!”
“You could be hurt. I need to stay,” Dante said tightly.
“Someone needs to stay anyway. The barbarian over there broke the door down,” Cain pointed out accusingly.
“Fine!” Amaryllis growled. “The three of you stay. I’ll leave.”
Dante pushed her back against the bunk, holding her down. “Be reasonable. You need to rest.”
“Me? Why should I be the only one that’s reasonable?”
