Tina sucked in air and put her face into Rory’s neck.
Tace sighed. “I take it you’ve heard bad stuff.” It made sense that the president and the local gangs were talking them down to keep folks from seeking asylum. “Vanguard is a good place where nobody will hurt you.”
“Oh yeah? Where’d you get the black eye?” Rory challenged, red infusing his pale skin.
“From his girlfriend,” Raze said easily.
Tace cut him a look.
Rory’s light eyebrows rose. “Your girlfriend hit you? Did you hit her, too?”
Tace scowled. Truth was, he had smacked her ass quite a bit. “No, I didn’t hit her back. She was mad at me and she punched me, but she had some cause. We usually don’t go around hitting each other, and we don’t hit kids. Ever.”
“Tace’s woman can really fight,” Raze said. “Her name is Sami, and she could train you, if you want.”
Tina peeked around Rory at Raze. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
The deadly soldier blinked. “Um, well, yeah. I do.”
Tace snorted. “You are so smooth.”
Raze frowned. “The term ‘girlfriend’ is just so high school. But yeah, I’m with somebody, and her name is Vinnie. She’s kind and soft . . . and works as a shrink. In fact, she’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
Tina nudged Rory. “They have a Vinnie and a Sami.”
“So?” Rory asked, studying Tace with way too old eyes.
“A place with a Vinnie and a Sami can’t be all bad, right?” Tina asked with perfect logic.
“We have other kids, and one is named Lena, but she doesn’t talk,” Tace said. Maybe they’d be enticed by the thought of other kids.
“Why not?” Rory asked, still glaring.
“We don’t know,” Tace said gently. “She seems happy, and she’s always around, but she’s never spoken a word. Maybe somebody her age could get her to talk.”
Glass broke a block away, and both kids jumped.
Raze eyed the area. “We need to get out of here.”
Tace nodded. “Please come with us. We’ll make sure you stay safe.”
Rory looked at Tina, who slowly nodded.
“All right.” Tace looked up at the rapidly rising sun. “Let’s get them home safely and then go scouting.” They had to find explosives in order to infiltrate the Bunker. So far he hadn’t had an attack of dizziness all day, but hell . . . the day was still young.
Chapter Twenty-One
I never thought to find a man who’d want all of me,much less demand it.
—Sami Steel
Sami hustled downstairs wearing her favorite cargo pants and black T-shirt with a knife strapped to her thigh. She’d awoken alone in Tace’s apartment, and the guy hadn’t even left a note.
All sorts of private places ached on her body, from her butt to her core. Even her breasts were tender from the wild night.
And wild it had been.
She shrugged off any sense of uneasiness and loped across the soup kitchen to the infirmary. If Tace thought he could just sneak out without talking to her, the man was in for one hell of a surprise. They still needed to talk, damn it.
