He’s stronger than you think he is.
I need to tell him what I heard about Luthor and Ren.
I need to… tell him the truth about Cameron.
But just as I’m about to speak, Rook and Joy come rushing over.
“Hey, you guys gotta go now,” Joy whispers. “They’re on the move. Something’s going on.”
Kemper is visibly stressed, but he packs it away and nods for me to follow him.
I give Felix one last kiss, resting our foreheads together. “I’ll see you soon, Need.”
“Not if I see you first, Want,” he teases.
I can’t even help grinning, despite how much I hate that I have to leave him.
We pull apart, and Kemper winks at Felix. “I’ll get him back safe. You have my word.”
Now…
This ain’t what I signed up for.
I’ve always loved those action movies, when the reluctant sidekick—who never reallywantedto be involved, but somehow found himself wrapped up in bullets flying and things exploding—says that.
Like a Danny Glover inLethal Weapontype.
I’m gettin’ too old for this shit.
I mean, when I agreed to side with Team Velle, I had every inclination that it would turn bloody fairly quick. There’s too much history here, things I’m not even privy to—all the research on paper could never get you inside what’sactuallybeen going down on this island for ten-plus years. It was never going to be anything less than a battle, which I was fortunate enough to miss most of, being tied up, bleeding in a dungeon.
Yet it would seem that we’ve ventured into the peak of this war—the part in the movie when the guys like me are most definitely contemplating what led us here…
And how the hell we can get ourselves out of it alive.
Gunfire is popping off just outside, walkies blaring every five seconds, reporting what’s going on to Velle. Voices are shouting, people hustling around the limited space of this stone structure that’s thankfully just solid enough to be bulletproof. Loading magazine after magazine with the biggest damn rounds I’ve ever seen, filing weapons out to the men who are fighting the cartel.
We’re atliteralwar with the cartel right now…
Where even am I??
As scary as it is, I’m no deserter. I won’t be leaving, especially because my services are guaranteed to be needed very soon.
I’m not amedicaldoctor, but I have enough basic training to help where I can.
Unless someone needs, like, emergency surgery or something. In that case, I’ll be more than useless.
My family is made up of surgeons and oncologists. I’m the odd man out, much to their lifelong chagrin. That said, I’ll use what knowledge I have and serve as the only doctor still alive on this island.
Like it’s some reality competition show. Survivor Island: Doctor Edition.
It’s certainly turned out to be far more nefarious than it sounds.
For right now, I’m just standing by, trying not to flinch at every loud clink of a bullet hitting the wall that separates us from the havoc out there. Gripping Felix’s hand and trying hard not to fracture his bones, since I can’t really fix that either.
“I need to—”
“Absolutely not,” I bark an insistent interruption to what Iknowmy fiancé was about to say. Felix aims pleading doe-eyes up at me, but I’m not having it. “Don’t give me that look. You are absolutelynotgoing out there. Period. End of story.”
