Oh geez. Reaper’s voice had dropped, much like her father’s had when he’d caught her stealing a package of grape Kool-Aid from the grocery store when she was seven. She’d learned right then and there that yelling was muchbetter.
And from the way Diggs was clenching and unclenching his fists behind his back, she got the distinct feeling he was just as uncomfortable. “Not John Dawson,exactly.”
Reaper’s shoulders rose. “If you say exactly one moretime…”
Diggs cast her a pained expression and Laura sent up a silent prayer that he wasn’t about to throw her under the bus. Then he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing straight down his throat. “It was myfault.”
Watching Diggs fall on his sword for her was more painful than she’d anticipated. The words gargled up from her gut, and blasted past her lips before she could pull them back. “He was looking forme.”
How in the hell had her voice come out so strong when she was so terrified she was about to pee in herpants?
Faith squirmed beneath her and Laura realized she’d been clenching the child’s shoulders in her worry. She released her white-knuckled grip while maintaining a firmhold.
Reaper turned his full attention back to her and she sent up a silent prayer that the floor would simply open up and swallow herwhole.
“And youare?”
It was her turn to swallow, only her throat simply stopped working so she ended up coughing and embarrassing herself in front of everyone. When she finally sucked in enough air to make her lungs work, she said, “LauraDawson.”
Chapter 7
King eased back to consciousness,his eyes so heavy they might as well have had lead tied to them. His ears filled with the sound of buzzing fluorescent lights and beeping monitors. The sterile cold blast of air like the hospital. “Hope…”
The explosion. The weakness.Trinity.
His heart seemed to expand in his chest, contract and then hyperactivate on adrenaline. King shoved with all his might to sit up, forcing his eyes open. He didn’t even make it vertical before a rough hand shoved him flat again. “Staydown.”
Before he could think, King’s hand shot up and shackled Reaper’s wrist, attempting to shove him away. Searing pain snaked across his chest. King dropped his hand beside him and licked his lips. “Whathappened?”
“Who is Hope?” Reapercountered.
King turned his head to the side and closed his eyes, trying to remember how he’d ended up here, but a thick fog settled over hismind.
But not so thick he was going to reveal all the dark secrets of his past to his team leader. When he joined Team Mayhem, it had been well after the event that had changed his life. No one on his team knew of his past, and that’s exactly the way he planned to keepit.
King drew in a deep breath, and slowly exhaled, commanding his bodily functions into some semblance of control. With cold calculation that only years and years of training could instill, King forced his focus on his memory. “Dawson.”
The loud creak of shifting plastic filled the room and King turned to see Reaper settling back in a chair beside his bed. Monitors, sterile white sheets and equally sterile metal countertops surrounded him. He was in the mock hospital they’d set up in the basement of thecompound.
“Care to explain how you ended up with John Dawson’s sister and her child in ourcompound?”
King closed his eyes again. Explaining to his team leader how he’d ignored his command and gone after their rogue teammate without permission wasn’t something he looked forward to. “I had a lead and decided to pursueit.”
“Without my knowledge or permission.” That was a statement, not aquestion.
“It was time sensitive,” King replied, tilting his chin down to assess the damage. His torso was wrapped in bright whites—from beneath his armpits down to his navel. Various new scratches and stitches dotted his arms. He moved his legs beneath the sheet, feeling the pull of strained muscles and even a couple more new stitches on histhighs.
Reaper leaned forward, balancing his thick elbows on his knees. “Explain.Now.”
“I decided to go have a talk with his sister, see if she’d seen him,” Kingbegan.
Reaper cut him off in a flash. “You mean you decided to spy on his sister to see if he would show up so you could kill him forrevenge.”
Reaper’s intimidating tone would make anyone else stressed, but King wasn’t worried. He didn’t fear his team leader like everyone else; he’d have to be afraid of dying for that to be an issue. However, Reaper had been through some seriously tough shit and come out sane—and for that he had King’srespect.
“Yes. I was hoping he would showup.”
“I get it,” Reaper saidquietly.
