“Get him into recovery,” I say to Zain and Allie, who are still awaiting orders. “He’s going to pass out if he keeps bleeding like that.” And then I grab my ruined undershirtby the collar and tug hard, tearing the thin fabric badly off my body.
“Do you—” Allie glances at me, gasps, and looks away. “Oh—”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kenji asks.
“What are you waiting for?” I say, nodding at the soldiers. “Get him out of here. He’s going to start spiking a fever—”
“Did you just rip off your shirt?” Kenji asks, stunned. “Do you realize it’s still raining outside?”
“I need to do something with my arm.” I frown at him, then brace myself, breathing through the pain as I use the cotton to fashion a crude sling for my shoulder. “I can’t run after her like this.”
“You’re not running anywhere,” Kenji says, his voice hardening. “You need to walk right into recovery. Let the unit round her up—it shouldn’t take long—”
“No.” I lift my head to look at him. Rain sweeps into the hangar on a sudden gust of wind, the cold mist welcome on my overheated skin. “Rosabelle ismyproblem.”
“Let her be someone else’s problem.”
“She’s already mine,” I say darkly. “And I don’t like sharing my problems with people.”
“Maybe we should go,” Allie says quietly to Kenji. “Get you over to the girls—”
“Shut up, Allie.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Bro, did you take a blow to the head?” Kenji says to me now. “Why are you trying to get yourself killed?”
I tie off the sling with my teeth. “I’m not trying to get myself killed.”
“Oh, okay, so maybe you’ve just lost track of the fact that this is, like, the fourth time she’s tried to kill you.”
“She only tried to kill me once.”
“You mean that blood all over your jeans, that nasty gash in your side, that bullet in your shoulder—that’s just fashion?”
Now I’m getting irritated. “That was different.”
“James, you’re not invincible,” he says angrily. “Just because your body can heal itself doesn’t mean you can withstand anything. You’re lucky to be alive right now. If that bullet hit you a few inches to the left you wouldn’t even be standing here—”
“Trust me,” I say, cutting him off. “If she’d wanted me to die, she wouldn’t have missed.”
“She’s not some perfect killing machine,” Kenji says, his voice rising in anger. “She’s an injured human being who makes mistakes just like the rest of us—”
“Thanks for your concern. I love you, too.”
“Fuck you, don’t make fun of my feelings. You have no idea how many people care about you—”
“And I’m trying to protect those people,” I hit back. “I made this mess. I need to clean it up. I’m the only one who can handle this situation. Think whatever you want about me, but I serve a purpose here. She won’t let anyone else get close to her. I can bring her in—I cantalkto her—”
“Bring her in?” Kenji laughs. “They’re out there shootingto kill, bro. Warner is done with her. He gave the orders a few minutes ago—”
“What?” Shock shatters through me. “When?”
“—she’s too much of a liability. And because of her, so are you. We tried to bring her in. She nearly killed us both. Warner’s had enough and he wants her gone—”
“She wasn’t trying to kill us!”
“Nope. I’m not doing this.” He nods to Zain and Allie. “Let’s go. We’re done here—”
