“Yeah,” she said. “Well. I earned that.”
“You didn’t.”
“I froze.”
“You were undercover in a building full of traffickers and cartel linked assholes,” I said. “You did not sign up for that kind of contact. No one moves the first time they see it up close. They freeze, or they throw up, or they pass out. You stayed upright.”
“I didn’t move,” she repeated, like she hadn’t heard anything else.
“If you had moved, we would be pulling you out of a body bag,” I said. “I am very clear on which outcome I prefer.”
She gave a short, humorless laugh. “You don’t get to make that call for me.”
“I already did.”
Her stare snapped back to me, hot and sharp now, not wild. That was better. Anger I could work with.
“I was doing my job,” she said. “I knew the risks. You and Cap laid them out in graphic detail. I went in anyway. I am not some innocent you have to protect from big bad reality.”
“I know exactly what you are,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“Too damn valuable to lose.”
Her breath stuttered. She opened her mouth, closed it, shook her head like she was clearing a glitch.
From down the hall, someone yelled something about coffee filters. Smoke barked, high and excited. A door slammed. The normal chaos of the clubhouse pushed in against the quiet in the room.
She flinched at the slam. Just a little. Her shoulders rose.
I reached out without thinking and laid my hand on her shoulder. “Red.”
She went still under my palm, then eased, like she was matching her breath to mine.
“Cap’s not going to keep you on the bench forever,” I said. “You know too much. You see patterns none of us do. You’re already back in it whether he likes it or not.”
“Then why am I in here and not there?” she asked.
“Because your brain and your body are not on the same page yet,” I said. “We fix that first.”
She frowned. “What, with more toast and electrolytes?”
“With training. With time. With nightmares where you wake up and I tell you you’re still here, and one day your body believes me.”
She looked down at my hand on her shoulder. “You plan on being here for all of that?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s a lot of nights, Wrecker.”
“I’ve had worse duty assignments.”
She huffed. “You’re annoying.”
“You’re welcome.”
Her lips twitched again. That was twice in one morning. I was calling that a win.
