“Perhaps it isn’t them we should be worried about.”Yoshi set his mug down with a precise click.“I’ll get Cath and Zeke.I think it best if you wake Del and the others.”
She knew better than to question him or waste precious time on arguing.Instead, she carried her own mug—no use wasting a good cuppa joe—around the corner and into the other hall that led past the front door to the living room.
Where, surprisingly, she saw Justin leaning against the wall, apparently studying the locked front door with great interest.He had his rig buckled on—less graceful than the ones the Society used but still familiar, a piece of Sigma gear.He ran a palm over his short dark hair, as if he’d forgotten it was shorter now and he was trying to strip the flow back with his fingers.
Rowan’s heart leapt into her mouth.“Good morning,” she said quietly.“Yoshi said to wake everyone up.There’s coffee, if you want it.”Her gaze slid down his shoulder—he wasn’t wearing his coat—and to the inner surface of his left elbow, exposed by the short sleeve of the blue T-shirt, the same one he’d been wearing since Vegas.
There, scored into his skin, were track marks.Ugly, raised and red; Rowan sucked in a breath.She reached, the mug almost burning her left hand, and trailed her free fingers down his biceps, avoiding touching the nasty hypo-marks.
She’d seen enough of them, on psions caught by Sigma.
The flesh at the hollow of his elbow was bruised as well as scored, the sign of rough handling.Had he been strapped down?There was a bracelet of raw, red flesh around his wrist, too—from restraints, probably.Cold scratches trailed down her spine; the skin on her upper arms prickled with gooseflesh.
“My God,” she whispered.“What did they do to you?”
He shrugged, an easy fluid movement.“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”His voice was low, too—early-morning gravel.“Slapped me around a little, got me on some Zed.Seen it before.”Muscle hard and tense under her fingertips.Was he shaking?Or was it some high voltage of rage passing through him?
I left him there.Guilt rose acid in her throat.
Rowan flattened her hand against the track marks.She had to step closer, and she was suddenly aware that she’d spent the entire night sleeping next to him.It hadn’t been planned—she barely remembered collapsing on the mattress and hearing others talking, the bursts of laughter, the world whirling under her as alcohol disorientation released tension.
“I can help with this,” she managed around the lump in her throat.“You must be… God, I’m sorry.I should have done something last night, instead of?—”
His fingers closed around her wrist.The contact was just as electric as ever.Gently,verygently, he pulled her hand away.She knew how strong he was, guessed he was trying not to hurt her.The touch did something strange, filled her head with heat, robbed her legs of strength.
Keeping my distance is going to be a little harder than I thought.
“Later,” he said, his fingers still around her wrist.“When we’ve found out what Yoshi’s nervous about, and when you’ve had some breakfast.You look a little pale.”
I’m not,she wanted to say.My hair’s a mess, I haven’t worn makeup in what seems like years, and I’m thin and nervous because people with guns keep chasing me.Nothing that fleeing the country won’t cure.
“I’m fine,” she said, a little more curtly than she wanted to.“It’s been hard, we’ve all missed you.”
“Did you?”He sounded like he wasn’t even interested.
She managed to tear her gaze away from the damage done to his arm by the simple expedient of looking at the plain white painted wall.
A brief struggle—she pulled fruitlessly against his hold, his fingers clamped just enough to keep her from breaking free.Another brief struggle with caution, which she lost just as badly.
“Of course I missed you.”Heat rose up to her cheeks.It felt like she was standing over a hot burner.“Justin, I’m so sorry—I mean, Delgado?—”
“Call me what you like.”Did he sound, for the first time, amused?“I like the way you say it.Anyway, you’d better wake them up.I’m going to get clean and find some coffee.”His fingers loosened; he slowly released her wrist.
I am such a miserable coward.I can’t even look at him.“Fine.”Her voice wouldn’t work above a whisper.
He edged past, moving a little closer than absolutely necessary, crowding her toward the wall.Coffee slopped against the sides of Rowan’s mug.She finally looked up.
He was staring at her again, with that oddlypresentlook making his eyes dark and deep instead of flat.
“I missed you too.”His whisper was different from hers, less squeak and more harsh depth.“I didn’t even know what I’d forgotten, and I missed you.”
Rowan’s heart banged against her ribs.Her cheeks felt as if she was having one mother of a hot flash.And I’m only thirty-one, nowhere near menopause.Dammit, keep your mind on business.
It was very hard to remain businesslike while Justin leaned down and inhaled as if smelling her hair, still wet from the shower.He used to do that a lot.What am I doing?What’shedoing?I thought he didn’t want anything to do with me!
“Try to stay out of trouble while I’m getting some caffeine.”He was gone around the corner before she could protest.
Rowan blinked.Her knees felt watery.Would the old Justin have done that?Or was it just his sense of humor, sarcastic and difficult at the best of times?
