“Yes,” CJ said, surprised to find that it was the truth. “I’ll be fine.”
Amelia smiled and patted CJ on the back before heading back through the stretchers on her rounds.
CJ gathered the equipment she needed and pulled up a stool next to Domik’s stretcher and began working on his back. She worked in silence, his hand dangling toward the floor, resting on her ankle in a possessive claim.
She looked up as Oren pulled a stool up on the other side of Domik’s stretcher. She smiled softly at him, and Oren nodded in greeting, his brow pressed into a slight frown as he watched CJ work.
Minutes turned into an hour, and when she was finally finished, she stood and stretched. Domik lifted his head, his eyes glazed with the painkiller he’d been given.
She grabbed one of the few medi-wands that this small field tent had available and waved it over his back. She shook her head as she watched the muscle and skin knit before her eyes, leaving faint silver scars behind that crisscrossed his back.
When she was done, she turned off the medi-wand and gently cleaned all traces of dirt and blood away from his skin, smoothing her hand over his back. He watched her from half-lidded eyes before closing them and, finally, drifting to sleep.
“Is he asleep?” Oren asked.
“Yes.” CJ pulled a folded blanket from a nearby empty stretcher and draped it over Domik, a small smile playing on her lips.
“You care for him.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
More than you will ever know.
CJ said nothing, just smiled slightly as she smoothed the hair back from Domik’s face, tucking it behind his ear. His long dark lashes swept over his cheeks; his face relaxed in sleep.
Oren said something, and CJ realized she hadn’t caught his words. “Sorry?” She looked up.
“I said he cares for you as well.”
CJ straightened, sitting upright and ticking her hands into her lap. She knew Domik cared about her. He’d showed as much over the past few days. But in the way Oren was suggesting?
She wasn’t entirely convinced he hadn’t kept a lookout for her out of some misguided sense of responsibility. He’d said, more than once, that everyone else on the team had someone.
Laila and Zac had each other, as did Krystal and T’arq. Oren and Amelia had… something, though they both played their cards close to their chests.
But CJ? She had nobody.
Had he been looking out for her just because she was the sole singleton?
CJ rubbed her chest and grimaced at the thought.
“Has he told you how he feels?”
CJ shook her head slowly. “No. He’s been very kind to me, though.”
Oren barked out a laugh. “Kind? Domik?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t he be kind?” CJ scowled up at the older brother of the man she had come to—what, exactly? Did she love him?
Oren smiled, and CJ’s heart lurched as she saw those same dimples appear on his cheeks. The two brothers were so very different in so many ways. But perhaps that was because Domik rarely smiled?
“Domik doesn’t get close to anyone. Have you ever asked him why?” Not waiting for a reply, he slapped his thighs and stood. “Now I know my big little brother will be fine, I have work to do. Those Xakul won’t hold off for much longer.”
CJ’s head snapped up.
Oren nodded, the smile falling from his face. “They’ll be back, and when they return, we need to be ready.”
It was the reminder of the mysterious Xakul ship they had seen at the motel that had CJ gasping.
“Oren, we saw a Xakul ship.”
