Mr. Hansen raised his glass and fanned his arm out. “My home is your home,sir.”
“Hang on a second,” Ronnie said, then grabbed her cell phone and started typing feverishly at the screen. “Kit, take a pic of the plasma band and text it tome.”
Okay….
I hobbled over to where it sat on the glass coffee table and snapped a pic, then sent it to her new phonenumber.
“Got it!” After typing a bit, she grinned. “Put your bank info in here, please,” she told Damien, handing him thedevice.
He raised oneeyebrow.
She rolled her eyes. “Come on, trustme.”
He typed something in and then hit a button. After a few seconds, hesmiled.
“What did you do?” I asked, peeking over hisshoulder.
“I started a crowdfunding campaign for the cuffs. They’ll be free, but people who want to donate can. Santiago can give the link to the news station when he talks tothem.”
I grinned. “Brilliant.”
* * *
The next forty-eighthours were some of the hardest of my life. I was so damn tired I couldn’t sit or I’d fall asleep, so I had to stay standing, which was hell on my leg. I’d taken so many caffeine pills that my stomach felt like it was eating itself, and last night I’d had to take another stim. We alldid.
The first shipment of plasma cuffs was going out in a few hours to Santiago and his men. I’d added my mom’s address, Tatum’s family, and Master Aki’s dojo to the list. I’d just gotten my walking boot, so Ronnie approved me to sleep and enter the Dream Wars as soon as our cuffs arrived. At least this way if anything went south, I could walk without crutches and have my hands free to shoot or use my swords—my nerve damage was minimal, and I was thankful forthat.
My phone pinged with a text, as did everyone else’s in the room. I flinched and covered my ears. Everything was too loud. I was too tired to even speak, so I just glanced at thescreen.
There is a drone delivery for Kit Steeleoutside.
The cuffs were here. ThankGod.
Damien had set everything up on his website so that when Santiago went to the news in a few hours, anyone who wanted to could order their band for free and leave a donation if they wished. They could also download the schematics to make their own. This would be for other countries like China and Japan that were adept in engineering. It also had a place on the website for other countries to order the rare earth mineral discs that powered the plasma cuff, and could only be found in Bisbee. Since the rocks were invaluable, and to Damien’s knowledge not found anywhere else, we weren’t sure if and when they would run out. The good news was that during our limited testing, it looked like they didn’t wear downeasily.
I’d completely spaced out and only remembered the drones had dropped off the cuffs when Damien walked over to me withone.
“How you doing?” he asked. His eyes had dark circles and his hands were shaky, while he slipped the arm cuff out of the package and pricked my finger, filling the inner lining of the cuff with my DNA. I’d barely felt it; I was sospacey.
“I hate everything, and I can barely find the brain cells to talk,” I mutteredgrumpily.
He laughed, like a full-on cackle, and I laughed in response, tears leaking from my eyes and my legs goingweak.
Ronnie walked over and pulled out her tiny torturelight.
My laughing stopped immediately. “If you shine that in my eyes, I’ll cutyou.”
She sighed. “Laughing uncontrollably is a sign of sleep deprivation,” she informed us, her own eyes gaunt and ringed with darkcircles.
Damien and I busted out laughing harder. I had to lean on him to keep from falling over. I hadn’t slept in six freaking days. I didn’t need a doctor to tell me I was sleepdeprived.
Then he began to fit the cuff onto my wrist. His tender hands, the way he touched my arm, made me want to say stupid romantic things tohim.
“Tomorrow night,” I said, gazing into hiseyes.
“What?”
“You can take me out on a real date tomorrownight.”
