“Thanks,” he said, genuinely grateful. Although Blade always healed them as best he could after a battle, this time felt...different. “Why’d you do that?”
“Tavin didn’t come. No doubt it’s a test of teamwork. Ares probably wants to see if I’ll do it.”
“Ah.” That made sense. It was also a little disappointing.
“I don’t hate you, Mace,” Blade said softly. “Things might be shit right now, but I could never hate you.”
Startled, Mace looked up, saw pain lurking in his buddy’s shadowed eyes. “Same,” he croaked. “Same.”
“Guys?” Scotty came to her feet with a wince. “Maybe now would be a good time to talk.”
Agreed. Mace glanced around, suddenly uncomfortable in the middle of the arena, exposed to anyone with exceptional hearing. “Not here.”
“Let’s go back to the compound.” Blade offered Mace a hand, and Mace didn’t hesitate. They locked their grips, and Blade pulled Mace to his feet.
Despite the new camaraderie, shit was a little awkward as they headed to the Harrowgate. They entered in silence, programmed the thing, and exited through their private gate.
The walk to the main building was just as silent. Inside, Rade and Crux were playing in the soundproofed game room, and Sabre was still at work, so they had the living room to themselves.
Naturally, now that they were somewhere they could talk, they just stared at each other. Fuck. This needed to be settled, and it needed to happen now.
“We can’t keep going like this,” Mace said. “We’ll be dead by Wednesday if we have to keep this shit up with Ares.”
“Wednesday?” Blade snorted. “Tuesday by noon.”
The brief moment of amusement gave Mace a reprieve from the tension that had been pressing in from all around him. Around all three of them. They’d been stewing in a damned pressure cooker for days, and cracks were forming. It wouldn’t be long before things went critical.
Then Blade got all serious again and ruined it. “I talked to Sabre yesterday.” He hooked his thumbs in his bloodstained pants pockets. “He thinks maybe we need some time apart.”
“Dad said something similar,” Mace called out as he fetched them water from the fridge. When he returned to the living room, he passed out the bottles. “I don’t know how that’ll help, though. It’s not going to change what happened.”
“Well, we can’t take it back,” Blade said. “So, we need to learn to deal with it.”
“Ineed to learn, you mean.” Mace swore. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what? You’re the one who said you were cool with it, when you really weren’t.”
“I meant it when I said it,” he snapped. “But it turns out I’m not,okay?” Reining in his anger, he continued, a little calmer. “I know I shouldn’t have accused you of being careless with your injections. That was a dick move. But you’ve been weird, and don’t you dare deny it.”
“What?” Blade stared at him. “I haven’t been weird.”
“Yes, you have,” Scotty said, backing Mace. “We all have.”
Blade looked like he was going to argue, but a few heartbeats later, he blew out a breath and looked down at the floor. “Scotty? Do you regret—?”
“No!” Scotty took his hand, and a flare of jealousy heated Mace’s chest…until she grabbed his hand too. “I love you guys, and I would do anything to save your lives. We can never have regrets about that. But we do have to find a way to move on.”
“I just don’t think spending time apart is the answer.” Mace concentrated on the feel of Scotty’s warm hand in his. How right it seemed. And yet, it was so wrong. “I know this is mostly my issue. I get it. But if I’m alone, it’s just gonna fester inside me. It’s what I do.”
For a long moment, no one said anything.
“Lore suggested time apart, right?” Blade asked. “Did you talk to Wraith?”
Mace laughed. “You don’t even want to know what his solution is.”
“I’m willing to try anything if it’ll help get us back to where we were,” Blade said.
Anything? Okay, challenge accepted. Blade was so going to regret saying that. “He said I should sleep with Scotty and then we’d be even.”
