“We figured out the sanitarium after dying in it way too many times.” Levi’s hands pressed against the wall behind him. Asher was getting that look again, the one that said he needed things to go his way, and Levi needed to find a way to make him not murder their first chance at understanding what the hell was happening. “Five minutes. Let me find out what we’re working with.”
Something moved through Asher’s expression too fast to name, there and then gone. “And if they take you away from me?”
“They won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know I’ll come back.”I always come back. Haven’t I?“Asher. Look at me.” He waited until Asher did. “I’m trying to get us both out. That’s what this is.”
Asher’s hand came up and closed over Levi’s throat, squeezing gently, too tight to be feeling for a pulse, but too light to cut off any blood flow. He leaned down, locking eyes with him, untiltheir lips brushed for a fraction of a second. “The first thing I did when I woke up was find you. It wasn’t easy, Levi,” he whispered against his lips.
“Mercer! Kane!” A new voice called — closer, carrying the flat authority of someone used to giving orders in hallways exactly like this one. “Maintenance Chief Nguyen. We’re here to help.”
Asher’s eyes narrowed as Levi opened his mouth to respond, his fingers tightening.
“Five minutes,” Levi whispered, grabbing Asher’s wrist. “I’ll come back.”
“No.” Asher pursed his lips, shaking his head. “Please, Levi. Stay here.”
Levi pulled Asher’s hand away from his throat. Asher let him — surprised enough by the redirect that his fingers opened without resistance — and Levi grabbed Asher’s face, pulling him down and kissing his forehead..
He felt a sharp inhale, and Asher went very still beneath it, like he was afraid to move and break whatever this was. “I am choosing you,” Levi said against his skin. “This is what it looks like when I do.”
He let go and stepped back into the corridor, turned, and walked.
His boots were steady on the metal floor and for the first time in longer than he could remember, he knew exactly what he was doing: walking toward the people who had answers, and then walking back. It was simple and clean as long as he didn’t look back at Asher.
“After everything.”
Levi kept walking.
“After everything we’ve…” Asher’s voice sounded wrong. Wrong in a way Levi had only ever heard once before, back in the barbershop in Riverbend, stripped down past the charm, pastthe control, to something that had no armor left on it. “You’re leaving me?”
God dammit, Asher…
“I’m not leaving,” Levi said over his shoulder without looking, trying to keep his voice steady as fear settled in his stomach like a chunk of ice. “I’ll be right back. Trust me.”
The security team came around the corner ahead of him. Three figures in tactical gear, rifles angled down, but ready, and helmets with tactical displays reflected in their visors. The lead figure had a name stenciled on her chest plate, NGUYEN, and she raised a gloved hand, palm out.
“Mercer. Step away from Kane. We’re here to help.”
Levi opened his mouth, but an impact hit him in the back, punching through him like a steel fist. His palms caught first. Then his knees, hard enough to feel the ridges in the metal grating. The pain arrived a full second late, white and blinding, radiating from the center of his chest where something had gone clean through.
Oh.His face hit the cold metal floor.He did it.
He heard the security team shouting, and Nguyen’s voice shouted something about a formation. Then he heard something else — a different quality of sound: sharp and precise and utterly unhurried. It was the sound of someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
One.
Two.
Three.
He managed to roll onto his side, his vision already narrowing, but the corridor was still there, and Asher was still there, moving through the three-person team with the energy pistol raised and his face absolutely calm. It was simple: four shots, four people, and he stepped over Nguyen’s body without looking down.
Levi didn’t have time to be horrified.
Asher knelt on the floor beside him, both palms pressed to Levi’s chest, warm and firm, and the pressure should have hurt — it did, distantly — but Levi couldn’t bring himself to care about that right now because Asher’s face…
