I can’t reveal that he stayed behind for his mother.
“He had his reasons.” My tone lacks conviction, and I hate that.
Gray’s jaw is hard, twitching with frustration that he can’t mask. He takes another step. “You’re standing here fighting for a man who didn’t care enough to return the favor.”
I stare at him in defiance. “Stop it.”
“Stop what? Speaking the truth?”
He closes the remaining space between us. Before I can blink, he backs me up against the wall, and my shoulders hit it with a jolt. Suddenly there’s a forceful hand gripping my chin. Warm breath tickling my cheek. He’s close enough that I can feel the heat radiating off his body, that I’m inhaling his clean citrus scent.
“You’re better than this,” he says in my ear, and I’m shocked to feela tiny twinge between my legs. I’m discovering that I like men like this. Bossy and dominant. Strong. The ones who challenge me.
But just because I can recognize how attractive Grayson Blake is to me right now doesn’t mean I’m going to act on it. Both my body and heart are tethered to someone else.
And yet…something raw and unfiltered continues to pass between us, locking our gazes together.
“Gray,” I warn. “Stop talking about shit you don’t know anything about. And in case you forgot, you have a girlfriend.” I shove at his chest and stalk past him. “So maybe concentrate on your own relationship and stop making judgments about my love life.”
“Go back to your quarters,” he mutters.
I stare at him in disbelief. “I don’t get why you’re so angry with me. I’m onyourside. I’m at the Dagger. I’m not working with the Command—”
“I said go back to your quarters.”
A standoff ensues.
I don’t want to obey and leave, because that feels like letting him win. But I also don’t want to be here anymore, getting reprimanded in the middle of the night.
I’m the first to break eye contact. Surrendering.
I stalk away, but not before lobbing some cold parting words at him.
“You can lecture me as much as you fucking want, Gray. But I donotregret saving Tana tonight, and I’d do the same thing all over again, no matter what it takes to get it done.”
I give him one last look, hard and resolute, then march out the door, slamming it behind me.
Chapter 27
Breakfast is a tense affair. Saint and Gray barely say a word to me, and even Mako is quiet, which is unheard of. Evlynne hasn’t come after me again, but she’s still visibly upset over Neema’s death. I don’t blame her. I’d be upset, too.
I’m sitting with Xavier and Tana, a less-than-ideal combination because the last time Tana saw Xavier, it was right after she’d been attacked by Anson, a Silver Elite soldier I clocked as a psychopath within seconds of meeting. To this day, Tana refuses to speak about what happened, but I haven’t been able to erase the memory of that day.
Xavier and Cross were the ones who detained Tana after I struck the deal that allowed her to serve a labor sentence rather than face execution. This morning, when she realized who Xavier was, she completely shut down and has been picking at her food ever since, gaze downcast.
Earlier, the mission leads debriefed with the Authority about last night’s rescue. One point of contention was why that force field was up when it wasn’t supposed to be, and I hear Gray and Saint discussing it now at the neighboring table.
“Obviously the intel was inaccurate, but do you think it was intentional?” Saint asks, frowning. “Someone trying to sabotage the op?”
“Security intelligence comes from the prisoners themselves. I don’t see why they’d sabotage their own extraction.”
Since he’s as nosy as I am, Xavier is happy to intrude on their conversation. “Would you just fucking relax?” he calls toward their table. “Your intel was fine. The force field was up because the captain of Silver Block was on-site.”
Gray looks over, eyes narrowed.
“The former general wasn’t one to waste resources,” Xavier explains in a bored tone. “It requires an inordinate amount of power to keep those fields up, so they’re for show only at most of the camps. Meant to serve as a deterrent. But if a CO is on-site, especially someone with the last name Redden, you better believe those fields are getting switched on.”
“They didn’t post more perimeter guards,” Gray points out, distrustful of Xavier’s explanation.
