Page 95 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“Peace offering?”

“Hydration. Bear seems emotionally invested in it.”

A laugh slipped out before I could stop it as I sat against the wall a few feet away, careful with my shoulder.

Jackal glanced at the movement. “Hurts?”

“A little.”

His eyes went to my wrists. I pulled the sleeves of the oversized shirt down even though they did not reach far enough to cover them.

“I’m okay,” I said.

He looked out the window. “Didn’t ask.”

“You were going to.”

“Maybe.”

We sat without speaking for a while. The red ribbon stayed hidden inside his fist.

Eventually he said, “You don’t owe me an explanation for why you hesitated downstairs.”

My head turned toward him but Jackal kept looking at the window.

“I asked whether you said yes,” he continued. “You didn’t. That’s the part I care about.”

His words were too precise for the man who usually turned every uncomfortable silence into a joke. He looked at me before I could decide whether asking would be cruel or merely nosy. Whatever sat underneath his anger was his and his alone until he chose otherwise.

“I wasn’t planning to give Wolf a pass,” I said.

“Good.”

“I also wasn’t planning to let you kill him.”

That almost brought him back.

“I wasn’t going to kill him.”

I raised an eyebrow.

Jackal considered it. “Probably.”

“Very reassuring.”

He opened the water bottle I had brought him and the ribbon disappeared into his pocket before he used both hands.

“If you tell anyone I was sitting down here humming like somebody’s grandmother, I’ll deny it.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

Jackal looked at me for a long second.

Then he nodded.

“Good answer, Mongoose.”

I left him by the window about ten minutes later, and by the time I reached the stairs the melody had started again behind me.