Page 380 of Eight of Swords, Part One

Lachlan loves him so fucking much.

‘Basic training, then infantry assignment.’

‘You were becoming a soldier.’

‘I thought so, yeah.’

‘What changed?’

‘At nineteen, I was pulled by special ops. Maybe three or four people per intake catch their interest.’

‘Why did they want you?’

‘I scored higher than anyone for stress response.’

‘And what did they want you for?’

‘They framed it as an advancement opportunity. Resolution Branch.’

‘And what is Resolution Branch?’

‘Recovery, containment or resolution.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘I don’t think you want to know.’

‘I do, though. I do want to know. So if you want to tell me,’ Jules murmurs softly, kissing Lachlan’s hair, ‘then I want to listen.’

‘RB is who they’d send to retrieve, contain or kill a stolen asset.’

‘Kill?’

‘Worst-case scenario, take him out before he talks.’

‘Go on.’

‘We were a tight-knit group of six, very close. Due to the nature of the job, all of us were capture-risk trained, so when they held me on Sable Key, it actually wasn’t that bad. That’s the difference, baby, OK?’

‘What did they train you for?’

‘Drown resistance, CTT—’

‘What’s that?’

‘Compound tolerance training.’

‘Which is?’

Lachlan frowns. ‘Out of context, this all sounds bad.’

‘I want to know.’

‘They drug you repeatedly until you’re resistant to the effects and recover much faster. It was part of the program. We took it in turns in the black sites where they trained us. I learned how to do it to the others. It’s why I woke up before you.’

‘You were drugged too?’ Jules asks. Lachlan nods. ‘My father told me the photographer was the one who led the attack, that he dosed the champagne, but I didn’t know you were drugged. You never drink.’

‘Just one glass, but like I said, the effects didn’t last as long.’