When I woke, warmth spread through me. Leon stretched beside me, huffing in his sleep. His knee crooked across my thighs, and his head was on my shoulder. His hair fell over his face and onto my chest.
He murmured something and his nose wrinkled. His hand slipped from my stomach to between my legs, causing my muscles to contract. Holding the steely brand of my shaft, he blinked his eyes open. Sleep shifted into sultry awareness. Then that drowsy sensual look disappeared. He sat up abruptly, pulling his hand off of me.
“Good morning?” My voice was hoarse with the first words of the day.
He plucked at the lightweight blanket tepeed over his knees. “Mornin’.”
The same sense of coldness from late last night drifted off of him. I brushed a length of his hair behind his ear, studying his somber profile. Attempting to smile, I took his chin in my hand and turned him to me.
“You seemed to sleep well.”
His gaze stole to the blanket barely concealing my obviously rigid cock. His cheeks turned pink, and those dreamy brown eyes swung to my lips.
“Are you shy all of a sudden?” I murmured, drawing my fingertips along his jaw, lingering on the soft feel of morning stubble.
He shook his head and took a deep breath.
“Do I make you nervous?” I replayed his words to him.
An almost smile worked across his lips but evaporated. He pulled away from my hand.
I was unwilling to let him close me out like I’d done to him so many goddamn times. “Tell me what’s going on then.”
“Fragments again.” Leon knocked on his head. “Dreams dat felt so real they were palpable.”
“Dreams of what?”
“You an’ me. It’s always dat…dat anger and sadness. Can’t get rid of it.” He rubbed his sternum as if he could rub the gnawing ache from his soul. “I don’ know what the truth is anymore. What happened to us?”
I reached for him, but he stopped me. His eyes met mine, his agitation growing. “There was an ‘us,’ wasn’t there?”
They weren’t just dreams. It wasn’t fragments. It was all the fractures between him and me beginning to show. When I didn’t answer, Leon swung his feet to the floor.
I grabbed his arm. “Baby, I—”
“Knock, knock. Stop sucking cock.” Liz’s voice outside interrupted us.
Leon sat on the edge of the bed. I took the opportunity to trail a hand down his back. When he didn’t move, my head fell to his shoulder. I kissed the silk of his skin, breathing in the warmth of his flesh while I could. As I brushed my lips against his ear, he let out a moan that was part whimper.
“Just give me a few more days,” I rasped.
He turned and rested his forehead against mine for an all-too-brief moment. “Time don’ seem to be on our side.”
Liz stuck her head in with no further announcement. I leaned over, grabbed a discarded boot, and chucked it at her. She ducked with a laugh, stepping inside. Hands on her holsters, her gaze swept over my arms around Leon’s middle. I lifted one unmistakable finger at her. Leon’s belly clenched in silent laughter.
Undaunted, she crossed over. “Chow time. Rise and shine…” Her gaze cut to Leon’s lap. “Oh, my bad. I see someone’s already risen.”
I growled then, jumping up to stand in front of Leon, stark naked.
Liz’s hands flew to her eyes. “Ooookay. Did not need the whole show, Darke. Jesus. You got a permit to carry that thing?”
Clicking his tongue, Leon swatted my ass to move me out of his way. He pulled on pants while Liz’s eyes remained covered.
I grabbed my own pair of pants. As I dragged a shirt over my head, I heard Liz swear. “Holy shit, Darke.”
I peered over my shoulder to see both her and Leon staring at my scarred-over moko. “Goddammit.” Yanking the shirt on, I pivoted. “It’s fine, all right? It doesn’t hurt. That was four months ago.”
“During the time I don’ remember,” Leon said in a flat tone.
“But all that work. All those hours spent—” Liz jerked with a sudden awareness and glanced at Leon.
I gave a nearly imperceptible shake of my head. Not imperceptible enough. Another icy storm of emotion swirled around Leon.
“I’ll see y’all later.” He opened the flap and was gone.
“I’m sorry, Darke. I haven’t seen your back since that night. I didn’t mean to—”
I cut her off. “Just tell me what the detail is for today.”
The day’s detail turned out to be anything but the resting up Raine had suggested. That was fine by me. I wouldn’t be able to sit still until I got my hands on Leon or at least talked to him again. After a morning meal with what seemed like half the villagers—during which Leon ignored me to a far better degree than I’d ever done him—I decided to help out the Freelanders wherever I could.
Karesh might’ve been in the middle of nowhere, in the harshest of climates, but with a unique irrigation system from rain-captured water, their many small plots of native crops flourished. The livestock were free to roam, but they knew where their water supply came from and always returned home. Foragers scoured far and wide for wild fruits and liquid-filled gourds. Resourcefulness in abundance proved once again humanity could survive and thrive, without the CO’s intervention.
I busted my ass all day long in an effort to keep my mind occupied. Lay a whole new plot for planting? You got it. Clean out lean-tos for horses more wild than tamed? No problem. Do a weapons demonstration for young warriors in the making? Right up my alley. Catch Leon’s eyes during the intervening eight hours? Not gonna happen.
Exhausted from the day, I sat beneath the big awning in the center of Karesh, taking a break in the shade. I made sure to get an unimpeded view of Leon, who helped the women prepare the early-evening meal. They fawned over him. Their men grumbled from the sidelines.
I smiled, watching him beguile them all.
“You’ve got some drool.” Cannon hunkered down beside me.
“Need I remind you how you blubbered all over yourself at your and Blondie’s handfasting?”
“I have allergies.”
“And it was cold. That explains how pink your face got. Yeah, I heard it all.”
The smile on his face was all encompassing until he said, “The tables have turned, huh?”
My fingers dug into the ground.
“Listen, Darke, I know you loved Wilde and Tammerick. I saw you with them—”
“This is not about them.”
He rocked back. “You’re done mourning?”
“Yes.” I was too busy yearning for Leon.
“But what about…?” His face flushed so bright I had to laugh. “Being bi?”
“I’m not bisexual technically. I love who I love. Man, woman, why does it matter?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Just don’t get two loves.”
“All love, one love. It’s the same as you being gay. When it happens, it hits you in the chest. There.” I knuckled his sternum with force. “The Company decrees one life, one order, straight love. That’s not the natural way.”
“Are you always so philosophical?”
“Only when I’m horned up.” Leon and his god-fucking-damned pants riding low on his hips. Of course he’d taken his shirt off in the heat of the day, wrapping it around his head like a native.
“Probably more info than I needed to know.” Cannon leaned back on his elbows and watched me scoping out Leon. “He’s damn lucky to have a warrior like you watching out for him.”
“I don’t think he agrees.”
“What’d you do to him now?”
“Nothing.” Nothing apart from deliberately withholding the truth. “He’s being cautious because of his circumstances.”
“How unlike Leon.”
I snorted.
“You mean you didn’t throw him down last night?”
My face burned. This was not a conversation I’d ever imagined having with a former Elite Corps Commander.
“Hell, yeah, you did!” he shouted, calling the attention of half the people around us.
I neglected to meet his fist bump.
“You weren’t up to snuff?” Cannon asked.
“Fuck. Off,” I bit out.
“So you just didn’t do it for him, huh?”
My jaw clamped tight. “I didn’t say that.”
He crowed so loudly Leon finally looked over.
“Do you and Liz compare journals or something?” My dig at his unlikely pastime shut Cannon up at last. “He’s starting to remember little things.”
“Hey, that’s great, man.” He squinted at me as I frowned. “Or maybe not.”
“I really don’t know anymore.”
Clasping my shoulder, Cannon stood. “You gotta set shit right before it’s too late, Darke.”
He ambled off, no doubt in search of his man to rock their yurt.
* * *
Later that evening, while we readied to saddle up our transport—aka the spitting, hissing camels—Farrow launched into a conniption fit. “Y’all are tellin’ me Ah gotta sit around and babysit mah little brother?”
To say she was unhappy about being left behind with Sebastian was putting it mildly.
I leaned over her. “You wanted him on this mission. Now suck it up, spy girl.”
She scowled at me, her eyes brittle green and murderous. “And here Ah thought Linc was the only bullheaded bastard of the group.”
“Bull something,” Liz murmured, staring at Linc’s lower half. Then she smirked at me. “Although, from what I saw of Darke this morning, and I saw a lot—”
Linc clamped one hand over her mouth and the other over her eyes. “At least he’s covered up now.”
Covered up? I was sweltering in meters of finely woven cloth from my neck to my feet, with a cowl-like hood over my head. Only my arms were bare, circled in tight silver bands on my biceps. The midday sun had felt like a warm spring breeze compared to the harsh heat crawling up my spine, but I bore up my deep disguise, squaring off with Linc.
He hit me with an acidic glare. “Next time don’t even think about parading around naked in front of Liz.”
“She was the one ogling, my man…”
“All I did was ask if he had a special license for his weapon.” Liz was dressed in a fringed skirt and a short top that barely skimmed her midriff. She kept tugging at it distractedly.
Linc grabbed her hands, stilling them. He covered her taut stomach with his palm. “No one else needs to know how much you like handling weapons, sweetheart.”
“Just yours…” she purred.
“Well, I guess we know why Leon calls Darke big guy,” Sebastian drawled.
Leon shot me his first grin all day. One of these days I was gonna get him naked and slap his perfect ass until all that came out of his mouth was more and please.
I abandoned that train of thought when Cannon groused, “Hate this shit.”
He scratched the two-days’ growth of beard on his face that completed his transformation from commander to Freelander.
“And I’ll take pleasure in shaving you tomorrow.” Nathaniel kissed his jaw.
I mounted my animal and turned to Raine. “You’re sure tonight is necessary?”
“My guy Colt thinks he’s found a rare plant we can use for the cure. So yeah, if you wanna save”—he quickly scanned our crew, “someone’s life, it is.”
Riding toward Omega was a lesson in trying to keep my cock under wraps, literally. With Leon in front of me once more, and bouncing up and down against my crotch, I had a hard time breathing, let alone thinking, strategizing, or planning an escape route if shit went haywire tonight. He wore an open animal-skin vest and no shirt, his hair dyed shocking black from a rinse of indigo over henna. A kilt similar to Chief Shehu’s hung from his waist, and I was willing to bet he didn’t have anything on underneath. New henna tattoos on his chest entranced me, but not nearly as much as the real one low on his groin I’d licked and sucked and bit.
“My ass is startin’ to hurt again.” He jostled against me.
“Consider this practice. You probably won’t be able to walk by the time I get through with you.” Though my response was gruff, I drew in a breath of relief he was talking to me again.
He leaned back against my shoulder and turned his head, licking the rivulet of perspiration that ran down my throat until my fingers convulsed on the reins. “I’m still mad at you.”
“Sure feels like it.” I bit his pouty bottom lip, smiling when he moaned.
The ride ended abruptly outside of Omega. The dusky twilight was shot through with vivid neon spots radiating from the area we approached. A stone-block fortress pulsed from the noise inside. It was so close to Omega walls, it was practically part of the sprawling, bustling city jam-packed with buildings one on top of the other. This appeared to be another case of the CO generously turning a blind eye to the lifestyles in this Territory.
Cannon tied his beast beside Raine’s. “Fuck’s sake. Just put up a sign already: Round up Freelanders here.”
“The Corps usually leave us alone,” Raine said, shrugging. “They tap our livestock and crops, use us for workers.
“Welcome to our Amphitheater.” He spread his arms out toward the network of buildings made of pale yellow stone. “This was once El Badi Palace. We call it now by its nickname: The Incomparable Palace.”
The palace was extensive, taking up what would be at least two city blocks. The structures may have been ancient and aged, but it was easy to imagine an era when they’d been sparkling with marble, gold, and murals. I was certain the CO had confiscated every piece of priceless art and architecture they could from the ruins, leaving only this surviving shell.
Crowds of Freelanders roamed outside the entrance to the Amphitheater, passing bottles back and forth and toking from the slim metallic pipes of hookahs. From the open door, grinding bass music jolted through my body, sending reverberations through my brain.
Raine reached an arm across me when I would’ve walked over the threshold. “We have to wait for Madam.”
A tall woman came forth from a purple velvet curtain that obstructed our sight of the club’s interior. She wore a corset that constricted her flat chest even more and lacy black stockings under her short skirt. Her obsidian skin and shaved head added to her sharp looks.
“Madam.” Raine’s red hair flowed over her hand as be brought it to his lips.
“Raine. And who is this?” Her long, bloodred painted fingernail scratched down the center of my chest.
“Darke.”
Her slivered eyes never strayed from me. “Oh, but he is.” She dragged in a deep breath. “I can feel him.”
Jesus Christ. Is everyone an empath now?
Leon stood rigid next to me. His jealousy pierced my skin like hot knives. Something about the way the woman looked at me sparked a territorial urge in him.
I captured Madam’s trailing hand and gently guided it back to her side. “A pleasure,” I said with a dip of my head.
“The pleasure is mine. Perhaps we’ll catch up later.”
“Perhaps she’ll catch a case of pubic lice later from some other stud,” Leon muttered beneath his breath.
The tall black woman had already turned to sweep the curtain aside. She ushered us into the Amphitheater. “Condoms are free. Drinks are not. Weapons are allowed”—her hand snaked to the front of my pants—“only when kept on safety.”
Leon knocked her hand aside. “I’ll make sure he keeps it on safety, unless he’s usin’ it on me.”
I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him to me. His eyes popped wide before my mouth crashed down on his. My tongue twisted against his, thrusting quickly inside. Biting his lip, I broke away. Leon gasped, his lips wet from mine.
Madam watched with greedy pleasure. Silently acknowledging our connection, she swept away. The others cleared their throats, trying to look busy while surveying the scene before us.
Liz grinned. “I guess I don’t have to break you two up tonight, huh?”
The last time I’d been to a Theater was outside of Beta, with Leon, Liz, and Linc. The moments before it was blitzed by CEO Cutler’s unmanned drone planes still haunted me. Leon had said he was tired of my games. He’d never looked back as he marched away from me.
I released Leon’s neck and grabbed hold of his hand. I quickly shut down the unbidden memory to gain a read on our whereabouts. The room was cavernous and dark, lit only by bars of bright strobe lights that flashed across the chamber in dizzying speeds. Smoke pumped from the corners of the octagonal room, adding to the impenetrability of bodies twisting to the beat of primal music. The walls were dotted with passageways and tunnels that snaked away from the main chamber. There were too many people, too many rooms, and too much chance of getting lost.
“Split up in pairs—that’s why I chose y’all tonight,” I instructed. “Work this room only. Keep your D-Ps on. Let’s track down this Colt and get the fuck out of here pronto.”
“Affirmative.” They slid off, blending in with the dancers.
I kept Leon’s hand tight in mine when he started moving away. “You’re with me.”
“What about Madame la pute?”
“I don’t want her, and I think I made that pretty damn clear.” I held his wrists gently behind his back and nuzzled his neck. “I want you.”
“Possessive,” he gasped.
I let go of his wrists to grab his ass. I thrust against him. “Obsessed.”
Pushing away from me, Leon danced right into a throng of people throwing their fists into the air. I sent him a glower. He grinned. Wrapping his hands behind his head, he moved to a sinuous rhythm, his body slowly corrupting any thoughts of recon. Barely controlled chaos jumped around us, but the crowd moved like a wave, bringing us closer together.
Music invaded my body. The woman on stage threw herself about, her long pink hair covering her face as she riffed speedy raps. The vibrant energy was hypnotic. I locked sights on Leon. He rolled his hips, one hand cupping his crotch. There was no denying his sensuality as he pushed his kilt lower, licking his lips. A crisp line of hair curled around his fingertips.
I wanted to suck his cock right down my throat.
People tossed their heads back, bouncing against one another. Mashing bodies, sweaty skin, and the scent of sex propelled me to him. The energy was a flagrant fuck you to the CO, the CEO, and the anemic Corps. The air seethed with desire in every permutation. Man on man. Woman on woman. Threes, twos, a hundred titillating scenes made the air muggy with rebellious lust.
Nothing and no one was as riveting as Leon, who pressed his hips to mine when I reached him. I ran my hands down his bare chest inside the vest, tucked my fingers into the top of his kilt, and hauled him to me.
“You’re a damn tease, boy.” My lips brushed his ear; then I outlined it with my tongue until he shivered.
“Thought I wasn’t a boy to you no more.” He tossed his hair back. The black locks were disconcerting.
“Good boys get what they ask for.” I nipped his earlobe and he sighed. My palm slid between his thighs, grazing the hot hard bar of his cock inside kilt. “What they beg for. Are you my boy?”
He lifted one eyebrow. “Are you man enough to take me?”
Just as I moved in to claim his lips, the music stopped. The flare of lights halted. I reached for my gun, shoving Leon behind my back. As I searched the vast, crowded room, I didn’t discern any immediate threat, but I didn’t relax my stance until an enormous D-P screen materialized over the stage as if from thin air.
Cannon and Nathaniel appeared beside us, sweat streaming off their bodies.
“Damn. I want one of those.” Nathaniel’s mouth dropped open.
Cannon gently pressed it closed. “Hatch would jizz his pants over that.”
I turned to the screen when the multitude burst into loud jeers. CEO Cutler appeared, doing one of his thrice-daily promos. Having never met the man myself, I knew Nathaniel and Linc’s father only through their horror stories, from Liz, and from Miss Eden, his estranged wife. Now I couldn’t wait to slit his throat and watch him bleed out. Preferably over a crisp, clean white shirt like the one he wore for tonight’s broadcast of bullshit.
“Hello, friends. Freelanders…freeloaders.”
Asshole was not doing himself any favors, insulting my fellow revelers, who booed and threw bottles at the screen until alcohol dripped down it.
“Why are they showing this here?” I asked Raine as he sidled up to us.
“Revving up the Revolution. Nothin’ gets the masses hotter than a nice nighttime parable from the paramount douche bag himself.”
“By now you’ve heard about the Plague II.” Cutler folded his hands in his lap. “It doesn’t have to be like this. There are many of you out there, my little time bombs, ready to spread the disease…All of you were chosen for willful disobedience against the Company. Of course, of course, there is a vaccination. Company officers and Corps have been inoculated, as have all trusted citizens of the InterNations.” He leaned in. His eyes were filled with hate he could not hide. “Do you want to face mass extermination again?”
His voice continued to boom over the razzing shouts of the Amphitheater crowd. “All you have to do, rebels, Nomads, is stand down. Accept One Rule. If you continue with this insurgency, I will begin to release the names of the infected. You may do what you must to curb the virus headed your way.”
A shudder went through Leon, and I felt the same cold chill envelop my body.
I hugged him tight. “No one will find out, baby.”
“You can’t be sure of dat.”
No sooner had Cutler shut the fuck up than the screen scrambled. People quieted once more as a voice came over the speakers and everyone cheered: “THE VOICE! THE VOICE!”
“Someone should tell him to get a better nickname.” Liz sighed beside me, appearing from the vaporous stretch of the room with Linc at her back.
“Accept One Rule? Accept nothing but total victory!” The Voice sounded off from the fuzzed-out D-P that provided no visual, just a background. It was the same speaker we’d first listened to in Chitamauga.
“We will not accept the yoke of slavery around our necks for another half century. The CEO is scared. He’s using fear to tie our hands and turn us against each other. We can defeat his virus. We can heal the carriers.”
The swarming mass surrounding us roared with deafening shouts that almost drowned out the transmission.
“UNITE! UNITE FOR THE CURE! DEATH TO THE COMPANY! Remember: Love Free or Die!”
Music pumped on as the strobes lit back up. The crowd seethed with a fever pitch of excitement. I stood still amid the dancers, pushing people back as they knocked into Leon and me. Something was off. I could feel it.
Raine…I found him across the room, cornering another man.
“Stay put.” I released Leon to Cannon’s care, well aware Leon would’ve flayed my flesh with his glare if he could have.
The man Raine talked to had rings through every visible part of his body—nipples, nose, lips, ears…His lips thinned as he shook his head at whatever Raine demanded. Gone was Raine, the comme ci comme ça Freelander. He looked harsh now, his shoulders drawn up tight.
“Problem here?” I asked when I reached them.
Raine glanced in my direction. He visibly relaxed. “Not at all, my friend.”
The other man looked scared shitless.
“This is Colt, Darke.” Raine’s smile unsettled my gut. “You can talk with him later. Right now I think he needs a drink—don’t you?”
Colt slipped away in the direction of the bar.
“He looks a little nervous.”
“He’s got the shakes.” Raine lit a cigarette, taking a deep drag. “Opiates are his thing. Hard to come by when the Company trawls our waters and black-markets our wares to line their own pockets.”
“I need to find out if he has this plant you talked about for the cure.”
He put an arm around my shoulders. “No doubt. You will. Just let him get a few drinks down his gullet first to loosen him up. Hey, I could use one, too. You?”
I allowed Raine to steer me to a different bar and accepted a cold bottle. My first sip relaxed my throat. The second spluttered all over the floor. Leon was pushing my patience to the breaking point, dancing directly in my line of sight…with that motherfucking Colt. His red lips were curved in a teasing smirk. Colt’s hand slid up Leon’s chest. My vision turned red. Forget questioning the snitch. I was gonna kill him. I banged my beer to the bar and barged right between the two.
Leon whirled on me. “I jus’ wanna forget. Mais yeah, I already did dat, didn’t I?” His laughter harsh, he slapped a palm against my chest to push me away. I didn’t move. “Forget the war. Forget the virus. Forget for tonight. I ain’t dead yet.”
“Then dance with me.”
“What?”
“Dance with me.” My hands found his hips.
“I don’ think—”
“You never think. That’s what I lo—” I inhaled briskly, stopping myself. “That’s what I like about you. You feel without considering the consequences.”
His head cocked back. “Dat ain’t a compliment.”
“Yes, it is.” I palmed the back of his head, my fingers sifting through his hair. “Dance with me, Leon. Feel me now.”
I groaned when his hands slowly linked behind my neck. Our chests pressed together. “Yes, baby.”
His skin was the smoothest I’d ever felt. As I dragged my palms down his back inside his vest, Leon’s muscles were firm, flexing beneath my touch. My thumbs circled the dimples above his ass, easing him closer. Our cocks rolled against each other through our clothing, and my breath stopped momentarily just to speed even faster.
“I want you so much, Leon.”
He scattered kisses up my throat to my chin. “You break me into pieces.”
“You put me back together.” The almighty ache for him reached much farther than the exquisitely painful rush of blood pounding through my body. “I’ll put you together again.”
We danced together until I was practically making love to Leon on the floor, one of his legs wrapped around my thigh. His shallow gasps made me groan, his hands floating all over my body, under my shirt, making my skin burn with arousal. I pumped against him again, watching his eyes roll back.
“Tonight. I’m going to have you tonight.” My voice was gritty.
Leon slid his leg down from my thigh. He peeled away from me. My mouth had left a red-purple mark on his throat, and I leaned forward to give him one on the other side. But he placed a hand against my chest, holding me back.
“I just wanna get a drink. You asked for time. I need space. Five minutes.” He patted his hip “’Sides, I got my gun.”
I allowed him the space he wanted and called all the others from my D-P. The ping back was immediate—no threats, nothing learned, and Colt vamoosed. Waste of time. A few minutes passed, and I grew anxious for Leon’s return. My anxiety took a turn for the worse when a sudden spike of fear jetted through me. Leon.
“All points on Leon, now!” I shouted into my D-P. I waited a heart-stopping moment for the others to get back to me. I scanned the overcrowded room, searching for a shock of black hair. I swear to God if he’s getting himself groped by another loser with happy hands, I’m gonna—
“I’ve got no visual,” Liz called in.
“We have nothing. He’s not near the entrance or the stage.” Cannon sounded like he was pounding pavement in his haste to locate Leon.
Darwin checked in. “The bars are clear!”
I was at the back of the palace, Leon nowhere to be found. Worry reached so deep inside me, it made my hands unsteady, and I almost dropped the gun I’d raised on instinct. Scattering people before me, I ran through one of the twisty passageways—closest to the dance floor where we’d been. More of Leon’s fear arrowed at me, sharper and clearer the closer I got to an opening in the long, cool stone corridor ahead.
It led directly into an enclosed courtyard, empty except for two men. Colt had a gun aimed at Leon.
“G’on. Do it so I don’t have to when the time comes.” Leon’s stubborn chin thrust up.
I barreled forward and brought the side of my hand down on Colt’s arm so fast and so hard that I broke his wrist with a snap. His gun clattered to the ground. His scream died quickly in his mouth as Raine came out of the shadows and unloaded a bullet into Colt’s head.
“I got him,” I reported over the D-P, scooping Leon into my arms. “We’re gonna exit on the east side of the palace. Make tracks. Meet us there.”
Raine tucked his weapon into the back of his pants. Standing over Colt’s prone body, he lit a cigarette. A thin blue cloud of smoke trailed from the red glowing tip. “I guess he figured it out.”
“Figured out what exactly?” I asked.
“Leon’s infected.”
I stared at the man. He’d already discovered the one thing I didn’t want anyone else to know. I didn’t think he was half as laid-back as he wanted us to believe, and perhaps that made him a more powerful ally. At any rate, I owed him.
Stepping forward, I put out my hand. “You helped save Leon’s life. I am in your debt.”
He shook my hand.
Leon wriggled, trying to set his feet on the ground, but I kept him cranked against me.
“You can let me go.”
“Not likely.” I dipped my mouth to his ear. “And you oughtta know, we’re gonna have words later about you and your death wish.”
“You’re an arrogant sonuvabi—”
I cut him off with my lips, molding them to his. Leon was safe, but the tension wasn’t dispelled. If anything, I needed to get him alone even more.
“Get us out of here,” I said to Raine.
We moved swiftly down the courtyard, keeping behind a line of crumbling colonnades. Minutes later, we finally exited the palace through a thick metal door to a deserted alley outside.
Shortly after our exit, Linc, Liz, and Darwin busted through the door, keeping low and scanning for any threats.
“We’re clear.” My forearm flexed around Leon’s middle when he tried to move away from me.
Nathaniel and Cannon cleared the exit next.
I nodded to them. “Leon’s cover’s been blown. We need to get out of here. We don’t know who else knows.”
Raine led our escape as we slipped away from the palace and its bright lights and noise. “We need fast transport.” Raine stubbed out his smoke and quickly lit another.
Cannon scratched his beard. “Fuck the donkeys—”
“Camels,” Linc corrected.
“We need a vehicle.” Liz drummed her fingertips against the butts of her guns.
A loud engine roared up behind us. Our raised weapons were met with flashing headlights. Then Darwin’s face appeared from an open driver’s side window. She pounded her fist on the roof of the hot-wired, desert-ready Cruiser.
I hadn’t even realized she’d done a disappearing act.
“She’s slick.” Liz grinned.
“Get in,” Darwin called.