Page 12 of Cruel Salvation

He knew his statement had affected her and then his abrupt change of subject had thrown her but she was a consummate professional, and it didn’t take long for her to switch gears.

“We need to gather weapons and comms, and Santa will be waiting to fly us to the last known sighting, which is constantly changing.”

“And this man, he’s unstable?”

“Let’s get our gear and get to the helo and then I’ll tell you what I know of Simon Dorsey.”

“Sure.”

Damon followed her into the building, waving at Bein who had the job of manning the desk that day. He’d learned that, to ensure their cover stuck, they had to run this mountain rescue as a real venture. Which meant someone had to be there in case a call came for help.

As the lift descended, it was hard to reconcile the white, bright open hallways and apartments that opened up so far underground.

“Do you have a go-bag?”

Damon shook his head at her question. “No, never needed one.”

“You can borrow one of Reaper’s. You’re about the same size.”

“Okay, why?”

“This could take hours or days, even weeks if he goes underground before we catch him.”

“Okay.”

“Want to back out, because nobody would blame you?”

“No way.” He’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t have doubts but a bigger part of him knew he needed to be here with her.

“You can wait in the main common room while I grab my stuff. I won’t be a minute.”

He walked into the room where he’d been before when the shit with Carter was going down and noticed how much this place felt like a home. Yes, it was built to last, with steel and concrete, but pops of colour and personality made it almost homey.

He wandered closer to a wall where pictures were haphazardly pinned up. Bás and Val with Scout and Monty. Reaper, Snow, and Bein in the boxing ring, sparring. Naz and Rykov, his arm around her neck as if he’d her in a headlock like Gideon would so often do to him, growing up. It was difficult to look at the love in her eyes as she looked up at him or see the adoration on his face without feeling the loss she must feel.

What he didn’t see was any kind of sexual attraction between them, although it was hard to tell from a picture. What he saw was the love between friends or siblings, and he wondered if he’d ever get over the loss if anything happened to Gideon. Losing Carter was different. Their relationship had been broken from the second he’d been born because of Marsha, the evil stepmother, yet he’d grieved for Carter and wondered ‘what if’ on more occasions than he could count.

“Ready?”

He turned to see her standing in the doorway watching him, and he thought perhaps taking sex off the table for now would be best. She needed a friend, someone to have her back and he wanted more than anything to be the person she could lean on. “Yes, I’m ready.”

“Last chance to back out.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Naz.”

He meant it too. Somehow seeing that picture had sharpened her loss into focus, making it real and he wanted to be the man she could lean on.