Page 83 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“You’re under my operational command and you just ignored me in the field. Upstairs.”

Watching every person in the room suddenly discover something else to look at only fed my anger and embarrassment. I reached beneath the cover-up, unclipped the transmitter from the side of my bikini and set it on Raven’s desk harder than necessary.

“Fine.”

I turned toward the stairs as Wolf followed.

His boots struck the metal steps behind me with the same deliberate rhythm I had learned to identify through walls, except now every sound seemed to count down toward the argument waiting at the top.

I crossed the loft toward my room with Wolf behind me, opened my door and turned toward him.

“If you’re planning to tell me again that I almost destroyed the operation, save it.”

Wolf stepped inside.

His eyes dropped once to the bikini visible beneath my open cover-up, then came back to my face.

He shut the door behind him.

“Take a seat, Mercer.”

I folded my arms.

“Go fuck yourself.”

Chapter Six

MIA

Wolf did not move.

The room was too small for the way he stood inside it. My bed and the metal locker had already claimed most of the usable space, leaving Wolf to fill the narrow strip between me and the door so completely that the exit felt imaginary.

His eyes stayed on mine.

“Sit down.”

“No.”

The word came out before I had to think about it and the skin along my upper arm still carried the faint ache of where Wolf had grabbed me behind the hedge.

He looked exactly as he had when he came for me, still in tactical pants and heavy boots with the plate carrier fitted across his chest and the black mask covering everything except his eyes. The rifle was gone, probably secured downstairs, but the belt remained around his hips.

Wolf closed the small distance to my desk and set both hands against the edge without taking his eyes off me. “You were given a route.”

“And I used it.”

“You crossed the last support line.”

“Because Kade was talking.”

“You lost Hawk.”

“Raven still had me.”

“Until he didn’t.”

I folded my arms tighter. “For forty-eight seconds.”