Page 62 of Saint

“He put himself at risk by doing so,” Lake reminded tersely.

“Scold me later,” Nix waved his surly mood off. “It’d not like I can turn back time and do it differently anyway.”

“Songbird.”

“What?” He ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t you think I feel bad enough about it as it is? If it weren’t for me losing my temper, West would never have—”

“Hey,” Yejun stopped him. “No. No part of this is your fault.”

“He’s right,” Lake agreed. “This is all on Hendrix.” Something seemed to occur to him and he turned to Yejun with a frown. “Since when did he carry around a blaster?”

“I don’t know.” But it was a good question. “If he was packing, why bother with the security detail? Actually,” he crossed his arms, “I can’t really think of a reason he’d need those guys. Has there been a recent threat made against him?”

“I’ll have someone look into it,” Lake said.

“Yeah, who?” Yejun pointed toward the doors. “Our hacker is currently out of commission, and it’s not like we can trust just anyone with this.”

Lake gave him a look like he thought he was the biggest dumbass on the planet, and then set his sights on Nix.

Which, okay, yeah.

Yejun was the biggest dumbass on the planet.

Sue him.

“I can try and do it using West’s setup at the Roost,” Nix said, easily understanding what they wanted from him. “But I’m not leaving until we’ve heard from the doctors that West is going to be fine and I’ve seen him for myself.”

“None of us are going anywhere,” Lake confirmed.

Hendrix and the rest could wait.

Chapter 18:

“Is this okay?” Yejun asked for what had to be the third time since leaving the hospital less than an hour ago.

Nix might have found it endearing if not for the fact that he was a bundle of misfiring nerves trying to concentrate on the task at hand. He hadn’t wanted to leave the hospital, but they’d been assured West was out of the woods, and Lake had stayed behind so…

None of the others could do this, meaning Nix had to be the one at the Roost searching for information on Hendrix via West’s phenomenal setup. The guy had access to all of the CCTV cameras in the city, all major and minor gateways leading in and out of the city, and even a few private ones in popular hotels and businesses.

“It’s not like either of us had a choice,” Nix replied, clicking away at the keyboard as his eyes darted between thethree screens. The hospital staff were only allowing family into the ICU at the moment, and since Lake had technically been adopted by Demitrious, he was able to convince them to give him entrance.

Nix and Yejun weren’t so lucky.

“I couldn’t exactly come here on my own,” he continued. And not just because he didn’t have a car. He wasn’t an idiot. Having pissed off multiple Order members, it’d be suicide to walk around alone. “We agreed we’d try to get back to how we were, remember?”

They were alone together, really alone, for the first time in a while. The rest of the Roost was quiet, the weather being suspiciously clear so not even the background music of rain could help cut through the awkwardness.

“How’s your face?” Nix asked then, not wanting to give off the impression he was uncomfortable around the Demon. It wasn’t that precisely, it was more like he didn’t know how to react. A part of his subconscious was still afraid and on edge around Yejun, while the other part recalled how good it’d been before that horrible day.

Yejun pressed a thumb against the corner of his split bottom lip and winced. “It’ll heal.”

“Thanks for jumping in like that.”

“No one gets to hurt you, Firebird. My only regret is I didn’t get there sooner.”

“I don’t know what I would have done if he’d shot you both…”

“Hendrix is a coward. The only reason he shot West is because he knew West could snap his bones and contort him into a pretzel without breaking a sweat. He let fear get the best of him. Now he’ll suffer the consequences.”

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