Page 44 of Deadly Strain

An unholy grin wiped the pain and fatigue from his face. “Just see?”

She wasn’t going to slap him. She wasn’t. She wanted to, but she wasn’t. “Let. Me. See. Your. Tongue.”

He stuck it out. It looked dry and leathery.

“You’re seriously dehydrated. Your heart rate is high and you’re not sweating.” She pulled open her backpack, pulled out one of the full water bottles, and handed it to him. “Drink all of this.”

“No, we might need...”

Her head came up and she gave him her specially crafteddon’t fuck with melook. “If you don’t rehydrate, your kidneys will shut down. Stop being a goddamn martyr and drink.”

He swore under his breath, but he took the water and began drinking.

“Let me see your leg,” she ordered.

“Bossy.”

His thigh wounds had bled through, leaving his pants leg and sock bloody.

“Shit,” he said after swallowing another mouthful of water.

She knew what he was thinking. “Did we leave a trail?”

“Did you notice any blood on the ground?”

“No.”

“That will have to do, because you’re right. I’m...”

“You need recovery time,” she said finishing his sentence.

“Yeah.”

“Let me check the rest of you.”

“For what?”

“I know they beat you. I could hear it.” She swallowed hard. “It was all I could do to stay hidden.”

Sharp surprised her by snatching her hands and shook her. “Damn right you stayed hid. You’re more important to this mission. You’re the expert. You have the samples.”

“I will not leave someone I— a friend—to die of broken bones and internal injuries,” she snarled. “Why do you think I set off that flare? To give me a chance to get to you. To get you out.”

“It was a stupid rookie mistake.”

“So, I should’ve left you to be tortured and murdered?”

“Yes,” he hissed.

Her mouth fell open and she gaped at him for a couple of long seconds. “You...yousuck.”

He snickered, let go of her hands, and sat back again. “Don’t say that in front of the team. I’ll get a reputation.”

“This is notfunny.” She was so angry with him, she might hit him after all.

“Sure, it is. It’s a damn comedy of errors. Nothing on this mission has gone right. Not from the get-go.”

She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times as his words penetrated her own mental fog of exhaustion and stress. “You sound suspicious,” she said, pointing at him and then the floor of the cave.

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