Page 55 of Bonded

“That’s cos he’s always jacked up on so much ‘Ruby’. He didn’t hurt you though, right? You would tell me if he did. Kat, if he comes near you again, you must tell me and I’ll deal with him. I know you’re tough, but you really can’t handle Michael—not alone.”

“Mm-hm. Okay, well hopefully I won’t need to deal with him at all.” She pulls her bleeping phone from her pocket and looks at the text. “Oh, it’s Riley. Shit… I need to deal with him too.” She sees a sneering curl on Darius’s lip. “Oh please… don’t tell me you’re gonna get jealous as well? How many times do I have to tell you guys, Riley’s my friend—just a friend. Darius, I like him. He listens to me, I mean really listens. I feel like I can tell him anything. Like when you’re being an asshole.”

“I don’t know him so… Okay, he’s just your friend. Look, I gotta go, I’ve got this exercise to set up and move my stuff. Oh, and I gotta find someone to go give that shower room a good scrub. If I’ve gotta go back to showering in there with those mongrels—I need it disinfected.”

“Yeah, that’s one thing I won’t miss, those boys can get pretty messy.” She laughs. “Anyway, good luck with that.”

“Oh and by the way…” Darius turns back in the doorway with a huge grin on his face. “There’s a surprise for you, in your new office. A couple of gifts I thought you might like. Call them a tip for last night or… a new office gift, your choice.” He leans forward and drops another gentle kiss on her lips.

“A surprise? Really? Wow… I feel spoiled. I can’t wait to see what it is.”

“I’ll leave it with you, Lieutenant. Let me know if you like it.”

“Oh, talking of surprises. Digby didn’t tell you what he has planned as a ‘surprise’ for me Saturday, did he?”

“Digby’s organized a surprise? No, he said nothing to me. Is everything okay with you two now? You know we should let the dust settle on all this and get the full moon out the way before we take anything further.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Doesn’t matter, he just seemed a little over-excited this morning and that kinda worries me. Darius… you’re not going to tell him about us—about what happened, are you? Only, I’m not sure that would be a good idea. I don’t think he’d stand for me and you.”

“No, I’m not going to tell him anything, and neither should you. This, how it is—it’ll be fine.”

“You’re happy to keep it this way? I mean, you’re okay with me and Digby, even if we carry on?”

“You told me,Shebelongs to him; andyourmine, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s how I see it.” She smiles and kisses him. “You should leave. I have to go check out my new office.”

She moves to the doorway, and he loiters in the corridor. Looking around, he makes a risky move and drops her another kiss. Then pulling away, he coughs awkwardly. “I’ll see you in a while, I have a meeting to get to. Oh… don’t forget to send me a picture.”

“A picture?” she frowns. “A picture of what?” He doesn’t answer and disappears down the hallway. “Darius, I said a picture of… Oh never mind.”

***

“Hey Harman, how are you? Haven’t seen you at poker lately, you okay?” Zak smiles as he and the uniformed Private high-five.

“Hey, Zak… Yeah, I’m good man. Oh, I cut the poker out for a while, I was losin’ too much money and some of them card schools were bringing in ringers from outer state. I just stick to a few hands with the team now. I’ll leave the big-league stuff to you, special operators.” He laughs.

“So, what you doin’ over this side of the wall? And what’s goin’ on with all these boxes?”

“Oh, I’m on a disciplinary so… your a-hole team leader spoke to my commander and now between them they’ve got me humpin’ boxes back and forward. I had to clean out that fancy Doc’s office, bring all her stuff down here. Man has she got some crap in there. Hey, you seen the state of some of these books?” he laughs, picking one out of a box before throwing it back in. “Then Jackson got me to trek all his stuff back down there. I just took the last of it. So I’m gonna get some lunch and hopefully, he won’t find me for anything else.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right, they’re doin’ an office swap. He’s got a shower in his room, so they’re gonna trade-up so she can take that.”

“Why? What you guys fed up jerkin’ off looking at her ass. I mean her naked butt next to you in the shower, that’d sure give me a hard-on. From what I saw, she’s got a way better ass than any of the recruits in my platoon.”

“Hey… watch your mouth. Don’t talk about her like that, she’s still one of my team. And you let Digby hear you say that he’ll put you through the wall into next week.”

“Digby? Yeah… well, I think I’ll worry more about Jackson. So is he really gettin’ it on with her?”

“What the hell?” Zak frowns. “What makes you say that? Hey, you saw somethin’?”

“No. No, not exactly. Just a vibe I was getting. You know they seemed really close when I just went back down there. I mean, he’s normally a complete asshole, but he was actually smiling. Brrrr… it was unnerving. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, but just a feeling I got like there was somethin’ between them.”

“Yeah, well stop feeling it cos there’s nothin’ goin’ on. If you must know, it’s Diggs that’s gettin’ it on with her.”

“Oh okay, well then seriously, that’s my bad. I must have picked up on the wrong signals. Look, I gotta get on. Good to see you again, I’ll catch you around.”

Zak takes a breath and as he looks up Kat’s in the hallway carrying a box filled with the rest of her books.

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