Page 140 of Lethal Game

What was he doing? Unlacing his boots?

“You think I’m going to leave you to deal with this alone?” He toed his boots off, then began unbuttoning his uniform shirt. “I’m not going anywhere you aren’t.”

“But—”

“No buts. You can order other people around. Not me.” He threw his shirt on the floor and crawled onto the bed.

“What are you doing, you stupid man?” she hissed. He was supposed to leave. Hurt, yes, but better than the prolonged agony of watching her die a slow death. “The nurse could come in at any moment.”

He gathered her up, sliding one arm under her while the other coaxed her into rolling up against him. It didn’t take much coaxing. He gave heat off like a furnace and she was so cold. Despite her brain telling her body to push him away, she snuggled into him and returned the full-body hug. “You are the biggest stubborn idiot I know.”

He rubbed her back and nuzzled her hair. “But I’m your stubborn idiot.”

She was glad, sogladhe was, but oh, how she was going to hurt him.

She started to cry.

He held her, his hands cradling her close as he murmured gentle words in her ear.

Someone opened the door to her room, paused, then closed it again.

At some point, she fell asleep.

She wasn’t sure where she was at first when she woke, but it came back to her in a flash. The rustle of paper pulled her attention to the chair next to her bed. Max was sitting in it, reading out of a file folder.

Con was gone.

“Max?” She tried to sit up, but he raised his hand and gestured for her to lie back down.

“Relax, Doctor. Everything is okay.”

She doubted that very much. “Did you find Akbar?”

Max’s face grew cold. “No, the bastard got away.”

“Oh no.”

Max nodded. “He’s leading us on a merry chase. He’s even started a correspondence with me.”

“How is he doing that?”

“He’s writing messages on corpses and leaving them where they’ll be found.”

He was devolving? “He’s turned into some kind of mass serial killer.”

“Yes, and unfortunately, he’s not done killing.”

Her throat was so tight, she could hardly swallow. “How many people died in the refugee camp?”

“One thousand six hundred and four. We’ve done anti-mortem testing on several of the dead. All of them had rabies.” Max gave her a questioning look. “What are your feelings on Akbar? Will he continue to use rabies?”

She sighed. “He’d gone as far as he could go with the virus and he wasn’t satisfied with it. That’s why he wanted me. He thought, with my knowledge of the virus, that I could manipulate it in ways he couldn’t.”

“Is that why you destroyed your lab?”

“One of the reasons.” She thought about Akbar, how he talked, and what he said and didn’t say. “I think he’ll move on to a different pathogen. He doesn’t want us ready to combat anything he releases.”

“That’s not good news.”

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