Page 69 of Viral Justice

Chapter Sixteen

Ali woke thanks tothe vibrating alarm on her watch. The room was dark, but her position hadn’t changed since she dropped off into sleep.

She and Max were still holding hands.

For a moment she’d been afraid she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. The face of the man she’d killed with her hands was all too clear in her mind, but Max had held out his hand, his expression completely open...and accepting.

She’d placed her hand in his and he’d wrapped his fingers around hers like he planned to never let go.

She’d slept. He’d only said three words, but they’d been the right ones. Her unconscious brain had known how he felt, and that had taken her gut-deep wound and sewn it shut.

That scared her a lot more than anything else.

She was becoming emotionally connected to him. Bonded. If anything happened to him, she’d either lose her shit and go on a rampage, or shut down altogether.

Neither was a good thing.

It was a vulnerability she couldn’t afford.

She carefully pulled her hand away from his, then got up, grabbed her pack, and quietly moved up the stairs. The room was dark, silent, and empty. The ladder leading to the roof looked like shadowed shelves empty of knowledge. She opened the hatch and slipped out onto the flat surface.

Tom was a dark, unmoving mass.

She crouched next to him. “All quiet?”

“For the past thirty minutes. There has been some sporadic gunfire out past the tents, mostly to the north. A half-dozen times within the village and tents, someone has started wailing, so people are still dying.”

“Got any good news?”

“It’s not us dying yet.”

“Wow, so upbeat. I don’t know how I will contain my enthusiasm.”

Tom’s white teeth showed up better in the dark than the rest of his face. “So, you and Max seem cozy.”

“I’m his bodyguard. We’re supposed to be cozy.”

“Right,” he said, drawing out the word.

“Listen, asshole,” she said. “There’re a dozen ways to die on this mission, don’t makemenumber thirteen.”

“I’m just calling it like I see it, and if I can see it, everyone can.”

“What, exactly, can you see?”

“The guy has a near constant hard-on for you.”

The son of a bitch.“Why are you watching his crotch? Is there something you want to share?”

“Nope, but you’d better cool it off or it’s going to hurt you in a big way.”

She couldn’t be hearing this one from one of her military brothers, a man she’d trained and chosen for this mission. “What the fuck?”

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