Page 67 of Act of Brotherhood
Auberi grunted. “Dickwad?”
Jannick shrugged. “Let’s not pretend you’re anything but. I know you have no love for Germans. You French don’t much care for us.”
Hans lifted a brow. “It’s mutual.”
Garth ignored the pair as they began to argue back and forth. His focus returned to Nicolette. When he’d woken to find himself shackled and locked in one of the holding rooms in the lowest level of PSI, he’d been furious. He had no memory of being dragged away from Nicolette’s home by Cody and Wheeler. James had been the one to fill in those finer points. And he had no memory of the Para-Regs who apparently assisted with transporting him back to Division B Headquarters.
From what Garth had been told, the men had sedated him, put him in a cage, loaded him on a plane, and brought his ass back to Division B to be handed off and become someone else’s issue.
What he did remember was coming to in a holding cell, being disoriented, hungry, tired and desperate to get to Nicolette. The fierce need to free himself had been all-consuming. Hell, it had been so intense that it even managed to scare him. He could only imagine what it looked like to his friends.
Truth was, it had only lessened slightly. Enough for him to look like he was close to being in control. In reality, he was a ticking time bomb. He knew it. Apparently, so did the rest of the men.
He knew they were doing what they felt was right to protect him and othersfromhim, but that didn’t change the fact they were wrong.
She was in danger.
And Grid had fucking been there.
He knew it with every fiber of his being.
Hans tapped the tabletop. “Are we here to watch a real fight or not?”
“No one is writhing in pain, so I’d say no,” added Jannick as he slammed the rest of his water bottle.
Groaning, Gram leaned partially in the hospital bed the other operatives had lifted and carried (with Gram still in it) through the facility to the training room the second a fight had broken out between Garth and Auberi in the infirmary. Garth had already been past the point of reasoning because he was being held in the facility against his will. Add in having to spend even more time with that arrogant vampire who he couldn’t stand, and it spelled a recipe for disaster. A fight had been bound to happen.
In this case, it led straight to a fight breaking out in the infirmary.
That was what had gotten them to this point. He and Auberi had been quickly shooed in the direction of the training room and told to settle their differences there. Not in the center of the infirmary.
Multiple operatives were spread out in the training room. Several had set up another card table and were doing their version of scorecards while they did shots. Garth wasn’t surprised by that. He’d have been shocked if they hadn’t.
“Hurry this up or call a draw. It’s my first taste of freedom. I want to see hot chicks. Nae you two. Yer nae the least bit sexy,” said Gram.
While the thought was nice, Garth knew better. He knew his friend well, and he knew Gram’s heart was still in the process of breaking over the love that he could no longer have. He knew the wolf-shifter’s world had crashed down on him. He’d lost the woman he’d proposed to, the little girl he saw as a stepdaughter, and nearly his life. The man was putting on a brave face and a good show in an attempt to throw others off the scent of his feelings.
While it might work on some, it didn’t on Garth. He knew Gram too well.
“Since I’m nae at risk of shifting and getting stuck like the Viking, I say we cut me loose,” said Gram. “Like I said, you and Auberi are ass-ugly. I want something sexy to look at.”
“I don’t know about them not being sexy. Auberi has girlie hair. That kind of counts as sexy,” said Jannick as he blew a kiss in Auberi’s direction.
Garth used the moment and struck out quickly, catching Auberi in the jaw. The vampire’s head snapped back.
“If the Viking kills yer doctor, can we take you to a strip club then? That damn French arsehole has you on bed-rest orders and willnae let you have any fun. So, if he’s deader than normal, we can go, right?” asked Striker (Dougal only to his mother) McCracken as he put his feet up and onto the end of Gram’s hospital bed. The outspoken Scottish wolf-shifter had a tendency to attract trouble. So much so that he made Gram look tame.
In truth, Gramhadtamed over the last few years. He’d met a woman who had a child and had done the family thing. Unfortunately for Gram, that woman was already mated to another man. One she’d thought was dead. A man Gram knew well. And a man Gram had about as much love for as Garth did with Auberi. Though that was changing too.
Gram and Malik, the man in question, were finding common ground. Garth highly doubted he and Auberi would ever find equal footing. They didn’t have a woman they both cared about. They did have mutual friends, but the manly best friend code only extended so far—it did not cover dickheads.
He snarled at Auberi as they continued to walk in a slow circle, each mirroring the other’s steps. When they’d first started to fight, it had been intense and an all-out battle. After three hours, it had certainly waned, but it was far from over.
Auberi struck out fast and hit Garth in the chest. The blow made Garth stumble slightly. Righting himself, he rubbed his chest. “Going to need to do better than that, Bouchard.”
The vampire came at him again, this time slicing open Garth’s torso. The wounds were superficial, but they did bleed. He swiped his hand through the blood and lifted his crimson-tipped fingers in Auberi’s direction.
A tic began in Auberi’s jaw as his gaze snapped to the blood.
