Page 82 of Winters Heat

“Bug juice, huh? What do you know about that?”

“I know it tastes like the ugly step-brother to watered-down Kool-Aid mixed with day-old seltzer.”

“That’s an accurate description.”

“And they’ve got edible plastic that looks like spaghetti.”

“MREs? Well, aren’t you the seasoned field grunt?”

“You know it.”

“What do you have, Winters?” Jared shouted out the door. “A case of the dumbasses? Collect your woman and move in.”

“What do you say, woman? Ready to be collected?” He scooped her into his arms and tried to hide the flex of his jaw and the sawing of his teeth with a closed-lip smile.

“You’re insane. Put me down. You’re hurt. I’m not.”

“Tell me what to do because I’m hurt one more time, doll, and we’re going to have a problem.”

Without waiting for a response, he limped them to the shack, brushed past Jared, and set her down by the table, bracing a hand on it. He breathed heavy. Sweat sprouted fresh on his brow.

“You okay, Winters?” Jared eyed him, wary.

“Yeah. Dehydrated.”

Jared continued to study him. “You take something for the pain?”

“Yeah. Something.”

Brock, a few feet behind Colby, shook his head. Jared noticed. Mia noticed. Everyone but Colby noticed.

He cracked his knuckles against the table and shifted his weight. “I just ripped out the bandages in my cuts and doused it with cauterizing powder. Hurts. Blazing pain. Not in the mood to dwell on it. That okay with you, boss man?”

Jared didn’t respond. The guys looked concerned, but whether it was because he challenged Jared or his spectacular wound care decisions, she didn’t know.

Mia broke the tension. “Well then, let’s get you some water.”

“Bug juice,” Jared said.

“Bug juice,” she said more for Jared than Colby. “Cash, you mind?”

Cash tossed him the bottle. They loved to throw things. Why was that? They were an arm’s length apart. It had to be some unwritten code of dudedom.

Colby cracked the cap and downed it in a few swigs. “Got any Dots in this shit shack?”

Cash chuckled. “Nope. But we’ve got beef stew, beef bbq, beef—”

“Cash.” Mia glared at him.

“Learning their tricks, doll?” Colby asked, eyebrows raised.

“Two of them, I have pegged.” She pointed to Jared, who grumbled, and Cash, who threw his hands up in innocence. “These other two, we’ll see.”

“Pays to have a couch doctor around. She’ll get into your brains.” Colby pulled his shirt from his ripped stomach and mopped the sweat on his face. “How is it a million degrees here, but I’m freezing? I need to shake this off.”

Jared eyed him again. “That bug juice helping?”

“Yeah, might be.” Colby grumbled under his breath.

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