Page 100 of Silent Comrade
“Great choice, huh?”
She jiggled her foot until she caught himstaring, and stopped. A new, awful thought occurred to her. “Thevirus. Is it contagious?”
Red’s pause gave her zero confidence.Finally, he said, not looking up, “We don’t know.”
There it went, the ground completely outfrom under her. Britt’s throat clamped shut. Her head spun. “So, Icould be…” she choked out.
“Probably not. Doesn’t seem to betransmitted through casual contact or through sex. But I havealways used protection when we…”
The wave of dizziness hit her, full force.“Oh God. Oh. My. God.”
He dropped onto a knee in front of her,reaching out, but not touching her. “I would never put you indanger, Britt.”
She toyed with her ear hoop and rocked backand forth. “You did. By not letting me know the risks.” Never had achoice. Damn him.
A flinch. “You’re right. We can’t risk oursecret getting out, so the teammates aren’t allowed to tell anyoneabout the virus. That’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation ofwhy.”
Why he had lied to her.
Britt’s policy of not getting too close toanyone ever again? Not trusting her heart to be vulnerable? Damn itall, she should have stuck with it, because right now, every fiberin her body hurt. “So, like, you could have kids, right. With thevirus and all?”
Resting a forearm on his bent knee, helooked up at her. “One more piece of information, and then I don’tthink there are any more unexpected information bombs to drop.”
Against every instinct, she leaned forward.“There’s more besides the top-secret radioactive STD?”
He rested his other fist on the edge of thebed. Still, he didn’t touch her. “It’s not like that.”
“You don’t know that for sure.” She droppedher forehead into her palms. “Go on. What could be worse?”
He cleared his throat. “Your sister, Kiera.She had a baby.”
“Come again?” No way had Britt heard himcorrectly. She’d have known if Kiera was pregnant. Right?
“Last week, in fact. It’s a really longstory.”
She managed to stammer as her thoughts spun,faster and faster, “Is she all right? Is the baby okay? Who’s thefather?” Left out again. No one had told Britt anything.ProtectBritt. Keep Britt focused on the task in front of her and hope shecan finish it.Her ears buzzed.
“The baby appears healthy.”
“Appears? Because...”
“The father was one of us. He has theMorpheus Virus.”
“Who?”
“Jake, one of Brady’s closest friends in thesquad.”
She nodded, recalling the quiet man andschoolmate of Brady’s who attended her brother’s funeral. Which Reddid not attend. “Jake grew up with Kiera. I know him. Is sheokay?”
“It does not appear that she or the babycontracted the virus. Our physician can’t find anything wrong withthe baby.”
A baby. Something Britt had never thoughtabout personally for the same reason she hadn’t been able to trulyconsider a long-term, deep relationship with anyone. It took moretrust and vulnerability than Britt could handle.
“So, if I ever got pregnant…”
“You can’t.” His ears turned red. Cute, ifit weren’t for the fact she wanted to kick his ass and also runaway from him. “Well, not by me. The researchers recommended thatanyone who took the virus should get a vasectomy for exactly thatconcern. No one knows for certain what a child born with the viruswill be like.”
“You got snipped?”
