Page 63 of Gluttony
And then he did the most painful thing he’d ever done. He chose between his mate and his sister. He left a soldier behind.
Twenty
Bailey couldn’t feelher feet. From her ankles down there was a numbness. She lay in the medical room in the Lazarus House basement, still wearing her stinking sewage outfit and waiting for the antitoxin she’d been administered to take effect. The pain and swelling had gone down, but the numbness around her feet remained. The creature had slid beneath the hem of her pants and wrapped itself around her bare ankles. She could still feel the vines sliding around her torso, her arms... clamping, tightening, holding her down. Her struggle had been impossible. The disgusting water invaded her mouth, her lungs.
She shivered.
Stop. You’re fine.
Max paced along her side, silently fuming. She could feel the tension in the air. Now and then, he’d pick up a figurine of Sailor Moon, and then put it back down on the bench. Most likely Sloan had put it there to brighten the sterile place. Sloan had a borderline unhealthy obsession with the manga character, and Max brooded when he stared at it. Most of the Deadly Seven, bar Parker, had returned topside to scout the area where they’d left Daisy fighting the creature.
Raised and flippant male voices filtered back into the room through the open door. Tony and Parker argued somewhere beyond and had been doing so since Parker had seen to Bailey’s paralysis with an antitoxin injection. They’d not known what the plant toxin was, but because Tony had been exposed to the venom, they filtered his blood to produce a serum with antitoxin antibodies. Fortunately for Bailey, when administered, it worked.
But she knew how close she’d come. If Tony hadn’t been exposed to the toxin, she might not be alive.
The moment she was stable, Parker immediately took the opportunity to blast his brother about failing to wear the Deadly Seven communicator watch. When the backup had arrived where the cell phones had been dumped, they couldn’t be found, and the hidden tracker in the watch would have provided them with a beacon to trace their location. Neither of them would have been harmed.
“How long do I have to be here?” Bailey whined to Max. She plucked a twig from her hair and cringed, imagining it still wiggled. She dropped it on a metal operating instrument tray next to the bed, adding it to the ever-growing collection of potential plant matter for further scientific study. “I’m starving and I need to bathe.”
“Grace is almost here. Just a few more minutes.”
Max stopped pacing. He flexed his fists at his side. The ex-army intelligence-gathering specialist had served with a few of the Lazarus family. He’d also dated Sloan for many years and had known about their secret long before anyone else. He’d been on missions with them, yet he had the nerve to round on her, fuming.
“You should haveneverbeen down in that sewer with him,” Max insisted with a growl.
“Excuse me?” She held out her hand and counted on her fingers. “One, I was forced at gunpoint. Two, he had zero backup. Three, he was hunting a plant-monster. You heard me. A. Plant. Monster. Four, he is my partner, my mate. You would have done the same for Sloan.” Her eyes narrowed at the guilt flashing across his face. “Or maybe you already have, and that’s how you ended up with a bomb strapped to your chest.”
“We’re not talking about me.” Max’s usual sunny face darkened further. He folded his arms, bulging out his musculature with a display of male stubbornness. “You almost died.”
“So did you, but you didn’t. I didn’t.”
“Bailey—” he scrubbed his face, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Have the rest come back?” she asked, changing the subject.
Bailey knew she shouldn’t, but there was a sense of culpability where Daisy was concerned. Yes, Daisy had kidnapped and tortured Max, and Bailey would never forgive her for that but, despite working for the enemy, the woman had returned and kept the creature distracted while Tony escaped with Bailey. She’d saved Bailey’s life.
She’d also been the reason Bailey was in danger in the first place.
Tony had been beside himself when he’d carried her through the streets, trying to find a pay phone. Shutting her eyes, all Bailey could see was Tony’s chest and feel his warmth as he’d held onto her while shouting down the payphone’s handset, saying he’d left their sister behind. The tremble in his voice still hit her squarely in the chest.
“No,” Max answered Bailey’s earlier question. “They haven’t come back.”
He strode out of the room.
Sighing, Bailey rested her head on the hard plastic pillow and stared at the ceiling. She was itchy, she smelled, and she was over it, but Sloan was still out there, hunting the creature and looking for their sister. Max’s irritation and moodiness was warranted.
Was this her future? Pacing back and forth, stressing and snapping, with nothing to do while the heroes did their jobs?
It was clear now why having their identities kept secret was so important. No normal person could fight that creature, and if the Syndicate made more, then... Bailey’s throat closed up with dread. Those heroes were vital.
“Here.” Max returned to the room with a plate of sandwiches.
“Yes, Lord. Gimme.” Bailey didn’t care what was in them, or that she still had a layer of filth on her. She took each little triangle of heaven and shoved it in her mouth, hardly chewing before swallowing. Cucumber and cream cheese. Heaven.
“Easy tiger,” Max murmured. He filled a glass of water at the sink and handed it to her.
She made appreciative hums as she swallowed, trying not to spill as it hit her mouth. Already, she felt better. A burning prickling began to build in her feet. She flexed her toes, wincing.
