Page 40 of Lust
“Heard what?” She blinked innocently. “The fact that you’re an arrogant fucker, or the sound of your pride slowly choking you?”
His scowl deepened as he stuck electrodes to her skin, on her chest and temples. “You can’t manage on your own, Liza. None of us can. I’m not too proud to see that.”
“Aren’t you?” She raised a brow which he ignored.
“Despite what you think, I’m not doing this to lord over you.”
“Could have fooled me.”
His jaw flexed. He turned his back and placed his palms on the workbench. Tension tightened his shoulders, and without looking at her, he spoke. “I’m doing this because I love you. You’re family.”
Her shoulders dropped, and she sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Can you control your power?”
She flattened her lips. “It kind of happens when I’m stressed.”
“Then we’ll work on triggering that response and then see if you can rein it in.”
Parker hit the Deadly Seven emblem on his chest and said, “AIMI, let me out of the suit.”
The AI he’d created with Flint and Sloan, AIMI, spoke out of the speakers in the ceiling.“Yes, Parker, oh King of Ass-hats. Form-fitting function deactivated.”
“Fucking Sloan,” Parker shouted in the direction of the bathrooms. “Reprogram AIMI again, and I’ll remove your access.”
Liza covered her smile. Of course, his small confession of affection would be obliterated by a growling lion. She supposed she was lucky to catch a glimpse.
Air rushed out of the suit’s neck, and the fabric lost its tension. Once tight and snug on Parker’s large and muscular body, it became loose. He stepped out of it and placed the suit on the workshop bench.
Liza looked through to the adjoining operations room where white, faceless mannequins in glass cabinets surrounded the center table. When no one wore their battle gear, Deadly suits covered those mannequins. Each one had a different colored fukumen face scarf. Liza’s was fuchsia, bright, and clean as the day it was made. Hers, Wyatt’s, and Sloan’s suits were the only two remaining on the mannequins.
Naked except for his boxer shorts, Parker found a swab kit and took samples of Liza’s toxin from his suit.
“While you’re doing a stress test,” he said. “I’ll test the toxin for due diligence.”
“Where is everyone else?”
Serious eyes met hers. “Most are with Daisy.”
“How come you’re not?”
“Someone needs to make sure you can handle yourself before you’re set loose on the world again.”
Liza didn’t think that was the only reason, but if Parker felt anything like Liza, he was nervous as hell to be around Daisy. And it wasn’t purely because she’d been working for the enemy for most of their lives. Liza and Parker were the eldest. TheyrememberedDaisy. As children, she’d held them when they’d cried. She sang them songs to make them feel better and told stories at bedtime.
Daisy was living proof of a nightmare future they’d escaped. She was who they would have been if Mary hadn’t made the sacrifice to save them at Daisy’s expense.
Liza crossed her arms. “I handled myself just fine, thank you.”
A lone, indignant brow arched. “And have you checked to see if you caught any innocents in your wake? Do you know what your toxin has done to the insides of those it caught?”
He had a point. Joe was out there still.
“He’s fine,” Parker said, reading her expression. “The poisonous mist dispersed quickly, and tetrodotoxin is at its worst when inhaled or somehow imbued into the bloodstream. A little on his skin won’t kill him.”
“How do you know?”
“Griff is on the roof, keeping an eye on things. The effects of your poison works fast. If Joe was affected, he’d be down by now.”
