Page 46 of Breathe
So what if Azrael had left without saying goodbye?
And why the fuck did that matter?
Real suddenly felt caught up in an anger and the no-win situation he found himself in.
His anger grew.
When the trainee swung again, Real delivered an upper cut beneath his chin and sent the guy flying. The younger man crashed down onto the mat with a groan.
Shit.
He should have pulled that punch.
Only he hadn’t, because he was too distracted by thoughts of Azrael.
The trainee rolled up to his ass, but stayed sitting on the mat. The man cupped his jaw and stared at him with wide, hurt-filled eyes.
“What the hell?” Crow growled, stalking over to reach down and help the trainee to his feet. “It’s training, Real.”
Crow expected Real to snarl back, but he didn’t.
Instead, Real shook his head, much like a bull would have, and gave a low sound in his throat before stalking from the sparring area.
Crow watched his boss and friend leave and turned back to the trainee.
‘You okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. He might have cracked my jaw,” the guy mumbled.
“Go have the doc take a look and next time duck, okay?” Crow said and headed after Real.
When Crow stepped outside, he found Real at the water trough, It had been put in place for the employees of Genesis. It resembled a smaller version of a trough for animals.
Real’s head was under the water spigot, letting it pour over his hair and down his back.
“I know that someone who was looking for you shot Apollo, but we’re working on finding out who that is,” Crow said when he got close enough.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Then what’s going on with you?”
“Nothing.”
“I know you’re not one for sharing, but that trainee didn’t deserve that,” Crow said.
Real let go of the latch that shut off the spray of water and stood upright to shake his wet hair. Releasing an irritated sounding sigh, Real scowled, but stayed quiet. The man didn’t share much at all. Real was stoic, but a true-blue hero if ever there was one.
Crow gave up, he really didn’t expect Real to answer him.
Real rubbed a hand down his wet face and fingers through his hair. The crunch of boots on the gravel reached him and he spotted Viper and Rip heading their way. Dust kicked up as they crossed the paddock.
“I just had a trainee call for Doc. What’s going on?” Viper asked with a scowl when he reached them. The active unit leader had irritation written all over his face.
Viper was the head of theactivemilitary side of Genesis. So, it wasn’t like Viper had a say in things on this side of the fence.
The trainee Real had knocked on his ass was Genesisformermilitary. And that was Real’s realm.
He ran this part of Genesis.
