Page 2 of Brawler
“You haven’t slept.”
Flash didn’t answer. Beast’s tail gave a soft thump against the seat between them.
Brawler kept his gaze ahead. “Not from the mission. Not from Beast getting grazed.” He paused, fingers still moving through his dog’s fur. “You’re waiting for her.”
That landed like shrapnel. Flash went still, every muscle subtle but rigid. The kind of stillness Brawler had seen in the past, right before a man admitted something heavy on his mind for months.
“You don’t miss a fucking thing, do you?” Flash muttered. His voice was dry, but the sarcasm was absent.
Brawler finally turned his head. His eyes moved, and nothing else, reading the small shifts, a knee that bounced once before freezing, the quiet tension in the jaw. This was how it worked for him. Not guessing. Feeling. Pressure in his ribs. Static in his skin. A buzz in his teeth that had nothing to do with the altitude.
There, threaded through Flash’s restlessness, was her. Killa Saqra Rumi, callsign: Lechuza. She was a CIA Shadowguard the team had crossed paths with, who had been hunting Miguel “El Lobo” Herrera. In the end, she got her man.
Brawler had met her twice. First, during her rescue, naked, battered, standing without flinching while the team cleared the last of Herrera’s men. That steel was bone deep. Later, after the jungle burned and the killing was done, he’d seen her again, eyes like burnished gold, carrying herself like someone who straddled two worlds. Brave as hell, but not all here. She felt elusive, and that unsettled him in a way he couldn’t explain. He had to wonder if Flash was setting himself up for heartache.
Brawler’s teammate felt like tension without release. Like grief locked to hope. Likeconnection,absent and echoing.
“Lechuza,” Brawler said quietly.
Flash gave a small, defeated nod. Then looked down at Beast, his hand resting on the dog’s side like it might ground him. His fingers stilled.
“He took the shot meant for me,” he said. The words were stripped of bravado. They came out clean. Honest. “He’s a hero.”
Brawler just held the silence, sturdy and unshaken, the way you do when you know the words aren’t what matter. It was just the brotherhood at work
Finally, softly, Brawler asked, “You okay not being the one who got hit?”
Flash turned to him, startled. Pain flickered in his expression, yes. But there was recognition.
“Fuck you,” he said, a choked laugh behind the words.
But it wasn’t mean. It wasn’t armor. It was thank you, in the only language they’d ever needed.
They let the silence stretch again. Beast shifted between them, letting out a low, warm breath, then nosed Flash’s knee. The moment that followed was small, nearly imperceptible, a ripple ofsoftnessin Flash’s chest, like a breath he hadn’t allowed himself in weeks.
“You haven’t heard from her?” Brawler murmured. “That has to hurt.”
Flash’s jaw flexed. He blinked once, slow.
“It’s twisted me up like a pretzel, Chris,” he said quietly. “I’m flying by the seat of my pants right now. Going to the basics. Eating, sleeping, working out. Team, brotherhood, mission. Humor when it gets too hard.”
Brawler understood. Of course he did.
Silence, for men like them, didn’t mean peace.
It meant you were floating, untethered, unmoored, waiting for a transmission that might never come.
“I dream about her,” Flash whispered finally, eyes locked on the bulkhead across the cabin.
Brawler went still.
“But she’s this…white, ghostly owl. Every time I get near her, she’s somewhere else.”
A chill ran down Brawler’s spine, sharp and instinctive. It had nothing to do with fear. It cameoffFlash. Like a wave ofstatic, he couldn’t see but couldfeelcrawling under his skin. Flash swallowed, jaw tight. “Sometimes when I’m half asleep, I swear I can feel my tat ruffle. Like feathers.” He gave a soft, bitter huff. “Shit…don’t tell anyone.” He closed his eyes. “I’m so fucking tired. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Brawler reached out, his hand wrapping around the back of Flash’s neck. Not rough. Just firm. Steady. An anchor.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re losing your mind,” he said.
