by Amelia Jade
“I declined,” Pyne continued after a short breather.
He was managing the pain better with every minute. Or maybe it was him healing and the pain was diminishing, she didn’t know. Either way, she was glad to see it, miraculous as it may be.
“So what happened next?”
“He invested all his own money into their stocks. Every last penny. I, in turn, invested in a little-known computer company that was making big waves. He lost everything, I went from rich to…well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, he was furious. We had a huge falling out; he blamed it all on me. He lost his job, everything. He was ostracized from our community. A few years later, he started robbing banks that held my physical value.” Pyne shook his head. “I’d never thought to change them. He knew where it all was.”
“So those bank robberies I was investigating. That was him robbing your money specifically?”
He nodded.
She whistled, her mind dredging up the memo of just how much money had been stolen. “You are a wealthy man,” she observed. “You don’t act like it though.”
“It’s not for me,” he said in an odd tone.
“What isn’t for you? Being rich?”
“No, the money.”
Kim frowned. “Who’s it for then?”
But she got no answer.
Frustrated by all the secrets and the lies, she snapped at him. “Well, that’s certainly a lot to take in. Anything else that you’ve been lying to me about for a decade now that you want to come clean about?”
Pyne looked up sharply, hopefully realizing that she wasn’t taking things as well on the inside as maybe she’d hoped. “When I started working alongside you a decade ago I never expected things to go the way they are. I never saw feelings developing between us. It was just supposed to be a quick pursuit, bring him to justice, and then go our separate ways.” He stared at the roof of the car. “It’s not like I have actively been trying to maintain the lie for ten years. If I felt then what I feel now, I wouldn’t have done it.”
She craned her body around to look at him carefully. “Just what does that mean?”
There was a long hesitation. “I feel something, obviously. We’ve spent time together, we’ve been together. That’s not just because I wanted to get in your pants. There’s a…a…connection, between us.”
“A connection,” she repeated. “That’s the best you can come up with? A connection?”
Maybe she’d been wrong. Her thoughts had been heading elsewhere. The feelings Kim thought she was experiencing ran much stronger than “a connection.” But she wasn’t going to open herself up to being hurt if Pyne didn’t feel the same. She’d experienced too much heartbreak for that.
She looked at him expectantly, but he just stared back at her. Whatever it was, he wasn’t willing to tell her.
“Okay,” she said, taking her foot off the brake and applying just enough gas to rock him back against the seat slightly. “I guess I’ll just take you back to the base then.”
“Yeah,” Pyne agreed glumly. “I guess so.”
She waited for him to say more, but he never did.
Chapter Sixteen
Pyne
“You’re an idiot,” Rokk said, applying more pressure than necessary.
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” he hissed.
“Stay still. This blood is ridiculous as it is that I need to get you cleaned up, and since I’m not getting in the shower with you to do it, it’s going to hurt. Now suck it up. If you’d just told Kim how you felt, she would have done more than drop you off. She could have been in the shower with you.”
Pyne growled angrily. “I froze, okay? I didn’t know what to say. The only thing I could have told her was that I loved her.”
“So say that!” Rokk shouted in his ear. “For God’s sake, she’s your mate! She’s crazy about you. Just tell her.”
“I can’t. Not yet. She needs more time or she’ll run away.”
Rokk snorted. “She’s already running away, because you refused to tell her what’s happened.”
“Do you really think she’s ready to hear about dragons and Outsiders and everything like that?”
Rokk was silent for a moment while he finished cleaning the hole in Pyne’s back, removing the dirt and crusted blood, among other things. It would help speed the healing. Around them lay pizza boxes, most of them empty.
After Kim had dropped him off and said that maybe he’d be better off calling his brother to help, Pyne had ordered a lot of food to his quarters through the officers’ mess hall, citing his injury. It was unusual to do delivery, but the staff were all aware of the dragons’ need to eat after using their powers, so they obliged. Even if nine pizzas seemed like a lot, even to them.
“I think so,” his twin said at last. “You heard the way she reacted to your healing. She didn’t freak out…for very long. She thought it was cool, and she stuck with you, and gave you an opening to tell her that you love her. That woman is unbelievably strong and you should have locked that down when she gave you the opening.”
Pyne had no answer. His brother was right, he realized. Maybe it had been the pain clouding his judgment. Maybe it was his guilt. Either way, she’d been open to not only forgiving him, but a display of emotions that neither of them would have expected when she showed up a few days earlier.
“I screwed up her life though,” he said glumly. “Morgan got away, and now he’s going to have her framed for espionage and fleeing without leave. She’ll be court-martialed. That’s going to be a public spectacle back home.”
Rokk mumbled an agreement. “You know we have the strings to pull to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“I know that. But I don’t think she’d like it, plus it would set a precedent we might not want to set.”
“Then I suppose you should figure out what the hell you’re going to do, shouldn’t you? Come up with a plan, execute it. Stop the bad guy, save the world, get the girl.”
“You make it sound so simple, brother.”
“It is simple. It’s just not easy.”
“Well I can’t do much until tomorrow. This needs to heal.”
Rokk poked him. Hard. Right near the still-healing edge.
“OW!” he yelped, gripping the counter in the bathroom hard enough that it felt ready to snap. “That fucking hurt.”
“Good. Because pain seems to be the only thing that gets logic through your idiotic brain right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Kim. You don’t just stay here. You’ve eaten. I’m just about done cleaning this up. You put on some clothes, and you go over there and you tell the girl how you feel. You make things right, dammit. Don’t sit on it for any longer than absolutely necessary to pull yourself together.”
He eyed Rokk. “Since when did you become such an expert on women? You’ve always been a bit of a failure. Now all of a sudden you understand them? You’ve changed, brother dear.”
“I have changed. I have my mate. Yours is a few corridors over, big brother. Go get her.”
He smiled. Rokk was only a few hours younger than him, but he teased him about being his “little” brother all the time.
“You think so?”
Rokk looked at him in the mirror. “I know so. Go get her, Pyne.”
“All right. I’ll do it. I’ll go get her.”
He only hoped he would have the courage to tell her how he felt. Opening up about his emotions was not a strong point with Pyne.
I have to be strong. For Kim.
Chapter Seventeen
Kim
A shower and fresh clothes had Kim feeling like a million bucks. Being cooped up in her room however, did not. She felt cramped and claustrophobic, heightened by the fact that much of the base was underground. It set in worse when she realized it was only seven. She needed to get out, to do something.
She brushed her hair quickly, then pronounce
d it good enough. Grabbing her wallet—she’d not had a purse to bring with her, and buying one seemed excessive—and the ID badge she’d been provided with, Kim made her way up to the surface, a destination already in mind.
It took her no more than a few minutes to reach the squat rectangular building. It wasn’t much on the outside, but appearances weren’t all that important to someone after they spent enough time in the military. It didn’t seem to matter what country, they all preferred efficiency to glamor and style. Which was perfectly fine with her.
“Can I help you find your party, ma’am?” the server at the front of the officers’ club asked politely.
“Only if I lose myself,” she joked, trying to make light of the fact she was there alone.
The server, a young woman with short hair and a straight-to-the-point attitude, nodded once. “Of course. Table or bar?” she snagged two different menus from the shelf behind her while waiting upon an answer.
“Bar, I think.”
She took a seat at the bar and promptly ordered a rye and ginger ale, suddenly struck by the desire for something other than beer or a fruity-mixed drink. The bartender looked at her approvingly and delivered the drink quickly.
Sipping at it, she regarded the rest of the bar. Two other occupants sat along its length, neither looking very much like they wished to be disturbed. Putting them out of her mind, Kim spun the stool top around and leaned against the bar while she surveyed the mix of people in the club. Dinner hour was winding down, but it was still crowded.
Right, it’s Friday.
As she watched a few more bodies wandered in. One of them, a young man in dress uniform—she noticed that all the men were wearing it—looked over at the bar and noticed her sitting all alone. He smiled at her, and without thinking Kim smiled back. He nodded to her and made his way across the room.
“Is this chair taken?” he asked politely.
There were four empty chairs to either side of her. This was no accident. She’d been there ten minutes and already someone was hitting on her.
At least he’s showing that he’s interested.
“No,” she said, feeling suddenly angry at Pyne. Maybe she’d talk to him for a little bit, and word would get back to Pyne.
“Thank you.” He slipped in and when the bartender asked for his drink he asked for “whatever she’s having.”
“Captain Chris Langer,” he said, sticking out his hand.
“Kim.”
He nodded, focusing on her accent. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
She shook her head. “Got it in one.”
“You’re not the only one with that accent,” he said politely. “All the others like you, the new ones, you all sound alike.”
Kim frowned. “The others like me?”
Captain Langer looked momentarily surprised, but he covered it quickly. “Ah, yes. From overseas. The, um, advisors.”
Is that why Pyne was here? As an advisor of some sort? Wait. Does he think that I’m like Pyne? That I can just heal from any sort of injury with superhuman speed? What else does he know I wonder…?
“Heard much about us, have you?” she asked as casually as possible.
Captain Langer—no, Chris, she’d have to think of him as Chris if she wanted to earn his trust—eyed her for a moment.
“A little,” he admitted. “Though I’ve not heard of you before. Are you new?”
She nodded. “Arrived just a few days ago.”
“And already drowning your sorrows in alcohol? That doesn’t seem to me like you’ve been given the proper introduction to Fort Banner.”
Kim laughed. “It’s been interesting, that’s for sure.”
“Would you care for a tour? I can show you around some if you’d like? We could go see the rest of the base. They don’t have alcohol, but I know of a few neat places to visit where they wouldn’t know if we smuggled some out.”
He was smooth. Very smooth. They’d only been talking a few minutes and he was already telling her that he knew a place they could go to do whatever they wanted without getting caught.
Did she want to go with him? He was handsome, yes. Had a charm to him that Pyne lacked, that much was certain. Pyne was more of a blunt instrument who just barged ahead and knocked down any obstacles, while Chris would move himself around them with serpentine ease.
“Look, Chris. There’s something you should know,” she said, feeling slightly bad for him.
“Oh?” he leaned closer. “What’s that?”
“That she’s with me,” a deep voice growled from off to the side.
Both of them turned to see Pyne standing several feet away from the bar, anger boiling. All of it was directed at Captain Langer, who immediately snagged his drink and put some distance between them.
“I’m sorry, uh, uh…” He winced. “I’m sorry, I don’t know which one you are.”
“Pyne.”
“Right. Pyne, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone over here, I swear it.”
The huge man walked over and took the seat the officer had just vacated.
“You’re being rude,” she said, irritated. She’d been about to turn Chris down herself, but now that Pyne had shown up and was acting like a dick she was more tempted than before to say yes, just to piss the walking mound of muscles off. “Captain Langer was just offering to show me around the base.”
Captain Langer wilted in horrified embarrassment as Pyne’s head slowly turned toward him. “If I’d known I would have said no,” he sputtered. “I wasn’t trying anything, Pyne, seriously.”
“Get out.”
The captain nodded and bolted from the bar, retreating to the “safety” of the friends he’d come in with, all of whom were doubled over trying not to make much noise as they laughed at their friend’s misfortune.
“You’re a dick,” she said. “He did nothing wrong.”
“You’re with me,” Pyne restated.
“If that’s the best you can do, you may as well go back home,” she snapped.
His expression softened. “You want to be with me, Kim. I know it.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen when I’m locked up in a jail back home for something I didn’t do,” she snapped, revealing what was really bugging her.
“That won’t happen, Kim. You can trust me on that.”
“Can I?” she hissed, then lowered her voice. “You’ve lied to me about so very many things. You don’t work for the government, not really. You have some sort of superpower that you can heal from a wound you still never told me how you got. Everyone around here seems to know that you and the others are different in some way. Everyone but me! How am I supposed to trust you when every time I turn around there’s something new about you?”
Pyne reached over the bar, retrieved a pitcher-sized glass, and filled it from one of the nearby taps, all without asking the bartender or even acknowledging him. “Put it on my tab,” was all he said. The bulk of his attention was focused elsewhere. Not on Kim, but on something only he could see.
“I don’t think there’s anything else I’m lying to you about,” he said at last. “There are things I am not able to tell you. Yes, that is true. But I’m not lying to you. I am not some vastly different person. The guy you’ve known the past week and ten years ago? The personality, the jokes, the caring? That is me, and has always been me. None of that is faked.”
She snorted into her drink before taking another sip. “What jokes?”
“Not now.”
Kim rolled her eyes. “See what I mean? Always so serious. Now, if you don’t mind, I was trying to have a drink in peace. Alone.”
“I know, and you can still do that. With me.” He didn’t move.
“That’s not what I…”
His lips started to twitch upward.
“Oh, now you think you can make a joke,” she drawled sarcastically.
“Yes.”
He reached out and squeezed her hand. “It’s a lot to take in, I know, but trust me when I say it’s all going to work out in the end, Kim. It will.”
“I…I guess.” She smiled at him then glanced down into her drink. “You were the last person I ever expected to see, Pyne. Not that I blame you. After all, how would you know that I’d awoken from a coma? When you never checked in at all though, I figured that was it, you’d forgotten about me and moved on. Which is fine of course after six years. I hold no ill will toward you. It’s just been a big shock to not only see you again, but then become…become…whatever this is.” She finally looked up, only to see him staring at her in complete astonishment. “What? What is it?”
“You don’t know?”
She shook her head slowly. “Don’t know what, Pyne?”
The big man grinned wide enough to show two rows of pearly white teeth. At least those hadn’t been damaged by Morgan. She liked his big, wide smile. It was warming and made her spirits soar every time he flashed it her way.
“You seriously don’t know.” His head started to shake. “Who do you think paid all your expenses? You weren’t in a hospital, Kim, didn’t you ever notice that? You were in the finest private clinical care that exists back home. You had the best physiotherapists and all the machines and equipment necessary to ensure you got back on your feet. Much of it was brought in just for you.” Pyne looked away. “True, I never came by physically, not after the first few times. But the money that took care of all that? That was me.”
She was shaking. “You did all that, Pyne?” She blinked furiously, trying to get whatever was in her eye out without rubbing at it. “Why? I don’t understand. There’s no way that couldn’t have been anything less than horrendously expensive.”
