Bone Deep(20)

“Stay with me. If you die, my sisters will kill me,” she said in his ear.

“So I’m your responsibility?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

Oh, the man was stronger than he let on. She released him and he laughed again before he grabbed her hand and pulled closer to her. “It is much warmer on top of you.”

She would never admit it but his words stoked the fire inside her. Lust of a different kind rippled through her from head to toe. These were teasing, playful, flirting words and she had no experience with them.

“Nothing to say, Etzem?” he taunted.

“I should have let Azrael kill you,” she murmured, though a smile creased her face. Always this man found a way around her.

She had asked Bullet what love felt like. Bullet responded that it was the worst pain, a burning and tearing in your chest and a pick axe in your mind. Bone had determined never to feel it. Love was a weakness and her sisters needed her to be strong. Bullet had broken. Arrow had softened. They remained killers but someone else resided in their hearts now. Not broken but divided and they always would be.

Bone had watched Arrow’s face that morning as Bone stood behind Minton. Arrow had given a piece of herself to the one called Adam Collins. She’d watched Bullet the night they’d sent Damon to the afterlife, the wonder and relief that masked her face when she saw Rand Beckett knew no bounds. She did not doubt either sister’s dedication to their ultimate goal but the path would be much rockier because the weight of their burden was heavier.

It was best Bone shied away from the threat of softer emotions. She’d never known them and now wasn’t the time to learn. Now was the time to kill. Revenge demanded reckoning and Joseph’s was close.

“Who holds your mind?” he asked, his words slurring dangerously.

“I do,” she returned and tugged on his arm, pulling him out of the current and to the opposite bank.

The Neva River was wide in certain places and the current was strong. She’d lucked into a place that was a good distance from the other side of the river. Once they were on the bank, she pulled herself out of the water and helped him stand.

His weight was such that had she not prepared he would have taken her to a knee. As it was she struggled to help him into the woods.

“I must go back,” she told him once he settled.

“What? No!”

“Yes, I need my bag. Can you stay alive long enough for me to do this?” she questioned.

His brows lowered and his mouth flattened into a straight line. It was sad, that line. His full lips should never be compressed that way. “I’ve managed to live thirty-two years without your help, woman.”

She nodded. “Good. Then this should be easy.”

Bone took off before he could voice any opinion. Her bag was too important to leave behind. She was bereft without it.

It took her an hour to make the round trip.

“Well, well, well, glad you could join us,” a husky male voice said in the darkness.

She sighed. Loudly. “Lucky me.”

“Damn straight,” Grant said as he stepped from the tree line. “Your boyfriend would be dead of hypothermia had I not managed to stick around and find your asses.”

Her gaze zeroed in on Dmitry who was sitting on a log, dry and now wearing jeans and a black sweatshirt. “You called him?”

The man shrugged. “Even I have backup plans, Bone.”

“Playing both sides will get you killed, Grant,” Bone said in a low voice. She let her fury be heard, almost choking on it as she pushed out her words.

“Playing your side tends to kill others though, sugar. And poor Dmitry, well, I might need him in the future,” Grant said as he tipped up his ever-present cowboy hat. He rubbed his chin as he glanced at Dmitry with a raised eyebrow. “I saved a life here tonight. I’m a goddamned hero.”

“You’re the reason Trident always knows where we’ll be,” she forced from clenched teeth.

Grant smiled. “No, that’s your sisters’ fault. I’m the one,” he pointed at himself, “who’s always pulling y’all’s assess out of scrapes. Don’t forget who I am darlin’. I’m everywhere.”

She shrugged her bag on. “I’ll be off then. You’ve got friends, Asinimov. Goody for you.”

Grant smiled. Dmitry stood.

“Not without me,” Dmitry said firmly.

She rolled her eyes.

“You do that when you’re angry or frustrated. Roll your eyes. It’s the small tells that give the most vivid picture. You anger easily but you don’t lose control. It speaks to your strength,” Dmitry relayed in a low, almost cajoling tone.

She didn’t say anything.

“But you are not leaving without me,” he finished. “You owe me answers and I’ll have them.”

He meant what he was saying and it floored her.

“Well now, I didn’t think I’d ever see the day that one was rendered mute,” Grant said with a laugh. Then he laughed harder. “Wait, just kidding. Bone never says anything. It’s Blade that’s always…well, no…she’s pretty f*cking quiet too. It’s kinda eerie.”

Bone turned to Grant and did something she’d never done before—she lifted her middle finger in the air. She’d seen it done in movies and those few and far between. He just guffawed harder but the anger she expected didn’t materialize.