48
SEVEN
I’d very nearly gotten my head blown off, but watching Emersyn fight was nothing short of sexy as fuck. Our girl had skills—more than we knew. And when she almost shot me? Damn, I was convinced I was about to go meet the devil and then she goes and sharpshoots the rope.
I adjusted myself when she wasn’t looking, because the situation there was not made any better by the fact that she was naked, bloody and looked like she’d just rolled in the mud—because, well she had.
I also wanted to ask why she hadn’t shot me dead.
Morbid curiosity and all that aside, she didn’t owe me anything.
A chocolate and a sweatshirt certainly didn’t equate to life-sparing acts.
At least not in my book. But, maybe, just maybe, that meant we were gaining her trust, or intrigue, or whatever it was that made her aim higher than my heart.
Either way, I was more smitten than I cared to admit.
I was so distracted by figuring out where to go, and by my thoughts regarding Emersyn, that I almost missed the muttered curse from behind me. I turned and she had a deep frown on her face.
“What is it?”
“Your back—the hedge seems to have a vendetta against you,” she said.
I shrugged my shoulders. Sure enough, there was discomfort, but not enough to distract me.
“I’ve been through worse.”
My shirt was a shredded mess, but I was still glad for the barrier because if that wasn’t there, she’d be able to see the real damage.
Emersyn didn’t speak again, but I could feel her attention.
It made the skin on my neck prickle—similar to the feeling I got when I knew I was being watched by a predator.
I carefully guided us around a corner, and turned to address Emersyn, when I noticed how she shadowed me, and covered our back, gun in her hand like she’d been working teams for years.
“You’ve done this before,” I stated.
She scoffed. “I’ve never been in a maze that’s wanted to kill me, no.”
I grinned. “I mean tactical—you know how to advance with me—CQB type stuff.”
We rounded another corner and whatever she’d been about to say died on her lips as we encountered an obstacle. Some sort of explosive had been tripped and a massive pile of debris was built up in the path. The only way was over and it was at least twice as tall as me.
“Wait here,” I muttered.
I scaled the debris easily and stopped low at the top. The other side was clear. I motioned for Emersyn and made my way down. The last few feet were a jump and once she reached it, I held my arms up to help her.
She stared at my hands. “What are you doing?”
“Helping,” I stated. “You shouldn’t land heavy on that ankle.”
She looked like she was going to do it anyway, but slowly, almost like she didn’t know how, she reached for me.
My heart stalled in my chest as she leaned down and I took her weight.
Her body collided with mine and I gently lowered her to the ground.
I fought against every single instinct to look over body parts that were right in my face.
I recited the alphabet—backward—I thought about the pain in my back and the next steps I was going to take down this path we were on.
Fucking, anything—
My only saving grace was that I had gloves on my hands and I was wearing clothes, because if any of my skin had touched hers—
I let her go the moment I could and abruptly turned away.
I wasn’t sure if she felt the same magnetic pull, but now was not the time to find out.
We came to a crossroads and I studied the area extensively as I attempted to get a picture of which way we needed to go.
Before I was done, she walked straight for the path that branched to the right.
“Whoa, whoa, not so fast—”
Emersyn had the audacity to sigh, and I fought back a smile at the look of exasperation on her face.
She threw out a hand. “Those tracks are Griffin’s—”
Damn. I tilted my head, impressed.
“Yes, I know that, but how do you—”
“After the explosion he favored his left leg, you can tell by his prints. Those are Angel’s—he’s dragging and kind of unsteady, definitely a concussion—” Emersyn faded off as she studied my face.
“What?”
I shook my head. Of course, I’d deduced all of that too—but how the fuck did she know how to track?
Words abandoned me and I just stared until she shifted uncomfortably.
I was debating which of my million questions to ask first, when gunfire erupted close by.
I stepped to her side and jerked my head down the path.
“Let’s go—we’re close.”
The oppressiveness of the hedges was less intense and when I checked another corner, I was beyond relieved to see G. I clicked to get his attention and he jogged over. He scanned us both quickly to check we were in one piece.
“Where’s Angel?” I asked.
“We ran into some trouble. He told me he’d deal with it and to go find you.” G nodded at the path. “I think we’re close to the entrance now.”
G went to herd Emersyn between us, but she shook her head and leveled the gun at him. We all froze as the tension built.
“Seven, what is she doing with a gun?”
I took a careful step toward her. “What are you doing?”
“What happens when you win?” She asked.
“You’re asking this now?” I stated. “After everything we’ve just gone through—”
“You want one of the other guards to win?” G demanded.
I could tell G was barely holding on to his control. Emersyn saw it too because her lips twisted into a snarl, and her finger settled on the trigger.
“I don’t belong to anyone,” she said.
“Yes, we know that,” I agreed. “But, the other guards will be worse. You know this—”
“What do you want?” She interrupted.
“What do you mean?” God only knew where I got this patience from. Maybe it was because of how close G looked to exploding.
“All of this—” She stumbled over her words. “Always saving me—” She still had the gun leveled at G. “You took a fucking beating for me for fuck’s sake.”
“We just want to help you,” I said.
“Bullshit,” Emersyn snapped. “No one is that altruistic.”
G took another step toward her. “He’s right.”
Emersyn had nowhere else to go but back into a hedge. The gun rested inches from G’s head. I didn’t think she’d shoot, but I wasn’t one hundred percent positive about that and it made me nervous.
“I don’t need your fucking help,” she scoffed. “All of this is so I’ll owe you, isn’t it?”
I frowned at that. “Where is this coming from? I told you—”
“You’re just like the rest of them, you’ll take what’s yours the minute I let my guard down.”
“No, that’s not—” I sighed and was about to say something else, when I saw G move. “G, wait—”