Chapter Seven #2
He had that easy charm, that heat that simmered just below his calm surface.
And she’d spent too many nights reminding herself that chemistry wasn’t a good enough reason to let her guard down.
Still, her mind replayed the way he’d looked at her earlier.
Steady, grounding, the kind of look that made her want to believe she wasn’t coming apart.
Rena sighed. “Playing with fire,” she muttered.
She went into the small bathroom, turned on the water and undressed. She stepped into the spray. Hot and hard, more like a massage than a shower. At the moment, it was exactly what she needed even though it was a challenge not to get her stitches wet.
Steam still curled off Rena’s skin when she finally stepped out of the shower.
She towel-dried her hair, pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants and a Crossfire Ops T-shirt, and stared at herself in the mirror.
The woman looking back didn’t scream special ops material.
Bruised eyes, tired lines, skin pale from stress.
But she was still standing. At the moment that felt pretty damn good.
When she left her room and went into the common area, Gage was already there. He’d claimed the corner couch, one arm stretched across the back, a bottle of beer in his hand. His hair was still damp, curling slightly at the ends, and the faint scent of soap reached her even from a few feet away.
Her pulse kicked, betraying her.
He looked up, mouth curving into that lazy half-smile that did dangerous things to her composure. “Didn’t think you’d make it.”
“Needed to rinse off the apocalypse,” she said, heading for the counter where Noah kept the liquor.
“Same.” He took a sip of beer, watching her with that easy, unreadable expression that somehow felt far too aware.
She grabbed a glass, poured herself a couple of fingers of whiskey, and joined him, taking the chair opposite the couch. The whiskey burned, sharp and grounding, just what she needed to chase away the lingering tremor in her hands.
For a few moments, they sat in silence, the kind that wasn’t uncomfortable, just heavy with everything they weren’t ready to talk about. The attack, the gunfire, the screams. It all hovered there between them, unspoken.
Rena leaned back and let out a slow breath. “You think Noah’s going to count this attack as some kind of final exam?”
Gage’s grin widened. “If he does, I’m demanding extra credit.”
“Yeah? For what—style points?” She found herself smiling.
“For survival,” he said, tilting his beer toward her. “And teamwork.”
She clinked her glass against his bottle, the faint sound echoing in the quiet room. “Then we both pass,” she said.
For a few blessed minutes, they kept the tone light, bantering just enough to keep the night from caving in. Gage had a way of doing that, pulling her back from the edge without even trying. His grin, his dry humor. It was the kind of armor she didn’t know she needed.
But then his expression shifted, the easy charm fading into something quieter. He set his beer down and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “How bad did it get for you on that rafter?”
Rena’s fingers tightened around her glass. She hadn’t expected him to ask, not like that, not with that soft edge in his voice that cut right through her defenses. She looked away, tracing the rim of the whiskey with her thumb.
“Bad,” she admitted finally. “The flashbacks hit hard. The noise, the smoke, it all blended together. Took everything I had not to lose it.”
He nodded, no judgment, no pity, just understanding. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Same.”
That single word, same, hung heavy between them, threaded with everything they didn’t need to explain.
He sighed, a low sound that seemed to carry all the exhaustion and adrenaline still coiled inside him. Then he stood and crossed the space between them, moving with a slow, deliberate certainty that made her pulse jump.
“Gage…” she started, but he was already there, his hand sliding to her arm. His touch was warm, grounding. He tugged gently, pulling her up from the chair.
Her body reacted before her brain caught up. The exhaustion, the heat still humming through her veins, the hours of fear and tension. It all cracked open at once. She ended up against his chest, his heartbeat hard under her palms.
“This is a bad idea,” she managed to say, though her voice had lost all conviction.
“Yeah,” he said, his breath brushing her cheek. “Most of the best ones are.”
Then his mouth was on hers.
The kiss hit like a live wire. Hot, fast, consuming.
A slam of scalding heat that burned straight through the fog of exhaustion.
Her fingers fisted in his shirt, dragging him closer as his hand slid up her back, steady but hungry.
The taste of beer and adrenaline and something undeniably him flooded her senses.
For the first time in days, she wasn’t thinking. She was just feeling.
The kiss deepened, rougher now, years of restrained chemistry snapping free. The world narrowed to the sound of their breathing, the thud of her heart, the heat that made her dizzy.
Then, a sharp sound cut through the air.
Gage froze, forehead pressed to hers, his breath uneven, and it took her a moment to realize the sound was his phone ringing in his pocket.
Pulling away from her, Gage yanked out his phone and glanced at the screen. “It’s Noah,” he relayed to her.
He hit speaker, and Noah’s voice came through, clipped but charged with energy.
“Good news,” he said without preamble. “The techs created a computer program to factor in everything we’re looking for.
Means, motive, opportunity, and no alibi for the time of the attack, and we’ve narrowed the suspect list down to three. ”
That pulled Rena’s attention like a magnet. Three. After hours of staring at faces, it was finally something solid.
“Who are they?” Gage asked, his tone all business again, though Rena could still see the tension in his jaw.
“I’ll get into that at zero-seven-hundred,” Noah said. “We’ll meet in the briefing room. The night team’s cross-checking intel now, and I want everyone fresh when we go through the details.”
There was a pause, the faint sound of shuffling papers. Then Noah’s voice came back, lower, colder. “The three will all be interrogated. By the time we’re done, we might finally have the answers we need.”