Chapter Minka #3
“Or…” Soph pushes off my desk and snatches up my bag from its slumped position on the floor.
Digging through my private things, she flashes a victorious smile and comes out again with her hand wrapped around the parcel I haven’t been able to set aside since it arrived in the mail.
“You could try Jen’s batch.” She drops my bag and flicks the container open to reveal a row of pills lovingly—by Jen—dubbed M&Ms. Each pill is larger than the average Tic Tac, tri-colored, and placed in a foam section of its own for safekeeping.
All but one have gone untouched since they arrived.
The other remains zippered into the small compartment inside my clutch.
I think the clutch is inside my apartment.
Maybe.
“Just take it, Chief.” She plucks a single pill from its section and searches my desk for water.
Coffee. Soup, even. “I know we go back and forth about this, and I like to think our bickering is a kind of flirting, but, like…” She extends her hand, palm side up, and stops a mere twelve inches from my face.
“We both like the D, so it’s the hetero kind of flirting that makes us cute. ”
Adrenaline floods my veins and forces my heart to thump painfully inside my chest. “Soph…”
“We bicker about it, but Jen doesn’t hit wrong, okay?
I swear. I surround myself with only the smartest bitches available, which is precisely why you and Doctor Emeri are a part of my tribe now.
It’s rare that Jen gets to test her own batches, but this is just clotting factor, right?
Metabolized proteins that break down safely inside our bodies.
She took some, Chief. Then I took some.”
“You—” I peel my eyes from the pill and bring them up to hers. “You’ve sampled these?”
“Yes.” She loses her smile. Her teasing expression. The dancing in her gaze. Instead, she replaces them all with a solemn nod. “I took one myself, because I needed to be able to look you in the eyes and tell you they’re safe.”
“But—”
“I talked Jay into taking one, though not for an entire week after I took mine, just in case. And Griff even threw his hat in the ring. You’re not the lab rat, Mayet. We were.”
“But why?” I look from her to Aubree, the tampon strings tickling my chin and a mild headache thumping in the back of my skull. “Why would you take something not meant for you?”
“I already told you. I will never risk my sister by forcing something untested down her throat. I won’t risk Ellie, nor her unborn child.
And I wouldn’t risk you either.” She takes my hand and turns it over.
Dropping the pill into the center of my palm, she releases me again and offers a small smile.
“Smart bitches like us are allowed to hire a bus and act dumb in the middle of nowhere sometimes. Blowing off a little steam doesn’t mean we lack intelligence, Chief.
It means we feel safe with our friends, where looking like idiots is okay, but when Monday rolls around again, we straighten our spines and go back to being the smartest bitches around. ”
Her phone chirps on my desk and draws three sets of eyes to the alert flashing on her screen.
Slowly, she swallows and brings her gaze to mine.
“Archer’s in the building, so I suggest you decide.
Then pull those tampons out of your nose, because you look like a sad horror movie clown. It’s not cute.”
Nerves hammer inside my blood, ironically making my nose leak faster. I look at Aubree and pray her brain foo-foo isn’t as made up as Soph likes to claim it is. “This is okay, right?”
She pushes my cold, half-full mug of coffee closer. “Yeah. I believe this will be okay.” She exhales a cleansing breath. “I trust Jen.”
Soph glances over her shoulder as the numbers above the elevator climb.
“Shit! Fine. Okay!” I toss the damn pill onto my tongue and chase it with the entirety of what’s left in my cup. I drink it like a shot and slam the mug back onto my desk, then I slump in my chair and wait… to die. To seize. To have an allergic reaction. To bleed out of my ears.
I wait and wait and wait, and yet…
Curious, Aubree takes a pen from her coat pocket and moves it in front of my eyes, then she covers just one with her palm, waits, and uncovers it again. Checking my pupils. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’m part of a trial with ten other people, but I got the placebo pill.” I press my fingers to the side of my neck and count each beat of my heart. “Did I get the placebo, Soph? Because if we went through all this just for shits and giggles, I’m going to lose my mind.”
“Definitely didn’t get the placebo.” She licks her lips and studies me as intently as Aubree does, then as the elevator stops on our level and dings to announce its arrival, she sits taller.
Not to give me space. But to shield me, I think.
Aubree bounces off my desk and sprints across my office on fast feet. Swinging the door wide so the suck of air is audible, she seals everyone’s fate with a gentle, “Don’t panic.”
Yeah. That’ll work.
“What?” Archer barges straight past her and storms around Soph, his gaze dropping instantly to the bloody patch on my shirt, then to the ridiculous tampons still plugging my nose.
He grabs my jaw in a grip tight enough to bruise if he’s not careful, then he tips my head one way and inspects my face.
He tilts it the other way and inspects a little more.
“What happened?” He lowers into a crouch and stares up at me through terror-filled eyes.
“Please, babe. Say it quick, because I can’t take much more—”
“It’s actually not so serious.” Soph slides off my desk and snags both hairy wax sticks from the trash can. “Just a bleeding nose.”
“It’s infusion day, and I sprang a leak.
” I press a kiss to his pounding wrist and wish he never had to feel such fear over something as innocuous as a nosebleed.
“I’m not hurt. I’m not in pain. I do look ridiculous.
” I flick the silly strings and choke out a quiet snicker.
“Everything is fine, I promise, so take a breath and relax.”
“But don’t breathe through your nose,” Aubree jokes. “It stinks in here.”