Jane swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yeah,” she breathed. “Lucky.” A warm hand wrapped around hers, and she squeezed it, not needing to look to know whose it was.
Marco and Dave joined them, keeping as much distance between each other as possible. Having made sure Pain was all right, Marco came up to Chad and peered into his eyes.
His palm cracked against Chad’s cheek, making Jane flinch.
Chad shook his head, his eyes gaining focus, and glared at Marco. “What’s that for?”
“Oh, look,” Marco sneered. “It speaks.” He walked out, not waiting for the others.
Chad looked at Pain once more, this time with clear eyes, until Tiffany stared at them. Her delicate eyebrows rose, hinting it was about time they gave her and Pain some privacy so she could clean her up.
“Come on.” Jane elbowed Chad, just as Doc led Peter to the nurses’ room.
She leaned into Ryan when he wrapped his arm around her, exhaustion weighing down her steps. Stuck in a strange place between wanting to pass out until morning and not knowing how to sleep after what had happened, she only moved one foot after the other, until she realized it was just her and Ryan on the fourth floor.
She looked up at his face as he opened the door for her. “Stay with me tonight,” she said. The moment the words rolled off her tongue, her chest heaved, and tears sprang to her eyes.
Ryan’s arms were around her in a heartbeat. “All right. It’s all right,” he whispered, pulling her into the room.
She collapsed against him, knowing they could hear her wailing down on the second floor but unable to stop it. And although no one had ever held her tighter in her entire life, it was still not enough to keep her from falling apart right there and then.
Chapter 28
Dave walked into the office waiting room, finding Skull dozing at his desk, his big head propped on his even bigger hand.
He halted, unsure what to do. He’d woken at the break of dawn, the few hours of troubled sleep making him feel even crappier than before, and realized he wouldn’t be able to sleep again. Instead, he’d taken a cold shower, put on jeans and an old hoodie, and headed to the infirmary to check up on Pain. But there was also the matter of finding out the latest news on the Commandos, so he’d swung by the waiting room. Waiting, indeed, he thought as he stood there, contemplating if waking up Skull would put his life in any immediate danger.
“I can hear you breathing,” the giant grumbled, cracking one eye open. Dave breathed out. “Did you want something?”
Dave came up to the desk, grabbing a chair and turning it backward before he sat down. “I was wondering if you got anything new on the Commandos. We were gone for two days, and then last night…” he trailed off, a memory of being knocked off his feet while Chad screamed filling his head. “With everything that’s happened, you must have something, right?”
Skull opened the other eye and rubbed his face, suppressing a yawn. Contemplating. Not sure if Dave deserved to know.
His chest swelled with a deep sigh. “You should talk to Peter,” was all he said.
“Peter?” Dave pointed at the office. “Is he…?”
“He’s in there. No one sleeps in this building anymore.”
“Okay.” Dave got up, putting the chair back in its place by the wall. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” Skull’s dark eyes glimmered with something akin to irony, and Dave wondered if he was imagining things, or if he had actually learned to read the man’s reactions.
When he bothered to react to things, anyway.
Peter was in his chair when Dave came in, battling with his laptop. “Goddammit,” he muttered, scowling. He glanced up at Dave, and back at the screen, hitting a button multiple times.
“What’s up?” Dave asked, coming up to him.
“I don’t know. It just froze, look.” Peter spun the laptop, his hands flying up helplessly.
Dave looked at it for a second before hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del. “One of the apps has crashed is all. Here, just restart that one.” He turned the laptop back around.
“Thank God.” Peter looked up at him, now that the problem was solved. “Can’t sleep? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here this early.”
“Yeah. Was going to check on Pain and Chad, but I thought maybe you had some update on the Commandos.”
Peter’s gaze clouded at the sound of Pain’s name, and he swallowed, leaning back in his chair. He didn’t look mad anymore—just tired.
“We got them on camera last night,” Peter said at last.
Dave’s heart beat faster. “Really? Faces and all?”
“Yes. I should probably bring you up to speed on this, so… Wait.” Peter pushed a button on his phone, speed-dialing a number. “Doc, you up?”
“It’s Tiffany,” a woman said. “He’s asleep.”
“Is anyone down there with Pain?”
“Marco and Chad.”
“Tell them I need them in my office,” Peter said.
“All right.”
Peter ended the call, turning back to Dave. Apparently, Dave was the last to wake up no matter how early he did it.
He raised an eyebrow. “Pain?”
“She’s okay. I checked already,” Peter answered.
“Okay?”
“Well, the same. Nothing we can do at the moment, just wait.”
Dave nodded. He pulled a chair out and sat to wait for the others.
Peter got back to whatever he’d been doing before Dave came in, while Dave stared at his interlaced fingers, trying not to think about the previous night. About what Marco had said.
“Hey, we left our bags on the plane,” Dave started, but Peter cut him off with a raised finger. He pointed at the corner behind Dave.
Turning around, Dave saw their bags in a heap on the floor. “Thanks.”
The door opened a second later.
