“Not until—”
“What’s going on here?” Her breath caught at the sound of Chad’s voice.
“Oh, crap,” she muttered.
Doc’s fingers dug into her arm, and she looked up to find Chad standing in the doorway, wearing jeans and a scowl.
Her eyes turned back to Doc, and she mouthed, “Let. Me. Go.”
“Promise me!” he growled, so that only she could make out the words.
“Fine, I promise! You have my word, now let me go.”
He rocked back on his heels, and she dashed to the exit, only to bump into Chad as he stepped inside. He ignored her, his gaze locked on Doc. Shit.
She grabbed Chad’s arm and pulled him to the door. “We should go.”
He shook her off and didn’t move from his spot. “No, we shouldn’t. Not until you tell me what all this was about.” His stiff voice turned her blood cold.
She turned to Doc, desperate for help.
What she found was even worse. While Chad was all fury and temper of a twenty-three-year-old, Doc simply looked like he’d had enough, and killing someone right about now would be a very tempting way to find release. He gazed back at Chad with focused, unblinking calm, but she knew what he could do, and the last thing she wanted was him taking it out on Chad.
“I can explain everything to you on the way back to your room,” she found her voice again, trying to lock her gaze with Chad’s.
“No, I want him to explain what he’s doing half-naked, at six AM, with my girl in his bedroom.”
Doc took a step forward, standing face to face with Chad. “Your girl,” he spoke in a scarily quiet voice, “wouldn’t be here at all if not for me. It would do you good to remember who you’re talking to. Leave. Now.”
Not needing another warning, Pain slipped in between the two of them and pushed Chad to the door. His eyes stayed on Doc as she pulled him outside, the green of his irises swallowed up by the dilated pupils.
She knew he could be hotheaded, but she’d expected better from Doc. So when he went to close the door, she turned her head and mouthed, “What the hell?”
He responded by slamming the door in her face, so she turned to Chad. “What was that about?”
“You asking me that?” His eyes locked with hers at last, and he shook off her hand for the second time. “I wake up and you’re not there. Ty said he saw you running to the infirmary, and I find you in Doc’s room instead. You scared the shit out of me!”
“So what, you decided to pick a fight with Doc? You can’t treat him like that. He’s not one of the boys, for God’s sake!”
Chad stepped closer, towering over her, and she cringed at the fire raging in his eyes. “You expect me to be okay with this?” He pointed at Doc’s door, his angry whisper turning into a hoarse growl. “He had you up against the wall! No one fucking touches you like that!”
She shrank back, trying to put some distance between them. When someone’s head peeked out from down the hall, she pulled Chad to the elevator. The rest of the building could live without witnessing their ugly fight.
He stomped ahead, and she hurried to catch up, cold stone chilling her feet. “I’m not saying you should be okay with this. All I’m saying is you gotta give me a minute to explain before you—”
“Before I what?” he snapped, slamming his palm into the buttons inside the elevator. “What did I do wrong?”
She tapped Cancel and the fourth floor button with a grimace. “You’re missing the point,” she said in a calmer voice. “I came to talk to him. Sure, we got into an argument, but it wasn’t his fault. I shouldn’t have bothered him so early to begin with.”
Before Chad could reply, the elevator lurched and stopped, going dark.
Her hands flew up. “Oh, for God’s sake! I just came back to life yesterday, could my luck be any worse?”
“We gotta get out of here,” Chad muttered, stepping away from her. She heard the metal groan as he grabbed the doors.
“Leave it. Peter will have your head if you damage the elevator. It’s Monday, a lockdown drill. We’ll be out in twenty minutes.”
She put a hand on his shoulder, feeling him tense. With a sigh, he turned around just as the red emergency light flickered on. His jaws locked stubbornly before he looked at her, more tired than angry. She couldn’t get used to how skinny he looked.
“We were just talking,” she said, pulling him closer, until his hands found their place on her waist.
“About what? What’s so important that you leave our bed and run to him at six o’clock?”
“It’s nothing. I overreacted. I just had this dream, and I remembered that…” She trailed off, realizing how she’d painted herself into a corner with the whole promise thing.
Suddenly, she was just as angry with Doc as Chad had been a minute ago.
“Oh, you bastard,” she grumbled, making Chad blink in confusion.
“What did you remember, Pain?”
“I can’t tell you. I promised Doc no one would find out about this.”
“So now you two keep secrets from me?”
She could hear the hurt in his voice, and tightened her grip on him. “Not secrets—a secret. And not just from you—from everyone.”
“That supposed to make me feel better?” His face turned into a grimace.
“Yes, because it’s for Dave’s safety. If anyone finds out what I’ve found out, he’ll be in danger. But as long as no one but me and Doc knows about it, he’ll be perfectly fine.”
His frown deepened. “So there’s something wrong with Dave?”
“No, he’s all right. There’s just something that people must never, ever find
