Nina had no idea if this was the best decision for Rainbow or not, but Knox spoke the truth. In the short amount of time she’d spent with them, she’d become part of their little blended family. They could have let her go if that was what she wanted, but otherwise, it was unthinkable.
Tears pricked Nina’s eyes, and she blinked them away with a smile of her own. “Come on. Ivonne made dinner—everything fresh, nothing freeze-dried. We can’t miss that.”
Knox rose to his feet and extended a hand to Rainbow. She accepted it, and offered Nina her other hand shyly.
Instead of grasping it, Nina hooked their little fingers together and raised their hands in a gesture she remembered so well from childhood. “Families are forever, especially the ones you make yourself. Remember that, Bo.”
“I will,” she promised solemnly.
“Good.” Sometimes, that vow was all they had.
TECHCORPS PROPRIETARY DATA, L2 SECURITY CLEARANCE
From: SKOVGAARD, B
To: RICHTER, T
Date: 2075–05–09
You may want to update your latest addition to 66–793’s recruit file. It’s unlikely you’ve been aggressively monitoring him for fourteen years, as he’s only been a recruit for nine.
From: RICHTER, T
To: SKOVGAARD, B
Date: 2075–05–09
I monitor a lot of people, Birgitte. It’s a fact you’d do well to remember.
TWENTY-NINE
The first thing Gray heard was Maya’s voice.
“‘… but that didn’t matter. All the intimidation in the world didn’t matter. She was Marjorie Starborn, and she had a job to do. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to do it alone.’”
He frowned—or, at least, he tried to. Her voice was so clear, lilting over consonants and vowels, rising and falling in a rhythm he knew now like the beating of his own heart.
Was it a dream? It felt like one, hazy darkness pierced by one single dazzling point of light. Or maybe—
Maybe—
He flexed his fingers, then tried to curl them into a fist. It didn’t work perfectly, which was perversely what convinced him he was definitely alive. Imperfection was a realm reserved for the living.
He opened his eyes.
Maya was sitting cross-legged on a cot next to his bed, a paperback book open on her lap. Her fingers traced the edges of the page as she read, the touch reverent.
Maya. It came out garbled, more like a groan than her name.
Her head jerked up. The book fell from her lap as she scrambled to her feet, her fingers closing around his hand a moment later. “Gray? Can you hear me?”
It took a herculean effort, but he squeezed her fingers.
Tears filled her eyes. She lifted his hand, kissed it, and turned toward the door. “Mace! He’s awake!”
Heavy, quick footsteps pounded through the building, such a flurry of them that Gray thought he could feel each impact jarring up through the bed. Mace hurried in, intent on listening and measuring and assessing.
Gray kept staring at Maya. She looked okay, tired and sad but unhurt. He ignored Mace’s fussing and asked the first thing, the most important—for all their sakes, but especially hers. “Richter?”
“Dead.” She twined her fingers with his and smiled shakily. “Do you remember choking him?”
When he tried, everything was fuzzy and far away, more like trying to picture something imaginary than anything real and remembered. “I don’t think so.”
“You were incredibly badass.” She used her free hand to dash away tears. “And so was I. I shot out the lights and took out the guards, just like you taught me.”
Pride made his chest swell—until Mace intruded, ruining the moment. “Your vitals look good. We’ll keep monitoring your ICP, but I’m pleased. You’ll need a full neurological workup—”
“Will it wait?”
“I’m afraid not,” Mace said. “You made it through the surgery alive somehow. Now, we have to keep you this way.”
Maya moved over to make room for Mace’s exam, her eyes still wet with tears. Gray struggled to sit a little straighter but winced when surgical tape pulled at the skin of his neck and scalp.
He reached up and felt only bare skin punctuated by bandages. “What happened?”
“You started seizing after you killed Richter. You were crashing. I—” She hesitated, then plowed ahead. “I’m the one who made the call. I thought you’d want to go out fighting. So I told Mace to try to replace your implant.”
“I don’t understand. That wasn’t…” He trailed off as he realized what she wasn’t saying. What the look in her eyes meant. “Savitri?”
“It wasn’t as bad as you think.” Maya perched on the edge of his bed. “I mean, I would have made a deal with the devil himself, but … I don’t think she’s going to get pushy. I’m worth too much as an ally, now that Richter is gone.”
But she had promised the woman something, and Maya had too much integrity to renege on a deal once it was struck. Gray stared at her, searching her face as well as his soul.
And he didn’t know what he felt.
A handful of memories surfaced in his brain at once. A wickedly sharp blade slicing into his skin. Unimaginable agony. Silence. Maya, sobbing.
Then another recollection supplanted them all, just as painful in its own way as the others—the certainty of death.
He’d been ready to die.
The door flew open, and Knox rushed in, his face tight with tension. He stopped at the other side of Gray’s bed, his assessing gaze sweeping over him in a familiar manner. Knox’s expression finally eased. “You’re alive?”
“I am,” Gray answered, almost wincing at the wooden sound of his own voice.
Maya noticed. Beside the bed, she went rigid, doubt clouding her eyes. Gray wanted to say something, to comfort or reassure her—
But he’d been ready to die.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re alive. Show-off.” Conall shoved past Knox, looking a little paler than usual but grinning like he couldn’t stop. “You know, I survived a gut shot and was planning to milk it for maximum sympathy, but you had to one-up me with impossible brain surgery.”
That startled Gray out of his distraction. “You what?”
“Later,” Dani said from the doorway. “Nina’s going on about how you need ice cream. What flavor do you like?”
He had no clue. “I’ve never eaten ice cream before.”
“What the fuck?” Dani seemed truly affronted. “Well, I guess that means we’re getting all of them.”
“Make sure there’s peach,” Maya told her. “And get some pie. I think we all deserve pie.”
“I know I deserve pie,” Conall said. “I had Rafe’s hands in my guts.”
“Lucky you.” Rafe slipped past Conall and slugged Gray lightly on the shoulder. “Good to see you up, man.”
“Not quite yet. Did we find the kids?”
“Ivonne’s taking care of them for now. Ava has a contact who’s coming to pick them up.” Rafe’s smile widened. “All except Rainbow.”
Maya tilted her head up to meet Gray’s eyes. “She’s staying with us,” she said softly. “That’s what she wanted.”