Three the Hard Way by Sydney Croft

Author:Sydney Croft [Croft, Sydney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2014-11-29T07:00:00+00:00

By the time Ian had dug through all the prepper’s boxes of medical supplies and came back up from the basement with the saline bag, Justice had drifted off to sleep again.

Must be nice. Not that Ian begrudged an injured guy sleep, but damn, Ian felt like he could snooze for a week. He hadn’t realized how exhausted he was until just now, when it seemed as if every muscle was protesting the climb up the stairs from the basement. Even his head was starting to hurt.

He shook it off and sank onto the mattress next to Justice and prepped the back of the guy’s hand for the IV.

“You look like shit,” Tag said, and yeah, that was helpful.

“It’s been a long day.”

“You sure what I did to the chip isn’t affecting you?”

Strangely, the area surrounding the chip felt fine. There was only a little residual soreness, and Ian figured that would be gone by morning. “I’m sure. How was Justice while I was downstairs?”

As he threaded the line into Justice’s vein, Tag reported, “He woke up and talked to me for a while, but he seemed pretty out of it.”

“Yeah, he’s a little shocky. That’s to be expected. This should help. As long as he woke up and was semilucid, he’s okay to sleep another hour. We’ll keep waking him through the night.”

“Fine by me.” Tag moved to lean against the wall and watched him finish setting up the IV.

Ian turned Justice’s hand over, and his fingers fell open, revealing the long, thin mark on his palm. The one that was identical to Tag’s.

A sour feeling swirled in Ian’s belly. Tag and Justice had so much history between them, so many stories Ian couldn’t touch. He’d never been one to give in to jealousy, but this time, he couldn’t help it. The marks on Justice and Taggart’s palms were physical evidence that their relationship went beyond simple memories.

“You never told me about the scar,” he blurted, knowing how petty it sounded but not caring.

Tag shrugged. “Never asked.”

God, Tag hadn’t changed a bit. Ian didn’t know whether to be angry or grateful. “And I guess we don’t have to now, right?”

“Really? You want to pretend we had a relationship where we talked about things?”

“We fucking did, Taggart. Don’t shit on that memory.”

“I’m not the one who did that first.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Ian pushed off the mattress and headed toward the door.

Taggart called after him, “Ian . . . we were kids.”

Ian paused, hand on the doorjamb. “Pretty serious scar for kids.”

“Well, now that you know Justice, you see that he’s a pretty serious guy.”

“He can be intense, yes. But so can you.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

Ian didn’t answer him one way or the other, mainly because he knew it would annoy Taggart . . . but also because he knew he couldn’t stay and listen to anything more about Tag and Justice’s love for each other.

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