Page 48 of Lifeline

Understanding dawned the second before Colin spoke. “He used the word ‘faggots’ and Jake flipped the table, getting in his face.”

“Ah,” I said with a snort. “That…makes sense.”

“It’s not fuckin’ funny,” Jake told me with a heavy frown.

Colin eyed him fondly. “Isn’t it cute when straight men get offended over a word that doesn’t include them?”

“It kind of is,” I said with a chuckle then realized my fingers were still on Mika’s neck…in front of everyone, and slid them back with a warning glare, we were going to be talking about his downplaying his injuries later.

“Ain’t right,” Jake muttered, looking annoyed that we were so blase about the whole thing.

Mika glanced at Reno, who had drifted halfway between him and Jake, clearly torn on who to help. “Someone else is the same way, no matter how many times I tell him not to worry about it.”

“He’s right,” Reno said with a scowl, finally giving in to look over Jake, who muttered angrily but only half-heartedly pushed Reno’s concerned touches away. “It’s not right, and I’m not going to stand for that shit any more than Jake will.”

“Ahh to be loved,” Mika said with a shake of his head.

“You’re all getting checked when we get back, understood?” Colin said in that rare tone that allowed no argument. “Good thing you were the DD, Carter, I didn’t see you take too many hits to the head.”

Carter snorted. “Not like Aidan.”

“It was my first fight, give me a break,” I complained around the throbbing of my skull and my face. “And why does Jake look like it’s a normal day for him and Colin looks like…I don’t know, he bumped his head getting out of bed instead of in a fight.”

Jake brightened at that and clapped Colin on the back. “Because this one put some serious hurt down, that’s why. Ass kicker extraordinaire!”

I glanced at Carter, who grunted. “Those two were our MVPs.”

“And you saved our asses,” Reno told Carter. “So let’s agree there was good work done all around and get home.”

“Yeah,” Colin said with a heavy sigh. “Because we’re getting our asses kicked for real when Xander finds out.”

Ah, right, there was that.

8

MIKA

With a groan that probably would have made more sense in a zombie movie, I tipped the box over the edge of the rented dumpster at the edge of the driveway leading to the outpost.

“Okay,” I grunted, pulling the dolly back, heading toward the house as Aidan threw a bag over the edge. “I think that about covers it.”

“We still have to dust, sweep, scrub, and mop every corner,” he said in a tired voice that I felt down to the depths of my soul. It was day four of being put to work around the outpost; the first day had been cleaning up the debris from the storms so it looked presentable to guests. That had bled into the second day, and then we were put to work cleaning the floor of the main house and the outer building that Mav and Carter used as their home away from home. Then, we had been tasked with cleaning the basement, and not just any clean, but the deep clean you paid professionals to do.

“We’re going to have to do that tomorrow,” I said. I peered up at the sky as the last bits of light drained out of it. “It’s almost ending time.”

“Yeah, okay,” Aidan snorted. “You tell Xander that.”

“Like hell I’m doing that,” I muttered.

Xander’s reaction when he’d found out about the bar brawl had been predictably cataclysmic. We had all been tempted to come up with a story to explain the injuries, but the only believable one was that we were trying to stop a group of men harassing someone. Considering the only believable lie was a story that made us look good, downright honorable in fact, none of us had the heart to follow through on it. Better to be punished as wrongdoers than to be free as false heroes.

It was probably a good thing all of us had been involved in the brawl, though, because he hadn’t been able to decide who needed to be punished the hardest. He had barely listened to what any of us had to say before he let us know we were supposed to be representing our outpost when we left to have a good time in town. Of course, the first thing was that we weren’t going to have any group trips to town because we couldn’t behave like full-grown adults.

The rest…well, that was what all the cleaning and maintenance was for. The rest of our punishment wasn’t going to end until everything was up to his standards. The problem was, a pissed-off Xander, a well and truly pissed-off Xander, was even more of an exacting hard ass than usual. I knew we were going to be busy for a few days until he either calmed down or we all just…dropped. And whatever they might think, the sympathetic looks from Cait, Trevor, and Mav were not making any of us feel better.

I noticed the way Aidan was walking and stopped him. “Hey, your leg bothering you again?”

He winced. “A little; it gets worse as the day goes on. Let me sit down for a couple of hours, and I’ll be okay.”