Page 47 of Us Defiant Few

“You’re supposed to be on my side, woman,” Brock grumbled above her.

“Winnie is on your side. She’ll gladly tell you when your stubbornness and pride gets in the way of your intelligence,” Winnie said with a smile.

Khalani chuckled just as her foot missed a rung. She slipped, her knee banging against the metal. Before she fell to her doom, a strong arm banded around her waist.

Adrenaline pumped through her as Takeshi scaled up the ladder with lightning speed and secured her to his body. The faint scent of soap clung to his skin, and her breath came heavier as he tightened his forearm around her. His thumb lightly brushed against her exposed waist, her beige shirt riding up.

Khalani dared a glance below and her whole body shook.

“Don’t look down,” he commanded.

Takeshi probably didn’t even realize his thumb was circling her skin. The soft movement was maddeningly intimate in a way that she shouldn’t notice hundreds of feet above the ground.

“Keep climbing. I won’t let you fall.”

“Like I’ll believe that,” she muttered, but Khalani still clung to the metal bars with a death grip, her vision blackening until all she recognized was Takeshi’s sharp features.

“Believe this, Kanes. I prefer to kill with my hands.” He maintained eye contact as the sweet whisper of death escaped his lips. “I’d never let gravity take the credit.”

“That doesn’t exactly make me feel better.”

Khalani gulped as his thumb drifted up the side of her ribs, moving beneath her shirt, nearing her chest. Her erratic pulse jumped, and she knew he felt it beneath his fingertips.

“When did I ever say,” Takeshi whispered in her ear, “I was trying to make you feel better?”

The heat vanished. He deftly removed his fingers and pulled away, like the last thirty seconds were just a dream.

She took a deep breath, ignoring the simmering tension in the air, hoping the others wouldn’t notice. Neither of them said another word as they continued the climb, but Khalani sensed his lethal presence much closer than before. Like he truly would catch her if she fell.

But she wasn’t going to put that theory to the test.

Spade opened the crate from the top, and sunlight shone through, nearly blinding her. But the vision spurred each of them faster. When Khalani reached the top, Spade and Brock easily lifted her out of the sewer.

She emerged onto the grand ruins of Las Vegas, the sprawling buildings and abandoned vehicles surrounding them like a lost memory.

Khalani wished she could glimpse into the past and see what the city used to look like. When people assumed living in the middle of a desert was the start of something new and not a herald to their end.

Takeshi was the last one up and lithely pulled himself out of the sewer. The rest of their group looked dirty and disheveled, but he somehow managed to be just as composed and captivating.

His demeanor shifted, however, when he took in the ruins around him. His gaze rose to the sun…and he completely froze.

Khalani realized why.

If Takeshi didn’t remember the last three years of his life, this was his first time seeing the sun in all its glory.

The moment felt private, and she respectfully looked away, giving him space. She shifted her focus to Spade, who pulled a small meter from his pocket.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“It’s a Geiger counter,” he answered, his focus staying glued to the readings. “Used to measure radiation.”

“Didn’t Jack say you’d already measured that?”

“He did. I’m making sure there aren’t any changes.” Spade’s fingers shook as he placed the meter back in his pocket before glancing at Brock. “You have the radio?”

“Yes.” Brock pulled the small device from his pack as proof.

“Don’t forget to use it before you reach Apollo,” Spade said. “We must make contact before breaching the dome.”