Page 165 of The ARC Unit: Breach

A note in Bear’s block handwriting had been stuck to the top.

DRY ENOUGH. YOUR ROOM STILL ISN’T. ☺

I smiled.

The fact that Bear had walked inside Wolf’s room carrying my undergarments while I was dead asleep probably should have embarrassed me. Considering the alternative was walking downstairs in Wolf’s shirt with absolutely nothing underneath it, I decided Bear deserved his own holiday.

I dressed quickly, folded Wolf’s shirt over the back of his chair and hesitated before leaving. The room looked almost exactly as it had when I came in, except his pillow was slightly dented and my damp underwear had left a faint mark on the metal locker door that would disappear once it dried. Nothing about the space suggested what had happened in it.

That seemed appropriate for him.

The hallway smelled faintly of wet plaster. Bear had opened a section of wall beside my room, exposing pipes and dark insulation while an industrial fan pushed air through the doorway. My mattress had been removed entirely. The bed frame sat bare beneath the dripping sprinkler head, which somebody had wrapped in a towel until the replacement fitting arrived.

Jackal was crouched outside my door in sweatpants and a hoodie, staring into the opening like the wall had personally offended him. He looked over when I stepped out of Wolf’s room. His eyes went from me to the door behind me, then back to my face.

“Well. That’s fucking new.”

“We slept, Jackal.”

“I didn’t ask for the boring version.”

Bear’s voice came from inside the wall. “Leave her alone.”

Jackal leaned closer to the opening. “You aren’t even looking at us.”

“Don’t need to.”

I stepped around Jackal before the conversation gained momentum. “How’s the side?”

He straightened carefully.

“Still healing. Bear remains disappointed.”

“I’m disappointed you keep touching it,” Bear said.

Jackal looked at me. “See what I live with?”

“You got stabbed because you chased a courier through a parking garage. I’m not joining your union.”

“Anti-worker.”

I left Jackal to Bear before the lack of caffeine made me say something worse.

Downstairs, the compound had already forgotten that anyone had slept. Raven occupied two screens with his curls still damp from the shower, Hawk stood near the kitchen drinking coffee while reading something on a tablet and Viper had taken over one end of the operations table with a dismantled optic in front of him. Wolf stood beside Raven in black tactical pants and a fitted long-sleeved shirt, mask back in place, hair pulled away from his face with the zig-zag headband.

He looked exactly like Wolf again.

“Morning, Mercer.”

“Morning.”

I went to the coffee pot and picked the biggest mug I could find.

Raven waited until I poured a cup and walked back over before saying, “How’s the temporary housing situation?”

“Dry.”

“High praise.”