Page 94 of The ARC Unit: Breach

“I heard you.”

Bear gave me a look.

I sighed. “I will not sleep on that side.”

“Better.”

Raven disappeared into the medical room and returned with a soft cold pack wrapped in a thin towel. He handed it to me without commentary and I immediately pressed it against the front of my shoulder. The cold hurt for about ten seconds before it started helping.

Jackal had not said anything since Wolf left. When I looked over, he stood near the far end of the table with both hands braced against the edge, head lowered and knuckles white from the pressure. I almost crossed the room to him, but Raven glanced at me and then away, and something in that look made me stay where I was. Whatever had just happened inside Jackal was older than me.

It belonged to him.

◆

I changed before dinner and then skipped dinner anyway.

I shoved the bikini into the bottom of the locker, pulled on an oversized black t-shirt with soft sleep shorts and spent several minutes trying to gather my hair into a loose knot one-handed before giving up and leaving it down.

The marks around my wrists were still visible. They had faded from angry red to darker pink, which somehow made them look more deliberate. I sat on the edge of the bed with the cold pack against my shoulder and stared at them until the room started feeling too small.

The argument replayed first, but the click sound kept cutting through it, followed by the memory of Wolf’s hand closing low at my nape. My mind kept circling that part even while I tried to keep my anger clean. My shoulder hurt because he had restrained me without permission, and my wrists were marked because I had fought against something I never agreed to.

Those facts were simple.

The way my body had responded when he pulled my hair was not.

I knew enough about myself to recognize attraction, and I had liked being held down before when everyone involved understood what was happening. This had not been that. My body could like one sensation and still reject the way it had been forced on me. That reaction did not turn the rest of the scene into something I had wanted.

I eased onto my left side, and even after I settled into the least uncomfortable position I could manage, I knew sleep was going to be a lost cause.

Around one in the morning, I gave up and went downstairs for water.

Most of the operations floor was dark, with only the emergency lights and two sleeping monitors throwing enough glow across the concrete to keep me from walking into furniture. The kitchen refrigerator hummed in the corner. I had almost reached it when I heard something quiet near the windows.

A melody drifted through the dark, only a low tune hummed under someone’s breath without any words I could make out.

Jackal sat on the floor beside the far window with one knee drawn up and his back against the wall. The moonlight caught one side of his face and left the other in shadow. He had changed into a dark t-shirt and gray sweats, and his hair fell over his forehead, messy enough that he looked younger. He was holding something between his fingers.

A narrow strip of red fabric.

The ribbon looked old, worn soft along the edges from being handled far more often than something that small should have survived. Jackal rubbed it slowly between his thumb and forefinger while he hummed.

I stopped.

The man in front of me did not resemble the one who stole Raven’s shampoo or announced that each Froot Loop had a different flavor. I had the uncomfortable sense that I had walked in on something private, and when I started to turn away the floor creaked beneath my foot.

Jackal looked up immediately, the humming cutting off as his hand closed around the ribbon until only a thin piece remained visible between his fingers. Neither of us said anything for a moment before he looked toward the kitchen.

“You sneaking food?”

The humor had returned, but only around the edges.

“Water.”

“Disappointing.”

I opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle, then grabbed a second one without asking. When I crossed the room, Jackal watched me set it on the floor beside him.