He laughed. “Leigh. You were injected with the serum, and I was too.”
Oh. He was right. “The serum cures AIDs?”
“It cures everything,” he said.
“Even herpes, which isn’t life threatening?”
“Lie down.” He tugged me back against him. “You are the most beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing that ever happened to me, and all I want to do in this moment is keep you close.”
I took a deep breath. “So, I’m like impervious to STDs.”
“Stop talking about STDs. It’s unromantic.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“You’re fine,” he murmured, his voice a low rumble. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” His strong arms wrapped around me, and I did feel safe. I closed my eyes, snug and surrounded by Griffin.
* * *
“No way,” Griffin was saying from Knox’s hotel room. Their voices drifted through the open adjoining door.
“Look,” said Knox. “If you weren’t so busy making the springs squeak over there, maybe you’d be thinking clearly. We have to go into Op Wraith. Neither Caldwell nor French leave often enough for us to be able to make a hit on them otherwise.”
“I’m thinking clearly,” said Griffin. “And how is what’s going on in my bed any of your business?”
“Walls are thin, bro.”
I hid my face in a pillow. That was embarrassing. I didn’t like the fact that they were essentially arguing over me in the next room, and I could hear everything they said.
“Since when am I your bro?”
“Yeah, since never,” said Knox. “I don’t want to be around you anymore than you want to be around me. All I want is to kill French and Caldwell, and then we can part ways and never see each other again.”
“Fine. You and me. We go into Op Wraith.”
“That’s not going to work, and you know it. The only way it works is if I show up with Leigh. She was my mission. I was supposed to bring her in alive. I can pretend to have gotten confused and bring you both in alive.”
“Bring her in alive? What?” Griffin sounded confused. And I had to admit, I was convinced they were trying to kill me, not capture me.
“Those were the orders,” said Knox.
“Why didn’t they want to kill her?”
“I don’t know,” said Knox. “They didn’t tell me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe they want to question her before they kill her. Find out if she told anyone about the serum.”
“Maybe,” said Griffin. “But I’m not taking her in there. Once she’s inside, we’d all be separated, and I couldn’t keep track of her. I can’t let anything happen to her.”
I went to the open door. I cleared my throat.
Griffin was standing. Knox was sitting on his bed. They both turned to look at me.
“Is it true that this is the only way to kill Caldwell and French?”
“Yes,” said Knox.
“No,” said Griffin.
“Knox, you’ve been gone for a long time,” I said. “Will they believe that you’re still working for them?”
Knox folded his arms over his chest. “I’ll say Griffin was torturing me, which is the truth, and that I finally got free.”
“Then what?” said Griffin. “They’ll kill both Leigh and me. Maybe they’ll kill you too.”
Knox spread his hands. “Well, we have to get to them before they get to us.”
“How are we going to do that?” said Griffin.
“I don’t know yet,” said Knox.
Griffin shook his head. “Too dangerous.”
“You got a better idea?”
Griffin didn’t say anything.
“You said they’d want to question me,” I said. “They wouldn’t kill me right away, right? What if I could get free somehow?”
“Look,” said Knox. “There’s two targets, and there’s two of us. If Leigh can get herself to safety, then all you’ve got to worry about is killing one person. Say you take Caldwell, and I’ll take French.”