Page 128 of Lethal Game

She pulled back to stare at him incredulously. “You came in here with no plan to get out?”

“I saw Len go in and knew he was going to...” Con glanced down at the son-of-a-bitch and had to fight the anger that made his hands tighten with the need to bloody his fists on the other man.

“You...you...” she sputtered, smacking his chest with the flats of her hands. “You can just go out the way you came in.” She pointed at the exit. “Shoo.”

“I won’t leave you here with nut bar.”

“Juvenile,” she muttered, then stretched up and kissed him so quick he didn’t have time to respond. “Someone has to tell Max what’s happening,” she whispered. “Akbar is trying to weaponize rabies. It’s not going to work, I’ll make sure of that, but he introduced large amounts of the virus to the water supply here. He just couldn’t get it easily transmissible from human to human. That’s why he wanted me.”

“Rabies is fucking deadly.”

“Yes, and it’s a terrible, painful way to die, which is his secondary goal.” She poked him with her index finger. “You’ve got to tell Max to get rabies immunoglobulin, passive antibodies, and the vaccine to the camp as soon as possible. We might be able to save some of these people, but only if it happens quickly.”

She was a saint, an angel, and insane if she thought he’d leave her here. “You’re coming with me.”

She shook her head. “I’m the only one who can stall Akbar long enough for help to arrive.”

“No.”

“Yes.” She gave him a watery smile. “Please. I’m a lousy shot, I don’t know the first thing about hand-to-hand combat, and I’m too breakable to really learn, but I can dothis.”

He got right into her face and bared his teeth. “Can you stay alive?”

“Can you?” she asked just as fiercely, grabbing the fabric of the robe he wore so she could give him a shake. “Will you?”

She knew. Goddamn it,she knewhe’d planned to never get out of this alive.

He couldn’t leave her and he wouldn’t let her leave him. The grip the ghosts of his battle brothers had on his heart burned away, leaving only Sophia in possession of it.

“I will if you will,” he snarled at her. “You might have terrible depth perception, spatial orientation and aim, but you’re smarter than Einstein and when things get tough, you get mean. I need you to look after yourself and knock this guy on his ass.”

“I have the perfect motivator,” she whispered, smiling and wiping some dirt off his cheek. “I’m going to have sex with you, remember? You promised.”

Well, if she had to have a goal, he’d be happy to sacrifice himself. “Is sex all you think about?”

“No, sometimes I think about the very small things I can see with my very nice microscope.”

He hesitated. He hated this. It fuckingsucked, but she was right. Someone had to get help, someone had to delay Akbar, and he couldn’t do both. He had to trust her not to do anything self-destructive.

He kissed her, hard and quick. “Don’t disappoint me. We’re going to have lots and lots of sex.”

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