Page 90 of Static/Cling

With conviction.

Pushing out a sigh, he sat back in his chair.

Even that simple movement made his hips scream and his ass bones grind painfully, but he didn’t care. It was done.

He’d barely taken a second breath when the door crashed back against the wall behind him. A body slammed into the back of his chair, which jerked forward a couple of inches.

The stretch of his groin muscles, after so long immobile, was excruciating and he nearly bit through his tongue holding back a scream.

“Ow,” a voice said, not even ironically.

Kassian’s heart stopped. “Leif.”

“You guys are seriously ridiculous,” Leif said. “I told you it was all in the cuffs. I got nothing else going for me.”

“Shut the hell up!” Whoever yelled at Leif sounded unhinged and Kassian wished he could turn enough to see who it was.

“Fine. Fine.” There was scuffling on the floor behind him, and Kassian imagined Leif was sitting up from being tossed down there.

“You okay?” Kassian asked.

“Peachy. You?”

Kassian grunted.

“Kinda gives a new meaning to being chained to your desk, huh?”

“You’re not funny,” someone else snarled.

“I thought it was funny.” He bumped Kassian’s chair gently. “Don’t you think it was funny, big guy?”

“Hilarious.”

“Go get George,” another voice said.

“We’re supposed to stay in pairs.”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Go!”

“But they’re?—”

“Who’s got the guns here? Us or them?”

“But they might?—”

“Bullet to the head trumps powers. I’ve yet to see anyone with a power fast enough to dodge a bullet.”

There was a pause in their conversation, and then footsteps hurried away down the now ominously quiet hallway.

Behind Kassian, feet clumped on concrete, there was a dull thud and Leif grunted.

“Fuck! What the hell was that for?” he complained.

“You’re annoying.”

Another thud.

“Kick a guy when he’s down much?” Leif baited, though his voice was noticeably quieter.

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