Chapter 22 · The Warning She Left

Cole's shoulder was on fire and Ivy's fingers were making it worse.

"Hold still." She didn't look up from the wound. Her field kit was spread across the concrete floor between them, the safehouse basement lit by one bare bulb that flickered every few seconds.

He was holding still. He'd been holding still for eighty-three loops. She just didn't know that.

"Round's still in there." Ivy's jaw was set, that look she got when she was about to do something that would hurt. "This is going to suck."

"Yeah."

She glanced up. Her eyes were dark, sharp. "You knew the patrol route."

"Got lucky."

"Bullshit." She went back to the wound, tweezers in hand. "You called the turn thirty seconds before they rounded the corner. You knew which guard would check the stairwell. You knew he'd be left-handed."

Cole kept his breathing steady. The pain was nothing. He'd taken worse. Died from worse.

"I'm observant."

"You're a liar." She pushed the tweezers in and he felt the metal scrape bone. His vision whited out for a second. When it cleared, she was watching his face, not the wound. "And you're too calm. Most guys would be swearing by now.