Page 190 of My Unhinged Alphas
I snort once. “Look at that. Finally, agreement.”
The paramedic looks between all of us like he’s getting more than he bargained for from what should have been a routine fire scene.
Knox straightens, which is a mistake because I can actually see the effort it costs him. “I’m not leaving you two to walk into something blind.”
Vale says, “You are if you’re coughing your lungs out in ten minutes.”
“I’m fine.”
The paramedic actually laughs at that. Not kindly. Just briefly, like the lie insulted him. “You are not fine.”
Knox ignores him. Vale doesn’t.
“You nearly dropped in the lot,” Vale says. “That was before you tried to pretend smoke inhalation is a personality trait.”
That would almost be funny if Knox didn’t look like somebody had sanded down the inside of him.
I fold my arms. “He’s right.”
Knox turns his head. “Don’t.”
“Why?” I say. “Because you hate hearing it twice?”
Knox opens his mouth to argue again, but the medic cuts straight through him.
“If you wait and your airway swells, you’ll stop being difficult and start being dead.”
That quiets the whole group.
Not because anyone suddenly loves hospitals, but because that sounds too possible.
I look at Knox properly then. Soot all over him. Eyes reddened. Skin still too pale under the grime. Breathing slower now, but not easier. I hate that I can see it. I hate more that Vale clearly saw it before I did.
Vale says, more quietly, “You go in. They check you. That buys us time.”
Knox’s jaw tightens. “And Lena?”
Her name lands in the middle of all of it.
I glances at Lena, then at Vale. “She goes with him.”
“No,” Knox says.
Vale says, “Yes.”
The two of them stare at each other for a second that feels older than the night.
Then Vale says, “We’ve just learned two useful things. First, none of us trusts anyone else to watch her. Second, we’re safer when we stay together than when we split four different ways and hope for the best.”
I nod once. “Hate it. Agree.”
Knox drags a hand over his face, then regrets it when it smears soot deeper. “If she goes to a public hospital?—”
“She goes with us,” Vale says. “Not alone. Not with strangers. Withus.”
The emphasis matters, and Knox hates it but understands it anyway.
The paramedic says, “Ambulance leaves in two minutes.”
