Page 13 of Nothing But Air

For a moment, neither of them moved. The hallway was quiet except for the distant hum of the air-conditioning.

“So what do I do?” The question came out rougher than he intended. More honest than he meant it to be.

Eden’s expression flickered. For a second, he thought she might actually answer. Might say something real, something that could crack through the walls they’d both built.

Then footsteps sounded behind her.

“Eden.” Xander stopped at the end of the hallway, his earlier lightheartedness with Teague vanishing as he registered her distress. “You okay?”

Eden stepped back. The moment—whatever it had been—shattered like glass.

“I’m fine.” She gave Teague one last look—unreadable, complicated—then turned toward Xander with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Just checking on our resident daredevil.”

Xander’s gaze darted to Teague. Assessing. “Hamilton.”

“Sullivan.” Teague kept his voice neutral. “Heard you were the number-one rescue guy at Zion last year.”

“Zion’s a different beast than the canyon.” Xander shrugged, but there was satisfaction in his eyes. “Less chaos. More protocol.”

“Sounds boring. But hey, maybe you can transfer back.”

Eden shot him a warning look. “Teague.”

“What? I’m being friendly.” He spread his hands. “Protocol is great. Love protocol. Big fan.”

Xander’s jaw tightened, but he let it go. “Eden, Virgil said to grab a bite to eat at the lodge, then they’ll fly me back to the South Rim. Anyway, are you ready to grab dinner?”

“Sure.” She glanced back at Teague, something shadowing her expression—regret, maybe, or warning. “Try not to do anything stupid before morning, Hamilton.”

“No promises, Garrison.”

She shook her head, but he caught the ghost of a smile before she turned away. She and Xander walked down the corridor together, shoulders almost touching, voices low. The door behind him opened again, filling his space with voices from the conference room. He glanced back as Liam let the door swing shut again.

Teague’s gaze returned to Xander and Eden, who were just disappearing from view.

He shouldn’t care. Had no right to care. Xander was steady, careful, thoughtful—everything Eden clearly wanted. The kind of guy who followed protocol and came home safe every night.

The kind of guy Teague would never be.

Liam leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Cool. Let’s talk about it anyway.” Liam’s expression shifted to something more serious. “Eden’s not wrong, you know. About the risk thing.”

“Et tu, Liam?”

“I’m just saying. I’ve seen you work. You’re good—probably the best technical climber on the team. But you take chances that don’t need to be taken.” He paused. “Nimue asked me once if you had a death wish. I didn’t know what to tell her.”

The words landed like a punch. “I don’t have a death wish.”

“You sure about that?”

Teague didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Because the truth was, he’d been asking himself the same question ever since Eden had thrown those nine words at him like a grenade.

You decided his life was more important than yours.

Had he? Was that what he’d been doing all along—not trying to save people, but trying to find a way to make his own survival mean something?