Page 45 of Uncharted

“Long time ago,” I said quickly and pivoted back to my point. “I think it was just a dream, but I remember some of it. Cold and dark, it was everywhere. It was all I could feel and see, ya know? So goddamn cold.”

“Probably the river,” Reno said softly.

“Maybe,” I said, seeing the logic. “But it’s nice…havin’ somethin’ warm instead.”

He tilted his head to rest against my shoulder, breath tickling my neck, and I smiled as he sighed in contentment, mirroring my own feelings. It didn’t help my amusement that there was a stirring in my groin at the feel of his warm breath and his hand on my chest. Clearly something was going on inside me I would never have predicted if I was going to get hard from just being close to him. Used to be that only a good-looking girl could do that to me, but apparently my best friend was in that category as well, and I hadn’t seen it coming.

That, though, was something to wonder about another time. Right now, I was alive; he was alive; we were all alive. Everything between him and me could wait because I was going to have plenty of time to think over the coming weeks.

“Thank you,” I said, allowing myself to relax and bask in the warmth of his injured body against my battered one.

“For what?” he asked.

I didn’t answer; darkness returned, but a gentle darkness. It was a peaceful drift into sleep as I held onto Reno beside me.

At some point, I dreamed of soft brown eyes crinkling with laughter and the feel of warm lips and stubble on my neck.

7

RENO

“The only person he asked for was you. So you take care of my little brother, got it?”

Those were Darren’s parting words to me, and they had sunk deep into my brain and found a place to settle where they could find me randomly over the next few days. When we got Jake out of the hospital and took him to the outpost, a couple of days after I’d heard them, they found me on the trip back. Later, once we got Jake settled down for the night, I looked into his face and heard his brother’s words again.

Soft, quiet, holding a meaning I couldn’t quite understand, but also a desperate plea and demand all in one.

And they found me when I’d caught Jake trying to get out of bed like he wasn’t seriously injured. Or when he needed help with a shower, but it had been Colin who had stepped up to the plate to do it because the words had stuck in my throat rather than let loose. When my brother had asked me if I was alright, all I could think of was Jake, then Darren’s words again.

And even now, while I was washing the dishes, I thought of those words, trying to figure out how I felt about them.

There was a thump behind me and Colin’s testy voice. “Alright, where is he?”

I straightened, turning to him with a frown. “Huh?”

“Your annoying other half,” he ground out.

“Pretty sure he’s still hiding with Aidan at the science building,” I said with a snort. The two were still…in a rough place. Aidan, filled with guilt, and Mika figuring out how to forgive him. Yet they were around each other constantly, so I thought there was a good chance they would both end up just fine.

“Not your brother, Jake,” Colin said, narrowing his eyes.

I stared at him. “He’s…supposed to be resting.”

“Do you want to take a wild guess at whose bed is empty right now when it definitely shouldn’t be?” Colin asked, one eyebrow so far up his forehead I wondered if it might merge with his hairline. “I’m tempted to kill him.”

“Don’t do that,” I said, snapping the water off with a flick of my wrist. “Break his legs instead. He won’t get far that way.”

“Not a bad idea actually,” Colin said, sounding less irritated as I wiped my hands and turned toward him. “Where is he?”

“Did you look outside?”

“First place I looked was around here, but you’re the one who’d know where he was.”

I thought about it for a moment. There were a few things he liked to do, but most of them were tasks that required both hands. Since his left hand was wrapped in a cast and I didn’t think even he would be so stupid as to use that arm, there were a few other options.

“You know, when I set it up so he could rest in the clinic, bed included, I didn’t think we’d have to post a guard at the door,” Colin muttered.

“Nice of you to leave out the fact that I’m supposed to technically be his guard,” I said with a snort. “I think I know where he’s at.”