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Then bit him. A lot.

Then maybe beat on him some more.

Dex muttered from the stairs. “No one’s protectingme.”

Kiko looked over at her friend, her dark eyes stricken.

Then she burst into tears.

She tried to go to Dexter, but Jax wrapped his arms around her tighter, obviously wary of letting her go anywhere alone, even the seven or eight feet between her and Dex.

I let out a low whimper, looking around at my friends.

We weren’t safe here.

We weren’t safe––

“HELLO.”

The voice boomed over a loudspeaker.

All of us jumped violently.

Jax let out a half-shriek. Or maybe not a shriek. It sounded closer to a war-cry.

We all looked at him.

Then, for some reason I can’t explain, we all looked at Dex.

Seeing all of us staring at him, Dex threw up his hands, his voice openly defensive.

“It said PUSH THIS BUTTON!” he complained. He pointed at a black, rectangular, metal-looking device on the staircase next to his bare feet. I followed a cord from the black metal box with my eyes. I followed all the way to where it ran down the stairs and plugged into an ancient-looking outlet in the wall.

“It saidPUSH THIS BUTTON!”Dex repeated, his voice even more angry. “What the fuck am I SUPPOSED to do? I pushed it! I did what it said!”

I frowned, but I couldn’t really fault his logic.

I mean, what elsecouldDex have done?

I would have pushed it.

Just in case. Just to be safe.

The Marine looked at me, his eyes bright.

“Thank you, Miri,” he said, almost like he heard me. He wiped his eyes. “Thank you. My God. Everyone is acting socrazy.”

But he couldn’t have heard me.

He was human.

“Cakes,” Black said, his voice half a groan. “It’s the fuckingcakes,Miriam…gaos.How can you not understand this? I told youall about it before! Didn’t you care?”

I frowned down at my husband, confused, but Dexter spoke before Black could get out more words. The tall, dark-skinned Marine motioned towards me with an arm, like I was making his point for him.

“THANK YOU,” he said. He wiped his eyes again, but his words deepened, growing into a mixture of anger, pain, relief. “At leastoneperson here understands! At least one person here ispaying attention.THANK YOU,Miriam. Thank you. ANY ONE OF YOU would have done the same as me! ANY. ONE. OF. YOU.”

He pointed around at the rest of us with an accusing finger.