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Well done, self.

Straightening, Colum picked up his glasses—grateful they weren’t broken—and went to the door.He tried the knob, but it was still locked.He sighed in relief but paused.He needed to call someone.Probably?

Colum slowly made his way downstairs to his flat, grabbing his cell phone, keys, the security terminal, and some slippers.Taking his hand from his eye, he blinked until his vision cleared, then scrunched up his features.Ouch.His face hurt.

Now equipped with the bare necessities, he made his way back to the archive front door, locking his own door behind him.

Dropping into a chair in the empty office, Colum stared at his phone.Call someone.He needed to call someone.

The obvious choice was Eric.Besides the fact that Eric was practically family, he was the fleet admiral, and this might be the kind of thing he’d want to know.

But it wasn’t Eric he called.

Not even sure why he was doing it, Colum called Annie and Xavier.

ChapterFive

Franco: Devon’s mad at me and it’s your fault.

Colum: It’s not my fault.

Colum: But if it was, why would he be mad at you this time?

Franco: He saw the pic you sent of Xavier’s ass.

Franco: Terrible picture, by the way.It’s blurry and he’s wearing pants.

Colum: How would I be having a pic of his naked ass?

Franco: Come on man, you’re better than that.You are totally clever enough to sneak a picture of another man’s naked ass.

Colum: Thank you?

Colum looked up at the sound of footsteps climbing the front stairs, followed by a loud knock on the door.After calling Annie and Xavier, Colum had planted himself in the front office.By God, but this was an uncomfortable chair.

He’d checked every floor and seen nothing out of place, turning on all the lights as he went through the large building.He’d locked the door after himself but once his check was complete, he returned to the first floor, and even with the door locked, he still felt safer sitting by it and staring it down like he was some damn watchdog.

“Colum?”Xavier called his name urgently, knocking once more.

Colum rose, rushing to the door.Unlocking it, he stepped aside as Xavier and Annie hurried inside.

Annie stopped short, her concerned expression morphing to one that almost had Colum taking a step back.

“Who hit you?”she asked in a deadly, dark tone.

Colum blinked a few times, just to make sure it was really Annie standing in front of him.

“Er…”

She shook her head, schooling her features quickly into a concerned expression, obviously aware she was scaring him.He sighed in relief when she reached for his cheek, touching it gently, her eyes growing soft.“You need to put some ice on that.It’s swelling.”

Xavier was standing slightly behind Annie, his dark hair askew—Colum’s calls had pulled them both from their beds.Xavier, who was always debonaire, had buttoned his shirt wrong and hadn’t bothered to tie his runners in his rush to get here.His gaze slid down, taking in Colum’s disheveled attire, frowning when he noticed his slippered feet.

Despite the pain and the remnants of fear that remained, Colum couldn’t help but grin, touched by their concern.“I’ve had worse.”

He was about to add he’d done worse to himself, but doing that would open the door to his past issues with grief and drinking, and now was not the time for that.He was just freaked out enough that he was worried about dumping his entire life story on them in an explosion of word vomit.

Xavier stepped forward, placing his arm around Colum’s back.“You’re cold.Is it warmer upstairs?”