Page 73

And then his knees buckled, and he fell forward.

“What the hell are you doing?” Sean barked.

Aidan groaned, his sides burning as he gasped for oxygen. The air around him stopped stinking of salt and mud, and instead, all he could smell was sand and blood. His vision wavered, hazy before his eyes. The lack of sleep, the stress, theconstant worry, and fighting were dragging his consciousness back to a place he thought he’d left behind. He wasn’t where he thought he was, he wasn’t.

“Aidan!”

Sean’s angry shout brought Aidan’s head up, eyes wide as he tried to find the threat. Aidan could see the shooting target swing into view, the image wavering and shaking.

“Shoot the damn thing,” Sean snarled at him.

Aidan’s fingers fumbled with the gun clutched at his side, simultaneously shoving his feet against the ground that, in his mind, could still possibly be sand. It was mud, and his brain screamed at the last second that he was moving wrong. The warning was too late, however, and with a grunt, his foot slipped in the mud, his aim went wide, and he pulled the trigger.

Releasing a rubber bullet right into Sean.

Shock lit Sean’s face, his hand flying to his side with a grunt. Aidan immediately gave up trying to find his footing, dropping to one knee as he gaped at Sean.

“Oh shit,” Aidan whispered, unable to hold back his horror.

Sean wheezed, speaking through clenched teeth. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Aidan shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. “No, Sean?—”

He should have expected the blow, but the punch to his jaw sent him flying onto his back with a surprised grunt. Opening his eyes, he only had a moment to fling his arms up in defense as Sean leaped at him. Sean’s weight slammed into Aidan, pressing him into the mud even further as he swung again and again.

“Fucking quit!” Aidan barked, managing a few swings of his own.

“You shot me, you son of a bitch!” Sean bellowed.

Aidan had had enough and kicked Sean in the gut with a furious snarl. The one good thing he could say about the whole mess was, despite the new aches in his body from Sean’s blowsand the screaming exhaustion still pulsing through him, he was at least no longer confused about where he was.

“Enough!” came a deep rumble, and he felt himself dragged back as Ricardo shoved his body between them.

Sean tried to get to his feet in an attempt to dive at Aidan again. “Move!”

Ricardo wrapped his thick arms around Sean and held him tight. “Like hell. You two are going to kill each other.”

“So fucking what,” Sean hissed, still trying to get free.

Ricardo narrowed his eyes, speaking a little more softly. “And I think we’ve had enough people die on our team.”

All the fight suddenly left Sean, his body sagging in Ricardo’s grip. His eyes were still furiously locked on Aidan, though, and Aidan knew this was far from over.

“Let’s get you to the medbay,” Ricardo said, releasing Sean.

“I don’t need an escort,” Sean muttered.

Ricardo raised a brow. “Yeah? Can I really trust you two to get there in one piece?”

Aidan wasn’t so sure about Sean, but he could control himself...mostly. So long as Sean didn’t continue more of his shit, Aidan could behave himself just fine. It wasn’t a problem for him to shrug before giving the larger man a nod.

Sean rolled his eyes. “Fine,Mom. I’ll play nice. Keep running the Gauntlet while I’m gone.”

With that, Sean turned away to stomp off. He made it about three heavy steps before his hand gripped his side again, and he continued walking a little more carefully. Aidan almost felt bad for the guy. It had been an accident, after all. However, it was getting more and more difficult to give a shit when Sean seemed determined to hate him no matter what he said or did.

SEAN

Hobbling his way through the grass, Sean had to resist the urge to reach out and strangle Aidan. It probably wouldn’t have been hard since Aidan looked worn out and bruised. Neither of them was walking confidently, and the trip from the Gauntlet to the medbay took twice as long as necessary.