Page 24 of Five

“So why are you all controlled-looking, while it seems like Lori went through a blender?” Ollie asks me, irritation filling his voice.

“More like he rode the blender,” Uri mumbles, then raises his voice. “Gabe is just being his unfazed, emotionless self. Bez on the other hand…”

I interrupt him and answer Ollie’s question. “He downed his glass of champagne, which I presume contained the drug, while I barely took a sip.”

“Did anyone else—” Ollie takes a big breath before continuing, “—touch him?”

I shake my head at him. His sigh is filled with relief, but his lips are still stretched in a long line. He takes a big breath, and then asks me, “You… did you and him…?”

Uri’s phone starts ringing, cutting Ollie off.

“It’s Sari,” he says with a frown before answering. “Are you okay? Are you sure? Yes. In the car. He’s sleeping. Where are you? No. Yes, I do. Fine.” Uri lets out the last word with an annoyed huff, then moves the phone away from his ear and pushes the speaker button.

“Gabe? How do you feel? Any sign that the drug is affecting you?” Sari’s worried voice fills the car.

“No,” I reply succinctly.

“Good. When you get to Rague’s, Michael will take a sample of your blood—it should still have traces of the drug—and he’ll inject Lori with a sedative. It’ll keep him under until the drug is mostly out of his system. Is he okay?”

“He seems fine. He was lucky Gabe was there.” Ollie grits his teeth and turns his head again toward the windshield.

“Yes, he was,” Sari agrees. He’s the sweetest among us brothers, but I’ve wondered a few times if he hides everything balled up inside. Because none of us exited unscathed from those torturous years of imprisonment.

“I changed my return flight. I’ll be back tonight.” Uri’s body tenses slightly with Sari’s statement.

“Odd you’re not with him,” Rague taunts Uri. Because where Sari goes, usually Uri follows. Even though something has changed lately between them. I don’t care enough to ask, though.

That makes two of us, Bez adds.But I bet my Little Wasp would be all over it.

Lori definitely would.

“Send me the flight number. I’ll pick you up,” Uri says.

“No need,” Sari answers quickly. Him saying no to Uri, that’s definitely new.

Uri taps the speaker off and starts a heated exchange with Sari, which halts the moment Lori’s loud moan resounds inside the car.

His eyes are squeezed shut, and his hands turn into fists gripping my vest and shirt. Lori is sharp sassiness and cutting sarcasm wrapped in a pretty package; I don’t like seeing him this defenseless and suffering. It strikes an odd chord inside me.

He’s writhing on my lap, stroking his hands over my chest, face nuzzling my pec.

“It hurts,” he cries.

“Lori!” Ollie calls him, but he doesn’t seem to hear.

“Fuck!” Rague cusses. “I shouldn’t have used all the tranquilizer on Gabe’s donor this afternoon! We could have given some to Lori.” We usually use it on the donors to keep them docile as we take them to the base.

“Rague did a great job on your donor, though,” Uri lets me know. I’m glad to hear that.

Lori’s scream of pain fills the car, and he abruptly arches his body toward the cabin’s ceiling, looking like he’s been electrocuted.

“Oh, God! He…” Ollie doesn’t finish the sentence as his eyes follow Lori’s hand sliding under the blanket and starting to move.

“Pull into that parking garage and drive to the roof,” Uri orders Rague, not looking bothered in the least. “He needs to be fucked. Are you up for it?” he then asks me.

“Jesus!” Ollie curses, looking uneasily at me and then Lori. “Maybe I should?—”

Rague cuts him off with a low growl. “No fucking way.”