Page 17 of Her Cyborg Commander (The Drift: Haven Colony #9)

16

Someone was shouting. Maybe at him. What the hell did they want, and why were they so loud?

“Edge! Damn it, open your eyes.”

They were definitely yelling at him. Rude. Who was that?

He opened his eyes to see River staring down at him, her eyes red like she’d been crying and her cheeks wet. Wait. Not just her cheeks. All of her.

“What?” he demanded and then realized he’d skipped a few words. “What the hell happened? Where are we? Why are you wet?”

He moved and water squelched out from under him. “Why am I wet?”

“Drastic times called for drastic measures. I dumped water on you to try and wake you up. As for your other questions, we’re in the storage tent back at camp. I’m wet because I was down on the ground with you when I came up with the water idea. As for what happened?” She beamed at him before hugging him tightly. “This is the part where I get to say I told you so .”

“You did?” His recollection of events was still fuzzy. They’d argued. He’d left to go do… oh. Right. He’d listened to Jens’ broadcast and then taken an unscheduled nap. They’d turned off his mind as easily as flipping a switch. He’d had no chance to fight back. Knowing someone else could do that whenever they wanted brought him back to his time at Reamus Station. The helplessness. The frustration. Only this was worse. On the station he could fight back or take a beating intended for someone else. This time? He’d gone down without even seeing the face of his enemy.

“The message was trapped somehow?” he asked and then pushed himself into a sitting position. Water pooled on the floor of the tent. Some of it had seeped into the open neck of his armor. Even his hair and beard were soaked.

“Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been compromised.” Her tone held no judgment, but he still winced as the words he’d thrown at her came back to bite him.

“How!” He wished he could punch someone right now. Anger was easier to deal with than this terrible sense of vulnerability.

“I don’t know. We’ve both been scanned multiple times. There shouldn’t have been a way for him to do that. But I didn’t think he could have tracked me here, and clearly, he did.” River stood up and then reached out a hand to him.

“I owe you an apology for that. You were right. He had to have followed me here somehow.”

“I think my list of things I have to say sorry for is longer than yours.” He folded River into his arms and kissed her. “So, yeah. I’m sorry.”

“That’s it?” She arched a brow once he let her speak again. “You are going to have to do better than that, but not right now. We’ve got about twelve minutes before our company arrives. So all personal discussions are on hold for now.”

“Right.” He nodded and kissed her again. Then he pulled back and looked around him as more details started to register. “Wait. You brought me back to camp? How?”

“I carried you. In bare feet because someone hid my boots. I tried everything I could think of to snap you out of whatever they did to you. Water. Yelling. I’m pretty sure I told you I loved you at some point, and not even that got a reaction. I don’t know what finally worked, but I’m glad it did.” She grinned at him. “I thought I was going to have do this without you.”

“You told me you loved me?”

“I did. You slept through it.”

“Next time, wait until I’m awake. I don’t want to miss something that important.” He stroked her hair back from her face. This gorgeous, brave, incredible female had saved him. After all his talk about being her protector and the way he’d tried to take away her choices because he thought he knew what was best for her… she’d saved him.

“I love you, River. Thank you for what you did today.” He kissed her softly and then raised a hand to tap the side of his head. “That bastard turned me off . I thought I understood what it felt like to know someone else could control you like that. I was wrong. It’s worse.”

She kissed him back, her lips warm and soft against his. “I know a great counselor back home. Several, in fact. If you need to talk about it, I can put you in touch with them.”

He growled at her, catching her lower lip between his teeth and nipping it gently before letting it go. “I don’t need them. I have you. You know me better than anyone else. If I need to work through this new wrinkle, I promise I’ll say something. Talking isn’t really my go-to solution, though.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Her tone was teasing, but there was a serious gleam in her eyes as she looked up at him. “No more charging off and doing it your way no matter what. And, yes, I am aware that applies to both of us.”

“Next time, we’ll try something different,” he agreed.

“Like talking it through and actually listening to each other?”

He groaned. “If we do that, we won’t argue. If we don’t argue, we can’t have make-up sex.”

The look she gave him was hot enough to melt the sand outside into glass. “It’s us, Edge. We’re always going to argue. Then we’ll get naked and work out our differences until the next time.”

“That might be the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You’re insane.”

“Very possible. But you love me anyway. Don’t you?” he already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her say it again.

“I do. But right now we have a pressing problem. We need a plan that keeps us alive while making Jens and his new friends dead.”

“That’s not a problem, minx. That’s an opportunity. Like I said, talking isn’t my go-to solution.” He winked at her. “Kicking ass is more my style.”

They geared up quickly, tossing out ideas that quickly coalesced into a workable plan. Edge couldn’t stop himself from grinning the entire time. After all, any day he got to gear up and prepare for a fight was a good day, but this was so much more than just a fight. It was a chance to get some payback and avenge the ones he hadn’t been able to protect. He’d always hoped he’d get this chance, but he’d never imagined he’d be here with River standing beside him.

Today wasn’t just a good day. It was the best day of his life.