Page 44 of The Tracker's Dawn: Sunderverse

He put both hands up in the air in apology for the crude joke. “Honestly, I don’t want to worry about any of that right now. One thing at a time, okay? If I’ve survived and there are side effects, I’ll deal with those later.”

“And what if you can’t?” Eric offered.

“I guess that would mean I ended up brain-dead or something, in which case I won’t be worried about anything.”

I jumped to my feet. “Can you stop talking like that? This is no joke.”

He hung his head, looking chastised. “I’m sorry, Toni. It’s just too much to worry about, and there’s no use. Why don’t we just let Damien practice and see? Can we do it here?” Jake glanced around the room, looking unsure.

“No, not here,” Damien said. “Perhaps in the garage. The large one.”

The large one? There was more than one? Apparently, I’d only seen the small one.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Eric stood, then led the way out of the study.

I had no idea what kind of day we were in for, but I sure wasn’t looking forward to it.

CHAPTER 16

“Toni, wait.” Jake placeda hand on my shoulder as the others made their way downstairs. “Can we talk?”

I struck a pose, a hand on my waist and eyebrows as high as they would go. “Is this about you being an insensitive ass?”

“No, not about that. I’m sorry if I upset you with my stupid comments. I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s like you don’t care what happens to you.”

“You know that’s not true. It’s just my way of... coping. That's all.”

His clear eyes told me he was speaking the truth. He was dealing with a lot, and sometimes laughter was the best medicine in these situations—even if you were laughing at your expense and others didn’t think it was the least bit funny.

“Are you going to the Pack Rule meeting later tomorrow tonight?” he asked.

I shook my head. There was a certain tightening around his eyes. It came and went quickly, but I noticed it. He’d been expecting me to go, and he was disappointed, maybe even hurt. But going there might just bring me more trouble, and I had enough of that already.

“I want to focus on us,” I said. “And on building things back up with Rosalina, if we can, if there’s any hope left for our agency.”