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“Snow did the only thing he could have done,” Acker interjects. “And he saved my life.”

Guess he’s not adverse to being the monster’s friend when the monster saves his ass. “Fall might not have killed you.”

“I’m pleased not to have found out,” Acker responds. “You need that treated.” He nods at my hand. “I heard the bone crack.”

I felt it. “I’ll strap it tonight and have Doc Gray look at it tomorrow.”

At some point. I’ve got pressing business in Jielt .

“First thing,” Kez says to me. Damn, she knows me too well.

“Sure. You got any ice?” I ask Acker.

He nods. “Match?”

The older rat-man takes the body off Acker and when we get back to the main cavern, he splits off down a different tunnel.

Guess the rats have corpse-storage somewhere.

Acker leads us through his suite, where the medibeds are dark and quiet.

There’s no sign of Grace. Acker turns into a back room where there’s a jumble of hastily-relocated furniture, including the bar from which he served us drinks when we came for dinner.

He picks up a bulb, opens an insulated cabinet and scoops out ice.

Kez takes it from him; Acker hastily averts his eyes from her bare breasts. Good man.

“Thanks,” I tell him.

He reaches out and grasps my left arm. “Thank you. I know you made a choice, and that choice could not have been easy, given all that has transpired.”

“Wasn’t ever a question.” I go to pat his hand but discover I can’t bend my first and second fingers. “An’ before you get all huggy again, you know you gotta figure out how he got loose.”

Acker squeezes his eyes closed. “That, I already know. We do not often have need for guards. Ormer fell asleep. But he did not turn off the monitor. There is no mistaking who opened the membrane.”

From the pain in his expression, I can guess who it was. “She been the one feedin’ the Ojos intel all along?”

Kez glances at me in horror.

“I did not ask, my friend.” Acker hangs his head and shakes it slowly. “You would have, I’ve no doubt. That is why I am not the man you need. I did not ask.”

He didn’t ask because his heart was breaking. This time, I’m the one who hugs him. Kez puts down the bulb of ice and wraps her arms around both of us. We hold Acker for a long time. None of us says anything, but neither of us lets go until Acker does.

As soon as we break up our cinch, Acker moves away from us, not meeting our eyes.

He heads back into the main room of his suite; Kez and I trail him.

At Tiacha’s bedside, there’s a makeshift cot, thermoblanket thrown back where Acker must have risen in a big hurry.

With a nod to us, Acker climbs into the cot without undressing, turns on his side to face the sleeping rat-girl, and tugs the thermoblanket over his blood-matted shoulder.

If he was Kez, I’d tuck him in, say something comforting. But he ain’t, so I put my arm around Kez, rest my aching jaw against her temple, and match her slow pace as we walk back to the guest room.

In the privacy of our room, I let her fuss over me, wrapping my hand in ice, elevating it on a pile of clothes. When she starts clucking about getting more ice for the bruise coming up on my jaw, I draw the line. “Kitten, I’m fine. C’mon, come to bed. You need sleep as much as I do.”

She hesitates, a cloth hanging limply in her hands. Then she nods and climbs into the bed. We shuffle around for a while, since none of our usual positions work with my hand immobile and elevated. Finally, we end up with Kez curled against my left side. “Snow—?” she whispers.

“It’s okay, kitten. The rats’ coms are down.”

“Oh. Hale, do you really think Grace betrayed them? Acker, I mean?”

“Doesn’t matter what I believe. All that matters is what Acker saw.”

“I just can’t—I thought she loved him. I mean, she came between him and Tee, but I thought it was because she loved him.”

“Maybe she did.”

She nuzzles up into my neck. “You don’t do that to someone you love.”

“ You don’t.” That’s why she’s my one-in-a-billion. “We got no idea what Grace would do, or what she was thinkin’.”

“What will Acker do?”

“Dunnow. But I do know that whatever he does, we’ll back him. He’s had to make some tough decisions today. I’m glad I’m not in his shoes. ”

“He doesn’t wear shoes.”

I flick her on the ear. “It’s four in the morning. Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“Shouldn’t you?” she counters.

“Yeah, I would, but this fuckin’ mattress is so lumpy it’s like bein’ back on Phogath, sleepin’ on rocks.”

“I don’t think they want anyone staying a second night.”

I had the same thought. “Yeah, they’re good.”

Kez trails her fingertips down my breastbone. “I know something that would help us both sleep.”

I had that thought, too. “You’re gonna have to do all the work.” I wiggle the elbow of my injured arm, but leave my hand where it is, since the ice and elevation are taking away the pain. “I’m an invalid.” Although I top Kez, that don’t mean I always have to go on top.

Kez slides up onto her knees, reaches across me and carefully shifts my hand and the supporting pile of clothes off to the side, where they’re less likely to get jostled. “I can do that,” she says, leaning in so her breasts brush my chest.

She does, and thirty minutes later, satisfied and sleepy, she settles against my left side again.

“G’night, kitten,” I whisper, brushing my lips across her forehead.

“G’night. Promise me we’ll sleep in our own bed tomorrow,” she whispers back. “This bed sucks.”

She’s not kidding. It’s not any better for fucking than it is for sleeping. My back’s a knot. “I promise. Get some sleep.”

She cuddles to my side, boneless and warm as a kitten. Her softness soothes me, and despite the lumpy mattress, despite the dull throbbing of my hand, I drift off to sleep.