"I hate this shit." Noah rose up in the bed, glaring at both of them, ignoring Ian's warning as Micah shoved a syringe in his shoulder.
"Come on, Noah, it made it better last time." Ian breathed out roughly.
"The hell it did. Made it better for you guys because you couldn't hear me screaming," he snarled. "I heard it in my own f**king head."
"Do you want Sabella to hear it?" Micah asked him then.
Noah shook his head. "That's the only reason you got that needle anywhere close to me."
He lay back on the bed, glared at Micah as he inserted a second syringe. "I'm going to break your fingers. You won't be able to shove that shit in me then."
Micah grinned at him. It was the norm. They cursed, insulted each other, threatened to kill each other on a daily basis. It kept them alive.
"Keep chirping at me and I'll pump you so full of this shit I'll make Fuentes look like a choirboy. You got me?"
Noah nodded shortly, licked his dry lips, and breathed out. "Bastard."
"I can't take Belle to the bunker," Ian told him then. "You know we can't do that, Noah."
He closed his eyes. God, he wanted her safe. He wanted her away from his madness and away from the danger he had brought down on her and the questions he knew she was going to ask. Where the hell had his mind been? He should have never taken this mission. He should have gone to Siberia.
"We're tracking the car that went after Toby." Ian sat down in the chair by the bed. "Some of the mechanics thought they'd seen it last night, close to the bar. I'm guessing it's one of the yokels that attacked you."
Noah nodded jerkily. "Yeah, stupid bastards. Thought they could slice and dice me and run me the hell off. Toby was a message, they'll target friends next."
"They definitely sliced and diced you." Micah snorted. "I have you all stitched and bandaged now. little soldier. You can go back and play with all the bad boys again tomorrow."
"Bite me, you half-breed little bastard," Noah said.
"He keeps forgetting I prefer the female persuasion." Micah laughed.
"Doesn't that go against your damned religion? Don't you have to be married first or some shit?" Noah bit out.
The general insults were a game. A tension stiller. Bitch at each other to take your mind off the pain. It was a head game, because it sure as hell didn't help the pain.
"What religion?" Micah rolled his black eyes. "Since joining up with you yoohoos, all my beliefs have been shot to hell."
"Yahoos," Ian corrected him, but his eyes were on Noah.
Slow easy breaths. Noah could smell Sabella with every breath he took. He could feel his blood pounding in his dick, the need racing through him as fresh, as violent, as it had been the first time Fuentes shoved a needle in his arm.
Noah dragged himself up on the bed, the fabric of his jeans cutting into his dick. Hell, he needed to f**k. This wasn't like the past six years when taking a woman meant breaking the vows he'd made to his wife. Now it would mean burying himself inside his wife. Feeling her tight and sweet around him.
It would mean loving her, touching her. It would be stilling the fire burning in his gut and probably bleeding like a stuck pig all over her again.
He breathed in roughly, feeling his head beginning to clear marginally. As much as he hated that shit they shot into him, at least he could think now.
"Hell." He took a hard breath then looked at Ian. "Get Micah, Travis, and Nik out of here. Put Travis on Mike Conrad's ass. I want to know why I was hit last night and why they struck at Toby today. Tell Rory to keep his ass and Toby's in the office, Nik can keep an eye on them without anyone knowing. I want Micah on long-distance watch of the garage and the house, make sure no eyes caught you coming in and none catch you leaving. People would expect Ian and Kira Richards to show up, they'd expect Nik to help his boss's lover up to the apartment. That's it. Get the rest of them out of here.'"
"And Belle?" Ian asked.
"Sabella stays here." It was too late for her to leave and he knew it He would only follow her. No matter where they hid her. And the bunker was off limits to her unless she was directly targeted.
"Noah, you're in no shape for this decision,'" Ian said quietly. "You know where it's going to go. Those drugs haven't done anything for the lust, man. It's burning in your eyes. And that surgery might have darkened them, but right now, they're blazing almost pure sapphire. You need her out of here."
"I still have the control.'" He was sure of it. He knew he did. "I won't hurt her." He'd never hurt her. He'd slice his own throat first. "And the eyes are just f**king eyes. They'll dim once this eases."
"You'll have explanations to make. Tell her what the hell is going on," Ian told him harshly. "At least as far as this mission is concerned. But you're fooling yourself if you think she's not going to figure out more than that. You didn't see the look on her face when Kira and I arrived."
Noah breathed in deeply. It would kill him, but he'd take care of that too. She wouldn't suspect who he was when he was finished. After all, her husband never yelled at her, he didn't f**k her like an animal, and he sure as hell didn't put her in the middle of a dangerous assignment. No, Sabella would never suspect who he really was.
"You break open my stitches and you'll bleed like you were gutted again," Micah snarled.
He shook his head. "Get the hell out of here. Now. Leave Nik in the garage. Tell him to stay in place for cover. We can't afford to have the team here like this. When those bastards move we need to be right behind them. Until then, we won't have a break in this and we'll never catch them."
"And if you break with Belle?" Ian asked him. "If you tell her who you are, what you are. What then?"
Noah stared back at him. That wouldn't happen. Ever. He couldn't bear for his Sabella to know what had happened to the man she had loved so desperately that she came to him in hell.
"Dead men don't talk," he said, his voice bleak. "She won't know. Ever. Her husband is dead."
Ian stared back at him, his lips tightening before he turned to Micah and nodded to the door.
"He's fooling you," the Israeli snapped. "He doesn't have enough control not to hurt her."