Kisho nodded, or at least, Morgan thought he did. Everything started to turn hazy. Alicia would be so pissed if she knew he'd ignored his instincts again.
“No, she'll be okay. You'll be okay, baby,” Kisho said.
“Reading my mind?”
“You said that out loud. Trust me. She'll understand when she knows you might have ignored your instincts, but you trusted your mate.”
Morgan wanted to grin, but Kisho lifted him in his arms. The pain sucked his breath away.
Jules hurried with them to the gangplank. “I'll do one more sweep. Get him to the van, wait two minutes, then blow this fucking boat sky high.”
Morgan passed out.
When he came to, he lay sprawled over Kisho in the back of the large van they'd rented.
Kisho's hand was on his chest. Up front, Jules drove.
They hit another bump, and Morgan moaned. “What happened?”
“The yacht blew up. Delancey's gone. The rogue and all the bodies on board are toast.” Morgan tried to make sense of it, but his body's healing slowed his mental processes. “I feel warm.”
Kisho leaned down, kissed him, then swept Morgan's hair off his forehead. “You were pretty out of it, but I managed to convince you to tap me for energy, and Jules let down his guard to lend you whatever else you needed. You've been healing at a really fast rate.” Morgan ran an unsteady hand over his stomach and shoulder. No more pain, only a tingling sensation. His thigh felt fine as well. “Thanks, baby.” Jules groaned. “None of this 'baby' talk. I get enough of this shit from Fallon and Olivia.
No love talk and no goo-goo eyes. But hey, if you want to fuck again once you're better, let me know. I'm in for some three-way action.”
Kisho looked serious. “I don't know, Jules. I need some alone time with my new mate. But if you wouldn't mind bending over for us, Morgan and I will think about it.”
“Bend over, my ass.” Jules snorted.
“That's the idea.”
Jules glanced over his shoulder in shock and quickly turned back to the road. “Holy shit, Hayashi! Was that a joke? And you're smiling? What the hell can I expect next? Tersch and Ava holding hands?”
Morgan laughed, his strength returning as he held tight to Kisho.
His lover stilled for a minute, his energy suddenly tight, apart from Morgan. An odd surge of power surrounded his lover before Kisho relaxed and the comforting feel of his psychic warmth returned. “No, Jules. You have something even better in store for you. I promise.”
Chapter Eleven
Kisho stood arm in arm with Morgan while the others hashed it out with Jules. As he'd expected, Tersch and Fallon hadn't liked being left behind while their teammates dealt with Captain William Delancey. To say that Mrs. Sharpe wasn't pleased would be putting it mildly.
“Julian Hawkins,” she said with bite, and the others quieted.
They stood in the kitchen around a bountiful breakfast Melissa had put together, before the canny woman had made a quick exit at first sight of Mrs. Sharpe's clear annoyance. Her husband Jack was nowhere to be found. Smart guy.
Kisho couldn't stop smiling. The others kept glancing at him in alarm, not used to seeing him so visibly happy, but he didn't care. He had his team, his mate, and his future to look forward to. Nothing could be better. Especially since Mrs. Sharpe wasn't angry at him so much as enraged at Jules.
“Mrs. Sharpe, come on. We had to do something. Did you want to chance losing Delancey?” Morgan said.
“And you. I should smack you silly.” The normally unflappable woman was on a tear.
Even Ava seemed transfixed by Mrs. Sharpe's rage.
“I promised your mother to keep you safe. Do you think I would have given you that fox if I'd known how brainless you'd become? Becoming a mercenary? Learning to live with the criminal element? If that wasn't bad enough, you've become as stupid and bloodthirsty as the rest of these idiots are turning out to be.”
Tersch grinned, showing sharp teeth as he bit into an apple. “Now that's a bit harsh, don't you think, Alicia? Stupid, really?” he said around a mouthful of food.
She glared at him, and Kisho saw those odd points of red light again in her pupils. No wonder he felt so at ease with her now. Knowing she and Morgan shared a family connection, that she was a big part of the reason he now had his mate, made him like her all the more.
He stepped between her and Tersch and gave her a huge hug, lifting her feet from the floor.
“Thank you,” he whispered and kissed her on the cheek before setting her back down.
“Kisho.” She flushed and patted her hair but didn't yell at him. “You're welcome, dear.” She shot Tersch another glare before sitting down at the table. She accepted the full plate Ava handed her, then turned her attention to Jules. “But don't think you're off the hook. Your actions were irresponsible, illogical, contrary to the mission—” Olivia interrupted with a quick smile. “Delancey's dead and out of the way. One down, one to go. Don't worry, Mrs. S., I'm sure Morgan can help find Montaña and his boss. With all his contacts and that data drive he managed to filch from Pablo's storage locker, I'm sure we'll have new leads to follow. Then we can put an end to this nonsense and start making babies, right Jesse?”
Fallon choked on the eggs he was eating. But Kisho didn't miss the humor in Olivia's gaze or the satisfied expression on Mrs. Sharpe's face. Crafty woman. Then again, she'd have to be, coming from a family that gave birth to men like Morgan.
Kisho sat next to his mate. “I love you,” he said in a low voice and kissed him, in full view of everyone.
Ava had yet to take her gaze from Tersch, who studiously avoided looking up from his own plate, but the others beamed.
“Hell. Purple seems to be the new color around here,” Jules said with a grumble. But he winked at Kisho. “Now if we could only find Tersch a date…” Tersch looked up from his plate. “What?”
Everyone laughed, even Ava, who had a decidedly naughty look in her eyes.
Breakfast progressed into a pleasant meal, and Kisho had a sudden urge to write about green eyes, purple flowers, and the bloom of a white, blinding love. He clasped Morgan's hand under the table and squeezed.
Morgan squeezed back and leaned close to whisper, “I love you, kitsu. But don't even try weaseling out of the punishment I have in mind for you later tonight.” Kisho smiled. “I wouldn't dream of it.”
Two days later
“The loss was unavoidable.” Colonel Ricardo Montaña toyed with his mustache and smiled at the article in the Miami Herald. The accidental explosion of a luxury yacht off the Cape Florida State Park had lit the early morning sky, leaving no survivors. Little of the wreckage remained. Whatever the Circs had used to blow the boat had done the job.
Over the speaker, a grunt of frustration sounded. Montaña didn't particularly care. Now that he knew who he worked for, the great mystery and weight of concern had been lifted. He could break the bastard in half with one hand tied behind his back. Montaña had been buying and selling political shits like him for years.
“I don't like the publicity.”
“What publicity? They traced the yacht back to one that was stolen a year ago from an impound lot. Besides, jefe, none of the bodies were recovered. I had a team see to that, personally, just to make sure.” Not that there had been anything to recover. Even the mutant had burned, the carcass they'd found caught in a tree nothing but ash and slime, the rot of decay sloughed off with the rest of its skin in a blaze that had burned hot and fast.
“Fine. I don't want to discuss it anymore.”