Patient Z Read Free Page B

needed to know. He kept his face absolutely still, not rising to the provocation. God, he hoped not rising. Because the second Cal said that, the second he indicated he played for the right team, Mitch’s body flushed with heat again. Get in there, boy! it demanded. Mitch ignored it. Ignored the urge to have Cal right there and then.
    It had just been so long…
    He pulled himself together. Cal went on with his story.
    “When I searched the boat, I realized it had been stripped. No life raft. No food. No fresh water. Nothing. Not even a life jacket. I guess I could have found something that floats and kicked ashore, but…there are sharks, right? In these waters, I mean.”
    “Yes, there are. You could have made a raft using a hatch cover or something.”
    “I guess. But I was getting so hungry and thirsty, I couldn’t think straight anymore. And I don’t think I’d have had the strength to paddle back to shore, not against the current and the tide.” His voice dropped quieter. “I guess I just got too weak, and I…I remember stumbling on the steps and falling and nothing else. How did you guys find me?”
    “The boat drifted close to the rig, and we went to check it out. We thought it might have slipped its moorings. We thought we might as well have it. Then we found you aboard.”
    “There goes your salvage claim,” Cal said.
    “Quite.”
    “So the boat’s okay, though? I mean, not damaged or anything?”
    “No,” Mitch said. “It’s fine. Why?”
    Cal shrugged. “Just thinking about when you let me leave.”
    “You’re pretty sure we’ll let you leave.”
    “You will. When I turn out to be just fine, which I am. And if you don’t…” He smiled. “I’ll still leave anyway.”
    “You’re a cocky one, all right.”
    “Yeah.” The smile turned into a grin, and he rested a hand on his abs, straying close to the waistband of his pants. Mitch watched the hand, entranced. Was he going to slide it into the pants? Touch himself? God, the picture of it in Mitch’s mind almost overwhelmed reality. Cal did no such thing, but Mitch could still see it, plain as day.
    Mitch stood abruptly, and Cal’s eyes widened, but Mitch only strode across to turn off the light, leaving the room dark but for a lamp on the table. Cal became a dark figure in the deep shadows of the far end of the room. Did Mitch hear a whisper, Cal calling his name softly? Cal saying, Come here.
    If he did, he ignored it. If Cal was flirting with him, it would be entirely for purposes of escaping from the chains they had to keep him in the next few days. Mitch had to remember that. Had to remember the group he was responsible for. They were his priority—not his libido.
    “Go to sleep,” Mitch said. “The doctor will check on you again in the morning.”
    “Great, more needles.”
    “I said go to sleep.”
    Mitch sat at the table again and positioned the lamp so it pointed across the room to let him see Cal well enough to…to shoot him. The weight of the rifle in his arms reminded him of exactly why he was watching over Cal. Because someone had to be ready to kill him if he showed symptoms. As soon as that happened, Mitch would do it. It was mercy. For Cal and for himself. Because if he waited too long, he was only condemning Cal to a lingering death and then revival as a monster.
    Mitch couldn’t watch that happen to anyone. Not again.

Chapter Three
    “Breakfast, pretty boy.”
    Cal woke up, blinking, as Bren moved away from him. He leaned over the cot to see a tray beside the bed.
    “Morning to you too,” he said. He used the bathroom, then sat on the cot with his breakfast tray. Not bad—several strips of bacon and a mountain of scrambled eggs. Four slices of toast and a mug of the stale coffee to top it off.
    “Where’s Mitch?” he asked.
    “Gone to bed,” she said. “Doc will be down soon to check you out.”
    Cal pictured Mitch sleeping, all the tension he twanged with gone. A big guy like him would weigh the