struggled against his friends, hating them for keeping him away from her. “Brook! BROOK!”
A blast rocked the ship as the doors were blown free. Desperate, he bit down on Raze’s arm, and the boss hissed as he let go. Cipher shook off Venom’s hold and rushed back to the door. He pressed his face to the glass, letting his eyes adjust to the red emergency lighting. Everything in the room was being sucked out of the hole.
“She got into the tube,” Torment said, his finger pressed to his earbud. “Savage watched her get into it before the door blew. She’s inside it still.”
“In space?” Cipher asked dumbly. “Is it pressurized?”
“I don’t know,” Torment admitted. “If the seal holds, she has a chance until...”
“Until she suffocates from the lack of oxygen,” Cipher finished. Squeezing his eyes shut, he couldn’t help but imagine her gasping for air and choking to death while clawing at the lid of the chamber.
“Ci,” Raze said softly and put a hand on his shoulder. “You did all you could.”
He roughly shrugged off Raze’s hand. “No, I didn’t. I promised I would keep her safe.”
“She made her choice,” Torment insisted. “She chose courage and bravery. She made the hardest decision any person can make. She chose to sacrifice herself for you. For me. For everyone else on this ship.”
Cipher’s eyes burned, and he blinked angrily. “She can’t die. I can’t lose her.”
In a move that shocked him, Torment gripped the back of his neck and drew him into an embrace. “I’m sorry, Ci. I really am.”
A wave of devastating grief tore the air right out of his lungs. A sound he didn’t know he was capable of making escaped his throat. He clung to Torment as he unleashed a ragged sob that came from the very depths of his soul.
Over and over, he replayed the moment she had touched the glass and spoken her love for him. He hadn’t been able to hear her voice very well through the glass, but he could see in her eyes how much she loved him.
As much as I love her.
It was a painful blow to lose her just moments after declaring their love.
“What?” Raze said harshly. “Say again. Your transmission is breaking up.” He paused. “Where?” he shouted. “We’re on our way.”
Raze snatched Cipher by the shirt and jerked him away from Torment. “She’s alive. Move!”
“What?” Cipher stumbled after Raze, his shirt still clenched in the boss’s hand. “How?”
“Hazard,” Raze said, starting to run. “He was approaching on a cargo flight when the first explosion happened. He saw the door blow and intercepted the chamber when he heard Savage’s call go out to all stations.”
“Hazard?” He repeated in shock, racing to keep up with Raze.
“That wild son of a bitch,” Raze remarked with a relieved laugh. “He’s the only who would be crazy enough to try a mid-air retrieval on a cargo ship.”
Cipher’s panic and grief gave way to such intense hope. Was she hurt? Was she still breathing? Had she inhaled any of the gas?
Please be alive.
He silently begged the universe over and over as he rushed through ship, following Raze with Venom just behind him. His legs were shaking from the adrenaline and the fear that Raze was wrong, that Hazard hadn’t grabbed the chamber and recovered her alive.
Please. Please. Please.
They burst into the medical bay with such force that the doors rocked on their tracks. A medic took one look at him and indicated the major trauma room at the rear of the hall. Cipher pushed by Raze and sprinted to the room.
“Hold on!” Stinger caught him before he could rush to the metal slab where she had been laid out by medics. Risk didn’t even look up as he treated her, his full focus on saving her life. “She’s alive. Cipher!” Stinger demanded his attention. “She’s alive. She’s a little banged up, but she’s alive.”
Cipher sagged with relief. His legs crumpled under him, and he dropped to the floor, slamming his knees against the ground. He didn’t even care about the pain. It felt good. It was a tiny bit of what his incredible, awe-inspiring mate had experienced tonight.
Stinger squeezed his shoulder. “You’re a lucky man, Cipher. She’s a hell of a woman.”
“Yes,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “She is.”
*
Hours later, so late he couldn’t decide if it was still night or early morning, he sat at Brook’s bedside as she endured yet another breathing treatment. She grimaced behind the mask, holding it to her