Instead of dancing easily on the mat, Raze’s feet dragged on the worn material, even as he threw punch after punch at the bag hanging from three heavy, rusted chains. He grunted with the effort, and his eyesight hazed more than once.

What in the hell had he been thinking the previous night? He’d slept with Vinnie. The sound of her sighing his name would remain with him the rest of his life. How could he put her in danger with Grey? What kind of a bastard would that make him? The very idea of hurting her made him hit the bag harder, even though his strength had already ebbed.

“I’m no doctor, but you’re gonna pass out if you don’t slow down,” Jax drawled from the doorway of the basement training area.

Raze hit the bag again, following up with a fierce kick that nearly took him to his knees. Covering his pain, he turned to face Jax. “Want to go a round?”

Full of arrogance and amusement, a smile curved Jax’s hard mouth.

Raze rolled his shoulders. “Is that a no?”

“If I wanted you dead, Shadow, I would’ve just shot you the other day after the Ripper bit you. Instead, I saved your life.” The Vanguard leader sauntered into the room.

Warning ticked along Raze’s scalp, followed by a healthy dose of shame. “Thanks for saving my life.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t make me regret it.” Jax glanced around. “When did you guys put up the punching bags?”

“Last week.” They’d found the bags at an old gym near Malibu, of all places. “We were looking for medical supplies at the gyms and we found these as well as the free weights.” Raze pointed to a set against the far wall.

The mats had been spread end to end before he’d joined Vanguard, and he’d never questioned where they’d come from. The room was big enough to have a weight section, a punching section, and a place for grappling. “What was this place before you created your headquarters?”

“Storage. The windows are too high and too small to provide egress, so the room wasn’t compliant with occupancy laws, probably.” Jax leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “Good job during the attack from Twenty.”

“Ah, thanks.” The image of the dead kid flashed across Raze’s mind. His chest ached.

“Sorry about the kid. That sucks.” Jax studied him.

“Yeah, it totally sucks.” Raze rubbed the back of his neck. “When does the Scorpius headache go away?”

“Not sure it ever completely does,” Jax said.

Great. That’s what everyone kept saying. “Why did you save me?” Raze asked. The Vanguard leader just could’ve left his ass for the Rippers to finish off.

Jax lifted a shoulder. “I like you, and you’re a damn good soldier. Plus, my new Vanguard shrink-slash-profiler cares about you, and I didn’t want to piss her off quite yet.”

He liked that Jax was beginning to need Vinnie—the woman wanted to be needed. “You don’t trust me.”

“Of course not, but if you hadn’t been here yesterday, more people would be dead from the Twenty attack. More of my people,” Jax said.

Raze nodded.

“Why won’t you tell me why you’re really here?” Jax asked.

“I’m here because there’s nowhere else to go.” That was kind of the truth.

Jax sighed. “I know the look of a guy on a mission, and I know the look of a guy clawing with bloody fingers at the end of his rope. Whatever is driving you, I can help.”

God, everything in him wanted to trust Jax, but how could he gamble with his sister’s life? The next time Raze met with Ash, he’d get more information, and then maybe he could go to the Vanguard soldiers with a solid plan. “I don’t need help.”

“Maybe not, but you wouldn’t be keeping secrets unless there was a good reason to do so, and the only reason you won’t level with me is because whatever you’re planning will piss me off.” Jax shook his head. “Which means that one of us is likely to end up dead, and I won’t desert Lynne that way.”

“Where does that leave us?” Raze asked evenly.

Jax’s eyes darkened. “You have until tomorrow to give me the truth, or you’re out of Vanguard. Take today and really look around at the people here. See if you can leave them. And then use the night, another one with Dr. Wellington, to see if you can forget her. If so, get the hell out.”

Sami jogged into the room. “You guys fighting?”

Raze forced a smile for the petite soldier. Sami wore dark pants with an olive shirt, and she’d tamed her thick brown hair into two braids. “How old are you?” he blurted out.

She rolled her eyes. “Twenty-five, but I’m out of makeup. Regardless of age, I could kick your ass, Shadow.”

Actually, she might have a chance at the moment. His knees wobbled, and invisible hammers pounded away inside his skull. “When I’m at full speed, we’ll have to test that theory.”

“If you stay,” Tace Justice said, loping into the room, his tennis shoes leaving indentations in the mats.

Sami snorted. “Nice shoes.”

Tace glanced down at the pristine white shoes. “A scouting party hit the edge of Bel Air last week. I like these. What’s wrong with them?”

“You look like you’re about to hit brunch at the country club.” Jax snorted.

Sami laughed and even Tace grinned.

The moment slammed Raze in the solar plexus. The sense of camaraderie washed over him. The world sucked, and more enemies than they could count waited outside the Vanguard fence. But inside, they had this. They had one another. He opened his mouth, and a picture of Maureen learning to ride a bike popped into his head.

His mouth shut. He had to save his sister.

“Ah, where were you yesterday during the Twenty attack?” Raze focused on Jax. “I saw you come back in after I’d regained consciousness, but I didn’t get the chance to talk to you.”

Jax’s upper lip curled. “There was a skirmish inner territory between the good Reverend Lighton and my soldiers.”

Raze breathed out. “Seriously?”

Sami frowned. “Jax ordered them to take down a fence, which they have not done.”

“I didn’t think they would,” Jax muttered. “Just needed time to do some digging to figure out a plan.”

Sami nodded. “Reverend Lighton isn’t even clergy. He was a contraceptive salesman from Portland before Scorpius attacked the world.”

“He has found his calling,” Jax drawled.

Raze pressed a hand against his left temple. “What’s the deal?”

Sami rocked back on her heels. “I’ve been investigating since yesterday. Turns out the reverend, as he’s insisting on being called these days, has been issuing sermons the last months in private, and only to people he’s now calling the Pure.”

“The Pure?” Tace asked.

“Folks who haven’t been infected by Scorpius,” Jax said.

Sami gave a mock shudder. “That’s creepy.”

“Yes.” Jax nodded. “I need somebody to go undercover to a sermon or two, but we’re all survivors of Scorpius and won’t be included. Are any of you close to an uninfected person?”

Raze shrugged. “Most of us don’t know who has been infected and who hasn’t.”

Jax grimaced. “We could have mandatory testing, but I’m not ready to go there yet. It seems too draconian.”

“What about April Snyder?” Tace asked. “She hasn’t had the illness.”

Jax stared at the far wall. “How is she doing?” The woman had lost her only daughter just a couple of weeks before, and she’d nearly taken her own life afterward.

“As well as can be expected,” Sami said. “April helps with the kids and is now working on schedules for scouts as well as the soldiers. She’s tough.”

Raze breathed out. “That is tough. I see her with Lena a lot.”

Tace nodded. “Lena has attached herself to April, and it has been good for her.” He reached in a pocket and drew out a rock shaped a little like a heart. “The girl gave me this earlier. Any ideas?”

“So long as it ain’t blue, I don’t care,” Jax said.

Raze grinned. Lena often gave Jax blue rocks shaped like hearts, or rocks with blue hearts painted on them, or drawings of blue hearts. Definitely related to Lynne Harmony. The odd thing was that Lena had started giving the little talismans to Jax long before Lynne had walked into his life.

Sami touched an earring in her left lobe. “Lena gave me this yesterday.”

“What is it?” Jax asked.

“Just a pretty orange stone,” Sami said.

Raze squinted. “That’s a topaz. The birthstone of Scorpios.”

Sami blinked. “How do you know that?”

“My sister was into astrology,” Raze said. “She’d do my chart every year, whether I liked it or not.” God, he missed her. He had to get her back. “Is your birthday in late October or early November?”

“No,” Sami said. “I’m sure she just saw the pretty stone and gave it to me. You guys have to stop reading things into her gifts.”

“I’m a Scorpio,” Tace said dryly.

“Whatever.” Sami focused back on Jax, her face flushing a pretty pink. “What’s our plan with the Pure morons?”

“Dunno.” Jax stretched his shoulders and winced. “They want to take over the three apartment buildings on the south side of Vanguard, they want soldiers, and they want autonomy.”

Raze lifted an eyebrow. “Autonomy so long as we provide food, medical supplies, and protection?”

Jax grimaced. “That seems to be the request.”

“If we refuse?” Tace asked.

“I think they’re going to leave,” Jax said.

“So let them leave.” Raze shook out his left arm, trying to banish the weak tingles still attacking him. “If they want to create their own society, then they can.”

“We’ve managed a head count, and twenty of the uninfected are children,” Jax murmured. “Mostly orphans.”

That changed things. “Tell anyone over the age of eighteen they can go, but the kids stay here. Or the kids without parents stay here,” Raze said. A fight was coming about that—he could feel it. He needed to get his strength back and soon.

Sami nodded. “How many adults, and do you have a list?”

“No list yet, but I’m guessing about eighty adults,” Jax said. “If I refuse to let them take the kids, there is going to be trouble.”

Tace breathed out. “If they stay, and if we provide shelter, what do they offer? How many of the eighty are providing any sort of service to Vanguard?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to sit down at the negotiation table with the reverend,” Jax muttered. “I don’t like kids being used as bartering items, and I really don’t like being held hostage by a prick seeking safety with my guns. But the kids matter, and we need to make sure everyone in his little flock is there willingly.”

“Wyatt would’ve known,” Sami said, her chest heaving as she spoke about a soldier they’d lost in battle recently.

“I know. Nobody has his connections throughout Vanguard,” Jax said wearily. “I think Dr. Wellington is our best chance for creating a good community and keeping everyone in the loop.”

“Then stop calling her Dr. Wellington,” Raze said softly.

“Excuse me?” Jax asked, the muscles flexing in his crossed arms.

Why the hell was he getting involved? Raze shook his head. “She’s fragile right now, and your using her title keeps her at a distance, when all she wants is to belong. You call your other lieutenants by their first names or nicknames. If you want a title for her, call her Doc.”

“You sure have her figured out,” Jax drawled.

“She’s not exactly a closed book,” Raze said. Why was he trying to smooth the path for Vinnie when he planned to kidnap her in two nights? Though if his plan succeeded, he’d have her right back in Vanguard within hours. “You have to make her feel at home before she can make others feel the same way.”

“Good point,” Jax said.

“She sure made you feel at home last night,” Tace murmured. His face turned red. “Shit. Sorry. Sometimes my mouth is faster than my brain.”

Raze stiffened. “Were we loud?”

Sami snorted. “Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby.”

“I did not say that,” Raze snapped.

“You groaned it.” Jax chuckled.

Raze’s neck heated and the fire spread to his face. “You guys are all assholes.” Hopefully they wouldn’t mess with Vinnie.

“I have more condoms in the infirmary,” Tace said, then lost his grin. “Although there’s bad news on the reproduction front. Two of our scouting teams branched out last night to refugee camps, and in both, several women had recently miscarried.”

Raze stilled. “Women who’d become pregnant after surviving Scorpius?”

“Three after, one before, and no live births,” Tace confirmed.

“Shit.” Jax scrubbed a hand down his face. “If this is true, then I do see the reverend’s need to separate his group from survivors. The uninfected might be humanity’s only chance to continue.”

“Everyone is gonna catch Scorpius at some point, so our better bet is to find a way to promote successful pregnancies,” Tace said. “The bacteria lives both in survivors and on surfaces, so someday there won’t be an uninfected person still alive.”

Jax nodded. “That’s what Lynne believes, too. She also thinks we’ll find answers at the Bunker, if that place really exists.”

“I found more references to it in the research materials from the dental lab,” Tace said. “Lynne and I are halfway through those documents.”

Sami nudged Tace with her hip. “I have training with new scouts in a little while, so if you wanna train and get your ass kicked again, we have to get started.” She pulled her arm across her chest in a classic stretch.

“Has Lynne trained lately?” Jax asked.

“I’m not a tattletale, Mercury,” Sami countered, loosening her other arm.

“That’s a no,” Jax said. “I want you to train Lynne and Vinnie every day until they can take care of themselves. The president is hunting them both, and at some point, we’re going to meet up with him again. You’re on hand-to-hand, and Raze is on weapons. Get them up to speed.”

“Roger that,” Sami said. “But you both need to speak with your women about it, because neither one of them wants to train. They’re both too involved in their jobs.”

“They’ll train,” Jax said grimly.

Raze nodded. “President Atherton is crazy but very, very smart. If he wants them—and we know he does—they need to learn to fight dirty.”

Like he did.