By the next day, Dante had come to realize that mandatory bed rest under Tyra’s watch was like being in prison, only with better food and a far nicer view. She’d finally agreed to raise the bed so he could sit up, which meant he could watch her as she moved from station to station around the med-bay, doing countless tests to the cobalt sample his team had found while they were saving his ass. She talked to him as she worked, telling him what she was doing, what she was learning, and slowly, as the hours passed, the conversation drifted to other topics.

“I don’t think I told you this yet, but the tattoo on your shoulder didn’t survive. The tissue should be fully healed by tonight, but the symbols can’t be regenerated the same way.”

“Yeah, I figured. It’s not the first time I’ve had to get one of my tattoos redone. Hazard of the profession.”

“Can I ask what it was?” she asked.

“They were the Torski symbols for strength and courage. Warrior is on there too, but that’s more on my shoulder blade, so it’s probably okay.”

“Do you want to see for yourself? I should take a look and ensure everything’s healing as it should, anyway.”

“You’re letting me out of this damned restraining field?”

She held up a finger. “Just while I check on your progress. If I’m happy with what I see, we can talk about maybe letting you up long enough to have a brief shower.”

Right now, a shower sounded better than an all-expenses-paid vacation on a pleasure planet. “I’ll take every second of freedom I can get. I’m not used to staying still this long.”

“You’ll be free of this bed, and me, soon enough.” Tyra tapped a code into the bed’s control console. The system beeped twice, but nothing else changed.

He didn’t bother confirming that the field was down. Instead, he sat up and reached for Tyra, hauling her into his arms. She didn’t manage to utter more than a surprised squeak before he kissed her, cutting off any protest. The moment their mouths met he knew he’d been a fraxxing idiot to stay away from her. He should have been getting to know her and stealing as many kisses as she’d let him. It had taken getting shot to make him realize how stupid he’d been.

Nearly dying wasn’t a new experience for him. Having regrets though, that was new. Every time he’d roused during the ride back, he’d thought about Tyra. How he’d stepped back when he should have been stepping up. He’d told himself she was a distraction, but pushing her away hadn’t stopped him from thinking about her.

He explored her mouth with his lips and tongue as his hands moved over her body, learning her curves and the sweet taste of her lips as he indulged himself in their kiss. She leaned into him, one hand resting on his uninjured shoulder as she kissed him back. Veth, yes. For one perfect moment he forgot about everything, losing himself in the glory of having her back in his arms. That’s when an ear-piercing alarm sounded, killing the moment.

“What the hell is that noise?”

“Your heart rate is too high. The bio-monitor is set to sound an alarm if there are any sudden changes to your readings.”

He flung back the blankets and left the bed. “That’s it. I’m sick of this place. I can’t even kiss you without alarms going off. I’m fine. See? Standing on my own and everything.”

“Dante Alexander Razlan Strak, get your ass back in that bed right now!”

He grinned down at her, amused and aroused by her attempt to boss him around. “Do you really think using my full name is going to make me more obedient? It never worked for my mother, and it’s not going to work for you, Shortcake.”

She huffed out a frustrated breath. “If you overdo it, you’re going to be stuck in that bed for longer than either of us would like.” Then, her expression softened, her eyes showing a hint of worry as she gently pushed against his chest. “Please get back in bed and let me see how you’re doing. You took a beating last night, and the only thing keeping you on your feet right now are pain-blockers and your unbelievable stubbornness.”

He caught her hand and covered it with his. “One more kiss, first?”

“You promise to get back in bed afterward?”

For another kiss, he’d do damned near anything she asked him to. “I promise.”

“Okay.” This time, she kissed him. She fisted the front of the hospital gown he’d been forced to wear and rose up on her toes, pulling him down to meet her. He was more than happy to oblige, closing the distance between them. He held back enough to let her be the one to initiate the kiss, but once that happened, he took over. He speared his fingers into her hair and used his good arm to haul her in tight against his body, relishing the way her soft curves fit against him.

Her kiss was a better drug than any pain-blocker, and more addictive, too. She uttered a tiny moan and parted her lips, allowing him to take the kiss deeper. Their tongues danced, every breath mingling, bodies pressed together so tight he swore he could feel her heart racing beneath her ribs.

Somewhere behind him came the unmistakable sound of a door opening, followed by a horrified groan. “Oh, fraxx. My eyes. I can never unsee that. For the love of gravity, Buttercup, cover your ass!”

Dante lifted his mouth a scant fraction of an inch away from Tyra’s to mutter, “If you don’t like it, leave. In fact, go anyway. Consider that an order, Ensign.”

“I could, but then you don’t get to hear the update Rossi sent me to give you. You might outrank me, but he outranks us both.”

“And as I’ve already mentioned, when it comes to your treatment, I outrank everyone.” Tyra let go of him, her cheeks darkening with embarrassment. “I believe the deal was for one kiss, Muscles. You’ve had your kiss. It’s time to hold up your end of the bargain.”

“I wasn’t done with you, yet,” he complained. He got back into bed, though, then turned to glare at Eric, who was standing at the door grinning like an idiot. “And you have lousy fraxxing timing.”

“Sorry, Muscles. Next time I’ll knock.”

“If you value your liver, that name better never come out of your mouth again. Forget it.” Dante snapped.

“You’d rather be named after a weed with yellow flowers?” Tyra asked, trying to suppress her laughter.

“I’d rather be called Dante, but there’s some unwritten rule in the IAF that everyone needs a fraxxing nickname. Just like there’s some rule that says patients in a med-center have to wear stupid gown-things that don’t cover a man’s ass.” He frowned at Tyra. “Why is that?”

“It helps keep difficult patients in bed, where they’re supposed to be.”

“She’s got you there,” Magi said. He wandered over to the bed beside Dante and leaned against it. “All kidding aside, I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. You had us worried.”

“You should know better than to worry about me. I’m too stubborn to die easy.”

Tyra stepped between them and fixed Eric with a stern look. “You only get to stay if you don’t get him too worked up over anything. Dante, are you okay with me doing the examination while he’s here?”

“Yeah. I want to hear the update, and you should hear it, too.”

“Alright then, sergeant. Lean forward and I’ll undo the fastening so you can get out of that gown.”

He almost made a joke about her wanting him naked, but something told him it wasn’t the right moment. Probably the fact she’d gone back to calling him by his rank instead of his name. If she wanted him to behave while they had company, he’d do that for her. He held still while she undid the back of his gown, then shrugged it off, leaving his chest bare.

It was the first time he’d seen the damage. Even with healing accelerants and tissue regeneration, his shoulder was still a mess. Swaths of tender pink skin broke up the broad slashes of tattooed ink, the damage spanning not just his shoulder, but across his pectoral region, down his bicep, and judging by the tenderness, partway up his neck, too.

Magi whistled. “Damn man. You look worse than I did after Victor Base.”

Dante ignored him and looked to Tyra. “You did a nice job of patching me up. I should have said this before, but thank you.”

“I did my job. Hopefully I don’t have to do it again any time soon.” She carefully probed the edges of his injury with her fingers. “You’re healing well, but you’re not ready to go back on duty yet. The damage was deep, and it’s going to take time to heal properly.”

As eager as he was to get back to work, he wasn’t sorry to hear he needed to stick around the med-bay. It gave him an excuse to stay in her company, and that wasn’t a bad thing. “Can I have that shower you mentioned earlier?”

“Maybe.” She gave him a ghost of a smile. “Can you agree to try and stay in bed if I say yes?”

“I’ll try.”

“In that case, once Eric’s gone, you can shower.” She checked his newly repaired hand, hummed in approval, and gestured for him to dress again. “I’ll finish my exam then, too. I need to take some scans to see how your ribs and lung are healing.”

She left his side and went to type something into the console she’d claimed as her personal workspace.

“Okay, Magi. What do you know?”

Eric moved in close and lowered his voice. “For one thing? I know you’re fraxxing lucky Dr. Li was here. She talked Sabre through your treatment from the moment they got you on the shuttle. To hear him tell it, you wouldn’t have made it without her. I’ve never seen him rattled before, but after you went into surgery, he went straight to the mess and started pouring shots. It took three before his hands stopped shaking.”

“She told me Sabre and Blink had me stable before I was on board. That she didn’t do anything but patch me up.”

Magi shook his head. “Not the way I heard it. I think your pretty doctor is being too modest.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

Eric nodded, then raised his voice again. “While you were lying around medical, Rossi, West, and I spent a long, sleepless night figuring out what happened to you. After you were drugged, they moved you to an unregistered craft, which is how they got you out of the district so fast. The only reason we know that is because we managed to track it for a while after it left the place the team found you, but it eventually dropped off the scanners.”

“I thought the Malora could track damned near anything?”

“It can. Which means not only was it unregistered, it must have been fitted with modified shielding.”

“That’s black-market tech.”

Uh huh. Just like that privacy screen your captor was using. Whoever these people are, they’ve got money and some very interesting toys.”

“Speaking of tech, did you get anything from that fraxxing chip they shoved into me while I was tied up?” Tyra had already confirmed she’d removed the damned thing while she was fixing him up, which had been a relief to know.

“Not much. It was partially destroyed by the blast that charbroiled your shoulder. There’s no way to pull any data off of it or any clues as to where it was manufactured. All I was able to find were trace amounts of P32 and JX9.”

“Use real words, Magi, or I’ll piss off the doc by overexerting myself when I kick your ass.”

“They’re two of the ingredients found in micro-explosives.”

“That son of a starbeast put a bomb in my neck?” He had a sudden urge to punch something. “When we find him again, I’m going to make him regret that.”

“It looks that way, yeah. I hate to say it but getting shot might have saved your ass. It destroyed the triggering mechanism before anyone could make you go boom.”

Tyra cleared her throat. “I’m going to interject here and state that as your doctor, I don’t recommend getting shot to prevent yourself from being exploded. How about you try to avoid both scenarios for a while? At least until you’ve healed?”

“I make no promises, but I will try.” Despite her teasing words, Dante heard the undertone of worry in her voice. He liked that she cared enough to worry. He just hoped that this time, he’d found a woman strong enough to accept that his line of work came with risks. Danger was part of the job, and the job was part of him.

“Good. I’d hate to have to turn the restraining field back on so soon.” Tyra would never admit it, but she’d enjoyed having the big, tough soldier restrained and at her mercy. Not that she’d done anything unprofessional. The most intimate thing she’d done was using a cloth and a cleansing agent to wipe away the worst of the blood and other grime from his upper body while he slept. It had given her a few moments to appreciate both his hard body and the beautiful tattoos that covered it. It had also let her see the scars he bore.

“Restraining field?” Eric’s brows raised. “I’m both intrigued and terrified to know more.”

She only blushed a little as she shook her head, rose, and rejoined them by Dante’s bedside. “Nothing like that. I just needed to keep my patient in bed instead of defying orders and trying to go back to work too soon.”

“Uh huh,” Eric drawled, looking annoyingly pleased. “Glad that’s working out for uh…him. We need our Buttercup back at full strength.”

Dante snapped his fingers in front of Eric’s nose. “Hey, Magi. The update, remember? What else do I need to know?”

“Well, it’s a good thing Blink thought to scan the whole crime scene with her cybernetic eye before leaving. Rossi went back this morning to do another sweep, and the whole place was gone. Torched. All we have to work with are Aria’s scans, the cobalt they recovered, the DNA Cris managed to pull from your mangled body, and whatever I can dig up on our dead man.”

The last bit was news to her. “What dead man?”

“According to his fingerprints and DNA, his name was Alan Darner. He was a low-level pharma dealer on Bellex 3, fully licensed, but behind in his payments to the corporation. I’m looking through data, trying to figure out what his role was. All we’ve got so far is that he’s the one who hired the assholes who drugged you at that bar. Local security rounded them up this morning, and Blink interrogated them. They didn’t know much, apart from Darner’s name and the fact they’ve done this for him before. You were right. These guys have been making people disappear for a while now.”

Dante grunted. “From what I saw, Darner was just hired muscle. He wasn’t too bright, and the other guy was definitely the one calling the shots. He was the only one hiding his face, too. Darner was clearly expendable. I still don’t understand how he ended up dead, though. He shot me before I could get my hands on him.”

“Rossi didn’t tell you?”

“He didn’t tell either of us,” Tyra interjected. “I would have asked to examine the body. I’m not a pathologist, but I should be able to find a cause of death.”

“You were busy with Dante and then with analyzing the cobalt.” Eric shrugged. “And the cause of death was pretty obvious, even to us non-medical types. After he shot Dante, he turned the weapon on himself.”

“He offed himself? Why the fraxx would he do that?” Dante went quiet for a moment, then blew out a slow breath. “He said running wasn’t an option for him. What the hell kind of people was he working for that leaving wasn’t an option, but killing himself was?”

“Where’s the body, now?” Tyra asked. The cause of death might be obvious, but she still wanted a chance to examine it if she could.

Eric gave her a wry smile. “Sorry, doc. Dr. Downs insisted on doing the autopsy herself. Trip observed the whole thing. It didn’t take long. I mean, the guy blew his head off. There wasn’t much to examine.”

Irritation sharpened her next words. “What happened to the plan to keep the Bellex reps as far away from the investigation as possible?”

Dante touched her arm. “If Rossi allowed it, there was a good reason. There always is. If it came to a choice between them having access to the sample of cobalt or the body, which one would you have picked?”

He had a point. Again. “I’d rather have the cobalt. Speaking of which, I won’t have a complete breakdown of its components for a few more hours. Once I do, Trip and I will start working on a way to safely neutralize its effects.”

“Which is going to save a whole lot of lives.” Eric agreed.

“I still don’t understand why no one told me.”

“Probably because Rossi didn’t want to distract you. After all, you were putting together his favorite team member,” Dante said.

Eric laughed. “I see your ego has already recovered. Does this mean you’re ready for your debriefing with Downs and her pet lackey?”

“No, he’s not. When did they find out he was even here?” There was no way in hell she was letting Downs anywhere near Dante until he was one hundred percent.

“Bellex demanded to know why our team left District twelve without clearing it with them first. Rossi opted to tell them because it was the fastest way to cut through the bureaucratic crap. They’re pissed they weren’t told we had another operative on the planet, but Rossi told them to take it up with the Nova Force brass.”

“You were eavesdropping again, weren’t you?” Dante asked.

Eric merely shrugged. “Monitoring our Bellex guests is part of my job. If that means I happened to overhear their rather heated discussion with our commander…well, that just means I have more information to share with the team.”

“Forgive Magi. He was a hacker before he decided to use his powers for good. Sometimes he forgets the rules are supposed to apply to him, now,” Dante said.

“You call them rules. I like to think of them as guidelines. Very flexible guidelines.”

“Given what we’re up against, I’m fine with flexible. Someone killed my team, damn near killed me, and is dosing an entire population with a drug we know almost nothing about. Now they’re kidnapping people and injecting them with exploding chips. They’re not playing by the rules, I don’t think we should, either,” Tyra said.

Eric beamed at her and uttered a dreamy sigh. “You’re my kind of girl. Seriously. If things don’t work out with Dante, feel free to give me a call.”

Dante bared his fangs and growled at Eric. “Out. Now.”

Eric threw up his hands in surrender. “Right. I’m leaving. I’m not a fan of bloodshed, especially my own. Before I go, though, Downs will be debriefing Dr. Castille this afternoon. Caldwell will be sitting in, and it will all be recorded, just like yours was, Dr. Li.”

“Thanks for letting me know. Once that’s done, Oran will be leaving, right?” she asked.

Eric paused before answering. “Eventually. Trin needs to finish up her investigation, first.”

“She’s not done yet? How long does it normally take to clear someone?”

“It depends on what we find,” Eric replied.

She didn’t like the way that sounded. Her review had been done in a matter of hours, and Trinity had been looking into Oran since yesterday afternoon. “I’m guessing that means she found something. I can’t imagine what, but I’ll wait to hear it from her.”

Eric nodded. “You’re both now officially up to speed on everything Rossi sent me in here to tell you, along with a few extra tidbits because I like you. Don’t take any crap from this guy, doc, and if you’re going to let him out of bed, please find him something to wear that covers his ass.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Thank you for the update,” she said.

“Get gone, kid. And don’t flirt with my girl again or you’re going to be sucking vacuum.”

Eric laughed all the way out the door.

Once they were alone again, she turned to Dante. “For the record, I haven’t been a girl in more than three decades. Furthermore, I don’t recall agreeing to be your anything.”

Dante’s lips curved up into a slow, sexy smile hot enough to melt hull plating. “Wrong. You’re already my doctor. The rest is a work in progress.”

“You wouldn’t have so much work to catch up on if you’d joined me for that drink when we first came on board.”

“Instead of that drink, how about I buy you dinner? I know a place. Local. Decent food. Amazing views.” He took her hand in his. “I’d like to do things right this time. If you’ll let me. I have it on good authority that I’m going to be on light duty for another day or so. Doctor’s orders.”

“I’d like that.” A thought crossed her mind right after she agreed. “But I don’t have anything to wear on a date other than some borrowed training gear and some shoes that are at least a size too big.”

“I’ll take care of that. You should have said something.”

“You were all focused on the mission, and it’s not like I was going to borrow a shuttle to go on a shopping spree. These clothes are warm, comfortable, and clean. They’re just not date apparel, so I thought I should warn you. Then again, you kissed me when I was wearing rags and hadn’t showered in days, so I suppose you’re not too worried about it.”

“I kissed a very hot woman who was taking care of herself and everyone around her in adverse conditions, with no complaints. It was sexy as hell.”

“You’ve got some odd notions of what sexy means.”

He tugged her closer and wrapped her in his arms, but instead of kissing her again, he bowed his head so their foreheads were touching and they were looking into each other's eyes. “I think you’re sexy, Tyra. Doesn’t matter if you’re dressed to kill or wearing rags.”

Her stomach filled with butterflies and a delicious frisson of anticipation flowed over her. “In that case, you’ve got yourself a date, but not until tomorrow night. I’ve got work to do, and you need to rest.”

“But first, I get to shower, right?”

“Right. In fact, you might as well do that now. I can run the scans once you’re back in bed.”

He moved his head, placing his mouth right by her ear. “Are you going to help me shower, Shortcake? I’m still recovering, you know.”

She shivered as his breath caressed her ear and his words made her heart race a little faster. “Not this time. Ask me again after we’ve had a real date.”

He nuzzled her earlobe, letting one of his fangs graze her skin for a tantalizing second. “Believe me, I will.”

She believed him.