Sumi started to make a sarcastic comment to Dancer that they probably should have asked that question before they came this far. But since she was as much to blame for that oversight as Dancer, she let it go.

Besides, he seemed to enjoy beating on the assassin.

“Downstairs… bay.”

Dancer made an inhuman sound before he broke the man’s neck. “Downstairs. Who does that?”

“Someone who hasn’t read the Andarion manual on where to store hostages?”

He gave her a dry stare. “You’re not funny.” He leaned back and groaned. “Ugh… more stairs.”

“You could take a shortcut and crash through the floors, but it’d probably hurt more.”

“Don’t remind me.” Sighing, he tightened the bandage on his thigh. Then he opened the door and led her down the hallway.

They could hear the men on the floor below, searching for them.

He took a minute to evaluate his weapons. A strange smile quirked at his lips.

“What?”

“Just remembering an old mission. Years ago when Nyk and I were in The League together and we were at a battle on an outpost backwater place. We were under some seriously heavy fire and running low on ammo. When Kyr heard that, he swept his gaze over us and said, ‘Yeah, well, I’m not running out of men. Forward!’ ” He sighed. “We lost eighty percent of our unit that day.”

“Sounds like Kyr.”

They turned down the next hall and shots flew at them.

Cursing, Sumi fell back and grabbed her arm to see a lovely seared mark on her biceps. It throbbed and ached, giving her a new appreciation for Dancer’s ability to walk with his thigh wound. Gah! It hurt!

Dancer killed the assassins who’d attacked them, then turned to see her arm bleeding. Cold, terrifying rage descended over his features.

His glowing eyes turned a darker shade of red.

Scared it was directed at her, she swallowed hard. “I’m fine. It’s just a flesh wound.”

A strange glint came into his eyes then. He held her against him so tight that she could hear the beating of his heart. He pressed his cheek to hers before he removed his coat and draped it over her.

She staggered from the weight of it.

“Fuck this shit,” he growled in a deadly tone.

One minute, he was in the room with her, and the next he was gone.

Sumi couldn’t breathe as she realized he’d just left her to finish off the rest by himself.

With no blast armor. No anchor or point.

No cover fire.

He’s out of his Andarion mind!

She tried to run after him, but the coat weighed so much, she couldn’t. In that moment, she wanted to beat him.