Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

had since the whole roller-coaster began, but he was still shaking off the last of the grogginess from the nanobot-induced sleep.

‘Good, sir,’ Rivas replied. He had brought his breakfast and coffee with him to sit by Eloise’s bed. Earlier, when Gonzalez had entered the kitchen, Ingram had given him a meaningful look, and he had been around long enough to know what that meant. ‘The primary physical trauma has healed. The Medibot is working its way through secondary injuries, and then it’s just the cosmetic bruising and scrapes. I would like to keep her in a nano-induced coma until it’s all done.’

‘How long?’ Gonzalez asked, wincing as the bitter coffee-sludge assaulted his taste buds.

Damn, I need sugar in it next time,he decided, promising himself to find a way to smuggle at least a couple of spoonfuls into his mug without Ingram noticing. There was no need to give the woman another reason to mock him.

The thought of Ingram made his features tighten for a second. He hadn’t decided yet how to deal with her latest stunt. For now, he rather relished the memory of the uncomfortably silent breakfast, while he sat at the table opposite her, refusing to speak and letting the woman stew. Knowing Ingram, it had probably barely rattled her, but even a little victory was worth celebrating. It wasn’t like he could actually rip her head off for what she had done. He had needed that sleep. And even more, he had needed to stop thinking about Megan even if only for a few hours, to keep his sanity.

Apart from the slight grogginess, the nano-drugs Ingram had used had another side effect. They guaranteed no memory of dreams, and in his case that was something to be treasured.

‘A few more hours, sir. We could bring her back sooner, but she would need to sleep it off later in the day anyway. Under the circumstances, I think it’s best to wait until she has recovered fully.’

‘Under the circumstances…’ Gonzalez repeated, letting his voice trail off. ‘Do you predict trouble when she wakes up, Raymond?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Did she regain consciousness on the way back?’ Gonzalez asked. Everything last night had happened too quickly to analyse it at the time, but the silent breakfast had given Gonzalez the opportunity to replay the events in his head.

‘Yes, sir. She briefly regained consciousness just after the take-off. She was furious, and the fury seemed to be directed—’

‘At me,’ Gonzalez finished. Her hostile attitude and suspicions about his motives had been clear. And to a great extent justified.

‘Yes, sir. She feels betrayed and used. I’m sure she will feel somewhat different when she wakes up safe and sound, but I wouldn’t let her anywhere near guns or knives if I were you.’ There was no humour in Rivas’ voice.

After seeing Eloise’s performance with Wagner’s gun against an armoured opponent in a highly stressed environment, Gonzalez was pretty sure he did not want to test her aim when she was well rested and no less determined.

‘It will take us a while to go over what Tilly recovered from Wagner’s account. I see no reason to rush her recovery. You can program the Medibot to lick all her wounds first, and then I think it might be best if you are the only one present when she wakes up.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

When Gonzalez had analysed the events of last night, it had also become clear to him just how far Eloise had come to accept and trust Rivas, despite the disastrous way in which they had met. And the tender worry in the other man’s eyes was a dead giveaway of just how much Rivas cared for her.

Let’s just hope it’s enough, Gonzalez mused as the silence stretched.

‘Sir… in regards to Sergeant Ingram and last—’ Rivas began carefully only to be cut off abruptly.

‘Sergeant, is it?’ Sarcasm dripped from Gonzalez’s voice, and Rivas instantly changed tactics.

‘Sir! All I want to say is that I fully support Sergeant Ingram’s—or Major Toscano’s, whichever way you want to look at it—decision. We badly needed rest. There was no need to slog away on stims, given that Tilly needed time to process the data from Wagner’s account anyway.’

His own hand still felt burnt to pieces, though thanks to Tilly’s expertise and his own basic field medic skills he had been able to create a concoction of nano-meds that was steadily repairing his injury in a fashion very similar to what the Medibot could do. Sleep had helped the process greatly, though it would still be a few more hours before he regained full mobility. And at some point he still needed the Medibot to remove the pieces of glove that had melted into his hand.

‘And the reason neither of you thought it might be a good idea to let the CO make the decision was…’ Gonzalez let his voice trail off suggestively.

‘The CO was not available,’ Ingram replied, entering the medical room.

She had actually woken up by herself a few minutes before her alarm had gone off. She hadn’t exactly been worried about Gonzalez’s reaction at having been nano-drugged into sleep, but a huge part of her wanted to get the confrontation over and done with.

She had just about managed a few sips of her favourite coffee-sludge when Gonzalez had walked into the kitchen, and she skilfully sent Rivas away, hoping that the private environment would allow Gonzalez to offload his fury. But the bastard had only glared at her and said nothing. For nearly ten agonising minutes, as he munched on his hot, nano-factured breakfast, he had just sat there in silence. There was a reason why she usually preferred a head-on approach. The waiting was torture.

She had nearly opened her mouth to apologise twice, but both times, she managed to bite her tongue. She wasn’t going to be bullied into apologising for what they both knew was the right thing to do. Accept the consequences? Sure. Apologise? Hell no!

Her breakfast done, she really had no reason to stay in