The Girl Who Dared to Think (The Girl Who Dared #1)

“Oh, God... leech patch?”

I gave him a sympathetic look and nodded. His wound had become inflamed and needed to be cleansed, and the leech patch did just that, pulling blood through it and separating out the contaminants of the infection, before returning the clean blood back into his body. The patch itself looked innocuous—like a cotton pad for stemming blood—but it was treated with special medicine designed to draw out infections on one side, and a chemical to neutralize it from causing further infections on the other. The result was a gnarly-looking crystallized formation coming out the other side, stained a dark yellow color, resembling sugar-glass candy, only it was dried. It wasn’t pleasant, and was extremely fragile.

“Sad to say, but yes, and it hasn’t been too fun to watch.”

He relaxed back onto the thin bed and tilted his head toward me, his eyes softening. Searching.

“You saved my life.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I looked away. “I just did what any decent person would do,” I mumbled.

“No, Liana,” he said, grabbing my hand, and I jerked my gaze up to meet his warm brown eyes, wary and afraid. I felt vulnerable, like he could see into the heart of me, and I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was with that prospect. “You did something that no one’s ever done for me before. Thank you.”

I nodded wordlessly, uncertain of what to say. After a moment, I squeezed his strong fingers with mine. “I’m just glad I could,” I admitted honestly. Then... “How could you give me your pills like that?”

Grey blinked, his brows furrowing. “How do you know I did?”

“I went to see Roark.”

“And he let you in?” I nodded, and Grey whistled. “I’m surprised.”

“Well, once I told him that you had been caught and they wanted me to kill you...”

Grey nodded, his face sobering. He raised his hand to look at his indicator and lowered it again. “How long do I have?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“I’m not sure. But we should get out of here as soon as possible. If they figure out our ranks, or how we modified the system to protect you, they will come for us, and I can’t protect either of us here. We should get you to Roark.”

“You’re right,” he said, sitting up so fast that I winced, my eyes going to the leech patch over his chest, the crystallized pus barely clinging to the other side. I could barely look at it, not wanting to see it crack open, but luckily it held.

“Lie down,” I ordered, once I realized it was still intact. “If we’re going to move, I have to take this off you.”

I went over to the wall and pressed on the interactive screen, ordering up a set of gloves. I heard the rasp of Grey lying back down in a rustle of sheets as I began slipping them on. Turning, I saw him watching me, his head cocked.

“What?”

“How do you know to do that?” he asked.

“I take a lot of interdepartmental classes. They’re a great way of escaping my parents’ disappointment in me, of trying to make them see that I was trying...” I trailed off and sighed. “I’m not the biggest fan, but it’s better than the alternative.”

His face was sympathetic as I crossed back over to him and immediately got to work on the patch. The trick was to lift from the sides and not the corners, and hold it firmly, but not too tightly. I lifted the thing up, tossed it into the waste receptacle, and turned back to the wound, which was still oozing a little but looked much better than before.

“You’ll need a dermal bond,” I said, pressing gently on the skin just around the wound. The pink goop helped regenerate damaged skin and tissue in a matter of hours, instead of days or weeks. “And no climbing for a few days. Elevators only.”

Grey’s smile grew, and I looked up to see him watching me intently. “You have really gentle hands,” he commented, and a flutter of nervousness shot through me.

I gave him an incredulous look and leaned back, pulling the gloves off and tossing them into the receptacle. Ignore it, I told myself, and I did. “I can’t get a dermal bond, so hopefully Roark has some.”

“Then there is no time to waste.”

I looked up at him, and was surprised to see him already getting out of bed, a sheet wrapped low around his hips.

“Don’t worry,” he said when he saw me staring at the draped fabric. “I’m wearing underwear.”

He winked, and I flushed bright red and turned away. “The screen—patients’ belongings,” I managed, in a weak attempt to tell him where his clothes were. “There.”

I pointed to the far corner of the room, but didn’t turn to look.

Luckily he got it, and I heard the sound of fabric sliding on skin. He was getting dressed behind me, and it was uncomfortable. Too much, too soon, too fast. I lacked the courage to even respond to his flirtations, because I was too worried about what I said or did. Then again, maybe I had already used up my courage quotient for the day, what with pulling all of that off in front of the Champion.

Thinking about the gaunt man with hungry eyes, so eager to kill Grey that he’d been willing to overlook Grey’s raised number, still gave me pause. I was certain that he wasn’t done, and that Grey had caught his attention, which meant both of us needed to be very careful now.

Using the elevator to get him back to Cogstown was fine, but if I was going to see him and Roark again, I was going to have to utilize the plunge and lashes more often to keep any future meetings between us as private as possible. Especially when they were supplying me with the medication.

“I’m ready,” he said, and I turned to see him waiting, his chest still exposed under his torn shirt.

I wrinkled my nose playfully at him and smiled. “You’ll burn those clothes as soon as you’re out of them later, right?”

“Look at you,” he said dryly. “Already trying to get me out of my clothes.”

He winked at me, and I rolled my eyes before offering him some help. “Put your arm over my shoulder and follow my lead,” I told him.

“Wait—the Medics have released me already? Nobody came in to give me the after-care speech or a condescending lecture about my rank.”

“I’ll be more than happy to give you a lecture about your rank, if you want one so badly. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the important bits memorized.”

I had no intention of telling Grey about Jasper, because I still wasn’t sure what to make of the computer. It seemed like Jasper had wanted to keep himself a secret, so I opted to respect that. He had offered us his help, after all.

“Hard pass. Not because I think you couldn’t do them justice, but because I’ve pretty much memorized them as well.” His arm settled onto my shoulders while my own arms went around his waist.

Together, we moved out the door and into the mostly deserted hallway, and I began guiding him toward the exit. We had been out of the room for barely ten seconds when a woman with bright red curls gathered in a massive explosion of color around her face walked up to us.