Kong’s apartment was a mirror image of Lark’s – but only in layout. Where Lark had taken time to decorate her space and put her stamp of ownership on it, Kong had his bed and a footlocker to store his gear, the pull-out couch Grady had been sleeping on, a coffee table, and a big screen TV. That was it. The guy didn’t even have dishes in his kitchen cupboards arguing that he always ate in the mess, so what was the point?
Swinging his legs over the side, Grady settled his feet on the floor, braced his elbows on his knees, and dropped his head into his hands as his system silently ran diagnostics in the background. The statistics scrolled up one side of his ocular implant but he paid them no mind as he stared at his feet. That first morning staying here, he’d gotten up, dressed in only his boxers, and Kong had stared at Grady’s leg with a confused expression before he’d grunted. “I’ve seen your schematics, man, and honestly, I thought your leg would look like your arm.”
Almost the entire left side of his body had been replaced with the titanium alloy upgrades. His leg, his hip, his rib cage, and his arm. After the attack by the man on the street with the IED strapped to his chest, he’d suffered a broken leg and fractured hip, several cracked ribs, not to mention that pole he’d been impaled on. Doctor Jerome hadn’t wanted to wait for them to heal fully and possibly have issues with the bones later so he’d replaced them. But he’d covered all of it with cloned skin. The only reason they hadn’t done so with his arm was because the skin would have interfered with his weapons upgrade and interface capability. The only other thing left uncovered was the plate on the side of his head that allowed the doctors easy access to mess around in his brain.
Kong emerged from his bedroom just then, dressed in only a pair of black sweatpants. Grady had seen men close to seven feet tall before, but all of them had always been on the lankier side. Not Kong. The guy was a behemoth of muscle. Broad shoulders, thick arms, and slabs of muscle across that wide, hair-dusted chest. The guy could probably crush a skull as easily as someone normally squished a grape.
As huge as he was, he could have turned out to be a mean son of a bitch – a bully with the brawn to back it up – but that wasn’t the case. Kong was one of the most easy-going people Grady had ever met. Quick to laugh and always eager to goof around, he reminded Grady a lot of Graham so he wasn’t surprised they’d hit it off so well.
“Do you think the ladies made breakfast?” Kong asked, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back. “I don’t feel like hauling my ass over to the mess this morning.”
Grady chuckled. “You know, you’ve got a perfectly functional kitchen right over there.”
Kong shot a look of distaste at the kitchen separated from the living room by a breakfast bar. “Too much work.” His face brightened. “Maybe I can convince Jayla to make me pancakes. She likes me.”
“Jayla likes everyone.” After her initial glares of suspicion when Grady had first met the woman, things had eased and he’d quickly discovered that Jayla, unlike Perrin who rarely did anything but glare, was quite the social butterfly. The woman loved to talk and gossip and would chatter you to death if you didn’t have somewhere else to be. Ten minutes in her company and you’d learn her entire life story – her life after being freed that was, she never spoke of her childhood – as well as any juicy gossip that might currently be floating around the base.
Among that juicy gossip was Jace’s oh-so-romantic – according to Jayla – proposal to Paige. His sister had already told him about that of course – had told him the same day it had happened – but Jayla practically swooned every time she repeated the story. Grady had to admit, his sister’s fiancé had done well.
In other news, though there’d been no attack on Black Bay or any chatter picked up that would suggest something was imminent, the base was still on high alert. If the AI had informed anyone of Black Bay’s involvement in the facility breach, they must have been sitting on the information.
“Well, I’m going to ask her,” Kong announced.
Right. The big guy wanted breakfast.
Marching over, Kong whipped open the door and bellowed, “Jayla!”
Grady chuckled and shook his head. If anyone in the building had still been sleeping, they were awake now.
He heard the door across the hall open and someone whisper-hissed, “Oh, my God! Kong! It’s five-thirty in the morning.”
That sounded like Lynx.
“Tell Jayla I want pancakes.” The big guy proceeded to make the most ridiculously pathetic face Grady had ever seen before batting his eyelashes. “Pretty please.”
There was a low rumble of feline annoyance followed by a muttered, “Fine.” The door across the hall slammed shut.
While Grady barked out a laugh, Kong shouted, “I like your jammies! You look beautiful this morning! I love you!”
Meanwhile, someone upstairs let their displeasure be known with a bellowed, “Shut up!”
Kong turned with a wide grin and shut the door. “We’re getting pancakes.”
“Looks like it.”
Ten minutes later, both of them showered and dressed, they headed over to Lark’s place. The smell of frying bacon and sausage hit him square in the face and made his stomach rumble with hunger.
Lynx, who was wearing red fleece pajamas with little polar bears on them despite it being summer, was at the stove. Perrin was standing beside her in nothing but an oversized T-shirt that ended at mid-thigh. One focused on cooking the meat while the other mixed pancake batter in a large bowl.
Jayla, standing at the breakfast bar in a hot pink tank top that said Girl Power in black glitter, smiled brightly. “You want coffee?”
Oh, God did he ever. With a nod, he strode over and settled his weight carefully on one of the stools. Every once and a while he’d forget about the weight his robotic upgrades added and he’d throw himself into a seat like he would have done before. He’d already broken one of Lark’s stools, and though it had quickly been replaced, he didn’t want to break another.
Jayla handed over a mug and Grady sighed once he inhaled the aroma.
There was a squeal and an angry screech from the stove and Grady snapped his head up to see that Kong had slung an arm around Lynx and Perrin and had lifted them off their feet. Lynx was laughing, Perrin was glaring, and both were smacking their hands on his head. Kong barely seemed to notice, too busy trying to kiss their cheeks as he made loud smacking noises with his lips.
While Grady shook his head with amusement, Jayla beamed, watching the show until Kong set the women down so they could get back to cooking.
