FLAMES“I THINK I ATE SOME BAD MUSHROOMS”It wasn’t mushrooms. Mushrooms either killed you or made you high-if you ate the good ones that is-Nonetheless I found myself smiling like a goofy chum as we both knelt near the toilet bowl.She had a case of ‘eating slightly expired’ canned food and I didn’t need to call Snakes to translate that for me.She wasn’t going to die that’s for fucking sure but at least the wave of nausea would shut her up for a while and I was comfortable with that.My chest hit her back, my hands holding her hair back as she hurled inside the toilet bowl like crazy. If I wasn’t an asshole, I would have been telling her shit like it was going to be okay or rubbing her back like a good little boyfriend telling her to let it all out.But I was an ass, and the ass thing to do for a woman you didn’t like but had boners for, was to fist her hair, fucking enjoying her misery.This right here was the fucking universe telling me Mia Tonelli was weak. If she couldn’t handl

FLAMES‘AND YOU ARE TELLING ME BECAUSE?’Fuck, I don’t know he was the only guy in B&A who actually listened and paid attention and maybe gave great advice.“I’m lonely”, I snickered sarcastically knowing full well he was holding in a chuckle.And all this was fucking laughable from my point of view, me…the loose screw who shot his way through everything training a woman I hated to fight, using methods that were effective and at the same time driving me crazy.In the marines, our commander didn’t teach everyone the same fucking thing otherwise that was as useless as telling a cat to eat hay.No. He assessed us through a series of tests. Locked some of us in a room without food for days with only a pistol being your friend and from that he’d conclude what training this soldier needed and what this training another soldier needed.What this soldier’s kryptonite was.And what fucking drove a soldier to be in the Marines in the first place.Mia Tonelli’s kryptonite was Bryant Knox.Her dr

FLAMESFUCK ME.I kissed her.She had fucking killed it and I was proud of her, damn proud than I ever had of anyone and then a surge of panic engulfed her.She could hardly breathe, could hardly hear me and maybe that pushed me to do it.Or maybe I had been dying to do that and this was the dick in me taking advantage of the moment.Taking advantage to taste her, find out that she was nothing special and go back to building up my resentment for her.Her lips trembled beneath mine, her uneven breaths made her whole-body tense and I took her bottom lip into mine, sucking, tasting, savoring, feeling its tightness, its plushness.Then like someone had flipped a fucking kill switch in me, I gripped her neck reeling like a lovesick swain that had discovered how good pussy tasted for the very first time.All inhibitions left from me, I pushed her harder to me, to let me in, to let me feel her.Damn, to kiss me back.I teased her mouth, teased her entrance, if only she could open her lips, j

FLAMES‘ANDRO, DON’T SHOOT’Mia’s voice beckoned from behind me but my aim was on the man standing on our porch breathing ruggedly with a black eye peppering his face, a few cuts on his face and let’s just say he was barely alive.Killing him would be doing him a favor especially because he hadn’t triggered any of the alarm systems near the cabin and especially because he’d found us.This cabin, us, we were well hidden, away from the town, in the middle of nowhere, not a fucking person would find us here, except the men from B&A and I sure as hell didn’t know him. Never seen him in my entire life.He moved an inch towards me, trying to cross the door and I held the gun to his fucking forehead.The first shot was a warning, I wouldn’t miss the second shot.One more inch and I would put a bullet between his eyes.He gazed behind me, to the woman standing behind me and I pressed the gun deeper into his fucking skull.MINE.She was mine.“Stop!”Mia’s hand landed on my arm, her fingers to

FLAMESTHE INCESSANT HUMMING DIDN’T STOP.THE NIGHTMARES DIDN’T STAY BACK.“Leave! It was one job, I gave you one job. Look at your brother, are you seeing that? Did you see the burnt skin on him? He could have died, you could have killed him!”“Dad-It was an accident. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry!” A step forward and they all looked at me with ire. Like I was the devil incarnate.My father turned away clicking his tongue, my mother, the woman who’d always been on my side couldn’t even look at me.The humming roared, the walls caved in, my hand stretched out at the unconscious boy on the disgustingly blue-covered bed, machines hauntingly beeping around him reminding me how much of an ass I was as a big brother.Diego opened his eyes, he whipped his head weakly looking at me and I could never get that image out of my head.Skin charred, flesh distorted like melted plastic, half of his face burnt beyond recognition. That green in his eyes he’d inherited from my father all gone and, in i