Page 30 of He Is Jensen: Part One

“Get down on the ground, man, or I’ll shoot.” I rotate to find Mohawk guy pointing a Smith & Wesson at me.

I have half a mind to ignore the kid, but I need the ICE the kid has on him.

“Be right back,” I tell Layla over my shoulder, and refocus on the men, hands out to my sides. “Whatever gets you off, man. Take your best shot.”

Mohawk’s thin face puffs up with anger, and he actually pulls the trigger. The bullet hits me in the chest and bounces off my body armor like a rubber ball.

“That was fun,” I say sardonically. “But sorry. No time to do it again.” In a flash, I’ve closed the distance between myself and the two dealers. I snatch the weapon and turn it on Mohawk man. “Then again, maybe I should take a shot of my own. Quid pro quo, and all that shit. Right, asshole?”

“Look, man,” the punker says, his voice quaking. “He didn’t mean it. Just let us go.”

Mohawk dude holds his hands up in defeat. “Yeah, man. It was a joke.”

“Do I look amused?” I motion with my fingers. “Hand over your ICE, andthatain’t no joke.”

“We don’t have any—” Mohawk starts to say.

I fire at the ground, popping off two shots damn close to their feet, even as I cast Layla a quick inspection while the men squirm. She’s leaning against the wall, watching with wide eyes. Safe. That’s all that matters.

My lips twist with a wry taunt. “The next two bullets won’t hit the ground. Think of all those little bones in your feet blasted away by the steel force of a bullet.” I shake my head. “Ouch. That hurts just thinking about it. Even on an ICE high, that’s gonna bite like a bitch. After that, we’ll move upward.” I point the gun at Mohawk’s knee. Then his thigh. Then shove the gun toward his crotch. “About midway up is where all the fun starts. If I blow it off, will ICE grow it back? Wanna find out?”

“Okay!” Mohawk cries out. He’s shaking worse than Layla now, digging in his pockets, and producing four vials of ICE.

“Come now,” I say, still holding the gun at Mohawk’s groin. “That can’t be all you got. I really don’t want to see you two buck naked, but if I have to make you undress to get the rest of the ICE, that’s what we will do.”

Punker dude hands over another vial, obviously deciding he doesn’t want the Smith & Wesson giving him a visit down under, either.

“Good,” I say agreeably, pocketing the ICE. Doc Katie, the Renegade’s medical chief of staff, is going to piss her pants, or maybe go orgasmic on me over four vials of ICE. The fifth will be for Layla.

I jerk the gun hard against the guy’s crotch, and I’m rewarded with a guttural grunt in return. “Now, hand over your IDs. That way, if you say a word about this, I can hunt you down and use you for target practice.” I lift the gun and point it toward the ceiling.

It's all of five seconds for their compliance. I motion them away. “Get out of here.”

They dart away while I shove the weapon into my belt and rotate to face Layla, who’s huddled in the corner. “Stay back!” she yells, her hand pressed to her stomach.

She’s scared of me—truly scared of me. And pale as a new winter’s snow, her dark hair tangled around her face.

“Layla, honey. It’s me. Jensen. You know me. You know you can trust me.”

She hugs herself, her teeth chattering. “I don’t know anything anymore. You could be one of them.”

She’s in a drug haze, and I try to bring her back to me. “There are GTECHs. We divided into two groups. Renegades and Zodius. The Zodius are the bad guys.”

“I heard the recording of you with Julian. Fuck me into submission?! And photos of you with him.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Not this. Not now. I try to keep my voice steady and calm. We don’t have a lot of time before someone comes for us or before she drops on me. “That audio was me just trying to buy us time,” I explain. “I whispered to you about them watching. Remember?”

“What does that even do to build trust, Jensen? Nothing. You know him too well. Julian.Julian.”

“I fought by his side for the government, even after his wolves, baby. He raided the operation. He overthrew the government. I’m not with him. I’m with his brother, Caleb.” I remove a vial from my pocket, and as much as I hate the risk of giving her ICE our team hasn’t inspected first, I’m not sure I have a choice. She’s bad. Really fucking bad. There’s a fear that tainted ICE is what’s killing people, but we really don’t know. “You need to dose.”

“How do I know that doesn’t have poison in it to kill me like you killed Milton? How do I know this isn’t a setup?”

“I don’t even know a Milton, Layla. Please. Sweetheart. You need to take the ICE, and then we’ll go meet Caleb. He’ll tell you I served with Julian. We all did.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she shouts, and irrationally tries to dart past me.

I wrap my arms around her and pull her close with no intention of letting her go, breathing her in. I found her quickly, as if I was meant to find her, meant to protect her, to save her, and I’m damn well going to do it.

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