Page 3 of Outside The Wire

No one fucking there.

And then it went dark.

I was alive.Barely. That had been way too fucking close.

And I still didn’t know the ending to FNG’s story.

The blinds were closed as my friends officially grieved the loss of their fallen comrade. To everyone outside of our small circle and one very handsomely paid doctor, I was dead. That was the way it had to be until we found out who shot the senator and then tried to kill me.

“Clearly, he shot you because you know something,” Dash argued.

“Obviously,” FNG interrupted. “Obviously is the word you’re looking for. Because it’s obvious the connection is his father and the words his father spoke to him right before he was taken out.”

“And it’s clear that Kavanaugh knows something!” Dash shouted.

“Fuck, would you two shut up?” Lock snapped. “The man is trying to recover. The last thing he needs is the two of you arguing about word preferences.”

FNG snorted. “This is so much more than word preferences. It’s a matter of correct and incorrect word usage.”

Fox kicked up his feet on the edge of my bed and chomped on some Funyuns. “I say they’re both wrong. Supposedly, this has to do with what your daddy said to you in the moments before he was shot.Supposedly. However, we can also assume that there are a few ladies out there that you’ve left broken-hearted. I think it would be unwise to jump to conclusions and assume that this doesn’t have something to do with one of them.”

I stared at Fox for a moment, tired as hell and ready to shove my catheter down his fucking throat. “I think it would be unwise to assume that this has anything to do with me. Maybe they were aiming at you.”

“Why would anyone want to kill me?”

“Have you heard yourself singing show tunes lately?”

“Now, hang on a minute?—”

“How about we all take it down a notch,” Lock said, ever the peacemaker. “The first thing we need to do is get Kavanaugh out of here without anyone noticing. We have transport on the way. Sorry, Kavanaugh, but you’re about to go in a black bag.”

“And I thought landing in a hole in the ground was fun,” I deadpanned.

“Ooh!” FNG jumped up. “Can I play the part of the driver?”

“Sure.”

“Yes! I always wanted to drive a hearse.”

“Goals AF, man!” Fox grinned, fist-bumping him.

“What…what is that?” I asked, confused by the whole thing.

“Oh, it’s this new thing I learned from a kid in the grocery store. See, I was staking out the candy aisle for some new space for my Funyuns candy, and I saw these kids trying to sell some bullshit cookies there.”

“Wait…like GirlScout cookies?”

“How the hell should I know?” Fox frowned.

“Were they girls?”

“Yes.”

“Were they little colorful boxes of cookies?”

He thought about it, nodding his head from side to side. “Yeah, come to think of it, they were.”

“You asshole, they were doing a fundraiser. What did you do?”

---