Page 47 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“Then what the fuck did I risk my life for?” he scowled.

As much as Scottie loved to jest, he really did hate flying and that took a lot for him to take control under the circumstances. Between narrowly avoiding crashing into the substation and then again when he almost flew into a building, he was lucky to be alive.

But I was his boss, and sometimes, I had to put my men back in place. Turning to him, I became the hard ass he knew me to be. “You risked your life because it’s your fucking job. You prevented a major disaster and helped bring down Grady and his men. We might not get the win, but we sure as fuck brought them to their knees.”

He gave a swift nod, backing down immediately. “Message received.”

“Good.” Turning, I addressed everyone. “Rafe is tasking us with operational control for getting the city back on track over the next few weeks. As soon as we receive our orders, we’ll get in contact with the Mayor’s office. In the meantime, I want all of you working on potential problems from the power outage. Break up into teams and strategize how to best handle the situation. I want us prepared when we meet with the Mayor’s office. No doubt they’ll already have plans in place. Let’s make sure we’ve covered all angles.”

They all nodded and started to walk away. Rae hung back, though, knowing I would want her take on recent events. I nodded toward my office, then shut the door after she walked in. I hit the lights, remembering afterward that we didn’t have the power to waste.

“What did you get?” I asked, taking my seat behind my desk. She sat across from me as she started her account of our new enemy allies.

“Unfortunately, none of the other asswipes said anything, so that’s a bit of a dead end. It does tell us that they follow Rafe completely. None of them showed any signs of unease around him. They’re not going to help us out in any way. Any information we want, we’re going to have to get ourselves.”

“Can you do that?”

She snorted in amusement. “Right now? Not a chance. I do have some contacts I can reach out to. I’m not sure they’ll be any help with this situation.”

“Dammit,” I swore. “We need information as to what’s happening.”

“I thought we were letting it go.”

I shot her a funny look. “When have you ever known me to just let something go? No, we need to stay on top of this as best we can.”

“I have some friends that might be able to help. I can’t say it would be strictly legal.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Not even a little.”

I grinned at her. “Do it, but be careful. The last thing we need is anything to do with a terrorist threat coming back on us.”

“And Rafe?” she asked, after giving a tight nod.

I shuffled some things around on my desk, refusing to look at her immediately. Rafe was a touchy subject, and as I feared, she saw too much. “What about him?”

She cocked her head to the side, giving me a knowing look. “You didn’t ask about him.”

“I think you already know that I am aware of who Rafe is.”

“Yes, but you never said how close you really are with him.”

“And you think you know.”

A slight smile curved her lips. She was having fun with this, knowing she had me in a tight spot. “He’s important to you. You deferred to him, even when you didn’t mean to. And that either means that you have a personal relationship, or you owe him. You never back down to anyone, but you did to him.”

“It’s the government,” I countered. “They sort of outrank me.”

“Yes, but that’s never stopped you before. In the past, you would have complied to keep them happy, then turned around and stabbed them in the back.”

“Who says I’m not doing that now?”

“I do, and remember, I see everything. That’s part of the reason you hired me.”

“Very true,” I grinned.

“So?”

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