Page 61 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“Dig into your life and find out every last secret you have.”

I must have looked horrified, because he instantly started laughing. “I’m kidding. It’s just a little security humor. Come on, let’s go.”

He continued walking, leaving me to follow. I wasn’t sure that this was the smartest idea, but what other choice did I have at the moment?

23

CASH

I drove backto the office, remembering what Rae said about the way I needed to talk to Beth. This woman was holding a lot of secrets, and the interrogator inside me wanted to grill the information out of her. The other part of me wanted to believe that she wasn’t involved in this, because if she was, that meant my instincts were far off base. I actually felt bad for her, felt a need to protect her. I was worried about her and wanted to be there for her, only to find out that she was involved in this. Now this was personal. Yeah, I could see that she’d dealt with some shit in her life, but that was no reason to deal with terrorists. Now I just had to prove that.

I glanced over at her, wondering what was going through her mind right now. There was one thing I could never quite wrap my mind around, and that was how the criminal mind worked. There were good citizens out there that followed the law and never did anything wrong. And then there were criminals who repeatedly broke the law without a care about the repercussions. I’d seen it over and over again, men and women that ended up in jail, served their time, only to be released and commit another crime. How did someone live like that? How did one decide that helping terrorists was a good idea? What was she getting out of this?

I would normally assume she was in it for the money, but she was searching for a job. Maybe she didn’t get a dime out of them. It could be that she got on someone’s bad side, and she had to go along with their scheme to stay alive. Whatever the reason, I was going to get to the bottom of it. For now, I had to be civil. Once I got her back to the office, all bets were off.

“So, are you from around here?”

“Uh…no, I moved here about six months ago.”

I nodded, pretending to be really interested. “That’s cool. Where are you from?”

“Around,” she said vaguely.

It was clear I was going to have to really work for her trust. “I’m originally from Kansas. California is a far cry from that,” I grinned, glancing over at her.

She was frowning as she stared out the window. Was I boring her? Christ, it was like pulling teeth to get her to talk. I’d been in this situation before, where I needed to get a client to trust me, but this was different. Usually, I didn’t hate my clients, which made my job easier.

I pulled into the parking lot and pocketed Betty, who was hanging from my mirror. She was my good luck charm, and I really needed all I could get right now.

“What’s that?” she asked, nodding to my pocket.

“Oh…good luck charm. I’ve had her since I enlisted.”

“Betty Boop is your good luck charm?” She looked at me like I was insane.

“We all have something. She’s always been mine.”

She hesitated a moment, her eyes still on my pocket. “Does she work?”

“She got me out of some of the biggest fights of my life. Yeah, I’d say she works.”

She chewed on her lip thoughtfully, her gaze still riveted to my pocket. If she even thought about touching Betty, I’d break her fucking fingers. I got out and slammed the door, my eyes scanning the parking lot.

I was on higher alert than normal. With the power being down and a domestic terrorist on the loose, I wanted nothing more than to pull my gun just to scare off anyone that came near me. Ever since Sinner was attacked out here, I’d been thinking of where we could relocate. I needed someplace outside the city, where I could put more security features in place. I hated feeling so exposed.

I walked around to Beth’s side of the truck and opened the door for her. Placing my hand on her lower back, I noticed how she stiffened under my touch. “Just stay by my side,” I said quietly.

“Why?” She stopped suddenly, looking around the parking lot. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” But my eyes never stopped scanning. “Let’s get inside.”

She did as I said, but I could feel the panic coming off her in waves. My chest tightened as I watched her try to hide her fear. I hated that I felt something knowing she was so scared. The last thing I should feel for her is pity.

Unless…I couldn’t forget what Rae said, that she was a victim. What if she was right and I was wrong? That would be a huge coincidence. Grady hired me weeks ago. He could have been scheming with Beth all along. Maybe she came in to check me out in the gym, and then reported back to Grady that I was a good guy. That would have made him more willing to work with me, knowing that it might be easy to pull one over on me.

I yanked the door open and ushered her inside. Dash was just coming out of the IT room down the hall when he spotted me, his eyes going wide as he looked at Beth.

“Uh…what’s going on, boss?”

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