Page 90 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“I amnotheavy,” I snapped.

“Well, it wasn’t like I was carrying a can of tomatoes.”

I smiled tiredly at his joking, but the truth was, we were both exhausted. He just hid it better. “We can’t go into town for supplies looking like this.”

“You’re not going anywhere. If I brought you anywhere near town, someone would accuse me of beating you, and then we’d be in a shit ton of trouble.”

“But why couldn’t we go to the police? Wouldn’t they be able to help?”

“There are a handful of people I trust. I don’t trust police when I don’t know them. I can’t judge how they’ll react or who they’ll contact. And since we don’t know who else was after us, I can’t risk anyone else finding out where we are right now.”

“So, how are we going to do this?”

“We’ll make it as close to town as possible and then you’ll hide out while I go get supplies.”

“Your shirt is full of blood,” I pointed out. “You don’t think anyone will be suspicious of that?”

“I’ll figure something out. Are you ready to move?”

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I could even stand, but there was no way I was allowing him to keep carting me around. “You said a half mile? I think I can handle that.”

He nodded in approval. “You can rest while I go into town.”

“No time to waste, then.”

I tried to stand up, but my body was hurting badly. Cash slipped his arms around me, helping me up. He didn’t release me like I thought he would. Instead, he kept his arm wrapped around me, helping me walk across the last half mile into town. When we were just on the edge of town, he glanced over at me, taking in how hard I was breathing, and lowered me to the ground.

“That’s far enough.” He glanced around, checking out our surroundings. “I can’t carry Sally into town with me, so I need you to keep an eye on her for me.”

“Sally?”

I pulled my rifle off my back and out of the gun case. Her eyes went wide as she looked it over. “You want me to use that?”

“Only if you need to.” I pulled out the magazine and sighed. “Only one round left. Use it wisely, and preferably not on me.”

“I’ve never even held one of these before.”

“If you need to use it, wait until your target is close. You don’t want to waste a bullet shooting at something you know you can’t hit.”

He quickly took me through how to use it, but most of it was over my head. I just hoped I didn’t have to actually use it. I gingerly took the gun from him, laying it across my lap as I leaned back against the tree. My eyes closed involuntarily. I wasn’t sure it would matter if I had the rifle. I felt like passing out, and then this would have all been for nothing when they found me and shot me because I was sleeping.

After being taken, beaten, and running for our lives, exhaustion was pounding down on me. But the morning sun shining through the trees warmed me slightly, giving me hope that this wasn’t the end. I could have sworn I felt Cash’s warm hand brush against my cheek, but when my eyes fluttered open, he was gone.

31

CASH

I couldn’t tearmy eyes off the peaceful look on her face. Despite being beaten to hell, she looked peaceful leaning against the tree. I couldn’t believe that I thought this woman could ever be involved in a terrorist plot. If I had just believed her, maybe I could have kept her safe, but instead, she was struggling to stay awake, let alone walk.

I brushed the back of my hand against her bruised cheek, vowing this would not happen again to her. I would protect her with everything in me, and find out who was behind wanting her dead.

Standing, I turned and headed into town, pulling my gun from the holster at my back to check how much ammunition I had left. There wasn’t much, but it would get me through as long as we weren’t attacked. Right now, I needed more ammunition for Sally, and for my Beretta. After using it in the military for so long, it was like a second skin to me. I found it difficult to use any other weapon besides Sally.

The safe house would have canned food in stock, but we could really use some essentials for a few days, not to mention a change of clothes. If I was lucky, I could find a used vehicle to get us out there so we didn’t have to hike it.

Luckily, I had my ID for my alter ego, Atticus Finch. It was an alias I created not long after getting out of the military when I was first starting up OPS. I knew there might be occasions when I would need a credit card and ID that wasn’t directly linked to me or OPS.

As I entered town, I was well aware of how I looked. But we had chosen a safe house out here for a reason. This was a hunting community, so it was easy to get supplies where no one would look twice at you. The thrift store at the edge of town tended to put out items on clothing racks for people to browse. I quickly pulled a flannel shirt off the rack and buttoned it up, then headed inside and browsed through the women’s section. After grabbing a few things for her, and then found a few more things for myself, I paid the cashier and walked out.

---