Page 94 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“You have all that here?”

He gave a curt nod. “Would you like to see it?”

“Sure.”

He took my hand, leading me down the stairs to what I could only imagine was some kind of next gen technology. I’d never seen anything like this before. With computers running and what looked like code scrolling across the screen, I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was what.

He picked up a remote and flicked on a screen. “These are our cameras from the outside.”

“How do you monitor all this?”

“We have sensors that go off if someone crosses the property line. OPS is also monitoring it, so they’ll notify us if they see anything suspicious.”

He walked past the screens to the back of the room. Rummaging through the shelves, he pulled out something with a triumphant grin. “Looks like we don’t need to make a sling.”

He unfolded it, showing a black sling that he quickly put into place around my arm. The relief was instant. “How does that feel?”

“Amazing. I mean, not as good as if my arm wasn’t hurt, but so much better.”

“How did you hurt it, anyway?”

I instantly clammed up. Years of keeping secrets made it impossible for me to blurt out all the things that had happened to me in the past.

“Beth, I’m fucking tired and hungry. We both need sleep, but we also need to talk about what’s going on. If we’re going to get out of this alive, I need to know I can trust you, and that starts with you telling me everything you know.”

I wanted to argue with him, but he was right. The time for keeping secrets was over. He’d already proven that he would go above and beyond to protect me. The longer I held onto these secrets, the more dangerous it became for everyone, and that was a bad game to play.

“Alright.”

33

CASH

After a quick dinner,I patched myself up with some glue, then taped a bandage over the wound on my front and back. I did a final check of the perimeter and checked in with Dash one more time. All was quiet. There were no signs of anyone approaching the safe house, but that wasn’t the only thing on my mind.

“Put Eli on the phone.”

“Right here, boss,” Eli said, moving into the picture.

“Everyone get out okay?”

“Well, you know IRIS. He had to blow up some shit. He singed off an eyebrow, but that’s nothing unusual.”

I shook my head with a laugh. “Of course he did. And our new friends?”

“Well, most of them took off after you. I’m assuming since you’re still alive and kicking that you took them out.”

“Piece of cake,” I smirked.

“Yeah, that’s what Dash said. He also said something about a nice red stain you added to your collection.”

“You know how it is,” I answered.

He nodded, but I could feel him searching my face for answers. “We’ve got Hayes on ice. What do you want to do about him?”

“Nothing for the moment. I need to talk to Beth.”

He looked at me funny. “Boss, you’ve been with her all day, and you still haven’t talked to her? What the fuck are you doing?”

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