Page 64 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“It can wait,” I said, stepping past him.

“Rafe is on the phone,” he added quickly. “Something about an update on the situation.” His eyes flicked to Beth’s for just a moment. I knew he was stalling, but if Rafe really was on the phone and I ignored him, I could be missing vital intel.

“Fine,” I took a step back. “I’ll be right back.” Turning to Beth, I gave her a trusting smile. “I’ll only be a minute.”

She nodded as I turned on my heel and headed upstairs. I was prepared to walk into that room and find out that this was all a ploy to get me away from Beth, but when I walked inside, Mark waved me over, handing me the phone.

“Cash,” I barked.

“About fucking time. Don’t you have a working phone on you?”

“We’re still in the dark ages, here.”

“Not from what I heard. Get a fucking phone and keep it on you.”

I huffed out a laugh. “I wasn’t aware you were into sharing information now.”

“Listen to me,” he said sternly. “Grady isn’t behind this.”

“I could have fucking told you that,” I retorted.

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. You didn’t seem too interested in sharing information.”

“Goddamnit, Cash! This is fucking serious.”

“I’m aware of that, which is why I have someone in custody right fucking now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The graphite bomb that was set off was only a distraction.”

“For what?”

“If you want to know, you have to include me in this investigation. I’m not playing second fiddle when I’m the one with all the information.”

I knew he didn’t want to play this my way, but he didn’t have a choice if he wanted answers. “I can’t get down there for two days.”

“Then I’ll continue as planned and you can catch up when you get here,” I said, hanging up the phone.

I walked downstairs, but Beth wasn’t outside the interrogation room like I thought. I heard raucous laughter coming from inside the training room and shoved the doors open. Fox was stuck in a climbing rope after what I deduced was another one of his experiments. Lock and Dash were laughing with him, and a few of the other guys had joined him.

“Beth!” I shouted just a tad too loudly.

She jumped, spinning on her heel to face me. Her face was red as she scurried back over to me. The rest of the guys were glaring at me, a few of them shaking their heads at me.

“We should continue with our tour.”

“Sure.”

I glared at each of them as I turned and guided her back through the door and over to the interrogation room. Opening the door, she stiffened immediately when she saw the table and chairs. Stepping right up behind her, I gave her no choice but to walk inside.

“What is this?” she asked, turning on me and backing away.

“I want to ask you a few questions.”

“This is not why you said you were bringing me here.”

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