Page 84 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

But then something strange started playing. At first, I thought I was hearing things, that my mind was trying to take me someplace else, away from the pain and torment. It was a sad sort of melody, something that reminded me of a funeral.

Then I heard his voice, Fox was singing “Poor Jud Is Dead”.Despite feeling like absolute shit, I started to laugh. It hurt my chest and my cheeks burned as my lips cracked further, but it was worth it when I saw him walk through the door. All the men around me stepped back, glancing over at me as I laughed too hysterically considering the position I was in.

And then chaos kicked in. I watched through slit eyes as Fox danced around the room, throwing several knives in a row, taking out three different men with accurate precision. I shoved up on my elbow, feeling a burst of…well, it wasn’t energy, but it was something. I winced as I sat up, holding my ribs.

He strolled up to another man, who glanced over to me. He was clearly out of his depth with Fox. “—And his nails had never been so clean,” Fox sang. The man actually looked down at his nails just before Fox shoved a knife into his stomach. The man grunted, looking up at Fox in confusion. Then he collapsed to the ground, not dead, but not long for this life.

“Hey, sweetie pie. I bet you’re wishing now I had walked you inside.”

I would have rolled my eyes, but that used too much energy. “You…took them all out.”

“Of course I did. What kind of man do you take me for? Now, you sit there comfortably. I have to go collect my knives. Can’t leave any evidence behind,” he winked.

I nodded as he walked away, watching as he went to each body and yanked his knives out of them. They didn’t look like regular knives, but I didn’t really know anything about knives. He wiped the blood on their clothes, then pocketed them. Just as he was heading back over to me, the windows in the warehouse busted in and men swarmed the building. Fox was too far away to protect me, and there had to be at least twenty men storming the building…and they were all headed for me.

“Fox?”

“Yep?”

“Got any brilliant plans?”

“Give me a minute. I’m thinking.”

“Think faster,” I hissed. “I’m pretty much useless here. You brought backup, right?”

He glanced at me and frowned. “Backup? Is that a thing?”

I stared at him incredulously as one of the men stormed over and yanked me up by my bad arm. I cried out as he hauled me up. I barely caught sight of his face, and then I knew exactly who was after me.

29

CASH

“Fox is already in there,”Eli informed me as I set up Sally. “But we got a problem.”

“Of course we do. It’s Fox.”

“Well, the good news is, he killed all Hayes’s men.”

“And the bad news?”

“It looks like someone else is after her.”

I laid down on my belly and looked through my scope just as a man dragged her to her feet by her bad arm. I could see the pain etched on her face as she cried out.

“Fox is a sitting duck in there,” Eli said urgently.

“I got it,” I said tersely. This wasn’t like in the Marines. This was going to be down and dirty. I found my first target, the asshole holding Beth against his body. His head was nearly hidden behind her from this angle, but I had Betty on my side and she never let me down.

I took a deep breath.

“Boss!”

The man pulled a knife, raising it to her throat.

I adjusted one click, based solely on instinct. My finger slipped over the trigger.

“Boss!” Eli shouted. “Fucking do it!”

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