Page 24 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

I gave a tight nod, knowing there was nothing I could do about it. My personal feelings for Eva didn’t outweigh the safety of the entire nation. And though I may have lost sight of that over the past two days, I couldn’t forget my initial worries over Hayes’s involvement in the power outage and the possible repercussions.

8

EVA

A light knockon the door had me looking up from where I sat cross-legged on the bed, picking at the threadbare sheets. Rae stood in the doorway, quirking an eyebrow at me. After a moment, she let herself in, walking over to me with a sigh.

“Well, I heard you had quite the blowup downstairs.”

“I guess you could say that.”

“You pulled a gun on them, and didn’t shoot them. I’d say that’s restraint. Trust me, I’ve spent enough time alone with them that I might decide to pull the trigger.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” I laughed. Rae sat down beside me, resting her head back against the wall. “So, they sent you up here to talk to me.”

“Not exactly. They told me what happened. I called them all morons, and then decided to come talk to you like a normal person.”

I looked over at her, determined not to give in. “I won’t tell them anything more. I don’t know them.”

“Who exactly do you think they are?”

“Maybe they work for the governor. They could be trying to get information on where the evidence is hidden. As soon as I give that up, I’m dead.”

A smirk filled her face. “But you don’t actually know where the evidence is.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Yeah, I really do. See, there’s one thing I do really well…okay, besides fucking and working with computers.”

“So, there’s three things.”

“There’s probably a lot more than that. I’m also a very good fighter.”

I sighed, resting my head back against the wall beside her. “Did you have a point to get to anytime soon?”

“I’m very good at reading people, and I can tell that you don’t know where the evidence is. I think you thought you knew where it was, but now you have no idea.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, from what Cash said, you thought your aunt was at that house. When you showed up there and found out she wasn’t there, that pretty much clued me in that the evidence was gone.”

“You don’t know that,” I choked out. If it was gone, that meant that I had nothing to protect myself with. I would perpetually be in hiding, and Cash couldn’t protect me forever.

She bumped her shoulder against mine. “You know, if you trusted me, I might be able to help you.”

“It just seems like so much. I’ve been dealing with this for so long, and I’m afraid that if I say anything else, that’s it. It’s over for me.”

“That’s when you were running and on your own. Cash would never give up on you.”

“You don’t know that. I’ve been dealing with this for years, and I can tell you right now that I’m tired of it. I wouldn’t blame him if he walked away.”

“Then you haven’t spent enough time with Cash. He doesn’t walk away from anything. He never gives up.”

“Everybody gives up on something at some point.”

She shook her head at me. “Not him. He’s not afraid of anything, except maybe one thing, and that’s failing you. Have you ever seen the necklace he wears?”

I was wearing it. I vaguely remembered him handing it to me, but I couldn’t remember why. “It’s a bullet,” I said, staring down at it.

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