Page 49 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

Jones grinned at me. “You know I love to play with different types of weapons. So, what will you be needing?”

I blew out a breath as I looked around the massive weapons depot. “I have no clue yet. If we go up against Rafe, I’m not sure this is enough. For now, we have to find Eva’s aunt. We think she has the evidence we need to take down the governor.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Then we’re fucked,” Fox said bluntly. “Rafe probably has everyone at his disposal searching for us.”

“No,” I shook my head. “Rafe doesn’t play by the rules. There’ll be hell to pay for what we did to his facility, but there’s no way he can go back to his boss and tell him he got blown up because he threatened a civilian with imprisonment when she’s a victim.”

“Who says he’d tell his boss that?” Jones asked. “This is Rafe. You know he doesn’t give a fuck who he screws over.”

“Okay,” Fox cut in. “Why does he get to know who Rafe is?”

“Because he’s met him. We had…” I glanced over at Jones, “a bit of a run-in?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “That sounds about right. Well, if you want to count us blowing up his Humvee.”

“Honestly, it’s not like he didn’t deserve it, walking right into the middle of a firefight.”

“Look, Rafe isn’t exactly someone I want on my radar, nor do I want to be on his. It’s taken me years to finally be happy again. I’m not interested in joining your fight.”

I nodded, understanding what he was saying. After all the years, I still warred with my decision to not end his life, wondering if I had done the right thing by ignoring his request. I knew he was content now, but that didn’t mean he was living his life the way he truly wanted. Had he never been shot, he probably would have joined me at OPS. Maybe we would have been partners. Instead, he was hiding out in Montana.

“I won’t ask you to help. Give me a few days to get shit straightened out, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

He ran a hand over his buzzed head and chuckled. “It’s growing thinner by the moment.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

We headed out of the bunker and back to the house. Rae was waiting for us, jumping out of her seat the moment we walked through the door. “So, what was it like?”

“An arsenal,” was the only way to describe it.

“And he’s going to let us borrow it?”

“Well, I don’t know how much of it. And I’m sure we’ll owe him a shit ton of money to replace it. He’s got some nice weapons down there.”

“I say we take everything we need and go kill that motherfucker,” Fox grumbled. “He doesn’t deserve to breathe after what he put Eva through.”

“No,” her voice came from the top of the stairs.

I watched as she came downstairs, looking stronger than I had ever seen her. Standing tall, I knew she didn’t want a quick judgment for this man. “What do you want?” I asked.

“For him to pay. I want everyone to know what he did. Politicians get away with everything. They’re untouchable because of who they know. And then there’s me, the everyday citizen who has done absolutely nothing wrong. I worked hard, I paid my bills, and I never even got a speeding ticket. Yet, I was forced to go on the run and into hiding because this man was breaking the law a million times over. He abused every citizen that paid taxes every time he stole money from them. And I want everyone to know what kind of scum he is.”

I smiled at her, proud that she wasn’t going to back down from this fight. “Then we need to get to work. We have to find your aunt and figure out where she’s hiding.”

“If she’s still alive,” Eva corrected. “They could have found her a long time ago.”

“I don’t think so,” Rae said. She pulled out her laptop and opened it up. “I haven’t had much time to search for her, considering how many times we’ve been attacked over the last few days. But I did have a chance to look into the guy you were telling me about. I found quite a few Noah’s within a fifty mile radius of where your aunt was living. Several were a good twenty years older than her. One was just in high school. But there were five that are close enough in age to fit the man you described.”

“And? Did you narrow it down any?”

She cocked her head at me. “You know, between the hospital and meeting up with Rafe, and then being imprisoned at his super secret spy center, I didn’t have a chance to look any further. But, give me some time and I’ll have the answers we need.”

* * *

I wentin search of Eva after she disappeared on me during my conversation with Rae. I wasn’t sure that she wanted to hear anything about her aunt right now. I could only imagine what it was like for her, to know that her last living relative might be dead, and that she might have been for some time.

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