Page 56 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

“I Require Intense Supervision.”

I stopped scrolling through the photos to look at her. “Really?”

“Yep.”

“And everyone calls him this?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And he knows what it means?”

She snorted. “Cash gave it to him his first week at work. He was playing with explosives and nearly blew off his own hand.”

“Then why did he keep him?”

“Well, IRIS was an EOD Specialist.”

“What does that even mean?”

“He was an Explosives Ordnance Disposal Specialist.” I stared at her, shaking my head. “He disposed of bombs,” she said more plainly.

“Voluntarily?”

“The man is obsessed with making things blow up.”

“But I thought his job was to make sure that thingsdidn’tblow up,” I said in confusion.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “But when you spend that long making sure things don’t go boom, you kinda want to switch sides and watch the fireworks.”

I didn’t understand these people. I would have thought that their time in the military would make them more jaded about weapons or something. Yet, they all seemed to love shooting guns and playing with knives. They took pleasure in watching someone die, at least, that’s the way it seemed.

“So, do you still need more information on Cash?”

“Yes,” I sighed, “but it’s not something I want to get from you.”

“Why?”

“Because this isn’t how a relationship works. I don’t want you to look up information on your computer and tell me things that I should be finding out on my own.”

She frowned, looking at her computer. “But…that’s how we gather intel.”

“Maybe in your world, but in my world, we talk to people to get to know them.”

“Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from. You know a great way to do that?”

“Go out for coffee?”

“I was going to say fight him in the ring, but I guess your way would work too. Even if it is boring and predictable.”

“Rae, I’ve been on the run for years. The last thing I need is more excitement in my life.”

She grinned, nodding at me. “Yeah, you say that now, but as soon as that shoulder’s healed, you’ll be begging me to teach you to fight. And then you’ll be asking Cash for your very own gun. Before too long, you’ll be asking IRIS how to dispose of a bomb.”

I shook my head in awe. This woman was…insane. Truly, one hundred percent certifiable. “Or, maybe I’ll be finally settling down and living a normal life like I always wanted.”

“Not if you stay with Cash.”

She turned back to her computer and started working again. As for me, with nothing else to do but sit there and think about my relationship with her boss, I started to wonder if this would ever work between us. I did want to learn to fight and defend myself, but I wanted so much more. Was it really out of the question to wish for a simple life where I could live in peace? My greatest dream was to have kids one day with the man I loved. I didn’t want to raise them around violence and destruction like I had been. But it seemed that any life with Cash would prove more dangerous than I thought. Looking back over the past week, we’d been on the run, were attacked and ended up in the hospital, then trapped in a government facility. What if he had other clients where something similar happened? Would I just be waiting at home for him to return?

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