Page 15 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

CASH

I spunaround in my seat, watching in horror as the car New Guy was driving exploded in a fiery ball of flames. “Turn around!” I shouted to Rae.

She spun the wheel, taking us back to the main road. Jack and Jason were already headed in that direction, firing on the last SUV. Johnny pulled up beside us in the vehicle he overtook during the chase. I shouldn’t have left New Guy to handle the situation on his own, but I had to protect Eva. Not to mention, we had two other SUVs barreling down on us the whole time.

Jack had taken out the third SUV, nearly causing an accident as it rolled down the highway after he sent a few grenades through their windows, causing them to lose control before the explosion. Now he had a machine gun out, firing on the vehicle that took out New Guy. The bad guys’ SUV went off the road, following New Guy’s car into the ravine.

We skidded to a stop at the edge, and I jumped out, running over to see the damage. Two vehicles sat at the bottom, burning to hell.

“There’s no way anyone survived that,” Rae pointed out.

“I know,” I mumbled. I didn’t even know if New Guy had family. Did he have a wife and kid? What about his parents? “Fuck, this is a disaster. We need to get off the grid and away from these assholes.”

Johnny walked up beside me, shaking his head as he stared down at the wreckage below. “Fuck, that guy was insane.”

I heard footsteps running up behind me, and then Eva was standing at the edge, fisting one hand in the air and jumping in glee. “Fireworks! I love them!”

“Can we knock her out now?” Rae asked.

I sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Fuck it, let’s do it.”

“Should we say a few words?” Jack asked.

“Nobody knew him. He just joined the team,” Rae pointed out.

“Still,” Johnny mumbled, then cleared his throat. “He liked Garth Brooks and…apparently he worked at a winery.”

“Seriously?” I asked. “How the fuck do you know all that?”

“The guy wouldn’t shut up,” he muttered. “You know, he handed me a fucking umbrella while I was on top of the SUV,” he snorted. “Who the fuck does that?”

“FNGs,” I retorted.

We all stood there, paying our respects to the new guy that had just died in a massive explosion as he bravely fought to protect us.

I heard a huffing in my ear, and then a hand clasped me on the shoulder. “Whatcha guys lookin’ at?”

I spun around in shock, staring at New Guy as he looked down at the wreckage with us. “How are you—”

“Fuck, that was awesome! Did you see that?”

“Yes, I saw that. You died when a fucking RPG hit your car!”

He tossed his head back in laughter. “Yeah, that was a good one, but you can’t kill me. You can try, but it won’t work.”

All of us stood there in shock, not quite sure what to say about this new development. Then New Guy walked over to Johnny, slapping him on the back. “Hey, there partner. I see you took care of that other vehicle.”

Johnny snorted. “No thanks to the umbrella you gave me.”

“Hey, you could have poked someone’s eye out with that.”

“Not that this new development isn’t super weird or anything, but shouldn’t we get the fuck out of here before someone else tries to kill us?” Rae asked.

“Let’s get to a motel for the night,” Jack grunted. “She needs to sleep off the high of the medication, then we can get some fucking answers.”

“I know a place we can go,” Jason responded, still staring at the flames. “Unless you were planning on sticking around for the next wave of assholes to come at us.”

We all nodded in agreement and headed back to the vehicles. New Guy joined us since his car was out of commission. I let New Guy sit up front, and I took the back seat with Eva. She was staring out the window, like she was hypnotized by the sky.

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