Page 16 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

“Here, you need to take your medication,” I told her.

“Ooh! Tic Tacs!” she grinned, grabbing it out of my hand and swallowing it.

Rae turned around in her seat. “Are we really going to follow these guys with no idea where they’re taking us or why?”

“What choice do we have?”

She shrugged. “We could head home. At least then we’re on our own turf.”

“They’ll be expecting us to go home eventually.”

“So, we’re just going to run forever?” New Guy snorted. “Sounds like a solid plan.”

“You got a better one?”

“Yeah, let’s go find the asshole after her and take the fight to him.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds. As much as I’d like to just take him out, he’s too well protected.”

“Boss, I hate to point this out,” Rae said, “but how can we trust Rafe’s guys?”

“They already proved they can be trusted.”

“In certain situations,” she retorted. “They helped us because they were trapped too.”

“They helped us because Rafe told them to,” I corrected her. “They’ll stick by us.”

“And what if he calls them off? Do you think they’ll choose to stick around?”

“He wouldn’t do that.”

“How can you be sure? Who is this Rafe guy?” New Guy asked.

“He’s…He’s someone I’ve known for a very long time. And you’re going to have to trust me that he won’t fuck us over.”

New Guy turned back in his seat, settling in for the drive. “I say we grab some shuteye while we can. Who knows when more of those assholes will show up.”

“How did you even escape?” Rae asked as she pulled out behind Jack.

“Easy, I jumped out of the car.”

“When? We saw the RPG. You shouldn’t have survived that.”

“Ah, yes, but I saw it too, and I wasn’t about to die. I just had to wait for the perfect moment to jump out. I’ll admit, I felt a little singed as I rolled down the hill, but all’s well that ends well,” he said, completely unbothered by the fact that he almost died.

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“Nope.”

“Why?” Rae asked.

New Guy was resting back against the seat, nearly asleep already. “Nearly dying is a yearly occurrence for me,” he mumbled. “Can’t kill me.”

I quirked an eyebrow at Rae as she stared at me in the rearview mirror. Maybe he was right. After all, he did a swan dive out of a window, and narrowly escaped an RPG. Maybe he really was bulletproof.

* * *

We pulledup to a remote cabin in Colorado. After driving the rest of the day, we were all exhausted. After giving Eva pain medication, she slept off the rest of the high she was on. I carried her inside, taking her up to a room where she could sleep. She mumbled as I set her down, her eyes fluttering open.

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