Page 44 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

I ran my hand along her neck, resting my thumb right over her pulse. It was kicking into high gear. She was still scared.

“I’ve never relied on someone else before. It’s hard for me to believe any of this is real.”

I wanted her to just trust in me, but I knew that was asking a lot. We already made a lot of progress, but it would take time for her to know that I wasn’t the type to abandon a mission, or anyone I cared about. But she’d see it eventually.

“We should get moving.” I grabbed her hand and started pulling her along. We had a long way to go before we got out of the tunnel, and I didn’t want to get caught in another one of IRIS’s plans to destroy the facility.

* * *

After meetingup with the rest of the team and seeing the destruction they caused, I wasn’t inclined to stick around and face Rafe’s wrath when he finally dug his way out of the mess IRIS left him with. The facility wasn’t just a little banged up. The entire entrance was caved in, and most of the soldiers were putting out fires so no one suffocated on the lower levels. That was the problem with working underground. There were too many ways to get yourself killed.

New Guy went south with everyone else, while Rae, Fox, Eva, and I headed north. I didn’t tell anyone where we were going. I trusted all of them with my life, but this wasn’t my secret, and since Jones was about to be outed, I felt it only fair that he keep his privacy for as long as possible. Besides, if he caught anyone looking up his address, like Rae would do if she found out where we were going, he would cut ties and be gone before we got there.

After driving all day, we pulled down the gravel road to his house just as the sun was starting to set. Even though the house was set back a mile from the road, I knew he was already aware we were coming. The man was more than paranoid. He was downright suspicious of everyone, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that included me.

“Who’s place is this again?” Rae asked for the tenth time since we stopped for dinner.

“An old buddy of mine.”

She immediately pulled out her laptop, ready to do a search for anyone I might be connected to.

“Don’t even think about it. If you do that, you’re fucking us all over.”

“By searching names?”

“And addresses. I know the way you think, Rae. He’ll bolt the minute he sees you’re looking into him.”

“How would he know I’m looking into him? Is he like me?”

“A little worse in some ways. He already knows we’re here. The best thing you can do is put your shit away. Don’t pull out your gun when we approach the house, and whatever you do, don’t try to manipulate answers out of him.”

I watched her in the rearview mirror as she wiggled in her seat as we approached the house. “Now I’m dying to know who this guy is.”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” I said as I parked the vehicle.

“Don’t bring a damn thing with you. He’ll want to search the vehicle and all our things before we head inside.”

“But then he’ll find all the guns,” Eva said.

“The guns aren’t what he’s looking for,” I said, glancing over at her. I grabbed her hand and gave a squeeze. “Trust me.”

I opened the door and stepped out, my hands away from my body so he could clearly see I wasn’t about to pull a gun on him. I scanned the tree line and around the house, sure he was hiding somewhere in the distance. Then I heard the distinct sound of a twig snapping behind me, letting us know he arrived.

I slowly turned around to face him, grinning as I saw him leaning against a tree casually. But I knew he was ready to go at the first sign of trouble. “Jones.”

“Cash, I thought I told you not to come out here unless it was on vacation.”

“Yeah, I was never very good at following orders.”

He nodded, smirking at me. “You alway did go your own way, even when a friend asked for something different.”

And that was the very reason he didn’t want me out here. We were out on a mission when he was clipped with a bullet. Clipped was probably the wrong word. The bullet sliced open his femoral artery, and I had to place a tourniquet on him to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, it took too long for a medevac to arrive, and he lost his leg. In those hours we waited, he begged me to end it, to put a bullet in his head.

I thought about it many times, even came close to pulling the trigger, but I never gave up. I couldn’t be responsible for ending his life, even if it was the kinder thing to do. And with every hour that passed, he cursed me and told me he would never speak to me again if I couldn’t give him this one thing. I wasn’t sure if he would ever forgive me, or would trust me again.

“How’s the leg?”

His eyes hardened slightly. “Good as new. Just got an upgrade. But you didn’t come here to check on me.”

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