Page 7 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

I sighed, thinking of my options. “I don’t trust New Guy with her, not completely, but I need you at my back. Wherever we’re going, I need one face I can trust explicitly.”

“And you can’t trust Rafe,” she surmised.

I gave her my full attention now. This was important, more so than anything else. “Don’t go digging into him. I’m telling you, he’s not someone you want to fuck with.”

“Who said anything about digging?” she asked innocently. “Besides, I don’t need to know who all your friends are.”

“I never said we were friends.”

“Precisely,” she grinned as she turned to walk away.

“Hey,” I stopped her, still needing to work out Eva’s protection detail. “Get Fox out here. And Thumper’s team,” I added quickly.

She cringed at that. “Are you sure you want IRIS out here? Boss, he’s more likely to draw attention than actually keep her hidden.”

“He’s also the best at blowing shit up. He’ll go to the extreme, and that’s what I need right now.”

“Boss, we’d all go to the extreme.”

“I know, but…it’s IRIS.”

She smirked at me. “Yeah, I know.”

“Call Lock and put the whole office on notice. I don’t trust the governor to just come after us. Tell them to be ready for anything.”

“What do you want to do about New Guy?”

I glanced over her shoulder to where he was standing in the lobby, talking on the phone. “Send him back to the office. Until he can learn to follow orders, I don’t want him with me, especially not around Rafe. He’d chew him up and spit him out.”

“No problem. I don’t mind knocking him down a peg or two.”

“That’s not what I said,” I shouted after her as she walked away.

Shaking my head, I was about to go grab a new cup of coffee when the doctor walked out with a smile on his face.

“It’s over?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “And she’ll be fine. She had more damage to her arm than we suspected. Are you sure she only injured it in the accident?”

“She complained about it hurting before,” I answered, not explaining further.

He nodded, but he watched me warily. “She’ll recover in no time. She’ll need to wear a sling for about four weeks, depending on how quickly she’s healing, and then she’ll need some physical therapy.”

“And her head injury?”

“She has a concussion, but she appears to be fine,” he smiled kindly. “Keep an eye on her. I’ll give you a printout of things to watch for, but I think she’ll be up and moving around in no time.”

“Thank you. Can I see her?”

“I’ll send a nurse out to get you soon.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as he walked away. I hadn’t felt this rattled about anything in a long time. And when I looked at my hands and noticed them shaking, I squeezed them tight and forced myself to calm down. She was fine.

* * *

When she woke up,she was groggy and a little loopy from the meds they had her on. I held her hand in mine, grinning down at her as she shot me a toothy grin.

“You’re so pretty,” she said in a cute voice.

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