Page 8 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

It made me laugh because Eva was not the type to talk like this. She had sass and attitude. Right now, she was vulnerable and carefree. “I think you’re pretty too.”

“Aw, you’re just saying that. It’s because you’ve seen me naked,” she whispered, then pressed her finger to her lips.

“That might be part of it,” I chuckled.

The curtain opened behind me and Rae walked in. “Still laying in bed? I thought we were getting the hell out of here.”

“She just woke up,” I snapped.

“It’s Rae!” Eva said cheerily. “My favoritest kickass woman!”

“Christ,” Rae turned to me. “Are we going to have to deal with this level of cheer the whole drive?”

“Well, if you had gotten us a flight like I asked, it wouldn’t take so long to get to the safe house.”

“Can’t you give her a sedative or something? We could just knock her out for the drive.”

I scoffed at the incredulity of the statement. “Are you fucking kidding me? She just had surgery under anesthesia, and you want to knock her out again?”

“It’s not like it was real surgery,” Rae grumbled. “It was like kitten surgery. I mean, come on,” she scoffed. “It’s not like she had open heart surgery. She’s getting released in another hour.”

The curtain was flung back and Johnny Wood stepped inside. “Not another hour. We need to beat feet. We’ve got unfriendlies moving in from all directions. Jason’s getting transport.”

I glanced back at Eva, worried about trying to move her in this state. We’d have to figure that out as we went. I stood and slipped my arm under her back to help her sit up. I knew it was going to be difficult, but when I swung her legs over the side of the bed, she slumped over, laughing hysterically. The thing about drugs, everyone reacted differently to them. At least I wasn’t dealing with tears right now.

“Shit, this isn’t going to work. She can’t walk out of here like this, and I can’t fucking carry her without raising alarms.”

“We need an alternate route. There’s no way we can get her out the front door without them spotting us,” Johnny answered.

“How the fuck did they even find us?” I seethed.

“We’ll figure that out later. For now, we need a way out.”

“Hey!” New Guy said as he came rushing up, pulling the curtain closed behind him. “I have an idea, but we need to move fast.” He started handing out clothes, shoving them all in my hands and Rae’s. He turned to Johnny with a shrug. “Sorry, there’s no fucking way in the world to hide all…” He waved his hand up and down Johnny’s large frame. “This.”

“What is this?” I asked, staring at the scrubs.

“Just get dressed and put everything on. I’ll be right back. Johnny, stand guard until I get back.”

He turned to me, quirking his eyebrow at me. “I love being voluntold.”

Rae laughed. “FNGs.”

“Right now, if he can get us out of here, that’s all I fucking care about.”

I started stripping out of my clothes and pulling on the scrubs New Guy handed me. Rae did the same, and I didn’t miss the way Johnny blatantly stared at her body. There would definitely be fucking if they were left alone for too long.

By the time we were dressed, New Guy was pushing a gurney inside the curtained-off area, leaving hardly any room for the rest of us.

“Here’s the plan,” he said, grabbing a map he had taken from the hallway wall. “If we take this route, it’ll look like we’re taking her to surgery. We can put her on the gurney and we should be able to slip down there undetected.”

“What about the doors?” Johnny asked. “You need a keycard.”

“You mean like this one?” New Guy asked, grinning as he pulled out a stolen keycard. “It won’t be long before it’s reported missing, so we need to move fast. At the end of this hallway,” he pointed to the map, “if we turn this way, it’ll take us to another wing of the hospital that leads over here. We can slip out through the tunnel and come out in the underground parking area.”

I studied the map. It was a long way to go, and I wasn’t sure we would be able to get out undetected. “You’re talking about making it across the entire fucking hospital and hoping we don’t get caught.”

“It’s the only way. They’ve already got the main exits covered,” he said, looking to Johnny for confirmation.

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