Page 79 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

“No, but he definitely wasn’t at the office when IRIS blew it up.”

“Then where the hell is he?” Jones muttered. “It’s not like him to back down from a fight.”

“No, it’s not,” I said, knowing everything he was saying was true. “And he wanted Eva. He wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble to keep her just to give up.”

“Yeah, but he’s been dealing with other things,” Jones answered. “Besides, if he knew where you were, he would have shown up earlier this week. Rafe doesn’t let things slide. And as much as I’d like to think my cabin is completely off the grid and secure, he has resources to find me.”

“We haven’t spoken in years.”

“That makes me the perfect person to run to. He knows that.”

“And he’s pissed about us blowing up his building, so he would put every resource into finding us. So, what’s his game plan?”

“Maybe he doesn’t have one.”

I turned to face my old friend, not sure what he was saying. “It’s Rafe.”

“And he always knows the next target, but didn’t Rae say that this militia contact was hard to track? Maybe he decided to sit back and let you do all the heavy lifting.”

My eyes widened as realization dawned. “Fuck, he could have been here all along.”

“You need to leave,” he said urgently, both of us assuming the same thing.

I started to run to the door when a distant explosion sounded and one of the alarms went off. Jones was by the computer in a flash, searching through the cameras. “There,” he pointed at the screen. “They triggered one of my IEDs.”

Jones started hitting things on his keyboard. More explosions sounded, and when the smoke cleared, our new friends were revealed. “Fuck, they’ve been hiding out. You need to haul ass now!”

“You’re coming with us.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Now, Jones! You know Rafe won’t let you go once he has you.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I walked over to him and grabbed him by the collar. “He will use you against me. Don’t put your life in my hands twice. You won’t like the way it turns out,” I threatened.

He gave a curt nod and we headed into the other room. “Let’s move!” I shouted. Fox and I quickly moved over to the wall safe Jones had and took weapons as he handed them out.

“No time for the arsenal. Take what you can,” he said, shoving a magazine into his gun. He put it in his holster and headed for the back door. Rae had Eva by the arm and was dragging her toward the door. We were leaving everything behind, and as Jones looked back longingly at his cabin, I knew he was about to do something fucking crazy.

We started running to the edge of the property. It seemed they only thought we would escape to the road, but we had other plans. Once we hit the property line, Jones ran over to a fence post and broke it in half. A metal contraption stuck out of the ground and he slammed his foot down on it. Within seconds, the cabin exploded in flames, the windows breaking out from the sudden burst of energy. Eva flinched back from the force of it, and then I was dragging her with me as we ran for cover.

“Boss!” Fox shouted, pulling his gun and aiming it over my shoulder. I spun, pushing Eva to the ground as we all turned to fire on the men closing in on us. I fired round after round, stalling for just a second when I saw a flash of white hair attached to a little old lady’s head.

“No fucking way,” I muttered.

“Is that…” Rae said, shocked as hell.

Eva’s head popped up and she looked around. “What? What are we…You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” She slammed her hand down on the ground as I internally laughed.

Jones wasn’t laughing, and took her out before the rest of us could. I hauled Eva off the ground and we took off running.

“I’m not naming my kid Cashina!” Rae shouted as we made a run for it.

25

EVA

---