Page 4 of Shatterproof

“Yeah!” Gentry shouts as he leaps off the queen size boat bed. “I wanna go home!”

“Then let’s get you there.” Unfortunately, the instant his small hand lands in mine, there’s a noticeable jerk motion from the vehicle we’re still on, one that prompts me to halt our movements and grunt into my com, “Little Boy Blu, tell me you’re not doin’ what the fuck I think you’re doin’.”

“You told me to get us a boat,” he cockily replies.

My head drops backward in defeat and disbelief alike. “Yeah, I didn’t think I needed to specifynot the one we’re already on!”

“Well, you did,” Blu snips back in a snarky nature, “and rather than focus on my amazing comprehension skills-”

“Lack of amazin’.”

“-you should get your ass up here and cover mine. We’ve got three bogies-” he abruptly stops, hums, and sighs, “make that four. No. Wait. Six?” It’s his turn to grumble in irritation. “What are you, fucking carpet beetles?! Who multiplies this fucking fast?!”

“You finally made up with Aviva, didn’t you?”

“Don’t judge me for banging a woman who’s into insects, Wahl!”

“I judge you for usin’ weird fuckin’ metaphors that I know that apiculturist of yours is responsible for teachin’ you.”

Seriously.

Knowing my boy now gets a little wood when he sees ladybugs because the woman, he’s thinking about marrying gets turned on watching them fuck, is the type of shit I could’ve gone to my grave being clueless about.

“Could you fucking judge me from up here?” he grouses through what I envision are gritted teeth. “Maybe prevent us from losing an engine?”

“Roger.” My attention drops down to where our target is peering up at me in curiosity. “So, Gentry, I need you to do me a brave, big boy favor. Think you can?”

He eagerly bobs his head.

“I need you to go hide under that desk over there until I come back down to get you.”

“But it’s smelly in here!”

Yeah.

Doesn’t take long for dead bodies to do that.

Fun fact Ineverhesitate to point out during movie night at my place.

“I know it is, pal, that’s part of what makes it abrave,big boy favor instead of just a big boy favor.”

He nods again – this time like the assignment he’s been given is a top-secret mission – and rushes away to the most secure area in the room.

Chances are rounds won’t pierce this space, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Yeah, the directive may just be a simple return the kid home; however, that doesn’t mean I wanna deliver him with more holes than he left with or spend my time during transport patching the poor, innocent child up.

Just because I have some of the best on site medic training possible doesn’t mean I wanna fucking use it.

Definitely not on a kid.

As Gentry secures himself under the furniture – including pulling the nearby chair in front of him like it’s a door – I free my 6’2 frame of my fins.

My mask.

My tank.

Grabbing a new, fully loaded Beretta from one of the dropped guards is executed prior to my cautious climb up the stairs to the main deck. One shot flies directly past my face forcing me to brace my back against the nearest wall. Ping sounds rapidly bounce around the territory announcing the magnitude of the assault while simultaneously stopping my ability to get an accurate surveying of the scene. Crouching offers me a bit of cover to get moving yet the uncertainty of which way I should be moving let alone returning fire remains a mystery.

“Whatcha see, Blu?”

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