Page 2 of Shockproof

“Guess I’m not the only one with things to learn over dinner.”

Oh…this shit just keeps getting better and better.

Instead of worrying if I’m okay or even alive, he’sflirtingwith her?

Trying to make a goddamn date?

Over. My. Dead. Body. Evander Phonyfield.

And despite how it looks, I’m not fucking dead yet.

I fight the aftershock trembles trying to keep me immobilized prompting her to cry out, “Ohmygod, Slater!”

The sweet sound of her voice does what it always does.

Encourages me to keep going.

Lifts me higher.

“Please be okay! Please tell me that you’re okay!”Prying my torso off the ground barely precedes her sweet voice croaking, “Say something! Anything, Cowboy!”

Unfortunately, there isn’t time to do that or threaten the man who now owes DPD a hefty donation from myFast and Furiousreenactment due to the individual beside me shaking away the oversold punch. His eyes suddenly meet mine, widen in what I imagine to be fear, and begin frantically searching the scene for his lost weapon. Rather than give him the opportunity to locate it, I deliver an elbow drop center mass, not only knocking all the air out of his lungs but crushing his ribs in the process of pinning him beneath me.

Ignoring the small tremors still doing their best to rattle my system, I mercilessly clamp my hand around the assailant’s throat and bark, “Secure the weapon!”

The lack of hesitation Arley exhibits is both surprising and exhilarating. One moment she’s fearfully screeching in the doorframe – sounding and looking helpless – yet the next she’s standing over the attacker with a pistol locked, loaded, and ready to shoot when I give the command.

Pretty sure if it wasn’t so goddamn painful to simply move, my dick would be standing at full attention over that shit.

I can’t be bothered to hide the crooked grin that grows upon meeting her gaze. “That order wasn’t for you, Angel Cake.”

She shoots me back a cocky smirk. “Okay, but you didn’tnotsay me, Cowboy.”

“Alright, but I didn’t meanyou.”

“But I didn’t know that!”

“Inevermean you when we’re in the field!”

“Are we in the field!?”

Seventeen cuts off my ability to respond with his panicking, “Do you even know how to use that thing?!”

Rather than retort with words, she fires off a single round into the floor space directly beside the aggressor’s ear, missing it by mere centimeters, an action that causes him to twitch around in my hold. “I think I’ve got it covered!” Her face winces at the ear-piercing sound that’s now reverberating throughout the empty hallway. “Forgot how loud that is without plugs!”

“We don’t exactly wear ‘em for fun, Angel Cake,” I mutter more to myself than her considering the ringing she’s experiencing is probably too loud for her to hear me. Moving myself upward to a sitting position is accompanied by forcefully slamming the male into the nearby wall for additional securing. “Kill him if he moves.”

“Roger that,” my woman instantly acknowledges as though she’s done this shit a million times.

Which she hasn’t.

Or…at least…I don’t think she has.

I feel like it would’ve come up.

Then again…this could be the whole hunting situation all over again.

Retrieving the zip ties from my bulletproof vest begins at the same time our boss chortles, “I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised you know your way around a firearm considering you’re friends with Wahl.”

---