Page 3 of Shockproof

“Best.” I aggressively yank and shove the enemy’s hand into one of the plastic cuff holes. “Friends.” The zipping of one side is swiftly followed by repeating the previous action on the other. “We’re fuckin’ family, Lenkov. And you know it.”

“He must’ve trained you at the range then.” His conversation line isn’t smooth nor is it appreciated.Especially not now. Not today.“Introduced you to Anne. Laura.”

“No, I learned how to handle weapons out at his ma’s property. I’ve never been to the ‘official’ range with him.”

Carefully leaning over to secure his feet together is done next.

“That’s strictly ‘guy time’.”

“Hm,” our boss arrogantly hums, folding his arms across his chest, “is that what that is?”

“I do know that Anne is the owner of The Hunt Locker and adore that she gave me her recipe forSautauthigafter letting Slater take some home that she had leftover. I definitely added way more sugar when I made it for us, but that’s not really important right now.”

Noneof this is important right now.

“But I don’t um…I don’t recognize the name Laura.”

That’s because she shouldn’t.

Doesn’tneed to.

“You don’t?” Seventeen feigns surprise. “I mean evenIknow about Laura.”

Tossing him a glare occurs in tandem with zipping closed the newest restraints.

“I thought you two told each othereverything.”

It’s impossible not to notice the tiny twitch of hurt the statement conjures.

Fuck!

I can’t physically and emotionally protect her all at the same time!

And I can’t stop subduing one enemy threat to neutralize the other.

Maybe I can just let her shoot Seventeen?

Wing him?

Clip him right in the mouth so he shuts the fuck up for an extended period of time instead of makingmoremesses for me to clean up.

The realization that this mess could’ve been actively avoided has me venomously biting in his direction, “Where the fuck were you, Lenkov?” All eyes cut to me as I grab the duct tape out of my tactical pocket. “How the fuck did I beat you here when I called your ass from the highway twenty minutes out?!”

“That was onlytenminutes ago!”

“You owe DPD a sizable donation to one of their charities as a thank you for cutting my time in half.” An arrogant, vicious smirk is wedged between statements. “Now, I’mma repeat myself jus’ this one time, Lenkov.Where. The. Fuck. Were you?”

His reluctance to answer instantly infuriates me more. “I told you I was in an important meeting.”

“What?!”

“I…” he avoids allowing his stare to gravitate Arley’s direction, “had to wait until the conference call was over before I could personally come down here. And I would’ve just sent a member of security from my floor, however, they were shifting posts; therefore, it was unideal timing.”

“Unideal?!” I seethe and slap the freshly cut tape over the wheezing attacker’s bloody mouth. “Arley fuckin’ dead is unideal!”

“I definitely think so,” she good-naturedly interjects.

“Look, Wahl, I heeded your whining-”

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