Page 31 of Shockproof

Keeping her gun directed at the male with one hand, she uses the other to yank off the item.

Immediately, I lower my weapon at the reveal and grunt in disbelief. “McPherson?”

His expression instantaneously shifts to shock too as he muffle shouts my name in return.

Blu quirks an eyebrow and cautiously investigates, “You two know each other?”

“Yeah,” I motion for Consuelos to rip off the duct tape next, “this hellhound and I go way back.”

Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t kill him.

Especially for coming after Arley.

“Devil Dog, Superman,” Mick McPherson grumbles prior to wiggling his square jaw. “You know the term is fuckin’Devil Dog.”

“What I don’t know, McPherson, is why your ass is barkin’ around in my backyard.” Holstering my weapon precedes me folding my arms across my chest. “Explain.” The narrowing of my gaze has him swallowing his nervousness. “Quickly.”

“Not much to explain. We were hired to secure a package and eliminate waste.”

“Personal?”

“Contract.” He adjusts himself on the stool. “Through the company.”

“Don’t bullshit me, McPherson. Gunz and Kammo isprivate security. Not paramilitary.”

“It’sprimarilyprivate security, but a few years back, Gunz branched out as a favor to an old special ops buddy. One thing led to another and now…the company does a handful of these a year. Not enough to be on anyone major’s radar – like Haworth – but enough for better baristas in the breakroom and bigger bonuses at Christmas.”

“You have your own fucking baristas?!” Blu gapes in outrage.

“Did they tell you who the package was?”

“Negative.” His brown eyes remain locked on mine. “We were given a photo for confirmation. Andthat,” he tips his head Consuelos’s direction, “isnotthe photo.”

“Show me.”

McPherson cuts his gaze over to my second in command who looks completely clueless. “This round’s onyou, asshole.”

It takes Blu a moment to realize why our attention is on him, and once he does, he retrieves the device from his back pocket. One swipe wakes the device up. Afterwards, he angles it in front of McPherson for facial recognition, which then unveils a picture of a female the instant it’s confirmed.

Rather than respond to the building ache in my chest over seeing her most recent employee database photo, I simply ask, “That her?”

Blu lifts it up for him to confirm. “Affirmative.”

I nod to my second to put the phone in his pocket for us to have Wiz analyze later. “Were you given any other details on the package itself?”

“No.”

“Do you have any idea who hired you?”

He quickly shakes his head. “You know the drill, Wahl. We don’t look at the package unless we need to. And we don’t look at the receipt unless we’re told to.”

“I’m tellin’ you to.” Closing the small gap between us is accompanied by balling up the collar of his shirt with one hand and yanking him uncomfortably close to my face. “That package is not only Haworth property, she’smy fuckin’ woman.”

His eyes widen to the size of the shitty, round, overhead lights.

“Blacklist her.” Tightening my hold on the fabric mindlessly occurs. “No assignment –of any kind from any company– is to be taken. Let what happened here today be a goddamn PG preview of what’s to come if any other firm so much asthinksabout coming after her. Make sure they know that if they do, it’s a declaration of all-out fuckin’ war. We clear?”

“Roger that.” McPherson does his best to nod. “But you know the Marvin Gaye Act comes at a high price, Wahl.”

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