Page 61 of Tactically Acquired

IRIS chuckled as he walked over to me. “Women just fall at your feet, don’t they?”

“Passing out isn’t the same as falling at my feet. And she would still be standing if you hadn’t tossed in that last bomb.”

“What? That tiny, little guy?” He waved me off. “That was nothing.”

“That sent us flying through the air,” I griped.

“Sounds like a you problem. I was just fine.”

I rolled my eyes as we made it to the SUV. I spun around, looking for Thumper. “Have you seen?—”

He walked out of the smoke like a mirage, but I knew the moment I saw him, this was not going to be a friendly encounter. I glanced at Audrey and then at IRIS.

“Well, I’m gonna take care of this. You can deal with…that,” I said, nodding at our team leader, who was hobbling on one leg.

“Do you think he’s mad?” IRIS asked.

“He’s holding his leg. What do you think?” I asked just before I gently laid Audrey in the back seat and climbed inside. I didn’t want to stick around for the ass-kicking IRIS was about to get.

“Why don’t we just head back to OPS?” IRIS grumbled. “I want to see Jane.”

“Because Lock made it fucking clear we’re not to go there. Or did you want to break those rules, too?” Thumper snapped.

“Hey, I wasn’t breaking any rules. You gave me permission to use explosives.”

“Use an explosive.”

“You didn’t specify. I said, Thumper, can I use explosives? You said, go for it.”

“I said?—”

“At no time did you say only one.”

“It was implied!”

“It was never implied! You don’t tell a guy like me that it was fucking implied!”

I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose and squeezed hard to fight back the headache forming between my eyebrows. After driving for hours to get back to the safe house, I was fucking exhausted and wanted some sleep, but I couldn’t do that until we got Audrey some help. She still hadn’t woken up, which I wasn’t completely surprised about. Still, it wasn’t like we could gamble with her life.

“I’m just saying there are other places we could be!” IRIS shouted. “That safe house is fucking small!”

“Then we’ll pair up!” Thumper snapped.

“Yeah, like I’m pairing up with you,” IRIS snorted.

“Who said I was staying in the same room with you? You nearly blew up my leg!”

“I didn’t blow up your leg.”

“You didn’t wait for me to get out of the house. You didn’t even fucking check!”

This fighting was never going to stop. Fucking hell, I just wanted to pull out my gun and shoot them both.

Audrey shifted in my lap, finally showing signs of life after hours of being dead to the world. I slid my hand over her pulse, making sure it was still steady, and breathed a sigh of relief that it was still strong. With a moan, she rolled toward me, her head shifting back until she was resting her entire head on my legs instead of just one. Then she rolled toward me and her mouth was just inches from?—

I jerked my gaze up and sucked in a breath. This was bad. Very fucking bad. It wasn’t that I was attracted to her or anything, but…well, she was a woman. And she did look fucking amazing in leather.

And her mouth was right fucking there.

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