Page 138 of Tactically Acquired

“Well, that was fun.”

I headed back inside, letting the door slam behind me. Slider looked up at me in concern.

“What happened?”

“I think I broke Fox.”

Everyone’s heads snapped up to look at me. “You…how?” Rae asked.

I shrugged. “I peppered him with questions until he broke.”

She looked at everyone else, then started laughing. “And to think, we could have ended the chaos so long ago.”

“That was kind of mean, baby,” Slider grinned.

“Serves him right. He scared the shit out of me. Who sneaks into someone else’s bed and eats Funyuns?”

36

SLIDER

“Okay, are we clear on the plan?”

Audrey rolled her eyes at me. “If you go over it with me again, I’ll?—”

I pulled her into my arms and kissed her before she could finish that sentence. Her eyes grew hazy as she smiled up at me. “Sorry. Just thought I’d keep you from saying something you might regret.”

“I think I’ll do that more often.”

I stepped back, needing my space. I had to keep the mission clear in my head, and that meant letting someone else take the lead on this one. “IRIS will be on your six the whole time.”

“On my six,” she rolled her eyes. “Why can’t you just say he’ll be on my backside?”

“Because then I would be thinking about another man standing right next to your ass, and then I would kill that man.”

She nodded with a sigh. “Well, I guess whatever gets you through the day.”

I turned her around and smacked her ass, watching as she walked away. All we had to do was lay the trap and then reel them in. Then this whole thing would be over and we couldgo home. Hopefully, that meant Audrey would be coming home with me.

“Are you sure she’s ready for this?” Thumper asked.

“Nope, but why don’t you ask her and see what she says.”

He snorted at that, shaking his head. “No thanks. I already have one woman who threatens my balls on a daily basis. I don’t need another.”

I found the idea of having a woman to threaten me quite nice. That alone should have had me running for the hills, but with Audrey, I found nothing was as it seemed.

I watched from the monitors as Audrey drove away with IRIS and Spencer. It had to work. I just wanted this whole fucking thing to be over, but we needed more than just a few pieces of evidence to get the whole thing to fall apart. We needed something so strong that there was no fucking way they’d even think of going after Audrey or Spencer again.

Rae walked into the room, setting down her computer at the table to work while Thumper and I waited for the team to arrive. There had been an awkwardness between us since our blowup about Cash. Even after I apologized, while things were better, nothing could take back the things that were said.

“How sure are you that Audrey’s mom will fall for this?” I asked Rae.

“She’s a greedy actress. She’ll buy it.”

“Yeah, but how can you be sure?”

Rae glanced up at me, her eyebrow cocked in challenge. “She already gave her daughter up once. Why wouldn’t she do it again? Besides, you have IRIS with her. What could possibly go wrong?”

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