Page 143 of Tactically Acquired

“That’s still no reason to kill someone,” I pointed out. “I may have been wrong, but wanting to live a full life is not a crime.”

“Deceiving your employers is,” he snapped. “You know, I wasn’t even going to kill you at first. I just wanted you to disappear.”

“Well, you didn’t need to go to all the trouble. We were going to leave all on our own. We deserved a vacation.”

“Thankfully, I beat you to it,” he smirked. “If only those men I’d hired were competent enough to actually get the job done.”

“It’s not their fault someone better came along,” I said, smiling as I thought of the day I met Slider. I pressed my finger to my ear. “Slider, is that enough?”

“Should be. Got them both confessing to attempted murder.”

Woody’s jaw dropped as he stared at me. “Who were you talking to?”

“Oh, that? That was my security detail. You didn’t really think I’d go anywhere without them, did you? They’re coming in right now. I’d be scared, if I were you.”

But like the stupid man he was, he turned and ran. I rolled my eyes and chased after him, tripping over a piece of the set that I didn’t see in front of me. The gun went sprawling across the floor, and with my horrible eyesight, I couldn’t find it.

I got to my knees scrambling for the weapon when something pierced my arm. Crying out, I fell back on my ass, gripping my arm. “What the hell?”

“Audrey!” Slider called out, running into the building.

Someone grabbed me from behind by my hair, yanking me off the ground. I felt the cold barrel of my own weapon pressed to my head as I was pulled away from my security detail that was rushing inside the building, fanning out around us.

“Put it down!” Slider shouted. “Put the fucking weapon down!”

Blood trickled down my throbbing arm. I saw Woody in the distance when I looked just the right way. He was holding a gun.

“You fucking shot me!” I shouted, ignoring the fact that someone else was holding my own gun to my head.

“Put it down right now, asshole,” Slider shouted.

“If I put this down, I’m dead!” Woody retorted.

“You’re dead anyway after you shot my girl.”

“I can’t believe you fucking shot me!” I said, still unable to believe any of this.

“You were going to shoot me,” he snarled.

I heard footsteps pounding on the ground and then heard Spencer’s strangled gasp. “What the hell? I leave you alone for two minutes and you got yourself shot? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Can we discuss this later?” I snapped. “I’m sort of in the middle of something.”

“Yeah, why don’t you pull out those fancy moves,” he muttered.

“Do not do that,” Slider growled. “You’re not as good as you think.”

“Oh, thanks for that.” I felt Dick’s hot breath on my shoulder and cringed. “Would you mind not breathing on me like that? It’s so disgusting.”

“Woody, I’m giving you to the count of three, and then I’m pulling the fucking trigger and putting a bullet in your head.”

I sighed longingly. “You know, it’s really unfair that I can’t actually see you when you’re being all hot and action-heroish.”

“One!”

“I’m not going out this way!” Woody shouted.

“I would really put that down, if I were you,” I warned him.

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