Page 32 of Tactically Acquired

It was clear he wasn’t going to let this go. “Look, a mottle and a pip are basically the same fucking thing. If anything, I’d call it a speck.”

He threw up his hands, scoffing at me. “Are you fucking kidding me? Just how small do you think this thing is? Why don’t you just call it a fleck?”

“I would if I thought it was fucking snow!”

“I’d say it was more of a smudge,” the woman behind me interrupted.

I turned around and glared at her. “Who asked you?”

“Nobody, but I figured as long as you were having this ridiculous argument, I’d put in my two cents.”

“Well, you can keep your two cents because it most definitely is not a smudge.”

“Yeah,” IRIS agreed. “A smudge is the complete opposite of a blotch or a speck or a pip. Hell, a spatter would be a better word than a fucking smudge!”

I nodded at the man. “What do you think?”

He shook his head, his eyes still wide as he stared straight ahead. “I…I think?—”

Vomit spewed from his mouth, landing all over me before I had a chance to move. I gagged, barely holding it in as the smell overwhelmed me. I needed to get out of here, and fast.

I jumped out and shook off as much of it as I could. IRIS laughed at me, and then his eyes roamed over my shirt.

“Now, that’s what I’d call a splatter.”

9

AUDREY

“Let’s move!” the man shouted, jumping out of the vehicle after cutting our zip ties.

Spencer grabbed my arms and stared at me with wild eyes. “What the hell is going on?”

I chuckled, prying his hand from one arm. “You need to relax. This is all part of the show.”

“Flying into a barricade is part of the show? Why? Why would that be in any way useful?”

“Look around you, Spencer. We’re still on the highway. Cameras are in the sky.”

“There are no cameras in the sky,” he snapped.

“Helicopters,” I retorted, trying to calm him down. “If you want this to look real, you have to go along with this. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” He jabbed his finger out of the vehicle toward the men rushing around outside. “Those men are crazy! They crashed into a barrier. The one man jumped through a window and then killed that man!”

I glanced to the front with a raised eyebrow. “You really think he’s dead? I can guarantee he’s only passed out. It’s for show. And that man is a stuntman. You’ve seen it all the time on the set. Come on, Spencer. This is what we do. You know how crazythose men are. They’re adrenaline junkies. They live for this stuff.”

“But who are they? I thought you said the men who kidnapped us were taking us to Craig. Now these people are here, and we’re supposed to go with them?”

“Well, I guess Craig set it up so we’d be ‘kidnapped’ and then ‘rescued’.”

“For what possible reason?” Spencer asked. “The whole point was to be taken hostage!”

“Look, I don’t know the logistics of all this. I’m sure Craig has a reason for doing it this way. It’s probably to make sure no one can follow the trail. Like switching vehicles so no one knows where we are. That sort of thing.”

“Now, people! We need to leave now!” the man snapped, shoving his head into the vehicle. “That means get your asses moving.”

I shoved Spencer with a pointed look. The poor man was so scared, and I sort of understood it. He just wasn’t your typical man. He didn’t like action movies. He definitely didn’t have to be the strongest man in the room, and if you wanted to have a drinking contest, he’d walk away. I knew this whole thing would be difficult for him. I just underestimated how far Craig would go to make this look realistic.

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