Nuclear Option

I opened my eyes, but something dark coated my vision, making it impossible to see. My head was pounding, and the ringing in my ears was making it difficult to focus on anything. My first instinct was to reach for my weapon, but it wasn’t at my side. I swiped at my face, blinking several times at the blood on my hand. That’s when I saw her.

We had flipped, now laying on the passenger side of the truck, and based on the damage, we had rolled multiple times. Eva’s whole body rested against the passenger side door. Her eyes were closed and blood oozed from her head. I immediately reached for her, stopped by the seat belt holding me in place.

In the back of my mind, I knew I had to make sure the threat was eliminated, but all I could think about was getting to her. The sharp sound of bullets being fired had me flicking off my seat belt, barely catching my body before I landed right on Eva. I laid my body over hers, pressing her tight into the door as I protected her head from the onslaught. 

For just a moment, the firing stopped and I pressed my fingers to her neck. “Eva,” I whispered. Her pulse thrummed under my fingers, but she didn’t stir. At least I knew she was still alive. 

I quickly looked around for my weapon, finding it up on the dashboard. I grabbed it, then checked the magazine to see how many bullets remained. I had thirteen rounds, and I prayed that was enough to get us out of whatever this clusterfuck was.

“Go make sure they’re dead,” a man shouted.

“We’ve got incoming,” the other man retorted.

“And we’re not leaving until the job is done!”

I watched out the windshield, my gun at the ready. I took deep breaths, slowing my heart as I waited for the man to come into view. Heavy footsteps could be heard on the other side of the vehicle and I shifted my aim when he walked to the front of it. The moment the man stepped into view, I fired three rounds, the first cracking the windshield. The next two lodged in the man, and I watched as he dropped to the ground. 

“Shit,” I heard the other voice mutter. 

I needed to attack first. At this point, he already knew I was alive. The driver’s side window was gone, broken from the impact in the crash. I carefully stood, making as little noise as possible. I was just getting into position when I saw a shadow moving around the back of the truck through the back window. Pressing against the seat, I watched as he moved around the truck slowly. His gun was aimed at the back window, which gave me a fifty percent chance that I could pop up through the driver’s side window and get him before he put a bullet in me. 

I wasn’t entirely sure I was thinking clearly. My vision was going in and out, which signaled that I hit my head harder than I imagined, but there was no one else coming. Decision made, I braced my foot against the handle on the door and checked the man’s position one last time. Taking a deep breath, I popped up through the window and aimed, firing just as he raised his gun and took his own shot. I fired three more times, until the fucker was down and his gun was lying beside him on the ground. 

Aware that my skull was exposed, I ducked back down in the truck. I needed to be sure no one else was around before I went and made myself a target like that again. After scanning the area through the windshield, the only other threat I saw was the vehicle that slammed into us. When I saw no movement, I decided to go on the attack. I couldn’t huddle out in the truck all day, and Eva needed help.

I kicked at the fractured windshield over and over until it broke outward. I shoved my way through, climbing out of the truck, my gun immediately raised. The SUV was stopped several feet away with steam pouring out of the hood of the vehicle. I thought I saw two men inside, their bodies slumped, but it was hard to tell.

I stumbled as I walked forward, my vision fuzzy as I gripped my gun tighter. It would be really bad if I fired my gun randomly right now and hit nobody in particular. I could hear the sat phone ringing in the truck, but there was no way I was going back until this was taken care of. Approaching carefully, I went to the driver’s side first, peeking inside. Just as I was about to check the guy’s pulse, the second guy groaned and started to move. I raised my gun and fired two shots, hitting him once in the face and once in the head. 

The driver’s eyes sprung open and I quickly shifted, putting two bullets in his skull. That left me with six bullets. If anyone else tried attacking, we were fucked. I turned and scanned the area, not seeing anyone else nearby. I raced back over to the truck and climbed back inside.

“Eva,” I asked, brushing my hand over her cheek. She didn’t even stir. I sifted through the wreckage for the sat phone, finding it behind the driver’s seat stuck in a crevice. Stretching my hand back there, I nearly grabbed it when it went off again, nearly scaring the piss out of me. 

Closing my eyes, I took a calming breath and tried again. My fingers scraped against the antennae several times before I finally got it. Pulling it out, I answered quickly.

“Dash—”

“Boss, did you see that helicopter explode?”

I glanced out the window at the helicopter burning in the distance. “Yeah, I saw it.”

“Man, that was so awesome!”

“Dash, I need a nine line.”

“Boss, you okay?”

“It’s Eva.” I pressed my fingers to her throat again. “Pulse is steady.” I moved on to check her eyes. “Right pupil is blown, large gash on her scalp,” I said as I continued to examine her. I would have torn my shirt and pressed it to the wound, but it was more dangerous to get dirt in an open wound than to worry about the bleeding. Head wounds tended to bleed more, and that’s what I told myself as I sat there beside her, unable to do anything for her in the wreckage. 

I heard the crunch of tires and grabbed my weapon, scrambling out through the windshield and aiming my gun at the vehicle. I lowered my weapon with relief when I saw it was Rae and New Guy.

“What took you so fucking long?” I asked, holstering my gun.

“If New Guy could handle a fucking RPG, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she said as she walked over. 

New Guy followed Rae, rolling his eyes at her reprimand. “It would have been fine if you weren’t fucking yelling at me the whole time. And I have a name.”

“Yeah?” Rae spun on him. “Until you fucking learn how to work with me, you’re New Guy.”

“Can we put a pin in this argument for one fucking minute?” I snapped. “Eva’s injured. I need to get her out of the truck.”

“Who’s Eva?” Rae asked, her face twisted in confusion.

“Beth.”

“Ah.”

“Who’s Beth?” New Guy asked.

I ignored him and stalked over to the truck, getting back inside with Eva. She was pale and still not moving. I was fucking worried as hell. She wasn’t just one of my guys. She wasn’t as tough as them, not yet. 

“How do you want to do this, boss?”

“I’ll grab her shoulders—”

“No,” New Guy cut in. “You’re not fucking moving her. Are you insane? She could have a fucking broken back.” He shoved his way past Rae and climbed inside the truck, shoving me out of the way. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed a med kit and peeled it open. I watched as he quickly got to work, cleaning up the gash on her head and covering it in gauze. Then he moved his hands to the back of her neck, feeling his way down her spine as he shoved his hand between her back and the seat that she wasn’t laying against anymore.

I glanced over at Rae, confused by what was happening. She shook her head, obviously unaware also. “What are you doing?”

He huffed out a laugh. “I would think that’s pretty obvious,” he muttered. “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do, I’m going to grab her shoulders and head. Boss, you slide your hands under her lower back, and Rae, you’ve got her feet. We’re going to very carefully pull her out.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for medevac?” Rae asked.

“Her spine feels stable and she’s breathing evenly. I’m most worried about this head wound. Best thing we can do is get her out of here and wait for the chopper.”

I nodded and took my position, wondering how the hell we were going to get her out of here with the way the truck was laying. But I did as New Guy said and slid my hands under her lower back. 

“Okay, very carefully, let’s turn her so she’s laying flat,” New Guy said. I watched as he braced his hands around the back of her neck. I slid one hand further up her back to help him support her upper body weight. Nodding to Rae, we carefully started to extract her from the vehicle. 

The glass crunched under our feet until we were out in the field. With no place to lay her down, I pulled my shirt off and laid it out for New Guy to rest her head on. Kneeling beside her, I grabbed her hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

“Eva, can you hear me?”

At first, there was nothing. I was beginning to think the medevac would be too late for her. But then she groaned and her eyes fluttered open. “Cash?”

“Eva, you’re okay. We’re going to get you help. Can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Everywhere,” she murmured. “Did we get hit by a truck?”

I laughed, brushing my hand across her cheek. “Yeah, something like that.”

She nodded and then slipped back into unconsciousness. 

“That’s a good sign, right? That she woke up?” I asked New Guy.

“I’m sure she’s fine, but we’ll know more when we get her to the hospital.”

Fuck, that wasn’t an option, at least, not until I had a few things in order. Turning to Rae, I handed her the sat phone. “Call Dash. He needs to make a fake ID for Eva, something that will work for the hospital. I need it all here within two hours.”

“Sure,” she snorted. “That’s not asking the impossible.”

“You know he knows people.”

“It’s going to cost you.”

“I don’t give a fuck how much it costs. Just get it done.”

She nodded and walked away, leaving me with New Guy, who was still watching over Eva. “I think she’ll be fine. Although, her arm looks a little fucked up.”

“It’s been dislocated…several times.”

He glanced up at me sharply, narrowing his eyes at me. 

“Not by me.”

He stood, walking over to me like he wanted to beat my ass. “Then how the fuck did she get injured like that?”

“Previous altercation with some not very good men.” I actually hadn’t been told that part of the story yet, but I assumed it was either when she got away from the drug operation, or sometime when she was on the run.

“Then why don’t you read me in? I think I have a right to know if I’m part of this.”

“Not even the rest of my team knows anything about this, and it’s going to stay that way until she tells me otherwise. Are we clear on that?”

He gritted his teeth, obviously not happy with me, but that was just the way shit went down with me. He could accept it or walk.

“What’s your name again?”

“Why?” he asked sarcastically. “Not liking New Guy?”

“It has a nice ring to it. Normally, I let New Guy stick around until I’m sure about how he’ll fit in.”

He glanced up from where he was kneeling again beside Eva. “And you think I will now?”

I glanced over my shoulder at the pain in the ass woman on the phone. “Rae seems to like you.”

He snorted. “She yelled at me the whole time. Told me if I didn’t know my ass from her tit, then we couldn’t work together.”

“What were you doing?”

“Driving the fucking vehicle,” he said, as if that was obvious.

“And you screwed that up?”

“The only thing I did was take a faster route. Had I gone the way she wanted, you’d be burning up in the middle of the field right now.”

Even with Eva lying on the ground and my head pounding, I could laugh at that. “She’s pissed you were right, but she’ll come around. She’ll respect you more because of it than if you had just listened and it had all gone wrong.”

In the distance, I saw two vehicles flying down the road to us. I almost reached for my gun, but something stopped me. And as they pulled closer, I knew why.

“Stay here with her. I have to go take care of something.”

“New Guy,” he responded.

I glanced back at him and nodded. “New Guy.”

I turned and ran for the vehicles that stopped further down the road. With my head still pounding, the last thing I needed was to be dealing with this shit, but I didn’t have much of a choice. As I got closer, Rafe stepped out, watching over my shoulder. “Looks like you found trouble.”

I stared at him, pissed that a man I knew so well could be so damn unconcerned about the situation we found ourselves in. “I could have used the help earlier.”

His eyes roamed over my face, taking in the blood and the head wound I knew I was sporting. “You’ll survive. Any wounded?”

“Just one. We’re waiting on medevac.”

“Look, this might not be the best time, but I need you to come with me.”

“No,” I answered immediately, thinking of Eva on the ground back there.

“I have Hayes, but he says he’ll only talk to you.”

“I can’t imagine why. I left him hanging in a very precarious situation.”

“Cash, we need answers, and he has them. Now’s not the time to dick around.”

I smirked at him. “Funny how you’re always around when you need help, but never when the situations are reversed.”

“What the fuck do you want me to say? We’ve got a shit storm brewing and I had to lay low. We’d have the whole goddamn government on our asses right now if I had come to help. And while you’re off playing protection agent, we’ve got a fucking terrorist on the loose, and we still have no fucking clue what his endgame is.”

“That’s your job,” I snapped. “And playing protection agent, as you call it, is a hell of a lot more complicated than you know.” I wasn’t about to tell him who was after Eva. He had enough on his plate, and I wasn’t about to hand Eva over to him on a silver platter. I had a bad feeling about what would happen if Rafe ever figured out who Eva was.

The distant sound of a chopper drew my attention. It was coming in fast, and I had to move. “I’ll catch up with you later. Right now, I have to go do my fucking job and make sure my client is protected.”

“I’m sending a team with you, since you came so wholly unprepared.”

He waved at the vehicles behind him and three men stepped out. That was probably an understatement for who they were. All dressed in black gear and looking like they were ready to murder someone, it didn’t take much to assume these were a special brand of ex-military.

“This is Jack Cox, Johnny Wood, and Jason Long. They’ll be with you as long as you need.”

“They’re not gonna fit in the chopper,” I smirked.

“Give them the location and they’ll follow. As soon as your client is safe, they’ll bring you to me.” He leaned in close, those familiar eyes boring into mine. “Don’t fuck with me on this, Cash. Past bullshit aside, there’s something going down, and we need to get ahead of it.”

I gave a tight nod and turned my back, stalking toward Eva. By the time I returned to her, the medic was already loading her into the chopper with Cook’s help. Rae was about to get in, but I stopped her. 

“Take New Guy and keep an eye on that crowd,” I jerked my head toward Rafe’s men.

“With New Guy? Really?”

“Play nice,” I reprimanded.

“Fine, but only because I have to. What about the three Musketeers over there.”

I glanced back over at them, not sure if I could trust them. “Need to know.”

She gave a tight nod before stepping away from the chopper. I buckled in and gripped Eva’s hand. I wasn’t sure how I was going to leave her alone once we got her to safety. My gut was churning, telling me nothing good was on the horizon. I slipped my hand in my pocket, panicking when I didn’t feel Betty.

“Hold on. I need to get out for a minute!” I shouted to the pilot.

“We need to take off.”

I ignored him and flung the door open, running back to the truck and climbing inside. Call me a fool or a superstitious bastard, but Betty had been with me for too long to lose her now. I finally found her in the wreckage and rushed back to the chopper, climbing inside.

“It better have been fucking important,” the pilot snapped.

“Life or death,” I said with a tight nod.