Hurry Up And Wait (Owens Protective Services #24)

12. Ike

12

IKE

Why the fuck had I gotten myself involved in this situation? You’d think I would have learned my lesson after what happened with Jane, but instead, I put myself right the fuck in the middle of the disaster of her relationship. I could still see that fucker’s face as I held him down and threatened his life. The fear in his eyes and the way his whole body trembled were the only things that allowed me to walk away without killing him.

He put his hands on her. He fucking slammed her up against a brick wall. How the hell that woman ended up with a loser like him, I’d never understand. Then again, Jane jumped in the trunk of my car to follow me. Maybe it was just women in general that couldn’t be trusted.

I glanced back at the house one last time before getting in my car. She was safe here. I had systems in place to alert me if anything happened, but nothing would. Besides, I was keeping tabs on her ex, and he was nowhere near the state. That didn’t mean I could let my guard down. After all, her fridge had just been blown up. But we were clear when we left the hospital. No one followed us, and the car was clean.

I needed to pick up her prescriptions and some food, but first, I had to stop by OPS and find out why the fuck I had been ordered to take her to my place. And then I was going to have a conversation with Rae about why she knew I had a house here and why the fuck she wanted to keep that information under her hat. Of course, I was pretty sure all of OPS already knew about it. IRIS would be pissed, thinking I had bought the house to come back for his wife.

That ship sailed long ago. I shoved Jane from my mind and vowed never to let her take up residence in my brain again. She had a husband who loved her and a life she could never have with me. I found out the hard way that some people were tougher to shake than others. If I had stuck around, I would have gone down a road that would lead me nowhere but to heartache. And that was one thing I vowed to never let happen.

Cash was already outside talking with the builders when I arrived. As soon as he saw me, I swore he cursed under his breath. I was probably the last person he wanted to see. I had killed Zavala, and I knew Cash wanted that courtesy, but I couldn’t allow a man like that to walk and breathe after all the crap he’d done.

“Cash,” I nodded.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“Information.”

“Yeah? Get in line,” he said, turning from me.

“Hey.” I grabbed his arm as he turned away. His eyes narrowed on my hand and his whole body stiffened. Yeah, he was still pissed at me.

“Get your hand off me.”

“We need to talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” he snarled.

He jerked his arm, but I quickly caught it in my grip, pulling him closer. I lowered my voice, not wanting to cause a scene. “What would you have me do? If Zavala had stepped out of that helicopter, we wouldn’t have gotten Isabelle to safety. It was her or him. There were no other options.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do,” I hissed. “He had men waiting for him. But because I took him out, the moment we landed, Zavala meant nothing. Nobody cared about Isabelle. We cut the head off the snake and everything fell apart.”

“Not everything,” he spat. “There were no orders to stop the execution of my brother. Did you think of anyone else when you killed him?”

I hadn’t. All I could think about was ending his life, but I stood by what I did. It was a necessary evil. Rafe knew what he was getting himself into, and while I wouldn’t wish a death like that on anyone—or the guilt Cash had from pulling the trigger—I did what I had to do. Someone with no emotions or attachments involved had to make the decision, and I was the only one who had that capability.

“Rafe made his choice to go to the island. Isabelle didn’t.”

He couldn’t argue with me on that point. I knew his hatred was really anger at the situation and himself. He was forced to take out his own brother. His twin. I couldn’t imagine the amount of strength it took to pull the trigger.

His shoulders sagged slightly and the anger in his eyes diminished just a little. I knew we weren’t okay yet, but this was a start. “What do you need?”

“I need to know why the hell I took Isla to my place instead of here. And why is her sister staying away?”

Cash cursed under his breath. Jerking his head, he stalked off, leaving me to follow. We walked to the temporary office and I let the door slam behind me once inside. The place was a fucking mess, but that wasn’t a surprise considering that the office was a trailer and Cash was working off newly printed files that had yet to be organized.

“Her ex is causing problems,” he said, searching through a particularly large stack of files. “It wasn’t even twenty minutes after the bomb went off that he filed a restraining order against OPS. And you.”

“Me? How the fuck does he even know who I am?”

“DNA you left when you attacked him in the alley. Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you met this fucker or that you knew her?”

“It was in passing,” I muttered, thumbing through the file he handed me. “I was on a job and happened to come across her.”

“And then you followed her here? ”

My gaze snapped to his. “I didn’t follow her here. She came here all on her own. She knows Kavanaugh.”

“And yet, here you are,” he accused. “You don’t even want to work with OPS. You made that perfectly clear. And you showed up at her house just after the explosion. So, either you set that bomb to go off or you’re fucking following her. Which is it?”

I gritted my teeth, refusing to answer.

“Look, whatever this is with her?—”

“There’s nothing with her,” I snapped. “It’s a fucking coincidence. I saw her here and I followed her. That’s it. I heard the explosion and ran inside.”

He watched me carefully before sighing. “He knows who you are now. What the fuck do you want to do about that?”

It was a problem for sure. I always cleaned up after myself when I was on a job, but that didn’t mean nothing would pop up in the system. Over the years, jobs had gone wrong multiple times. There were other players involved that I couldn’t control. If any of them were brought in, I had no way of knowing if they would keep their mouths shut. And if they didn’t. I would have to leave and take care of it. I couldn’t protect Isla if I was trying to keep my name out of the system.

“And then we have the problem of Kavanaugh’s current job.”

“The senator?”

Cash nodded, surprised I knew what was going on. I made it my job to know everything at all times. I couldn’t afford to be blindsided.

“As of right now, the senator hasn’t mentioned who Kavanaugh works for, but it’s bound to come out eventually.”

“And Shawn will use that as an opportunity to ruin everything.”

“Exactly. If Shawn starts badmouthing OPS, it’ll backfire on the senator and this will all have been for nothing.”

“So, you want me to continue to watch her?”

“Keep her with you until the house is fixed. We’re installing every security measure we can think of.”

“That won’t do jack shit to protect her outside the house.”

He winced, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Fuck,” I muttered. “How fucking long is this going to take? ”

“Until we can figure out how to take him down. Why? You have something better to do?”

“I don’t work for you,” I pointed out.

“What do you want to do? Should we send her home and wish her the best?”

“No, put her in an OPS house. They’re all monitored.”

“And we’re working for the senator. If he catches wind of this, he’ll cut our deal. But you’re not on the payroll. You have no fucking attachments to us.”

Not anymore.

With Jane out of my life, there was no reason for me to be here. I came back to help Cash because the job was a good one. I liked the idea of taking out Zavala, but I never asked to be dragged back into this world. And I definitely didn’t sign up to watch over a woman for the foreseeable future.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with her?” I snarled. “I have jobs?—”

“You’re right,” he cut in. “What was I thinking? You have a life of your own with more important things to worry about than this woman. You should go.”

“There’s no fucking way she’s gonna go for this,” I said, pushing off the desk. I paced the small area, trying to come up with anything else I could do to fix this situation. “I’ll just kill the fucker and end the problem.”

“We don’t kill random people.”

“He’s not random. He’s a pain in the ass who wants Isla and anyone she knows to rot in hell.”

“And if you kill him, the courts are going to look at us.”

“Right,” I snorted. “And we wouldn’t want anything to stand in the way of your revenge.”

His face darkened. “Kavanaugh is the one who pushed this.”

I didn’t buy it for one fucking second. “You know, your brother was good at manipulating people, too. I always thought you were above that, but I don’t doubt for one second that you played it just right to make sure Kavanaugh felt fucking indebted to you.”

He stiffened, his face turning downright lethal .

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure you said all the right things. How you couldn’t do that to him, how you knew his father was a piece of shit and you would never ask him to work with him. You’d find another way. I’m sure he ate that shit up. Hell, by the time you were done with him, he probably convinced himself it was all his idea.”

Cash shrugged. “I can’t control what he chooses to do.”

“Like father, like son. Like son, like brother,” I huffed. “Tell me, does your wife know what you’re doing?”

“Eva knows I would do anything to avenge my brother,” he snapped.

“Just not the cost.”

“Stay or go, but if you do leave, whatever happens is on your head.”

I gritted my teeth in anger. “You have two days to figure this shit out and then I’m gone.”

“Thanks for the help,” he said sarcastically.

I stormed out of the trailer and back to my car. I didn’t have time for this shit. The last thing I needed was to get involved with another woman. Whether she needed protection or not, there was one thing that was very clear to me, and that was that I didn’t belong somewhere like this. I did better on my own, where I could do the job that needed to be done without worrying about things like morals and the welfare of others involved.

I had men waiting on me to handle the less-than-savory aspects of the business, and they wouldn’t wait forever. One woman would not stop me from doing my job. It didn’t matter how much danger she was in. I wouldn’t give up my reputation to ensure her safety.

I would never let a woman interfere in my life again.