30. Max

“What the fuck is going on?”Hunter snapped at me. “I thought you said he was going to interrogate the guy.”

I didn’t know who this jackass was. He was here with The Kamau and a chick named Lola, and they were really chapping my ass. Out of all the ways this job could go wrong, this had to be the worst—even worse than Fox running over FNG.

“I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s Fox,” I said, holding my calm as best I could.

“You said he was back,” Knight sneered. “He’s trying to fucking meditate our suspect to death.”

I spun on him, getting in his face. Maybe others were intimidated by this guy, but I never let anyone push me around. “Listen, he’s been out of the game for a while. Just give him a minute.”

“To what?” Hunter laughed. “Center himself? There’s a little girl’s life on the line, and you have him in there fucking meditating and?—”

I spun, grabbing Hunter by the shirt and shoving him up against the wall. “Listen, you oversized fucker. I haven’t had alcohol in over ten hours. I’m doing a job I never fucking wanted with a guy who’s got a few screws loose. And then there’s Fox?—”

“Wait,” FNG cut in. “Who’s got a few screws loose?”

I gnashed my teeth and glared at him. “You!”

“I resent that,” he muttered.

I turned my attention back to Hunter. “I do not have the patience to deal with you right now. Give him a fucking minute. You can send your attack dog in if it doesn’t work out.”

I could have sworn I heard The Kamau’s chest rumble, but I was beyond giving a fuck about any of this. I needed a drink.

Or Christa’s lips. Fuck, I’d take a taste of her just to dull the throbbing in my dick. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget the woman I was running from. I’d done a hell of a job trying. I’d focused my ass off on the job. I actually blocked her for major parts of the day. But when frustration won out, I started thinking of her lips wrapped around my cock.

Which actually worked in getting my head on straight since the last time she had her mouth on me, she shredded my dick.

Hunter started banging on the window for some reason, and The Kamau was snapping at someone else. I pinched the bridge of my nose and drowned it all out with the dirtiest images I could think of, and they all involved Christa.

Her mouth.

Her tits.

Her ass.

Fuck, I even thought of taking her in that choir robe, yanking it up around her waist as I fucked her on the organ in the middle of the church service.

I jerked at the sound of gunfire, spinning to see Fox with his gun out, unloading his magazine at the window. Thank fuck it was bulletproof. “I need a fucking drink,” I muttered.

The Kamau stormed past me and broke down the door to the interrogation room. I watched as he stormed inside and yanked the man out of the chair. But I didn’t get to see the rest because Fox walked out looking dejected and broken. As much as I wanted to find this girl and end the job, I had to take care of Fox.

“What happened in there?”

He held out the gun, shaking his head. “I lost it. I wasn’t supposed to use a gun.”

“Then why did you have it?”

“Because…It’s because of the Funyuns.”

Yeah, this day just kept getting better and better. “The Funyuns made you do it?”

He licked his lips like a crack addict. “You don’t understand. That onion flavor does something to me. I can’t help myself.” He looked up at me with pleading eyes. “You have to help me.”

“Okay, just tell me what you need.”

He gripped both of my arms and got in my face. His eyes were really huge and freaked me the fuck out. “I need the Funyuns!”

“Okay, just calm down. I’ll get you a bag on the way home.”

“It’ll be too late. I need them now!”

“Uh, Fox, we’re already dealing with one crisis.”

“Did you not just hear me?” he growled in a low voice. “I’m all fucked up. I’m on hormones and whatever Dash injected me with. I’ve been starving my body of the one thing it’s really needed for months now. I haven’t killed a person in?—”

He gasped, choking out a breath.

“That’s really…sad,” I said, unsure of what else to say.

“I know,” he whispered. “You gotta help me. You gotta give me something. I need it! I can feel the itch under my skin. I’ll die if I don’t get my hands on those Funyuns!”

He was beginning to scare me, and hurt my arms also. He had a really tough grip. I grabbed his hand and peeled it from my skin, terrified he was going to go into a rage if I didn’t help him right now.

“Okay, okay,” I said calmly. “I’ll get you the Funyuns.”

He nodded, letting out a deep breath as I backed away from him. “FNG!” I called out, never taking my eyes off Fox.

“Yeah, boss?” he asked, slipping and sliding as he shot around the corner.

I ignored the boss part and got down to business. “Fox needs some Funyuns. Now.”

He looked at Fox like the world was ending. “Fox, are you sure you want to do this?”

“I have to,” he said, a tear slipping down his cheek. “I need it.”

Okay, this was way too fucked up for my taste. When we got back to OPS, I was telling Cash I was off the team. I was going back to being the lazy pilot who got drunk every day and refused to help at all. Fuck this and all these guys. I didn’t care what happened from here on out.

“We got it,” The Kamau said, stalking out of the room.

“Address,” I snapped, immediately switching to work mode.

The Kamau spun and got in my face. “Why the fuck would I help you?”

“Because it’s our job.”

“You shouldn’t have brought him along,” he hissed, keeping his voice low. “He’s not cut out for this anymore. He lost his edge. You can’t do a job like this when you have nothing left to give.”

“I thought you were his buddy,” I snapped. “The Kamau, or whatever the fuck you are.”

“My name is Knight. I didn’t give myself that name. And while I think Fox is off his fucking rocker, I also don’t want to see any more damage done to him because he can’t handle this job anymore. Get him the fuck out of here and on a plane back to where he belongs.”

He turned and walked away, and the rest of his team followed. With just one look back at Fox, I knew Knight was right. Fox wasn’t cut out for this anymore, and keeping him around was only hurting his psyche.

Thankfully,Dash was able to get things smoothed over with the Reed Security team. Cash would have kicked my ass if I’d blown this op. There was too much riding on the line, and it had nothing to do with the payday.

Knight had a map spread out on the table in front of us. It was a more recent map and didn’t show any outbuildings or structures that would guide us. “The cabin is out here,” he said, pointing at a large area in the middle of the forest. “Two miles west of the highway. There’s a gnarled tree that’s shaped like a W. He swore it was impossible to miss.”

“That’s all we have to go on?” Dash asked.

“Unfortunately,” Knight nodded, flipping his knife in his hand. “Now, there are three men there at all times. And it’s not just the one girl.”

My head snapped up at what he said. This was the first time we were hearing this. Of course, they stormed out after I got in Knight’s face, so that wasn’t surprising. “How many?”

“Three,” he said matter-of-factly. “Two of the girls aren’t from around here, which explains why the police haven’t connected the cases. They have a lot of firepower, so we shoot to kill. Our priority is getting these girls out alive. If the assholes live, we’ll turn them over to the police.”

“Any idea what condition the girls are in?” Dash asked.

Condition. Fuck, I hadn’t even considered what might have happened to them while they’d been gone. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I’d never in my life dealt with a situation like this, and now I was second-guessing that I could handle it.

“—so proceed with caution. They’re not going to trust us.” Knight’s eyes lingered on me for a moment. “This actually might be the perfect opportunity to bring Fox into the fold. He might be able to keep them calm.”

I nodded, glad he was suggesting Fox do that particular job. “I’ll let him know. He’s…outside meditating.”

“Good. He’ll need to be ready for anything.”

“Hunter and I will take the south side of the cabin,” Lola announced.

“Fox comes with me,” Knight said, surprising the shit out of me.

The only thing I could think of was that he wanted to keep Fox close in case he lost his shit.

“Dash and FNG will move in from the north. That leaves you from the west,” Knight finished. “Can you handle moving in alone?”

“I got this,” I huffed, irritated he even had to ask.

He nodded, folding up the map. “Then let’s move.”

Dash and FNG walked over to me, watching as Fox walked off with Knight.

“Are you sure about this?” Dash asked. “I’m not sure Fox can handle this.”

“Neither am I, but he might be right. Fox is all about meditation. This might be the only thing he’s cut out for anymore.”

“And you?” FNG grinned. “I saw you daydreaming earlier. Thinking about the little lady?”

I glared at him, not interested in recounting my fantasies with this guy. “You know, if we’re going to be on a team, we need to learn some boundaries.”

“What? Teammates share things. I’ll start. When I’m in bed, you know, doing things?—”

“I really don’t give a fuck about whatever you’re about to say. I don’t want to know what you do in the bedroom or with who.”

“Whom,” he corrected.

“What?”

Dash nodded. “He’s right. Technically, it’s whom.”

This was not my fucking life.

“A good way to check yourself is to see if you can replace who with he or him,” Dash continued. “If you would say him, then you use whom. Isn’t that nifty?”

“Let me ask you this,” I said after a beat, “Who should I get the knife from to stab you with?”

His brows furrowed as he stared at me. “No, see, that’s wrong. It should be whom.”

“Are you sure about that?” FNG asked. “Whom should I get the knife from…Him should I get the knife… That doesn’t make sense. Are you sure that’s how you check it?”

“Well, obviously, this is a different situation,” Dash snapped.

FNG cocked his head at him. “Clearly, you’re right, but unless you tell us how to rectify the situation, we clearly can’t adjust.”

“Maybe it’s your overuse of the word clearly that’s throwing you off!” Dash retorted.

“Or maybe it’s the fact that you would rather argue about how to use who or whom?”

“You brought it up!”

FNG frowned. “Well…I only said it once. You kept correcting him.”

On and on it went. There was no end in sight to the bickering I would have to endure it if I officially joined a team with them. The need to drink grew with every argument they tossed at each other. I couldn’t take it any longer. I was going to snap.

And now, I was regretting ever coming on this job. I would much rather be buried in Christa’s pussy—even risk her cutting off my dick with that metal piece in her mouth—than have to listen to this shit for a moment longer.

“Would you both shut the fuck up!” I snapped. “We’re here to do a job. There’s another team watching, and you’re bickering over the stupidest shit in the world. Is it always like this with you two?”

They both looked at each other and shrugged sheepishly. “It’s how we work,” FNG muttered.

“Then I don’t want to work with you. Fuck, you would drive me to drink, and that was something I was trying to avoid.”

“Yeah, to forget about your lady,” Dash grinned, but instantly wiped the smile off his face when he saw the anger in my eyes. “You know, we should get to work.”

“Why don’t you do that.” I turned and stalked away, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of it all. “It was a terrible choice to quit drinking.”