44. Fox

44

FOX

Test tubes, glass flasks, bags of Funyuns, and way too much vodka littered the OPS kitchen counters. Dressed in my snazzy lab coat and protective glasses, I picked up my notebook that I was using to calculate the formulas for my Funyuns martini. I couldn’t believe no one had thought of this yet. It was brilliant and would be a huge hit when it was done.

“Fox, what are you doing?” Eva asked, walking into the kitchen.

Grinning at her, I strode around the counter and grabbed her hands, pulling her over to see my brilliance. “I’m creating a drink. I call it a Foxyuns martini. Get the play on words? Because I’m Fox and they’re made with Funyuns? Do you see what I did?”

She quirked an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Brilliant, right?”

“Yeah, sure. Fox, listen to me. I need you to work your magic.”

“Already on it!” I beamed, pointing at the counter.

“No, I mean with Cash.”

I chuckled at that. “Yeah, I’m not sure anything I could do would help.”

“Can’t you take him to a musical or something?”

I glanced up at her with a grin. “As much as I would love to do that, I’m not sure a musical would help in this situation.”

“Why not?”

“Because the things he’s fighting are something a musical can’t fix.”

She scoffed at me, walking over to the counter where she lifted a beaker filled with green liquid. “I never thought I would see the day you would say musicals can’t fix a situation. It’s kind of disappointing.”

I scratched the back of my head, wondering if she was right. “Well…I just can’t think of anything that would work.”

“Really? You haven’t thought of 525,600 ways by now?” she asked, cocking her eyebrow at me.

My eyes widened as I saw what she just did. “Man, I taught you too well. Alright, let’s say for just a second that I can manage to bring him around…”

“You can. I know you can.”

“Well, if we’re going to do this?—”

“Not we. Just you.”

That was news to me. “Are you giving up already?”

“No, but he doesn’t want my help. If anyone can get through to him, it’ll be you.”

“You’re right,” I grinned. “After all, he is my brother.”

“Exactly. You have a bond unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I know you can do this.”

“Well,” I blushed. “I don’t want to brag, but we’ve always been like this,” I said, crossing my fingers. “He’s my bestie. I mean, aside from Knight.”

“Of course.”

I started pacing the room, considering what I was going to do. “Now, if I want to get Cash out of his funk, I need to make him happy. What makes Cash happy?”

“Don’t ask me. It’s not me or the kids right now.”

“Because he’s devastated. He doesn’t need happy things. He needs to be sad and depressed. He needs to rage. He needs—” My gaze snapped up to meet hers. “He needs to feel like he’s in control of something. He needs to take out his rage on someone who deserves it. He needs to make someone bleed.”

“And there’s no one better at that than you.”

I blushed again. “Well, I have been known to make a man scream and beg for mercy.”

“But who are you going to get?”

I had an idea, but I would need to go away for a few days to make it happen. “Any limitations?”

“To bring my husband back? Absolutely not.”

“Then I think I can pull this off. I might need to do some things that you may not approve of.”

“It’ll be fine,” she reassured me.

I walked forward and looked her in the eyes. “Just remember you said that. You might not like the results.”

She straightened her spine just like I knew Eva always would. She was strong and wouldn’t let anything keep her down. “Fox, whatever you have to do, do it and bring my husband back to me.”

I nodded, knowing what I had to do. I gripped her hand in mine and squeezed tight. “Do me a favor and look after Anna. Tell her I won’t be home for a while.”

Eva stepped back cautiously. “Fox?—”

“I told you I would do whatever I could to bring him back, and I will. Just…it might not go exactly like I hope. But I swear to you, I will do whatever I can.”

My strong girl flung herself into my arms and squeezed me tight. I hoped I got to feel this again, but what I was about to do might ensure it never happened again.

“Fox,” she murmured.

“Yeah?”

“You’re not going to stuff him with Funyuns, are you?”

I chuckled. “It’s not a bad idea.”

I watched from a distance as Cash put Sally 3 in her cabinet and locked the door. “Rae, do it.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Just do it.” My tone brooked no argument. Two seconds later, the lights went out and the power shut down in the whole facility. Moving swiftly and silently, I crept into his office and snuck up behind him just as he was spinning around. I caught his wrist in my hand and snapped it back, breaking the bone. He cried out and fell as I slammed my boot into the side of his knee. But he didn’t give up. I barely saw the knife coming as he pulled it from his boot and slammed it up into my ribs.

I winced at the pain, but didn’t stop. Grabbing the needle from my pocket, I shoved him to the floor, digging my knee into his back. He fought, twisting and bucking to throw me off, but I held his broken wrist firm, refusing to let him go. With a single jab of the needle in his neck, his squirming slowed until all the fight drained from his body and he was left a broken heap on the ground.

“Cash is down,” I said to Rae. “Get the minivan.”

“Dash is on it.”

I stared down at the man I respected more than anyone in my entire life. A very small part of me felt bad for what I was about to do to him, but I knew in the long run, it was for the best.

If it worked.

If not, it would only drive him farther away. But it was a risk I had to take for Eva. I promised her I would get through to him, and I was determined to do just that, no matter the consequences.

“Fuck, I hate seeing him like this,” Rae said, stepping into the room.

“Better this than dead,” I retorted, moving to his head. “Grab his legs.”

We lifted together and I grunted, surprised at how fucking heavy he felt. “Fuck, he needs to go on a diet.”

“He already is,” Rae grunted. “It’s called the I killed my brother and now I don’t eat diet.”

“Well, someone should really tell him it’s not working.”

It took forever to get him outside. Dash was waiting in the van without a care in the world, fiddling with something instead of getting out to help us.

The back door opened and we tossed him in. “Are you sure we shouldn’t tie him up?”

“I gave him enough to take out a horse,” I told her. “Let’s get on the road.”

She hit the button to shut the door and turned to leave, but stopped. Eva was waiting by the door, her arms crossed over her chest protectively. I strode over to her, tilting her chin up to look at me.

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll do what I can.”

“Thank you.”

I winced slightly. “I had to break his wrist. And his knee might be fucked up.”

“He’s alive, which is more than I can say if he kept going down the path he was on.”

I stepped back. “I’ll call in a few days.” She nodded and I turned on my heel, getting into the van. “Let’s do this.”

“I really fucking hope this works,” Dash muttered.

The facility I had been using for various projects was an hour away. No one knew about it until now. When we pulled up to the gates, I saw the hesitant looks on Rae and Dash’s faces, but thankfully, they didn’t ask any questions.

“Right up there,” I pointed to the side of the building to the garage door. Dash backed up as I unlocked the code on my phone. As the doors rose, Dash backed in, shifting into park once we were settled inside.

“So…this is where you’ve been escaping to.”

And now the questions were starting. I knew it couldn’t last forever. “Anna’s with me. Where else am I supposed to go when I need a break?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t found another person to stalk by now,” Rae muttered.

“There’s only one woman I would stalk,” I rationalized, getting out of the van.

I left Rae and Dash to grab Cash and walked ahead of them, flipping on the lights in the hallway to the old warehouse. It was a packing plant long ago and some of the hooks and various other packing materials were still in here. But that wasn’t what I was going for. I unlocked the door to my special room, swinging it open as Dash and Rae walked inside, stopping when they took in the dark interior.

“Aren’t there any lights?”

“Oh, there are,” I grinned. “But trust me, you don’t want those on.”

“Fuck, I really hate it when you go all creepy on us.”

“Where do you want him?” Rae asked.

“Just drop him in the middle of the room.”

“Really?”

“Yep, that’s where the drain is.”

Both of them went silent as they looked back at me.

“What?”

“You want us to put him over the drain?” Rae asked. “Fox, what exactly do you have planned?”

I tossed my head back and laughed. “Relax. He’ll be back in one piece. Mostly.”

They dropped him on the ground and headed for the door, but I didn’t miss the way both of them seemed to hang back as if they thought they could somehow protect our boss.

But the thing was, he didn’t need them to save him. He needed to do that for himself.

“Anything else you need from us?”

“Nope. I’ve got everything I need.” I patted my jacket pocket—the same jacket Knight had given to me—and grinned at both of them. This was going to be fine. Cash might be more than a little irritated when he woke up, but I counted on that. Taking the easy way with him wasn’t going to work. He needed someone to kick his ass and get him moving, and I intended to do just that.

I locked the room as I left, giving a two-finger salute to Dash as he walked out the door. Whistling Seasons Of Love , I headed down to the warehouse to grab a few things. On my way, I stopped in the tech room and switched on my favorite playlist to blare throughout the warehouse. Frank Sinatra crooned through the speakers, putting me in a downright jolly mood.

I still hadn’t decided how I was going to play this. Should I come out strong and go straight to the dark side? Or maybe I should get things going with a few show tunes and keep things light for a while? I could slowly drive him insane until he snapped.

It was a conundrum. Maybe I’d just feel him out when he woke up. He was bound to be pissed, but I had a feeling I’d know exactly what to do when he opened his eyes.

For now, I headed back to the room to prepare him for what was to come. Lowering the chains from the ceiling, I clicked the heavy metal cuff into place around his wrist, then moved on to the other. Man, he was gonna be really pissed when he woke up.

I couldn’t help chuckling to myself. I remembered when he wanted to do this to Eva. Looked like that backfired on him big time, but I had the feeling that watching Oklahoma with him wouldn’t solve all our problems.

When he finally started to wake up, I hit the switch, raising the chains along with his body. He didn’t fully rouse until he was on his feet, his arms spread out by the length of the chains. Then his eyes opened and I knew exactly how this was going to go.

I stepped forward and looked my boss in the eyes. “Let’s begin.”