27. Cash
CASH
“If we don’t go soon, the evidence won’t be there,” I snapped as we waited in the vehicle outside the building.
We were waiting on Dash’s flight to get in, and the amount of wasted time was killing me. I could have been in and out by now. Granted, it would have alerted everyone and their brother that I was here and I’d probably end up in prison, but it was beginning to look like a viable option.
“Relax, boss. He’ll be here,” Kavanaugh said calmly, his feet kicked up on the back of the seat as he attempted to snooze with a ball cap pulled down over his eyes.
“Boss?”
One eye peeked open as he stared at me. “That is your name.”
“Not so sure about that,” I muttered. “Besides, I never thought I would hear you call me that.”
“Why? Because you shot me and nearly ended my life while I laid on top of my father’s casket and bled out?” He shrugged, closing his eyes again. “Bridge over troubled water.”
“It’s water under the bridge, asshole,” IRIS grumbled.
“Does it really fucking matter? It’s water and it’s free-flowing. The rest is just semantics.”
“It matters if the phrase is wrong,” IRIS argued.
“The phrase itself is right. The time to use it is wrong,” FNG corrected.
“Technically, I think it would be the right time to use it, but the wrong meaning,” Thumper joined in. “If you think about it, it’s like the boss built a bridge over troubled water. Therefore, it’s correct.”
“How the fuck do you figure?” IRIS snapped.
“What? The phrase or the timing?”
“Both!”
“Well, Kavanaugh and the boss have all these troubled waters because of—” He stopped and his eyes swung to me, widening as if he thought he was about to step in it. “Uh…because of the thing that we won’t mention that happened between them.”
“You mean when I pushed him to get the information from his old man, pretty much putting all of us at risk and threatening everyone’s lives, but I justified it with my brother’s death and my need for revenge?” I asked, quirking a smile at him.
FNG cleared his throat. “Uh…yeah. Pretty much. So, anyway, those are the troubled waters. And since we haven’t actually found a solution or forgiveness to move forward, we have a temporary bridge over those troubled waters. Hence, the saying makes sense.”
“Hence?” Kavanaugh grunted. “I would have used therefore.”
“Hence works, too,” FNG argued.
Kavanaugh shrugged with his eyes still firmly shut as he pretended to snooze. “It might work, but not as well.”
“What is this? Fucking grammar school?” I snapped, already irritated, though secretly enjoying the banter.
“Grammar school would be the wrong terminology,” FNG grinned. “I don’t think they discuss the difference between hence and therefore in grammar school.”
“How the fuck would you know?”
“Well, call me crazy, but I was a kid who once attended grammar school. Though I’m not as old as you. In my day, they called it elementary school.” He shot me a wide, shit-eating grin that made me want to slam my fist into his face.
“What was the point of this?” Thumper asked, shooting all of us a deadly glare. “Because I thought we were about to break into a building, but instead, we’re having an English debate.”
FNG opened his mouth to most likely say something snarky, but with a single look from Thumper, he wisely shut it.
“There he is,” Kavanaugh said, sitting up to slide open the passenger-side door. Unlocking it, he flung the door open, but Dash wasn’t there.
The back door opened and Dash grinned at us. “Miss me?”
“Get in,” I snapped, slamming the door closed behind him before anyone watching could see what we were up to.
“Geez, that’s not quite the welcome I had been hoping for, boss. I thought maybe I would get a hug, or at the very least, a thank you for flying halfway around the world to save your ass.”
“Where the fuck have you been? Your flight landed hours ago.”
“Well, boss , after flying halfway around the world, as I said, I had to go through this pesky little thing called customs. Then, after it was determined that I was a terrorist, I was hauled into a room for questioning, where I was strip-searched by a lovely lady named Beatrice, who turned out to be a man. I’m pretty sure she tried to give me a cavity search, and would have if her boss hadn’t been standing there.
“So, after that very uncomfortable experience, I headed to the bathroom where I nearly puked. It was only because of the tabs Rae gave me that I managed to pull it together. Then, I had to get a cab, but every old woman and her mother was out, smacking me with canes to get the cab before me.
“And being the gentleman I am, I decided against ending up with massive bruising and instead let the old ladies have their way.”
“You almost puked because you were strip-searched?” FNG asked. “Dude, I’ve been through worse than that.”
“No,” Dash said slowly. “I almost puked because I ate something Fox left in the fridge and I’m pretty sure it gave me food poisoning.”
“If you had food poisoning, you wouldn’t be standing here,” Thumper argued.
“Mind over matter,” Dash argued.
“Not when it comes to food literally killing off everything good in your body,” Thumper snapped.
“I have an amazing body,” Dash cut in. “I willed myself not to get sick, and that mind power is strong shit.”
“You willed yourself?” IRIS scoffed. “Now I’ve heard it all.”
I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes as I thought about the job ahead of me and the men working with me. It had to be the worst combination ever, and yet, I really didn’t have any other options.
Then again, it would be worse if Max and Fox were here. So, maybe I didn’t have anything to complain about.
“Can we just get back to the point where we break into the building, find out what evidence they have against me, prove my innocence, and I get back to taking out the Shadow Government?” I yelled.
Everyone stopped and stared at me like I was breaking. And maybe I was.
“Boss, it’s just a little pregame warmup,” FNG grinned. “You know how we do things.”
I did, but hell, I just wanted my life back. It seemed like that was never going to happen.
“Alright, now…” Dash pulled out his computer and booted it up. “I figure you have about three minutes from the time you walk into the building.”
“Three minutes?” I snapped. “We don’t even know where they’re holding the weapons from the case against me.”
“Well, it’s not an exact science,” he muttered.
“I bet Rae could do it,” IRIS teased.
Which was the wrong fucking thing to say because Dash hated the idea of Rae being better at anything. And she let him know all the time that she could have done something better.
“You know, do I come into your house and tell you all the people who could build bombs and blow shit up better than you could? I think that’s really fucking rude. I think you should fucking apologize. That’s just fucking mean.”
IRIS pretended to look thoroughly admonished, then burst out laughing. “Man, you really are touchy after a man-woman touched your private parts.”
“That’s not funny,” Dash grumbled. “I had a knife stored down there. Imagine if she had found that. I might have gotten castrated, and then we’d have bigger issues than Cash being blamed for the murder of a president.”
“Yes, losing your dick would be a bigger issue,” I said blandly.
“Well, maybe not for you, but definitely for me. Now,” he said, getting to work. “Let me see what I can find now that I’m here and able to really put my skills to use.”
“Rae would have already figured it all out,” FNG muttered.
I smacked him upside the head for egging Dash on. I needed him to focus, and FNG was not helping. It took a few minutes, but Dash seemed to find his rhythm and got a clearer picture of where everything could be located.
“Alright, I would guess everything is being stored in this vault,” he said, pointing at his screen. “It looks like you need to bust the lock and get inside, then you can steal the weapon and vamoose.”
“Stealing the weapon won’t prove my innocence,” I gritted out.
“No, but it would make it a hell of a lot harder to prove that you had anything to do with it,” he grinned.
Then he saw that I wasn’t amused and continued. “Well, of course, while you’re doing that, I’m going to erase the database with any and all knowledge that you were ever here or that your name is an extension of the case.”
“Erasing it isn’t good enough,” IRIS muttered. “You know what we need?—”
“No!” we all shouted.
“We’re not blowing up the building,” I snarled.
“Why the hell not? I mean, seriously. It would solve all our problems.”
“And possibly hurt innocent people.”
“Hate to tell you this, boss, but right now, it’s you versus them. And none of them seem too willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
He was right on that front, but that didn’t mean I was going to blow up a building just to clear my name.
“Look, can we just get in there, find the evidence, and destroy it before it destroys my entire fucking life?” I snapped. “Is that really too much to ask?”
Dash’s shoulders fell considerably. “Fine, but I won’t say it will be fun.”
“I’m not asking for fun. I’m asking for efficient.”
“You know, boss,” FNG scowled. “I really don’t like this version of you. After we blow up the baddies and end their reign of terror, can you make sure Fun Cash returns?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Well, that wasn’t the guarantee I was hoping for, but I guess it will do.”
“Alright, I bought you ten minutes,” Dash said over comms.
“Rae could have made it twenty,” Thumper teased.
“Did I ask for your opinions or commentary?”
“Let’s just get this done,” I cut them off.
We approached the building and Dash gave me the code to enter.
With the first hurdle passed, we moved swiftly toward the elevators, getting on as soon as they arrived.
I would have felt better on the stairs, but Dash informed me that this was faster to bypass than all the additional security doors that would inevitably land in our way.
As the doors opened, I stepped off, noting the cameras in the hallway. “Dash?”