33. Cash
CASH
A rough rocking motion woke me from the most fucked up dream of my life. Large mice were running around, giving me orders as Fox—a literal fox—performed the most screwed up version of The Phantom Of The Opera .
And what made it all worse was when I woke up, “Think Of Me” was playing somewhere in the room.
It took everything in my destroyed body to pry my eyes open and look around the bright room. I instantly wanted to go back to sleep and pretend I didn’t see what I just had.
But that wasn’t going to happen with Fox sitting in bed beside me, rocking back and forth as he hummed along to one of his favorite musicals. Groaning, I forced myself to sit up in bed, grimacing at the scent of meat covered in Funyuns.
“Fox, what the fuck are you doing in my bed?”
His jaw worked hard as he grunted and gnawed on his horribly smelly concoction. “Mm! You’re awake!”
“Of course I’m awake. How the fuck am I supposed to sleep when you’re rocking the whole bed?”
“Ha! Good point. Shawarma?” he asked, holding out his plate to me.
“No, I don’t want any fucking shawarma.”
He actually looked hurt that I didn’t take his offering. Sighing, I snagged the smallest piece I could find and slipped the meat into my mouth, though it was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Can you taste the Funyuns?” he asked, his eyes bright with wonder. “I sprinkled Funyun dust all over the meat to flavor it. I think it really adds something.”
Yes, it did add something, but it was not good.
Still, I swallowed it down and gave him the most half-hearted thumbs up I could muster.
Settling back against the pillows, I fought the sleep that was tugging at me despite having just woken up.
I was exhausted, and my body was beaten to hell.
It was even worse than when I woke up yesterday.
Then again, yesterday, Eva was in bed with me and I hadn’t touched her in so fucking long, I think I could have made love to her if I was literally dying of a heart attack.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, scrubbing a hand over my sleep-deprived face.
“Well, since you asked, after drowning one of your former colleagues in a vat of acid, I decided my work was done and could join my favorite leader on his adventures. Lucky for me, I brought The Kamau’s jacket,” he grinned. “You didn’t tell me he would be with you.”
“I didn’t even tell you where I would be,” I pointed out.
“Well, not that it matters. I rarely go anywhere without The Kamau’s things. You know, just in case he needs a spare. I would hate for him to be missing such a vital piece of himself when he’s on the job. Hence, my amazing boots.”
He wiggled his feet, pointing to the motorcycle boots that had seen more wear than the average pair of shoes. Then again, he’d been wearing them since…well, it had been a long fucking time.
“Shouldn’t you replace those boots? They’re falling apart.”
He stopped jerking on the bed and shot me the most horrified look. “Get rid of The Kamau’s boots? Are you serious?”
“Fox, I’m sure he replaces his own boots from time to time. I highly doubt he’s been wearing the same pair for the last twenty years.”
“Well, of course he hasn’t. I’m wearing the pair he had on when we first met.” He scoffed out a laugh, shaking his head at me.
Yeah, I was the ridiculous one.
“Anyway, I just don’t think I could ever give these up. It was the start of a beautiful friendship. And now that we’re brothers?—”
“You’re not brothers, Fox. You’re not related to any of us,” I pointed out.
He barked out a laugh, shoving more shawarma in his mouth. “You crack me up, boss. Anyway, these are my lucky boots. There was no way I was leaving them behind on such a vital mission.”
I couldn’t argue with that. After all, I had Betty, not that she was with me anymore. I had left her on the box in my office. God knows if she was even still there. Someone might have thrown her out.
“And speaking of lucky…”
He dug into his pocket, fighting with whatever was inside with his yellow-crusted fingers. “Ah-ha!” He held up Betty, surprising the hell out of me. Only, Betty was covered in yellow dust now. But still…
I carefully took her from his grip and stared down at my lucky charm. She still looked the same. No one had bothered to throw her out, and for that I was grateful.
“You kept her.”
“Boss, it’s not like you left and we all moved on with life. We knew you were coming back.”
That was odd because I had no idea if I would ever be back. I had hoped, but was I positive? Not at all. I knew there was every possibility I wouldn’t come out of this alive.
There was still that possibility.
But the fact that they had so much faith in me was startling.
“Thank you,” I murmured, squeezing Betty tightly.
“Honestly, I don’t really get why you leave her behind when you go off the rails. Wouldn’t you need more luck when that happens?”
He had a point, but it always felt wrong to take her with me when I knew I was a tad too unhinged. It was like I was tainting her with my decisions. But maybe he was right. Maybe I should have kept her with me at all times.
I felt way too sentimental for the ass crack of dawn, so I cleared my throat, shoving all emotion aside, and got to the point. “So, this guy you boiled, what did you get from him?”
He grunted around a bite of food, wiping his hands on the comforter that I would now never sleep under again. “So, funny story. As usual, he didn’t want to talk.” Fox rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “That’s pretty typical. I won’t give in. I’m special. I won’t talk. ”
He snorted in amusement. “They always talk. That’s why I always use acid.
If there’s anything to give up, they’ll shout it if it means ending the pain faster.
But this guy…” He snorted, nearly choking on his Funyuns dust. “This guy held out longer than anyone before. I really thought he wouldn’t give me a thing, but for some reason, when I started singing, that seemed to push him over the edge. ”
“Funny,” I murmured, though it was far from funny.
“I got all his account numbers and passed them on to Rae.” He grinned widely at me. “You’ll be happy to know that all accounts have been drained, so whatever they were planning, the Shadow Government no longer has any funds to work with.”
That was a huge step in the right direction. But it would also make them more lethal than ever. Men always did stupid shit when they had nothing to lose. They would come at us hard, determined to make us pay for stealing from them.
“Is everyone on alert?”
“Boss, seriously,” he scoffed. “It’s like you think we just rolled out of bed one morning and decided to be secret agents.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Everyone is aware of the threat. They’re all safe. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, and the building was attacked, the silo is destroyed, and the elevator to the panic room is on the fritz. But other than that, we’re golden.”
The way he glossed over that nearly made my blood boil, but then I remembered this was Fox, and glossing over shit was his specialty.
If someone was hurt, I would know about it.
In fact, he wouldn’t even be here right now.
He would have whoever attacked us dangling over a vat of acid, so in reality, there probably wasn’t anything to worry about.
“What about the men who broke in?”
“Dead. Rae was on it. Oh, and Reed Security showed up.”
That gave me pause. “Why the hell was Reed Security there?”
He shrugged. “You know how it is. There’s danger. We’re in trouble. Come save us ,” he screeched in a high-pitched girly voice. “Someone called, and they answered.”
Vague as fuck, but again, not that Fox would give me a different answer.
“So, basically, the Shadow Government is pissed as hell. They’re going to retaliate, and any chance we have of taking them down has just increased or decreased, depending on how you look at it.
He nodded, resuming his bouncing as he turned up the TV. “Basically. Not that I don’t enjoy talking to you, but this is my favorite part.”
“God forbid I interrupt your musical.”
He snorted. “Right?”
That was fine. I’d learned all I was going to from Fox, and frankly, the smell of Funyuns and shawarma was getting to me. I scooted to the end of the bed, my body aching even more than it had yesterday. But the good news was I didn’t feel the same warmth coating my insides.
Then there was the burning desire to pee. I slowly pushed myself up, feeling like an old man about to keel over. My legs wobbled as I stood there, and for a moment, I wondered if I was going to actually make it to the bathroom.
Thankfully, I found my feet and headed for the connecting door with no assistance from my yellow-fingered friend. But when I shut the door and looked in the mirror, the bruising under my eyes was just a little disturbing.
Fuck, I looked like I’d been in a wreck. Which I had, but I didn’t remember looking quite so shitty when I’d been injured in the past. Then again, I wasn’t in my early thirties anymore. Time was catching up with me, reminding me that I wouldn’t live forever.
I took a piss and then decided the shower was the best way to go. I desperately needed to wipe the stink off me and get a shave. After gingerly stripping, I turned on the hot water and stepped under the warm stream, groaning at how fucking good it felt.
“You’d better not be groaning because a woman is in there with you,” Eva’s voice filtered from just inside the bathroom.
“Kitten,” I mumbled, ducking my head under the spray.
I heard the curtain pull back and then her hands were sliding around my waist, and her cheek rested against my back. “How are you?”
“Fantastic. I feel like a million bucks.”
She huffed out a laugh against my back, and then her hands disappeared, leaving me feeling cold and alone. But they quickly returned with a soapy rag that she gently ran over my back.
Fuck, that felt good. After laying on my back for so long, I was sore and felt disgusting. In fact, there was hardly a part of me that felt intact.
“How’s the side?”