1. Dax #2
“Really, little demon, do you think we’re all mad at you for no reason?” Void asked, giving me a deadpan look. “You are smarter than that. Take a moment to think it over and let me know when you’ve managed to see our point of view.”
Fuck, if Void was upset with me too about what happened earlier, then maybe I did go too far.
Wes seemed to follow my train of thought as he snapped out an arm to block the giant man. “Hold up. How are you mad at her when you were right on her heels, running into battle?”
Void looked completely confused by the question. “You would rather I let her go alone? My little demon is many things, but bulletproof, she’s not. I’d rather enter the fires of Hell beside her than send her off to fight alone. There is always better luck when you have backup.”
Wes tried to come up with a rebuttal but couldn’t.
Damn, my man, Void, is the best kind of crazy, no wonder he believes we're soul mates. While he made a good point about why he went running off into danger, I, on the other hand, didn’t have one other than being an impulsive adrenaline junky.
It was simpler to just deal with things head-on, get to the root of the problem, and be done with it.
Once everyone took a seat and dug into our meal, we fell silent, mouths too full to harass me about my life choices.
I was gonna need to fix this, though, because being grounded was not gonna happen.
Just as we all started to relax, the sound of vehicles pulling up and headlights flashing in through the windows alerted us to the arrival of the FBI.
Cam shoved back his chair, tossing his napkin on the table angrily as he went to greet them.
“So, did you guys already discuss what we’re telling them?” I asked, leaning back in my chair, sipping at my beer.
“We stick to the same story Cam told them when they got to the site of the explosion,” Sprocket explained.
“Great…” I said cheerfully. “Anyone want to tell me what that is? I was a little kidnapped at the time.”
This seemed to snap them all to attention as the realization that I had no idea what our cover story was.
“Right, well, part of it was the sneaky plan you cooked up with Cam behind our backs,” Picasso started, letting me know how he felt about that. “As you instructed, the FBI was notified that we were in the works with a sting operation and we were helping.”
“Huh,” I mused. “That was simple and to the point of him, now, wasn’t it.”
“You didn’t tell him to say that?” Cognac asked.
Shaking my head, I took another swallow of my beer. “Nope, I told him to do whatever he needed to, so we had backup since I had no idea how procedure works within the FBI. Seems like it did the trick since none of us are in jail.”
“Yet, none of us are in jail yet,” Wes corrected. “Don’t forget we have a massacre out there that we need to have a damn good story for.”
“Why do we need a story? They attacked us. We defended ourselves, plain and simple,” I reasoned, twirling my fork in my pasta.
“They would have come lights a blazin’ if they were going to ship us off to jail.
This seems too friendly in my book, and I don’t think the FBI is that good at infiltration on a large scale. ”
“I just love your optimism, loba,” Cognac said with a grin. “Here you sit, calm as can be, while the iron fist of the government is sitting on our lawn.”
“Oh, my sweet, sweet, summer child,” I teased. “Don’t you know the guiltier you act, the easier it is for them to believe you are? One of the biggest reasons I haven’t ended up in jail for the rest of my life is purely because I have zero guilt about what I’ve done.”
Void just smiled and continued to shovel his face full of food, understanding what I was saying far more than the others.
We paused when the front door opened, and Cam walked in with Agent Egger, who did not look any more thrilled to see me than when we first met.
At least this time, I wasn’t covered in blood. That should count for something.
“Hello, agent,” I greeted, waving my fork at her. “We have more left if you’re hungry.”
She just looked at me like I’d lost my mind. With a shrug, I went back to my meal, not remembering the last thing I ate. Feeling the gnaw of hunger in my belly wasn’t something I enjoyed. It reminded me of days I’d rather forget.
“How can you all just be sitting there eating like nothing happened today?” Egger blurted. “There is a wasteland of dead bodies out there that you created.”
Setting my fork down, I turned in my chair to face her. “Do you know what would have happened if we hadn’t killed them?”
“I don’t care. You should have waited for the authorities to handle this matter,” she argued.
Crossing one leg over the other, I cocked my head at her.
“So it's fine with you if the cops kill them all, just not us? What about the women and children they would have slaughtered while we waited for said authorities to arrive? Were we just supposed to tell the people that call this home to cut their losses and run? If that’s that case, then arrest me because I will never regret doing what was necessary to keep them safe,” I dared, holding out my wrist, ready for her to cuff me.
Cam charged over to me and batted my hands down. “Would you please stop being so dramatic? She isn’t going to arrest you because everything we did was in self-defense. There is even video to prove that everything that was done is justified.”
Shoving to my feet, I brushed past Cam and stood right in front of Agent Egger. “I still want to know your answer. Would you, in their position, wait for the police to come or stand your ground to protect your home and family?”
Egger looked me dead in the eye, but I watched as when she truly thought about it, she wasn’t so sure. “I… I am an FBI agent. I swore an oath to uphold the law—”
“Err,” I yelled, cutting her off. “You swore an oath to uphold the constitution, and within that archaic document is the right to bear arms, and since you brought up the law, then there's something called the Castle Doctrine, which states I can defend my home and the people within it without fear of prosecution. They came on our land, breached our fences, and attacked us. Damn, Egger, you’re one hell of an agent if you would tell me I’m wrong. ”
Knowing that I was too pissed off to talk to this woman reasonably, I stormed out of the house. Footsteps quickly followed, telling me they really weren’t going to let me go off on my own.
“Loba,” Cognac called after me. “Damn, you are fast for someone with such short legs,” he said as he jogged up next to me.
“It’s all a fucking joke.” I snarled.
Cognac grabbed my arm and pulled me to his chest. “I know, loba, fucking hell do I know how true that is.”
“They come here acting like we are the bad guys when if we didn’t fight, so many innocents would have been lost,” I fumed. “How can they see what happened and only see the black and white of it all?”
“Because that is how they were trained. The world is a set of rules, good and evil, while we live in a world of gray. Things are never cut and dry when you look under the surface, but they don’t have the autonomy to do that,” Cognac shared, running his fingers soothingly through my hair that was getting far too long for my liking.
“How the fuck did Cam make it through their training? He is the most gray person I know,” I rambled, trying to keep from getting too emotional. I’d cried once today after finding out Eagle was alive. I didn’t need to do that shit again because of some stupid FBI agent.
“Do any of us really want to know the answer to that? I feel like out of anything we know that could get us arrested or thrown in jail,” Cognac said with a chuckle. “Come on. I have an idea of what might make you feel better.”
“Is there someone you have tied to a chair I can stab?” I mumbled, letting him lead me by the hand into the darkness behind a garage.
Cognac let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, I suppose that would make you feel better, but this idea is a little less… messy.”
“If you say so.” I sighed.
We didn’t have to go far before I spotted what he wanted to show me. It reminded me of when I’d first arrived and found out they had a pool. A smile grew on my lips and as the soft light from within the water glowed invitingly, begging me to jump in.
“I’m not skinny dipping,” I warned as I shoved my shorts down.
Cognac’s face turned serious for a second. “Damn straight you’re not showing off that hot little body of yours to anyone but us. Fuck, if the others found out, I’m not sure what would happen.”
“And we’ll never find out because I’m in enough trouble with them as it is,” I pointed out and dove into the water.