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To get through the next couple of moments, Noah turned all his emotions off as easily as flipping a switch. He hadn’t had to do it since leaving the Army, had been glad that such a thing was no longer part of his life. But at that moment, he couldn’t risk looking at Rowe, wondering if his lover or his friend was about to take a bullet in the back of the head. He had to protect them.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Rowe pulling JB’s arm over his shoulders and helping the man to his feet.
“JB is hit. Right thigh. Not near the femoral artery. Nothing major,” Rowe said in a calm and even voice for both Noah and Cole.
“Fuck you. Still hurts like hell,” JB snarled.
“Gidget is calling Frost. Where do you want him to meet you?”
“Just tell him to get his ass on the road heading east,” Rowe said. There was a little more strain in his voice as he carried some of JB’s weight while getting him moving toward Noah and the fence opening. “We’ll work out details later. Tell him I can get the bullet out, but I’d rather he clean up and close.”
Noah’s gun clicked empty and he shifted it to his left hand while lifting Rowe’s gun in his right. With the first round, he dropped a guy and something in his brain said that it had been a head shot. He was dead. The remaining two ducked down lower. Their returning fire became more infrequent and less accurate.
A part of Noah relaxed when Rowe and JB slipped past him. He slowly backed up, dipping through the opening in the fence. He chanced a glance down at his watch.
“Ten seconds,” he said. They needed to get a little more distance in case the debris flew in every direction. Noah followed behind Rowe and JB, protecting their backs. He could no longer clearly see the cars, but it looked like the two men were following behind them.
A loud, concussive blast rumbled out from the Clayborne building, blowing out the windows and sending glass in every direction. The two men shouted in surprise and dropped to the ground. Rowe helped JB behind a shipping container and Noah stepped up close to him, putting JB’s other arm over his shoulder. The earth shook beneath their feet, and a cloud of dust whooshed over the steel mill.
The moment the dust started to settle and the earth stopped shaking, Noah leaned JB against the container and peered around the edge. There was no sign of the men from Clayborne. The building was hard to spot, but it did look like huge chunks of it were now missing.
“Babe,” Noah said with a huge grin. “I think you might have a future in demolition if you ever get bored with security.”
Rowe chuckled. “Good to know.”
“As fun as this has been, can we get me somewhere with drugs and a doctor?” JB said.
“Come on, Daphne. I think I might have some morphine stashed in Noah’s Jeep, left over from a special occasion.”
“I don’t want to know,” JB groaned and Rowe helped him limp to the Jeep.
Noah continued to bring up the rear, protecting them as they worked their way to the vehicle as quickly as JB could move. The cops were definitely being called now, and it was best if they escaped before anyone else spotted them. They really shouldn’t be able to bring a building down without the cops being called, no matter who the hell Rowe was friends with.
“Are you sure they’re going to follow us to Cincy?” Noah asked.
“When they can’t find us in the area?” Rowe replied. “Yeah, they’ll come to Cincy. Erik Johnson isn’t going to just let this go.”
“Are you sure that’s smart? Leading them back to your home?” JB’s voice was rough and thick with pain. Noah had suffered his fair share of gunshot wounds, and there hadn’t been a single one of them that didn’t hurt like hell. It didn’t matter where he was hit.
“Smart? Nope,” Rowe admitted. “But it’s going to be a hell of a lot more fun.”Chapter NineteenWhen they walked into Rowe’s office at Ward Security the next afternoon, Rowe knew he was in for an ass-chewing when he saw Lucas waiting for him, hands on hips, a dark glower in his green-gray eyes. Rowe glared at Snow, who lounged on the large, black sofa against the far wall. “Tattletale.”
Snow smirked and shrugged, leaning into the corner of the couch. He was wearing a pair of loose jeans and a light-blue T-shirt that matched his eyes. He’d met them on the road in the middle of the night and didn’t even look like he’d lost a minute of sleep.
Lucas, on the other hand, also casual in jeans, looked like he hadn’t slept in a couple of days. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and there was a deep frown line between his dark brows. Andrei stood, leaning against the wall, his shoulder-length hair pulled back in a tail. He was the only one dressed for work, in a pair of black slacks and the Ward Security collared shirt.
