How fucking dare she talk to him in such a reasonable manner? Fuck her. He said about those same words to her, unleashing a rant while manifesting laser beams to shoot from his eyes and singe her very being.
Shanna acted as if he were nothing more than an annoying gnat as she reached for an unused chair and started to pull it out from the table to position herself in front of him.
“Be careful. He’s turned himself over several times. Lunged forward to head butt an agent. He’s angry,” Cash said, putting him back down on all four of the chair’s legs. His palms came to rest casually on Dev’s shoulder. Dev moved, trying to shrug Cash away until he lifted his hands.
Shanna laughed with her teasing, singsong tone. “He’s being tame then. I’m surprised you got him in the restraints. Most usually don’t.”
“Only because I caught him off guard,” Cash confessed.
Damn fucking straight that was the only goddamn reason he was tied up right now.
She stared Dev directly in the eyes and placed the chair about three feet from him. Her patient smile showed she had no fear of him. Just because she was right didn’t mean she needed to gloat.
“Can we ungag him?” she asked.
He decided to answer for everyone in the room with a resoundingyesthat sounded very much like a woof.
“He won’t let you speak if you do. I tried,” Cash said. Of course, he wasn’t going to let Cash speak to him for any reason. Who could know if he felt that same way about Shanna. They’d have to remove the gag to see. Dev cut his gaze toward Cash who took his seat to the right of him again.
Based on the firm set of her jaw, Shanna didn’t like Cash’s answer but didn’t buck him.
Interesting.
The master liar and sexual deviant wannabe must be the superior here.Great.
“No matter what you may think, you’re not under arrest,” Shanna started. Cash burst out with a harsh bark of laughter. The mean glint Shanna showed moments ago was again pointed at Cash before she turned back toward him, lessening the severity of her look. “Dev, I’m an undercover special agent for the FBI. I’m on a special task force led by the DEA here in Dallas.”
“Fuck you,” he said through the gag. Fairly sure that was clear enough. What the fuck was she even talking about? She worked for the FBI? He’d assumed she’d flipped on the club, but working for the FBI? What the actual fuck?
She only shook her head, brushing him off. “Can’t you ever be more imaginative with your insults?”
“Fuck you, you stupid fuckin’ bitch,” Dev replied.
“It wasn’t an invitation to insult her further,” Cash said, steel infusing his tone.
The narc could use whatever voice he wanted. He didn’t care. “Fuck you, you goddamn son of a balls lickin’ bitch. I’m gonna kill you when I get free of this chair, you asshole.” It was hard to breathe through the tirade, but he managed to let go of another growl to cement his promise.
“Dev, stop. Let me finish then you can put on your show of defiance if you still want to. You guessed right about Cash. Well done. He’s from our childhood, and he’s also part of the DEA.” Shanna lifted a hand, giving him a so-so motion.
Cash took over the explanation, making everything crystal clear. “I’m in Dallas under the orders of the US Attorney General’s Exempt Operations division. We’re called AGEOs. It’s the reason you haven’t been read your rights. It’s the same reason you’ll go missing if you don’t agree to do as we ask,” Cash explained.
“Fuck you,” Dev snarled and bounced his feet and chair around to go kick that stupid motherfucker’s ass just for the tone he used.
“You’re what?” Shanna barked. Her utter surprise yanked Dev’s undivided attention to her but not his movement. It may take him ten minutes to get to Cash, but when he did, he was going to fuck the guy up. They thought he’d tried to head butt before. Wait until his forehead smashed that pretty boy’s nose.
Cash gave his sister a distracted wrinkle of the brow as if her question was nothing more than an annoyance. “Settle down, Dev,” Cash commanded. “Agent Fox, under the authority of the US Attorney General, from this point forward, you and Joe work for me. Any communication with your current superiors must go through me first. It’s the way it has to be for now.”
Cash got to his feet with those catlike reflexes that had driven Dev wild. Now they only pissed him off at how much he missed. All the signs were there. Of course this guy was too good to be real. He reached across the far side of the table, handing Shanna an iPad.
“Forgo reasoning with him and show him what’s been done to him. We have to calm him down before we can hope for any rational dialogue.”
She looked disgruntled as hell but took the offering.
“So Cash isn’t DEA?” Dev watched from the corner of his eye as she asked the nerdier one with the shaky hands. The guy shrugged.
The gravity of a situation Dev didn’t fully understand landed in Shanna’s troubled stare that was pointed back on him. She got to her feet, letting go of a deep sigh. Tension filled the small room. “This just got way more serious, brother. You need to listen to me very carefully.” She went around her chair, pushing it back toward the table. “Can we move him closer to the table so he can better see what I’m talking about?”
He could no longer see Cash. Those stealthy wildcat ways had slipped somewhere behind him. He heard a deep sigh and the gag at his mouth loosened. “If you make one more move to hurt yourself with the table or the pad, I’ll tie your chest to the chair. Got it?”
