Free Thresh: Alpha One Security: Book 2 by Jasinda Wilder Page B

head side to side in a maybe gesture. “Well, there is a place, but…I’m hesitant for a couple of reasons. First, it’s hard to get to, which is part of the reason I’m even considering it, but when I say hard to get to, I’m really not kidding. Remote doesn’t even begin to cover it. Second, I really don’t like the idea of leading anyone there, because it’s…it’s my dad’s place. I don’t want to pull him into this mess, too. He’s…kind of a hermit.”
    I considered. “Where are we talking?”  
    “He’s got this place way down in the Ten Thousand Islands area, the kind of place you have to know exactly how to get into and out of, or you’ll be totally lost forever.”
    “And you know how to get there?”  
    She nodded. “Yeah. I half grew up there. It was our summer getaway. We’d pack up as soon as school let out and take his boat out there, and we wouldn’t come back until the day before I started school again. Then, when Mom died, Dad moved out there full-time. Hasn’t left since. He has this friend who delivers supplies, and I visit him sometimes when I can.” We were nearing an exit ramp for a different freeway, and she directed me to take that exit, which put us on a smaller, two-lane highway heading south and west out away from Miami.  
    “So I’m assuming it’s not accessible via a vehicle,” I said.
    She snorted. “Yes, Thresh, there’s a nice highway leading right up to my dad’s handmade cabin deep in the Everglades.” Not only did I get the snort and the sarcasm, I also got an eye roll. Bonus points. “That’s the tricky part.” She looked at me sidelong, chewing on a thumbnail. “I’m kind of assuming you didn’t just happen to purchase this vehicle since arriving in Miami…”
    I twisted my fist around the leather of the steering wheel. “Not…exactly, no. I more…borrowed it. Firmly.”  
    She snickered. “Which means you bashed some poor asshole over the head and stole his very nice Jeep?”
    I pretended to bluster as if I was offended. “I would never bash some poor asshole over the head and steal his very nice Jeep.” I affected an arch tone. “I have standards , I’ll have you know. For your information, I held him up at knifepoint and stole his Jeep. But I was polite.”  
    She raised both eyebrows. “You politely stole a vehicle at knifepoint?”
    “Yep. Didn’t even hurt him—” I tipped my head to the side with a shrug of one shoulder, “—much. Just a little tiny, itty-bitty spot where I pricked him with the knife. Won’t even need a Band-Aid.”
    She eyed me. “Well. I certainly wouldn’t like to know what it looks like when you’re not being polite about something.”
    I shot a glance in the mirror, checking for our pursuers; they looked a tad bored. I’d have to make things interesting for them, at some point.  
    “You’ve seen it,” I said. “It can get…messy.”  
    That silenced her for a moment. “I see. I guess I can understand why you’d be upset, all things considered.”  
    I laughed outright. “Upset? I’m not upset at all. This is a bit of fun, so far. It’d be better if I hadn’t gotten shot, but then these are the same guys who put the bullets in me in the first place, and I did a number on them during the last op, so I’m kind of looking at this as…retribution, for both sides.”  
    A few more moments of silence went by, and then she glanced at me again. “What was the op? I mean, if I’m gonna get dragged into some shit out of a Jason Bourne movie, I might as well know why.”  
    I debated about what to tell her, and then figured she deserved to know the truth for the reasons she gave. “First, when I said I was a security contractor, I really did mean that. We generally provide personal security for high-profile clients on an event-by-event basis. Like when some A-list celebrity is doing some big flashy event and they want to beef up their normal security, they’ll hire us. My job is usually