Operation: Departed Angel (Shepherd Security Book 5)

by Margaret Kay

  “It doesn’t matter, Gary,” she said. “Whatever our lives will be like is far better than what mine would be like without you. We’ve found each other again, and for that, I can be satisfied with whatever the circumstances are.” She was thoughtful for a moment. “Dr. Lassiter told me that our twenty-one-year-old selves should have slept on our breakup and approached it the next day with fresh minds that saw each other’s perspectives. I never wanted to break up with you back then. That whole fight we had just kind of took on a life of its own. I don’t want anything like that to ever happen between us again.”

  “I’d like to think we’re both more mature than we were then,” Sloan said. “But I promise you I’ll do my part in that regard. As far as our relationship goes, let’s just take it one day at a time and be fully in the moment and honest with each other at all times.”

  “I like that.” She gave his hand another squeeze, the excitement and anticipation of their new life together racing through her.

  Papa

  They arrived at his place, a very small one-bedroom middle unit with an attached one-car garage. As they entered the condo, he showed her the panel for the security system. His childhood home’s street number was the passcode. She could easily remember that. They stepped through into the galley-style kitchen, a small interior room with no windows. The walls were white, the appliances stainless steel, the cabinets black. There was nothing sitting on the counter except for a Keurig coffee maker.

  The kitchen opened into the one large center room. It had a small dining table with four chairs, a blue couch, with two black glass end tables and a matching coffee table. There was a television mounted on the white walls. There wasn’t a single decoration anywhere, no pictures, no clutter either. The two large windows were on the front wall of the condo with the front door to the right of the windows. A door to her left led into the small bathroom and the door beside it opened into a bedroom. The two doors were both situated on the back wall of the condo.

  “It’s very small,” Sloan said. “We’ll think about finding a bigger place.” He sat the bag of takeout onto the table. Truth was, he rarely ate there preferring to eat seated on the couch and using the coffee table. Then they each sat their backpacks against the wall beside the table.

  She smiled and glanced around. “I would never have pegged you as a minimalist.”

  Sloan shrugged. “I don’t spend much time here, so it’s never mattered. It’s been a place to sleep and shower when I was in town. That will change now that you’re here. Feel free to add any decorations or things you want.” He kissed her. “I’m glad you’re here, Kennedy.”

  She ran her fingers over his cheeks and down his neck. “I am too. I will forever be grateful to Danny for speaking up when neither of us were going to. I’d be away with that Marshal right now, if he hadn’t, and might very well never see you again.”

  “I think I would have caved and had Shepherd track you down within a week. But I’m glad I didn’t have to say goodbye to you.”

  She smiled a genuine smile and embraced him. A loud growl from her stomach made them both chuckle. “That Chinese sure smells good.”

  “I’ve got water bottles or beer in the fridge.”

  Kennedy began unpacking the food bag. “A beer sounds perfect. I can’t believe I went through this last week without a single drink. I can’t tell you how great a shot or glass of anything would have tasted.”

  “I’ll grab us a beer and some plates,” Sloan said.

  Her statement about alcohol sent up a little red flag in his head. He wondered if she had any addiction issues. A fast lifestyle was pretty much synonymous with Los Angeles. He knew many in the music industry abused alcohol and drugs. He’d have to watch her to be sure she was okay.

  He returned to the table and sat the plates, silverware and their beers to the table. She already had the cartons open. After they both sat and dished up food to their plates, he raised his beer bottle in toast between them. Kennedy immediately raised hers as well.

  “To our fresh start. May we always be honest with each other in our conversations, and never fuck up what we have again,” he said.

  “Agreed.” She tapped her bottle to his. She took a long drink. The amber fluid tasted amazing.

  When they finished eating, Sloan took the dishes to the kitchen and washed them off. Kennedy put the leftovers away in the refrigerator. She grabbed two more beers and opened them. She knew she wanted another. And, she assumed they would be going to bed, to make love. Sipping on a beer would go well with that activity. Then Sloan led her to the bedroom. He didn’t plan on much sleep for either of them.

  He switched on the lamp on the bedside table just within the room. The bedroom was large, large enough to accommodate the king-sized bed, two side tables, a dresser and a high chest and still have ample floor space. There was also a door towards the back wall on the same side as the bathroom. She assumed it was the closet. Two large windows were on the back wall with room darkening blinds over them. No curtains, no decorations, not a single item on the dresser tops except the one small lamp on one bedside table. Just white walls and a dark blue comforter on the bed. Wow! This room was so un-home-like. It needed color and personality.

  Sloan took the beers from her and set them on the bedside table. Then he pulled the covers back on the bed. In one fluid movement, without a word spoken, he took Kennedy in his arms and pressed her to the bed, his body atop hers.

  “We still fit together amazingly well,” he whispered after he had kissed her a lengthy tongue dueling, hands roaming, pelvis thrusting kiss.

  “Um,” she sighed. Gary had a way to turn her insides to Jell-O with just a kiss or a caress. Both plus a strategic thrust of his hardened cock against her intimate parts and she was a goner. “I’m so glad we are here, together. I didn’t want to leave you. I didn’t want to go away with that Marshal.”

  Sloan answered her with another, even more intense kiss. It didn’t take long for them to undress each other and enjoy each other on the most primal of levels. Not a single erogenous zone on each other’s bodies was ignored. Kennedy’s long nails scraped over places that even Gary didn’t know would arouse such incredible sensations by being touched in that way.

  For Kennedy, being with a lover who focused on her enjoyment, rather than his own, was something she was not accustomed to. The way he kissed, touched, licked, invaded nearly every orifice on her body brought her release after incredible release. When they were both worn out, they sat propped up, holding each other and sipped their now warm beers.

  The next morning Kennedy came into the kitchen, wrapped in the oversized white towel. Her hair hung uncombed and wet. There were no hand towels in the bathroom to wrap around her hair. “Hey, where are your spare towels? I checked the cabinets in the bathroom.”

  Sloan stood leaning against the counter, gazing at his phone. “On a shelf in my bedroom closet,” he answered, glancing up. He smiled. “Wow, you look great wet.” He sat his phone onto the counter and crossed the kitchen, taking her into his arms. “I was just texting with Garcia. Alpha Team is getting together at his place for a BBQ tonight. It’ll be a good opportunity for you to get to know the other wives.”

  “Sure,” she replied.

  It was a short reply that screamed to Sloan that she didn’t really want to go. He held her close. “Hey, what’s that voice? It’ll be fun, and with as much as I’ll be gone, it’ll be good for you to have their support.”

  “I don’t need you to arrange playdates for me like I’m a child. I can make my own friends.”

  “Whoa, Kennedy, you misunderstand my motives. It’s not that I don’t think you can make your own friends, it’s just that what we do is classified. You cannot ever tell another friend outside of our team and their wives anything about us. From what I’ve seen, the three of them are close and support each other. I just want that for you too.”

  “I think I’ll be fine,” Kennedy replied harshly.

  “Last year, we wer
e at Garcia and Sienna’s housewarming party. All members of both Alpha and Delta Teams were there, and we all got scrambled. Everyone’s phone went off with the alert. We went from laughing and having a good time, to all nine of us dumping our plates of food and walking out the door, leaving the three women standing there wondering what was up. They knew it had to be bad if all of us were called in.”

  “And was it?” She hesitantly asked.

  Sloan nodded. She saw that darkness return to his eyes, that look that reminded her he had seen a lot that no human being should ever see.

  “We were sent to Africa, Somalia. Al-Shabaab was attacking villages along its border with Ethiopia. There were innocent women and children in their path and a lot of casualties in their wake.”

  “Why were you called in and not our regular military?”

  “There are some circumstances that using our regular military forces isn’t the best course, politically. That’s when we go in, because if we fuck up, there’ll be no political backlash.”

  “I don’t recall hearing anything about that on the news,” she said.

  “If we do our jobs right, no one will ever hear about what we do on the news.”

  He watched her process that behind her bright blue eyes. He saw that she understood what he was saying.

  “So, tell me more about these ladies,” Kennedy said.

  Sloan smiled. “Well, you’ve already met Angel, and she’s just the best. She’s good for the agency, for Shepherd, and for Jackson. Sienna came into Garcia’s life on a mission too. I’ll admit, I didn’t see that one coming. Sienna was a kindergarten teacher and Garcia is, well he’s Garcia, a man who pulled off a deep cover assignment as a scumbag drug-dealing biker for years before he joined the agency. He was dark, troubled and I will admit I was afraid of him when he first joined the agency. That was before I got to know him. He was forced back into that role going on two years ago and that’s when he met Sienna. They are polar opposites, but they work well together.”

  “And she’s pregnant with their first child?”

  Sloan chuckled. “Yeah, Garcia couldn’t wait for her to agree to marry him and have a kid.”

  “I was surprised when I saw all of you guys with that little baby girl. Everyone seemed so comfortable holding her and her mom too seemed fine with all of you passing her around.”

  “Yeah, we all have helped with Jackson and Angel’s baby. Hell, when he wasn’t even a month old, she had some spreadsheets she had to get done for Shepherd, so Sammy got passed around to all of us. Alpha Team was out on a mission, so Jackson wasn’t there to help. We all got comfortable handling a baby that day.”

  “I wouldn’t guess the office to be a baby friendly place.”

  “Shepherd turned one of the conference rooms into a nursery for him. He’s usually there every day with Angel. Elizabeth is Angel’s back up as the receptionist, so I imagine Olivia will be there a lot too.”

  “You seem very close to Doc and Elizabeth.”

  Sloan couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve always been tight with Doc, both of us serving as our team’s medics. I thought one night I’d be helping to deliver Olivia, very prematurely. Doc was away on a mission and Elizabeth had an emergency. They lived just a few blocks from here, so Ops called me to go help when she called them.”

  “What kind of emergency?” Kennedy asked.

  “She was bleeding and was only like five months pregnant. It turned out to be placenta previa and obviously everything ended up okay, but I went to the hospital with her. After, Trio and I stayed with her around the clock for a few days until Doc got back. She stayed up in the apartment you and I stayed in, so everyone could help out. She was on bedrest for months. Elizabeth and I have been close ever since.”

  “Wow,” Kennedy murmured. “That had to be really scary for her.”

  “It was, especially because Doc wasn’t there with her, but all of us plus Angel and Sienna were. We take care of our own, and you are now one of us. I guarantee you, Kennedy, you have never been a member of anything like this group.”

  “Well, I’m not yet,” she said softly, glancing away. She wasn’t sure what any of their backgrounds were, but she was sure none of those women would approve of the life she’d led and embrace her as they had everyone else.

  Sloan slid his fingers beneath her downcast chin and raised her face until her eyes met his. “You are. Just because you’re with me, you’re a member of the group now and everyone will treat you as such. No one cares about your past, Kaylee.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure those women won’t,” she said sarcastically.

  “First of all, none of them knows the details about your life. Not even Angel.”

  This surprised Kennedy. “Really?” She asked skeptically.

  “Yes, really,” he confirmed strongly.

  “Garcia knows. So does Jackson and Doc. I’ll never believe they wouldn’t tell their wives.”

  “Well they won’t. That’s your story to tell if you choose to, not theirs and they know it, just as each of those ladies’ stories are their own. I haven’t told you and I won’t. All you need to know is that each of them was part of a mission when they met and fell in love with a member of our team. Once you all become close, I’m sure they will share their stories with you, but that’s their choice not mine.”

  “Wait, all three were met during missions? I knew Angel went through something, Danny mentioned that the Marshals set up her new identity here with Jackson.”

  Sloan frowned. “Mother shouldn’t have told you that. I know you will never repeat it.”

  She shook her head. “I won’t. I promise. He only told me when he was trying to convince me to tell you that I wanted to stay with you, to show it was possible. I don’t know the circumstances behind what led to that with Angel, and you’re right when you say it’s her story to share.”

  Sloan embraced her. He wanted to take her back to bed and make love to her again, but they had some things they had to get done. “Go dry off and get dressed so we can go get some breakfast. Then we need to stop by a grocery store and get some food for this place. And then we’re going to meet Sherman for lunch. He found out about us after we left last night. He called while you were in the shower. He was pissed at me that I didn’t tell him, and he found out from someone else.”

  “So, we’re meeting him for lunch because he’s pissed?”

  Sloan chuckled. “You have to understand, Sherman and I have been partners for longer than I can remember. He’s my best friend, Kennedy, my brother. Yeah, if he had a woman move in with him and didn’t tell me, I’d be pissed too.”

  Her lips cracked a smile against her wishes. “He’s a good guy.”

  “Good, I’m glad you think so. I spend a lot of time with him even when we’re not working. I don’t think that’ll change too much.”

  “It doesn’t have to. Who am I to tell you who you can or cannot have over to your place?”

  “Our place. You live here now, your stuff is probably cluttering up my dresser and my bathroom counter, so please think of this place as ours.”

  “When can I get my bags from L.A.? I won’t feel like I live here until my stuff is unpacked.”

  “We can swing by the office and pick them up later today.”

  “Okay.” She turned and left the kitchen to go get dressed. She’d have to wear the loaned clothes one more day. Then she’d launder them and get them back to Angel.

  Sherman was already seated in a corner booth when Sloan and Kennedy arrived at the small diner that was located in the middle of a strip mall. “Hey,” Sloan greeted Sherman as Kennedy slid into the booth first. Sloan sat beside her.

  “So, what the fuck?” Sherman asked sternly, his eyes narrowed on Sloan.

  Sloan smiled wide. He embraced Kennedy. “Like I told you this morning, I’m sorry I didn’t call you to tell you. It happened fast and after we were at my place, well, I wasn’t about to spend my time calling anyone.”

  Sherman’s lips set in a smi
rk and he shook his head. “Now that would have been weird if you did.”

  The waitress brought glasses of ice water to Kennedy and Sloan. There was already one in front of Sherman. “Hi, darling,” she greeted Sloan with recognition. “Can I get you anything to drink besides water?” She sat two more menus down in front of them.

  Sherman handed his menu back to the older waitress.

  “The usual, sweetie?” She asked him.

  “Thanks, yeah.” He flashed a grin at her and then his eyes shifted to Kennedy. “They have the best open-faced meatloaf sandwiches with real mashed potatoes.”

  Kennedy smiled. There was no way she would eat something that heavy for lunch. She’d be as heavy as the waitress if she did, not that the waitress was fat, she just wasn’t thin. She opened the menu and glanced over the salads. “Water is fine, thank you, and I’d like the spinach cobb salad, please.”