by Dale Mayer
How was that a thing?
After grabbing a few hours of sleep—hoping to cool off, knowing Stone would wake her in an emergency—she headed downstairs to where many of her team were hanging around and talking to each other.
She smiled at the group and said, “I need two teams of two. We’re going to have a talk with those men outside.” The men nodded, all standing up. She sighed. “Not everybody here gets to go,” she said. “We need to round up the men outside and keep them under guard at all times.”
“They will be,” one of the men said. “You can count on that.”
She turned to look at the speaker, and it was Dakota. She smiled and said, “Good enough. We need two teams.” She turned and looked at the others and realized she had many good men in front of her, and nobody wanted to be left out. She groaned. “I can’t take you all, so what do you want to do?”
“We all want to go, but that’s not working,” Flynn said. “We’ve got men all over the place, but Dakota is here. He might as well take lead on one team, and I will take Tyson, and we’ll head out two and two.” He stopped, looked at her and said, “What are your plans?”
“I’ll have a talk with the men outside. I want two men with me.”
Behind her, Levi’s voice said, “I’ll have a talk with the other group of two outside, and I want two with me.”
Ice nodded and looked at the others. “I trust the rest of you to look to Anders or Stone in the meanwhile.” She glanced at several of the women clustered around. “And I need to know the minute anything happens in terms of Rhodes.” She looked at Kai and frowned.
Kai stared at her, arms crossed over her chest and glaring.
“No,” Ice said. “I’m not deliberately taking men to keep you here, but I need somebody inside capable of defending all the women.”
Slowly Kai nodded. “Got it,” she said. “Good save, by the way.”
Ice shrugged. “Today I’m saying the wrong thing every time I turn around. It seems to be my day for it.”
“It is what it is, as long as you realize it won’t be a case of keeping us all under wraps.”
“Hell no,” Ice said, feeling the fatigue taking over again. “That’ll never happen. But what I do want is to make sure that we stay well balanced inside and out, from a defensive stronghold.”
“Maybe,” Kai said. “But you know it’ll be that much more difficult to keep things here in line if it all blows up outside with you guys.”
“Just make sure Rhodes and Merk are taken care of,” Ice said. She turned to find Merk, supporting his bullet-grazed shoulder, still wrapped up. “What are you doing up?” she barked.
He just grinned at her. “Wanted to make sure you didn’t need me outside.”
“I think we got this,” she said. “Kai will make sure you’re kept in place too.” Ice did a glaring 360 at the whole group. “Anybody who lets him come out after me knows what’ll happen.”
“What’ll happen,” Merk said in a lazy voice, “is that several men will get their asses kicked. What we want to do is make sure that nobody else comes from a different direction, so maybe what I’ll do is go help Stone.”
“Good idea,” Ice said, “and, if the pain gets bad, you know you should go see my father.”
“We got this,” Merk said. “You go play cops and robbers.”
“Hardly,” she said.
He just laughed and disappeared. It seemed like she was still brain-fogged and completely thrown by this last twenty-four hours. That and one other thing she hadn’t even allowed herself to think about ever since—and she wouldn’t think about it now either. She had to deal with this first.
Levi stepped up, placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “You take your team and head out. I’ll go in the opposite direction.”
She nodded. “With me.” She headed for her tactical gear. She was almost fully geared up, until she pulled down her bulletproof vest and realized it wouldn’t be long enough. She frowned and put on a slightly larger one that came lower. Hoping nobody would notice, she grabbed two handguns and an AK-47 that she was quite happy with these days and headed down the long tunnel up to the secret hillside entrance. As soon as she stepped through the exit, the two men with her cleared the immediate area. She tapped her comm twice to let Stone know they were clear.
Stone’s voice came through loud and crisp. “They haven’t changed positions. Still one hundred yards to the right.”
Stealthily, Ice snuck up behind them. When the men suddenly spun around, already three weapons were pointed at them. “Hello, gentlemen. I believe it’s time you came inside and had a cup of coffee and a talk,” she said, her voice hard.
The men looked like they wanted to take a chance with gunfire, but with odds of three to two, there would just be more bullets for each of them. They tossed down their weapons in disgust and let Ice grab them. She handcuffed their hands behind them and then secured a black bag over their heads. They were stripped of weapons and then led inside.
She put them in the general jail cell and walked away. She didn’t even want to talk to them. As far as she was concerned, they were on her property, and she had the right to take them out. But it went against the grain to kill for trespassing. Still, depending on what they were up to, she didn’t have a problem with it, especially as she thought about something else.
As she removed her tactical gear, making sure to keep two handguns with her, she turned to see Levi leading his two prisoners in. With all the men still hooded and in the jail cell, Ice turned to Levi and said, “Why is this full again?”
He grinned at her and said, “I guess it’s a good thing we have it.”
She nodded. “It speaks to the necessity for it.”
“We can change our line of business,” he said mildly, his gaze searching.
She shrugged and stepped back. “I don’t want any part of interrogating them. But get answers one way or another.” She turned her gaze to the others. “Remember. Rhodes is lying over there because of these guys,” she said, with a finger pointing to her med bay, and walked out.
It had hit her while she was outside just what the hell was wrong with her—outside of the fact that she’d watched her best friend get shot, and she’d led a very dangerous mission into another part of the world that she really hadn’t wanted to deal with, and now she was back again with the added surprise that her entire group had arranged her wedding which she wasn’t sure she was ready for. But, at the same time, something else might be happening to her, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that either.
She walked into the kitchen, held up her hand and noticed how much it shook. She ran it under some warm water. She didn’t need anybody to notice. If they ever thought she’d lost her edge, life wouldn’t be the same. When her hands were clean and calmer, she leaned against the sink and stared out the window. She could see the puppies outside. They were big now, still roly-poly things. Bailey and Alfred seemed to have adopted them, but some of the others had as well. Six total. She couldn’t believe that somehow they’d ended up with six of these things.
Although, by the time they were well trained, they would end up being guard dogs for the entire compound. And that made sense to her. It was always about security. It was always about protecting her own. And it was that “her own” part that consumed her thoughts now. She was too scared to find out if her fears were real or not, but maybe—just maybe—she had one more of her own to protect than she had realized.
“Can I get you anything?” Bailey asked.
Ice dropped her head to stare down at the sink and then shook it and said, “No, I’ll be fine.”
Bailey put on a fresh pot of coffee and said, “No. You won’t be. At least not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But when this has passed, and life calms down a little bit more, maybe you will.”
“You’re in on it too, aren’t you?” she asked, hating that her voice was harsh and almost accusatory.
“Absolutely,” Bailey said with spirit. “We love you,”
she said simply. “And we knew you couldn’t do it on your own.”
Ice turned to look at her, frowning. Bailey was an absolute wizard in the kitchen. Ice had never met a woman who was as happy to be in the kitchen as Ice was happy to be out in a helicopter. “What do you mean?”
Bailey smiled up at her. “You spend your life, all your time, defending us. Keeping us employed. Making sure the money flows. Making sure your family continues to grow with incredible speed and assurance is fine, but you keep forgetting about the one part of you that really, really isn’t fine, and that’s the part of you who wants to be married to Levi and to have a family,” she said simply. “You’ll have to take care of that last part, but you need to let the rest of us do something for you every once in a while. We’ve already decided what we want to do, and we want to arrange the wedding. Besides, it’s too late. Everything is already arranged. I’ve been baking for days. So, when you get out of bed tomorrow morning, you’re getting married. Honestly you should be relieved.”
Ice shot her a cool look.
“You were not looking forward to planning this,” Bailey said, now looking concerned, “and I want to add whether you like it or not, but I know that’s not the way a wedding should be. You should get up in the morning rejoicing. You should get up tomorrow feeling like it’s the best day of your life. That’s what we all want for you. We don’t want you to think you are chained to this. We don’t want you to feel like you’re being pressured into it, when the truth of the matter is that this is what you really want, but you’re scared.”
At that, Ice started to protest, but Bailey shook her head firmly.
“You feel like you don’t deserve it and that he doesn’t love you or that he loves you but he doesn’t want to marry you. And you won’t let yourself see the goodness of what you’ve created here. You won’t allow those around you, who love you, to do something for you.”
Ice could feel the tears choking the corner of her eyes. She leaned back against the counter and closed them, pinching the bridge of her nose, but then she heard Alfred’s voice.
“Very prophetic words,” he said gently. “Thank you, Bailey, for expressing that.” He reached over, put his arm around Ice and said, “For once, let yourself have something for you.”
She looked up at him and couldn’t hold back the tears. She nodded briefly, kissed him on the cheek and said, “Yes,” and then she disappeared as fast as she could. She could only hope to make it to her sanctuary before anybody saw her.
*
Levi watched as she ran past him, not even seeing him at the kitchen entranceway. He looked at Bailey and Alfred, his eyebrows up. “Is she okay?”
Alfred gave him a genial smile. “She will be. Soon, and in some ways maybe not so soon, but she’ll be just fine,” he said gently. Bailey shot him a curious look. He just shrugged and kept a secret smile on his face.
Levi looked at him and said, “Anything I should know about?”
“You mean, besides the wedding?” Bailey said with a laugh.
“Yeah, what the hell’s with that?” Levi said in amazement. “Ice and I’ve been fighting about it for weeks. She wouldn’t let me set a date.”
Bailey nodded. “We know. That’s why we all got together and arranged it. Which is why her father’s here and also why Bullard is here,” she said with a smile.
“I don’t want her to feel forced into it,” Levi said abruptly. “I know she said yes, but I didn’t want her to feel pushed into it.”
Alfred laughed. “And she won’t set a date because she doesn’t think you’re ready. She feels like you’re being pushed into it.”
Levi rolled his eyes. “I know. She tells me that on a regular basis, but it’s ridiculous. I’ve told her over and over again it’s what I want.”
“So, tomorrow morning,” Alfred said, “I trust you will get up, prepared to take that first step onto the next part of your life.”
“Absolutely,” Levi said, feeling overwhelming relief. “And thank you,” he said. “I don’t think it would have happened without you.”
“Which,” Bailey said, “is exactly why we’re doing it. And it’s not just me, and it’s not just Alfred. Everybody’s involved.”
Levi shook his head in amazement. “That is incredible,” he said. “I can’t imagine.”
“We’ve had fun,” Bailey said. “There have been lots of secrets going on these last few weeks.”
“Have you got many guests?”
“Oh, you’ll see,” she said. “It’s been a surprise up till now, so why don’t you just leave it in our hands?”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Thank you for this,” he said.
Bailey shook her head. “No,” she said, “thank you.”
Levi looked at her curiously, and she smiled.
“You and Ice have both worked very hard at keeping us all safe and happy. You keep all of us working, doing things we want to do,” she said. “We’ve never really had a chance to give anything back. You’ve both worked to keep this family functioning together in a big way. So, in the same way we just told Ice, give us a chance and let us have this opportunity to do something for you guys. I know Ice was really worried because she wanted the perfect wedding, but it’s not her thing,” Bailey said. “This way, … this way, maybe it can be.”
Levi smiled and said, “You know you’re welcome, right?”
Bailey laughed and teased, “You know you’re welcome, right, too?”
And he let out a big guffaw of laughter. “In that case, I’ll go back down to the prisoners.”
“You do you,” she said, “just like Ice does Ice. And let us do us.”
Levi lifted a hand, his spirits much lighter, and headed downstairs with a big grin on his face. The other men with him looked at him. He just shook his head and said, “I guess I have all of you to thank for this, don’t I?” They all nodded. He said, “I’m a little overwhelmed.”
“Wait until tomorrow,” Flynn joked.
“I don’t even know the details, but I know one thing. I don’t want to have these guys here for my wedding day,” Levi said, his hands already fisted. “So I want answers, and I want answers now,” he barked.
Kai stepped in just then. “They’re talking,” she said smoothly. “Not very much yet, but they are talking.”
“Separate them,” Levi said. “Two of you take one each. We have until midnight to get this thing solved because I’ve got to get some sleep for tomorrow.”
Levi unlocked the cell and motioned to his men to split up the prisoners. “Ten minutes apiece now. Take it as a training exercise.”
It wasn’t long before Brandon came back smiling and said, “They’re on observation only.”
“Why?”
Jace stepped in and said, “Because they want to know if you brought anything back with you, and how many of you came back and whether you left anybody alive in Guatemala.”
“We did, and we didn’t,” he said. “Who cares?”
Kai joined them and said, “I have names for you.” She held out a sheet with four names on it.
Levi looked at them and frowned. “I know these men.”
She nodded. “They’re generals under the current government. The coup is happening, and they want to know what side you’re on.”
He threw up his hands. “We’ve been helping whatever current government there was. I didn’t know a coup was in the works until they came after us here.”
“The coup that they had before wasn’t under a good leader. This Juan guy was bad news.”
Brandon said, “Our guy is actually thanking us for it. They needed Juan taken out, and they’re grateful for your service.”
Levi looked at the two of them. “So, do I understand? They wanted us to take out Juan, but now that he’s gone, these four generals …” He tapped the paper. “Are they planning to form a new government?”
Kai nodded. “And they want to know if you’ll interfere or not.”
“And if I don’t?”
“They’ll welcome you as an ally.”
“And if I do want to interfere?”
“Then you become an enemy of the state,” she said.
“Well, isn’t it lucky that my wedding day is tomorrow, and I’m not planning on doing anything except enjoying myself,” he said in exasperation. “Arrange for a drop tonight. I want these men off the property by midnight.”
Chapter 10
Ice just wanted to hide away. Too many people were in her office, so she ended up in her bedroom. She also didn’t want to see Levi right now. She curled up in the window seat, trying to get her thoughts in line.
“Apparently tomorrow is my wedding day,” she murmured. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She didn’t have a wedding dress. She hadn’t had a hand in the flowers or the food—nothing. She wasn’t even sure that mattered to her. The girls were right. Ice was terrified she wouldn’t end up doing it as well as the other women.
She wasn’t into big displays, but she wanted something meaningful. It was hard to imagine anything more meaningful than everybody getting together and arranging it for her.
But did they actually know who and what she was? She gave a small laugh. “I guess this’ll tell us, won’t it?” she whispered to the empty room.
In the meantime, they had to deal with the prisoners.
Slowly, her body tired and worn out, she stood, wondering if it was her age, stage of life or just the stress of the wedding issues getting to her. But she worried. She worried a lot lately. And cried easier. She walked to the bathroom and pulled out the box she’d secretly kept hidden away in the back of her drawer, and then she stuffed it back in again.
She didn’t want to know.
Determinedly she walked out of her bedroom and headed downstairs to the jail facility, donning that mantle of hardness everybody expected. As she shoved her fists into her jeans pockets, she studied the prisoners and looked around at the men standing guard. “Where’s Levi?” she asked.
