Secrets in the Dark

by K D Michaels

  Jennifer disconnected the call just as everyone jumped up and ran out of the conference room. Weapons drawn, everyone searched the area, spread out as Ian, Pratt, and Highlander ran to the gatehouse.

  When the startled guard handed Pratt the large envelope, two loud cracks sounded back to back. Several of Highlander’s men shouted for everyone to get down, dropping to the ground. Spinning around, Pratt started to run to her teammates as Ian and Highlander grabbed her and pushed her to the ground.

  Pratt tried to push both men off her when a third crack sounded in the silence. A few seconds later, Pratt’s phone rang.

  Before Pratt could say hello, a male voice came through the speaker. “Just a brief demonstration of what’s to come if you keep looking for Ms. Hamilton. I own her. Leave town before I own you!” The voice disconnected the call.

  “Ares” Ian, Highlander and Pratt all said at the same time.

  When no more shots rang out, the Trident men called their wives to check on them and ordered them to stay inside. Alpha Squad sounded off one by one, as did Highlander’s team did the same.

  “Shit! Lt., Thompson is down. Bullet to the head!” Mac, Highlander’s second in command, yelled out.

  Pratt looked around, confused. “Joe, he was taken out deliberately.”

  “He was an arse, lass, but that doesn’t mean he was the target.”

  “Yeah he was. Ian, you have cams outside, right?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “We need that footage. One of your guys was right next to Thompson. He’s taller than Thompson. They missed your guy and hit Thompson. He was the target for this demonstration.”

  8

  Several hours after Tampa PD and the local FBI office left with Thompson’s body, and the body of the shooter that Carter and Alvarez took out in the woods near the compound, Both black ops agents took the phones, wallets and bullet casings were taken before the agencies showed up. Carter had also taken photos and fingerprints from the mystery man.

  By the time everyone entered the conference room, Brody and Cook were fast at work with the things Carter gave them from the mystery shooter. Brody was fast at work with Thompson’s cell and digital footprint, while Cox worked on the shooters.

  “Yo, Highlander, how long was Thompson assigned to your team?” Brody questioned without looking up from his screen.

  “He’s been with us about three years now.” Highlander looked at his teammates for confirmation.

  “Yeah, he joined about two months before Tina and Dakota were kidnapped.” Doc confirmed for Highlander.

  “What’s RCSDHTTF?”

  “The fuck?” Pratt, Raso, York and Sgt. Brocard said in union.

  Brody looked up at the four women waiting for an answer.

  Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Human Trafficking Task Force. That’s our unit.” Diesel answered straight faced with no emotion in her voice.

  “Who is JenniLee Sampson…”

  “Mother fucker, I’m killing the bitch!” Diesel shouted out as her team jumped to hold her back after her outburst.

  “Okay?” Ian questioned, not sure how to take the outburst.

  “Sgt. JenniLee Sampson is the team leader for Charlie Squad with the Task Force. They aren’t very well liked. What does she have to do with all this?” Sgt. Brocard asked, holding Diesel’s arm.

  Brody attached Thompson’s phone to his computer and pulled a screen out of the ceiling, covering one of the small walls. As the screen came to life showing what Brody was seeing, Sgt. Brocard got Captain Irby on the phone to give her the heads up of the situation. Just as the Captain answered, all seven women of Alpha Squad let out a string of curses.

  “What the hell man? Highlander, why was he asking about Alpha Squad’s case? Doesn’t make sense.” Snake glared at Doc after seeing the information displayed on the screen.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck! It all makes sense now!” Diesel paced back and forth, anger evident in her voice.

  “That’s how Candy has stayed one step ahead of us all this time.” York realized before Diesel could say anything.

  “Candy has always had a thing for SEALs. Especially ones who haven’t gotten wet behind the ears. Thompson was a newbie, fresh out of BUDs when Dakota and Tina went missing.” Pratt exchanged a look with her husband and Sgt. Brocard.

  “He didn’t go off on Pratt until she put Candy in her place, when she tried to attack Sheila.” Cortez remembered, reminding the rest of the team.

  “He’s been fucking Candy and Sampson. Exchanging information.” Rameriez concluded. “When he’s fucking Sampson, he gets information about the case. Then he fucks Candy to give her the information that he got from Sampson.”

  “Could he have been a part of this Ares thing?” Raso wondered, looking up from her file in hand.

  “He may have been recruited after the mall fiasco when Candy saw how loyal he was when he went after Red.” Mac reasoned out loud for everyone.

  “If all this is true, then they killed him because his usefulness is done. He was only needed to help Candy with inside information on the investigation. Once Candy was arrested and taken out, there was no need for this guy anymore.” Alvarez worked it out with Alpha Squad.

  “He was definitely shady!” Brody clacked away on his keyboard. “He had several large deposits into his account each month. At least $30 k a month. He lives above his means with the cars and the traveling he does.”

  “Knew he was lying about the inheritance from the dead aunt.” Casanova grumbled to his teammates.

  “Brody, is there any way…”

  “Sorry sergeant, it’s coming from an offshore account, I’m trying to see what I can get, but they are very secretive. That’s why criminals love them.”

  “Well, we know one thing, Ares is definitely a person.” Larry concluded as he looked around the room. “From what we are seeing first-hand, he’s connected as well.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch!” Brody hollered out, causing everyone to jump.

  Everyone looked over at Brody confused, waiting for him to answer their unspoken question.

  “Okay, I’ll play along.” Diesel raised her hand, making her teammates groan and lower their heads. “Egghead lost the trail to the Golden Treasure…”

  “Diesel, shut the hell up, for the love of God, shut the hell up!” Sgt. Brocard warned Diesel.

  “What’s wrong Egghead?” Ian shook his head at Diesel.

  “The picture Carter sent me, facial rec got a hit. Doing a little…more…digging…here, got it!” Brody put the man’s photo on the big screen, replacing Thompson’s luds and text messages.

  Pratt looked from the screen to Larry and then Gene.

  Carter and Ian noticed the looks between the three individuals. Both men exchanged glances with Highlander, concerned when Pratt’s face went sheet white.

  “Laura?” Highlander moved towards his wife as she swayed.

  “Brody, what did facial rec tell you?” Pratt asked him, starring Gene in the eyes.

  “The name that comes up is Levi Wilson.” Brody hesitantly stated, watching the three of them.

  “Fuck!” Gene and Larry groaned.

  “Oh God!” Pratt moaned, sitting down in her seat.

  “Will someone fucking tell us what’s going on!” Ian demanded, glaring at the three people with the answers.

  “Harley and Raechal?” Pratt looked at Gene, a scared look in her eyes.

  “Safe…for now. I’ll send Carter and Alvarez to them…”

  “No, I’ll call Harley. All I have to do is say one word and she’ll know. Well, technically two words…the code word and then the location.”

  “Raechal? Carter and Alvarez can get her.”

  “No! Raechal will kill him on sight just for being a man. Send me, York and Alvarez…”

  “At the risk of repeating the Bossman…”

  “Levi Wilson is a ghost. If Brody digs deeper, it will set up red flags. His real name is Carlton Harris, my former brother-in-law. He’s the S
enator’s oldest son who was a sniper in the Army before going into the CIA then black ops. The bastard is supposed to be dead.”

  Carter watched Gene as he stepped forward towards Pratt in comfort. “I take it you know about him?”

  Gene nodded his head, hesitantly, as he sat down in the chair next to Pratt. “Carlton was a problem child growing up. The Senator catered to all four of his boys, but mostly to Nathan and Jon. Whatever they wanted, they got.”

  “When their mother died, they covered it up, claiming she died in a car accident, killing her and their baby sister. It was actually suicide, because she found out the father and both brothers were raping their six-year-old sister.” Larry shocked the whole room.

  “It’s how the Senator trained the boys, raping not only the mother, but little sister, too.” Pratt corrected.

  “How the hell did you escape that nightmare without them trying to take you out too?” Diesel asked Pratt curious.

  Pratt glanced at Gene who nodded. “I found out that Laura’s father was forcing her to marry the Senator’s son, Jon…” Gene started.

  “Forcing?”

  “They were threatening Dominick’s career in the Army. Threatening to either kill him or make him the fall guy in some scheme, therefore putting him in prison.” Pratt answered Ian’s question, continuing to stare at Gene in shame.

  “Okay”

  “Gene found out through some of his contacts that even after I married Jon, they were still going to go after Dominick.”

  “Were you guys married yet?” Alvarez asked softly, sitting across from Pratt.

  Pratt nodded. “We’d already been married five years at this time. I was pregnant with my second child. I was six months pregnant with my daughter when I found out.”

  “Then?” Diesel prompted, leading Pratt to continue.

  “After a huge fight, Jon and my father put me in the hospital, I lost the baby. A few days after I had been in the hospital, I called Uncle Gene, telling him Jon had hit me and I left. That’s when I found out that the Senator had renewed his threat against Dom. I talked Uncle Gene into refreshing some of my training so I could save Dom. He brought in two other female agents in his organization, Raechal Montgomery and Harley Blackwell.”

  “These three were the best of the best. They had skills no one else did. Even though they were training to go after a CIA trained ghost, these three redefined what it meant to go ghost. None of the movies that Tom Cruise did in Mission Impossible could closely hit the surface of what these three could accomplishment.”

  “I don’t get it, Roulston confirmed the hit. He said it was a confirmed head shot!” Pratt mumbled to no one in particular.

  “Fuck!” Alvarez, Carter and Gene all said together, clearly upset.

  “What?”

  “Roulson defected ten years ago in Afghanistan. Killed several agents and a couple of soldiers when he did it.”

  Pratt looked at Carter like he’d grown an extra head somewhere out of his body. After several minutes, she turned her confused stare to Gene.

  “Okay, ummm, Brody, I honestly don’t know your skill level, so, knowing that Wilson is really Carlton Harris and he is, well was, a ghost, is there any way for you to track his digital footprints with his phone and whatever Carter gave you?”

  “I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be some heavy digging involved, but between Nathan and I, we should be able to get some good information.”

  Pratt looked over at Cortez, “Call Oz, see if we can get him to come to Tampa. I’ll cave and use the blood money to pay him whatever he wants to fly to Tampa and help these two.”

  “Blood Money?” Gene, Larry, Ian, Cater, Alpha Squad and Highlander’s team all stared at Pratt until she looked up from her phone after Highlander questioned her about the term.

  Pratt let out a breath before she leaned forward, placing her elbows on the conference table next to her phone. “After Jonathan beat the hell out of me, causing the miscarriage, the Senator paid me a visit shortly after he found out about the call to Larry and Gene. He wired thirty million dollars to my account. When Carlton was taken out, he knew it was me. For the last twelve years, he’s been wiring five million to that same account, claiming it was for Cody. I got a separate account so I wouldn’t touch that money.”

  “Holy fucking shit, you’re fucking rich as hell and you’re slumming with us?” Diesel yelled out in shock.

  “How the hell did he know…” Larry started to ask before he stopped.

  “Roulson” Pratt, Gene and Carter all answered at the same time.

  “Had to have been. What I don’t get, why keep paying the money each year?” Alvarez asked the question on everyone’s mind.

  Pratt shrugged, taking her ponytail down and scratching her head as she leaned back in the seat looking up at the ceiling before answering. “Because, he was told if he ever tried for custody of Cody or even thought of going after Dominick, I would expose his whole fucking life. Ruin, not only his career, but Jon’s career as well.”

  “Okay, but if he’s all so powerful as everyone claims he is, why wouldn’t he have had you taken out?” Diesel questioned as she stared between everyone in the room.

  Pratt smirked as she shared a glance with Gene and Larry. “Red on the head here let it be known if anything happened to her, Raechal, Harley, Dominick, myself, or Larry, she had safe guards in place that would expose everything from his time in the Corps to present day. The fact he was part of a secret society that condoned the abuse and rape of their wives and daughters to ‘train’ them for their new masters if they ever pissed them off.”

  “New masters?” Ian asked, upset by the term.

  “I’m sure…” Pratt stopped, eyes getting wide as she looked around the room.

  “What?” Gene asked, moving towards Pratt in concern.

  “Oh my God! Okay, the Senator is part of a secret society. It’s basically old money type of deal. Jon’s family has always done four years or more in the military, then moved on to the political ring. He used to brag how he could trace his family’s political history all the way back to England before they came to the ‘New World’.”

  “So, the family has always had privileged upbringings?” Devon asked as he looked over to Brody.

  “Wait, your former father-in-law is Nations Harris? The Senator for California, who always boasts about bringing California into the ‘New World’?” Brody mocked the last part of his questions.

  “Yeah, one and the same. I only fucked his son. I didn’t vote for him.” Pratt commented causing her teammates to cough as they tried to hide their laughter. Pratt shrugged straight faced, causing Diesel and her teammates to roar with laughter.

  Gene and Larry smirked as Highlander shook his head.

  “What’s with the history lesson?” Carter prompted Pratt to get to the point.

  “Sorry, talking about new masters and Ares statement, he owned Dakota made me remember something Jon said before he realized I wasn’t breaking. That was something he would always say during our fights. ‘He owned me and if I didn’t heel or whatever the word of the day was, he would sell me to another master, and no one would know or care what happened to me’.”

  “Mother fucker!” Highlander growled deeply, angry at what his wife went through.

  “Jon’s father wore a ring with a weird insignia, like a V with the tops curved over top a gladiator like helmet. The Senator would mumble some shit about being the descendants of the god of war. The god of war is Ares. Their old men shits would get together and wear dark red robes, that have hoods and some kind of a rope deal around the waist. Jon and Carlton had them also. They believed men were superior, rulers of the earth. They real beliefs about women went to the stone age shit.”

  “Stone age shit?” York inquired, hands on her hips.

  “Men rule, they own everything, women are only good for sex, birthing the next generation and keeping the house clean.” Gene replied before Pratt could, causing her to growl at him.


  “Assholes” All the women muttered.

  “Hey now, not all men believe this bullshit!” Brody defended his gender.

  “No, but I will say this, and I can only say this now, because of being with Joe, this group of men give those in the BDSM lifestyle a very bad name. The women are beaten, chained, forced into slave contracts and if they try to get away, they disappear, if they don’t wind up dead. These men are sadistic as fuck!”

  As everyone discussed the society with no name, Nathan Cook came into the room, going straight to Brody with two DVDs in his hand. The two men quietly discussed about the disk before Nathan left.

  “Everything okay?” Sgt. Brocard quietly asked Brody, stopping by his seat.

  “I’m about to see. Nathan had two disks that had some issues with facial recs.”

  “Okay, we’ve been burning the candles at both ends for four days. I want to take a break, get refreshed, see my wife and kid, remind them I exist. I know my guys do too. We’ll attack this at a new angle in the morning.” Ian ordered everyone.

  “Sheesh, so damn bossy!” Diesel joked to Alpha Squad’s horror when Ian and Carter looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

  “Geezus Diesel shut the fuck up! See this is why we feel sorry for any real man you wind up with. Those pissants you choose only makes you worse!” York grumbled, smacking Diesel in the back of the head.

  “Diesel, we’ve offered to set you up with real men we know, but you always find something wrong with them.” Rameriez volunteered, to the amusement of all the men in the room.

  “No thanks! The men you all date, or I should say marry in Pratt’s case, are too much work!”

  “Woman! We’ve told you in the past your issues are you hate to cook, clean, or give head. Three key ingredients for a happy man, a happy relationship.” Pratt reminded Diesel.

  “1950s much?” Diesel mumbled half assed.

  “Diesel, it has nothing to do with the 1950s. If you expect a man to munch your carpet, then you should, in all fairness, lickity lick his blow pop! You expect a man to do the housework and cook, maybe it should really be you doing it alongside him, stop expecting the man to do everything. A man likes to come home to a nice cleaned house, a home cooked meal and his dick sucked for dessert every now and then. It’s only fair!”