by Margaret Kay
“Damn straight. I left the Army for a reason and am a happy civilian, thank you very much. You’re all fucked in the head if you think I’m ready to get back on that crazy-train of get the impossible mission done when lives are hanging in the balance with your hands tied.”
“We’re not the traditional military establishment you are used to,” Shepherd said. “We technically don’t exist, so we can color outside the lines.”
“And I’m not up for a Spooky-Ops team either. If you’re who I think you are, I didn’t go to work for you when I got out and I want no part of you now,” she began.
“We’re not CIA, NSA, FBI or any other alphabetic cluster-fuck of bureaucratic bullshit,” Shepherd said, interrupting her. “We get the job done by any means needed, period. You well know the serious shit going down out there.”
“And you have skills that are in short supply that can make a difference,” Cooper chimed in. He respected the balls this beautiful, fire-spitting woman had. If any woman could hold her own on this team, it was her.
“That’s if you want to be part of the solution,” Doc added.
“You cannot tell us that you seriously bring your best to your job every day and don’t want what you do to matter,” Garcia said, his black eyes piercing through her.
“We put our lives on the line every time we go out. A good analyst saves our asses every time. And it’s not just our asses, it’s innocent civilian lives. The woman at the reception desk,” Jackson said with a head jerk towards the door. “That’s my wife. Without someone like you, she wouldn’t be here right now, was in a heap of shit not that long ago when I met her. Take a good look at her on your way out. If you join us, you could help save the next one like her who’s in a world of trouble and in need of a person like you with special skills to help her.”
Shepherd rolled away from the door. “You have our contact information. Think about it, Miss Miller. We have a job for you if you want it.”
Madison left without saying another word to any of the men. She closed the door behind herself but stopped dead as the woman behind the desk beamed a natural smile at her. She intended to rush out, but she couldn’t help but focus on the friendly, black-haired woman.
“Have a great rest of your day,” Angel said. She pointed to a tray of business cards on the counter. “You did get a card, didn’t you, in case you need to contact Shepherd directly? His cell number is on it.”
Madison got flustered. “No, I didn’t,” she said coming up to the desk to take one. “Thank you.”
“This really is a great place to work,” she said, much to Madison’s surprise. “The guys are the best and the work we do is important. I guarantee you’ve never been part of a team like this one.”
“One of them is your husband?” Madison wasn’t sure why she asked or why she continued any dialogue at all, for that matter. She should have said goodbye and rushed out the door.
Angel smiled wide. “Yes, Jackson, but the rest of the guys are all like my big brothers. I’ve never felt a part of something like I do here. Between the people and the work, it’s a special place. If you’ve been invited in, I’d seriously mull it over it if I were you. Few make the cut to even be considered.”
Madison forced a smile, and she nodded. “Thank you,” she mumbled. She went to the door.
Angel buzzed her out and watched her through the bullet proof glass as Madison crossed the small waiting area and quickly exited out the main door. Then her eyes shifted to the five men who had just left the conference room who also watched Madison Miller’s hasty retreat.
“She’ll be back,” Shepherd assured them.
Madison’s hands shook as she hit unlock on her key fob. Anger surged through her. How dare they lure her here that way? Son-of-a-bitch! Dark Ops Spooks! She shifted into drive before her seatbelt was on and exceeded the speed limit and good sense as she sped out of the parking garage.
She took deep breaths to calm the burning in her chest as she drove. She bit her lip so hard she drew blood, she realized, when the metallic taste of her O Negative invaded her mouth. Bastards! She drove to her office on autopilot. She only took half a day off for this interview. She now wished she had taken a full day. The office was the last place she wanted to be now.
Once inside she was assaulted with two whiney employees with a personal grievance, they couldn’t seem to resolve. They were worse than children. Like their petty little issue mattered in the overall scheme of anything! She certainly did not have the patience for them today.
Madison pulled them both into her office. “Look, you two need to resolve this and knock this shit off,” she barked. They both looked at her with shocked expressions on their faces. She never responded to their petty personal attacks on each other this way before. “Go to couple’s therapy, ignore each other, agree to disagree and let it go, or one of you needs to transfer to a different team or find a new job. I’m not wasting any more time on this crap.”
Had this been in the military it would never have gone on this long. She bet this kind of trivial shit didn’t occur on Shepherd’s team. She scrubbed her hand over her face and mentally chastised herself for thinking that way. Then she turned her attention back to the two women in front of her who both still sat stunned. She stared at them silently and with expectation for a reply.
“I see,” Tanya said. “I’m just going to go back to work then.” She watched Madison as she slowly came to her feet. Madison said nothing. Tanya slipped out the door.
Madison then focused her silent gaze on Maria, the other woman. She too stood and shuffled to the door. “Me too,” she said and then left a stunned Madison alone in her office.
The next morning, Madison was in an even more foul mood as she drove into the office. The charade Shepherd Security pulled to get her in for the interview infuriated her. Certainly, they knew she had turned down every intelligence agency when she separated from the Army. How arrogant of them to think she’d go to work for them! That thought pissed her off even more.
Halfway through the morning she got a call from the Operations Chief. He was in an uproar because of some nonissue that to him was a major emergency.
“Seriously, Stew,” Madison said. “You’re acting like this is life or death. I can guarantee you, no one besides you is worked up over this. We’ll resolve it by the end of the shift,” she promised with much certainty it could be done.
This was the normal trivial shit that Stewart got bent out of shape about. She’d like to see him in the face of a true emergency! A life or death emergency like she dealt with daily when she was in the Army.
She took a step back and sighed, again chastising herself. Stewart didn’t have to face those kinds of emergencies, and neither did she any longer. That was one of the many reasons she had left the Army, so she wouldn’t have to run on that no-win wheel any longer. She didn’t have to live that way. There was another world out there, one that didn’t involve life or death, operatives or intelligence.
Most normal human beings didn’t have to question if women or children were going to blow themselves up to take out those there to help them, nor did they have to make the call to take someone out or not, based solely on their instincts. And they sure as hell didn’t have to live with themselves afterwards.
She leaned her head back and blew out a long cleansing breath. Damn Shepherd Security for causing these thoughts and feelings to resurface. She had been doing just fine before they turned the applecart of her life upside down. Since that meeting with them, she thought about things she hadn’t in two years. It had been a nice two years.
Several days passed and her mind was stuck in the same place. It was Saturday morning. Madison decided to go to the shooting range to try to gain perspective. It was either that or a flight to St. Maarten, which was a little far to go for the weekend.
She dressed in a lightweight, black, long-sleeved t-shirt that was appropriate for the range and a pair of blue jeans. Her favorite black boots were pulled on as she pac
ked her range bag. She secured her hair in a ponytail and pulled the curly locks through the hole in the back of her prized St. Maarten ballcap, might as well have a piece of the island with her.
She pulled her front door shut and took only a few steps towards her car before stopping dead in her tracks. John Cooper from Shepherd Security stood in her driveway, leisurely leaning up against her car. He was dressed in well-fitting blue jeans and a short-sleeved black t-shirt that fit his impressive chest and shoulders like a tight glove. Swelling from the sleeves were the nicest biceps she’d ever seen with tattoos trailing down his upper arms and onto his forearms. His presence should have pissed her off. The emotion she felt was not anger. Damn, if he wasn’t the hottest sight she’d ever seen.
She choked back that thought. No, she knew she shouldn’t be thinking about a future coworker in those terms. That was when it dawned on her that she was going to take the job. She had her range bag in her hand and was heading for some target practice, another clear indication she was going to take the job, she realized. Damn it!
Cooper smiled a cocky grin. “Why Madison Miller, fancy meeting you here!”
“I’ll never buy this is a coincidence, Mr. Cooper,” her cold voice replied.
The corners of his lips lifted. “Mr. Cooper, huh? That’s pretty formal.” He eyed the bag in her hands. His eyes silently questioned her.
“You are in my driveway, after all.”
“That I am,” he agreed. He stood to his full height, which was even with hers. His eyes roamed over her body, lithe yet toned and muscular looking, solid, while still very feminine.
Behind his dark sunglasses she could make out his eyes, sparkling with delight. “Okay, I’ll bite. And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
Cooper chuckled. “Where are you headed off to this morning? I don’t want to delay you.”
“Oh, let me guess, you already know I made a reservation at the range. I’m just planning to do a little target practice.”
“Do you have your forty-five or your nine in there?” He asked with a nod to her bag with that cocky smile across his face.
“If you must know, both, and a sweet little .38 snub-nose I like to keep near my appendix when I wear my tight jeans.”
“Sounds sexy,” he said with a broader smile. “Look, I’m not some stalker-weirdo, or anything. I came here to make another pitch to get you to work with us.”
“Uh-uh,” she cut him off. “Not here, not now. It’s Saturday morning, my day off and we are standing in my driveway. I don’t discuss work this way.”
The corners of his eyes and mouth crinkled with his smile. She hadn’t said no. “May I tag along with you to the range then, and we will discuss everything but work? I’m confident when you get to know who we are you will want to work with us.”
“Don’t you mean if I get to know who you are. I haven’t agreed to anything yet.” She smiled, very proud of herself.
“But you haven’t said no either, unless you’re afraid you won’t be able to say no to me after you get to know me and what Shepherd Security is all about.”
“Why not?” She agreed. “But drive your own car there. It’s on Prairie Meadow.”
“Yep, fourteen-twenty-seven. The large white building that butts up against the field,” he said.
“Of course.” These spooks knew everything about her, she was sure, probably right down to what she just eaten for breakfast.
She watched him cross the street and slide behind the wheel of a large, black SUV. So cliché, she thought. He stayed in her rear-view mirror as she drove to the range. He was out of his vehicle before she was, carrying a range bag of his own.
Her eyes led his to his own bag. “You come prepared.”
“One of Shepherd Security’s operating tenants. Always be prepared.”
“Isn’t that the Boy Scout Motto too?” She asked sarcastically as she pulled the door open before he could reach for the door handle.
“But we take it to a whole new level,” he said.
His eyes twinkled as he removed his sunglasses and slid them onto his head. He had the most beautiful eyes, a light brown that looked like honey. How had she not noticed the rich color when she’d first met him?
“I’m sure,” she agreed as she approached the counter and greeted Bob, one of the owners. “Hi Bob. This is John Cooper. He’s going to join me this morning. Do you have a spare lane next to the one you have me assigned to, for him?” She handed Bob her membership card for him to scan.
Bob was a lean man with steady brown eyes that scanned her guest up and down. Madison had never brought a man in with her, which had been just fine with him. He had always had a thing for her. It wouldn’t surprise him though that she wasn’t single. A woman like her, yeah, there had to be plenty of men besides himself interested in her.
He extended a hand towards Cooper. “Welcome, this is your first time here,” he stated it as fact.
Cooper shook his hand assessing him, former military, had seen combat, most likely Army. “It is, but I’ve heard great things about this place and have been meaning to come in and check it out for a long time.”
Bob handed a clipboard with a few papers to Cooper. “If you would just fill this out please, and I’ll need your FOID and driver’s license.” His smile went to Madison. “I’ll put you on one and two,” he said.
“Thanks, Bob, and I’ll need some targets.” She pointed to the stack behind the counter. “Give me three pinks and three blues.”
Bob lifted the sets of life-sized silhouettes from the shelf and handed them across the counter. He made a photocopy of John Cooper’s Firearm Owner’s Identification Card and then handed it back to him. Bob read over the paperwork Cooper filled out while the pair donned ears and safety glasses and then he buzzed them into the range. Cooper hadn’t declared any sort of law enforcement affiliation, but Bob would have sworn he was a cop of some sort, probably not local or county as he knew most of them. A Fed he’d guessed.
Cooper watched Madison lay her weapons, spare magazines, and boxes of ammo out on the table of the firing lane. She was methodical and organized. His lips curled into a smile as he considered that she most likely approached everything with that same level of detail. He quickly unpacked his gear as well.
Madison didn’t even flinch when Cooper’s first round was fired with a deafening bang and a muzzle flash lit up the corner firing booth. She gazed down range at the target that now bore a single hole in the middle of the blue silhouette’s forehead. She would have been disappointed if he’d shot anything less.
She ran her target out two yards farther than his had been. She made an identical shot. Then she flashed a cocky grin at him. He ran his target out, matching hers. He squeezed four more, center mass tightly clustered in the bullseye area. She matched his shots and then emptied her magazine, striking where the targets genitals would be.
“Ouch,” he groaned and then flashed her a gorgeous smile.
She inserted a fresh magazine. “Countdown game. In order of descending points.” She hit the number within each ring.
“Nice,” he complimented when she was done. “May I?” He asked reaching for her weapon. She handed it to him. Then he matched her shots.
She switched out targets and wrote the letters of her first name randomly over different places on the target and then ran it out to eight yards. She then held her hand out for his pistol. He handed it over, an H&K .40. She inspected it.
“Nice piece,” she said as she admired it. She replaced the mag and stepped up to the firing line. She proceeded to put a bullet hole in place of each letter of her name, in order.
Cooper followed suit, writing the letters out half the size she had. He took his other .40 from its case and held one pistol in each hand.
“No way,” she moaned.
He flashed her a very cocky grin. Alternating shots, he left a bullet hole in place of each letter. He was very pleased with himself when his eyes met hers. “I’m ambidextrous.”
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“Okay, you win,” she said.
He laughed. “I only win if you take the job.”
“Then you haven’t won yet.”
The sun shone brightly from the noonday position it commanded high in the cloudless, dark blue sky as the pair left the gun range. It was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm for a fall day in northern Illinois.
“So, did I pass the range requirement for the job?” Madison asked.
Cooper laughed. “I never doubted you would. That’s a nice range, glad I got to check it out,” he said pointing back towards the building. “There’s a little tavern near here I’ve been meaning to check out too, supposed to have great organic burgers, meat and cheese from local farmers. You want to grab a beer and a burger?”
