by S. K. Lessly
I felt bad for Sweets. I didn’t think she knew how close she was to the crazy that was her husband. I was sure she had seen his temper, but it was different when it was aimed at you. I thought about going to save her from her husband's wrath, but I had my own shit to deal with.
I stood up and stepped away from the table. I ran my hands through my hair and rested them at the back of my neck. This morning had been hell. From having to deal with what I had witnessed at the Crasse’s house to what had happened in the lobby of my place of work, yeah, I was surprised I was still standing.
Jesus, Misty! Were you really going to kill her right in front of everyone?
Hell…
I closed my eyes tight as the answer to my question settled in my mind.
Yes, I was.
I took a few deep breaths to try and calm my heart rate down. The reality of what I was willing to do started to wreak havoc on the soul I sometimes claimed. If I did it, if I killed her in cold blood, would that have made me just as bad as Perchenko? Could I have lived with myself afterwards?
Shane called me an assassin. But he wasn’t too far off. I had killed when asked for the sake of duty and country. I’d receive an assignment, or a target and I had done whatever it took to find said target and take them out by any means necessary. But was I so cruel that I would kill children? If my country asked me to do it, would I be able to?
Ten something years ago, I would have said no. I wasn’t capable of taking a child's life, an innocent. After being in the desert, and seeing the things I’d seen, I wouldn’t answer that question too fast.
Overseas there was no such thing as innocent children. I watched time and time again children, with hate and evil in their young eyes, being used to lure soldiers into false security only to have their lives taken away. No, it didn’t happen all the time, but when it did, it was a sad day.
Thank God I wasn’t put in that situation. Save your fellow brother from a kid with a suicide vest or an AR-15 assault rifle or a missile launcher. However, I knew some guys who did and that kind of shit, regardless of the situation, stayed with you. It haunted you in your nightmares. It was a sad day in the age that we lived in, very sad.
I took in another deep breath, trying not to let the memories of these past weeks destroy me and felt him saddle up behind me. He didn’t move too close to make it noticeable to anyone in the room, but close enough to make my heart start pounding like crazy.
“You okay, Gunny?”
I breathed out a long breath as the sound of his honey-laced voice washed over me.
God, I wanted to say no, turn around and fall into his arms. I wanted the safety of his touch to soothe me, to make all of the bad thoughts disappear, to make the tremors, threatening to take over, quiet. Closer, I needed him closer.
As if he read my mind, he moved closer and placed his hands on my shoulders. He turned me around to face him and tilted my face up to his.
“Talk to me, baby,” he commanded in a low voice that spoke that soul again.
I shivered and opened my eyes to find his deep blue ones heavy on me. We stayed like that, our eyes on each other, penetrating, searching, wanting. From the softness that filled his features, I could feel the love he had for me. It covered me, secured me, comforted me.
In that moment, I showed him how I felt about him despite who was around us. I didn’t care if the world knew. Every single wall I had constructed had long since been destroyed. I was vulnerable, open to him and I saw recognition in his eyes the moment he realized what I was doing.
“Shit, Grace,” he whispered softly and cupped my face with his hand. He caressed my cheek with the softest touch; I thought I might dissolve right where I stood. He started to move closer and I readied myself for his mouth on mine, for the taste and feel of heaven, when our moment was destroyed.
“What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with you!” Malcolm boomed in the tense room, his words feeling like cold ice water all over my body. I breathed out and steeled myself for a fight. Shane dropped his hand from my face, our moment now gone, and frowned. I could see the change in him too, and it was a bit frightening.
“I thought you learned your fucking lesson, but I guess that wasn’t true,” the eldest Cooper bit out coldly.
I stepped away from Shane, narrowed my eyes and glared at Malcolm.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You keeping shit from us. Fucking holding a knife to someone's throat ready to kill in cold blood. Going off half-cocked into a situation that could have ended badly. What if Crasse had a weapon on him and was just waiting quietly for you to come into his line of sight and bam… you wouldn’t be here.”
Malcolm smacked his hands together for effect, which did nothing but piss me off even further.
To add insult to injury, he pointed to Shane and said, “You don’t do something about her, I will.”
“And what in the hell are you going to do?” I challenged moving forward making my way to Malcolm.
“Whatever I have to. You’re out of control, Misty,” he chastised.
“And you’re a gotdamn asshole,” I countered ready to jump him when I felt a tight hand on my forearm.
I looked to my captor and my eyes narrowed even further, however the man wasn’t fazed by my death stare. He held me still and gave me a hard look of his own.
“Misty,” Shane called doing his best to keep me where I stood.
“No, fuck that.” I bit out through clenched teeth. “I’m so sick of being treated like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. You think I would have let him best me? Are you—”
Shane's grip tightened on my arm causing me to stop and look up at him again.
“Let go, Shane, so I can beat the shit out of your gotdamn brother.”
Shane's eyes went dark, kind of like the sky would before a storm, and stepped closer to me.
“Sit your sexy-gotdamn-ass down, now!” he demanded, his voice low enough for only me to hear. “I am two seconds from putting you over my knee and spanking your ass. And believe me if I do you will not enjoy it.”
Well, what do you say to that? Plenty, actually. I had plenty to say, but I kept my mouth shut.
Shane stepped back from me pointed to a chair next to him. “Now, sit."
Not wanting to seem defeated or controlled, I started not to sit down, to show my defiance and call his bluff. However, the look he gave me had my legs moving without my permission. I still refused to cower so I sank into the chair next to the one he was pointing to then gave him my best defiant glare.
He rolled his eyes.
“Now…” Shane spoke up for everyone to hear. “Everyone, sit the fuck down and let’s act like we have some sense.” Everyone did as ordered and found a seat around the table. Sweets took her seat, reluctantly next to Josh but slid at least two arms’ length away from him.
That a girl, you show him!
Still pissed and wanting to show my disgruntled behavior, I put my dark eyes on Malcolm wishing I had the ability to crush him with my mind like Darth Vader. Unfortunately, all the fight went out of me when I saw the look he had on his face. No longer was he standing there looking as if he wanted to throttle me. He was looking at me as if I had grown a second head.
“What?” I asked, more defensively than I would have liked.
“Nothing,” he returned equally defensive and it looked as if he wanted to say more but Shane spoke up.
“Fin.” He looked over at one of the security guys still in the room. “Are you guys done sweeping the room?”
“Yes, sir, everything is clear. However, earlier the system did detect a few devices in the lobby area.”
Shane raised his eyes. “Is that right?”
The guard nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, sir. Very top of the line, state-of-the-art type stuff. We would have missed it with the traditional tools we use. But we used what uh Mr. Nickels gave us and located the devices.”
I snickered. Mr. Nickels, really?
; Shane narrowed his eyes on me and I dropped the smile from my face. He continued, pulling his hard eyes from me and bringing his attention back to Fin. “Uh-huh, and did you manage to get them all?”
“Yes, we did.”
“Did you get any damaging footage?”
The guard paused for a few seconds before he grinned. “Yes, sir.”
“Perfect. Thank you. You guys can go.”
The team filed out of the room, shutting the door as they left. When the room went silent, Shane took a deep breath before addressing the room.
“I can’t begin to address the clusterfuck of the so-called meeting we just had. Seriously, what in the hell was wrong with all of you.”
“Us?” Josh returned incredulously.
“Yes, especially you two.” Shane looked from Josh to Sweets. “Seriously, starting a got damn argument over some dumb shit was completely childish and in front of company no less. You knew she was baiting you. You knew she just wanted to get a reaction out of you and you two gave it to her.” The room fell silent as Josh and Sweets looked thoroughly chastised.
Shane then looked to me. “And you, if you ever pull that shit, like what I walked into in the lobby again, you’ll be out on your ass. Shit could have gone south so fast before you could have stopped it. What if Rambo over there started shooting." He pointed to Josh, but he kept his eyes on me. “Hell, what if anyone in that room started shooting. It would have been a slaughter house.” I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself, when Shane pointed to Sweets. “She could have been caught in the crossfire.”
I closed my mouth and my eyes fell on a pale faced Sweets.
“I have never in my life witnessed the kind of bullshit, and unprofessionalism as I did today. I should fire all of you and find a better team that knows how to keep their shit under fire.” Shane's voice rose with each word he spoke. The man was beyond pissed. He was livid and… well shit I was getting hot under the collar just watching him. I tried to keep my thoughts clean but seeing how coiled his muscles were, the tension in his body, the rage building inside him… it made me want to push him even more just so he could bend me over his knees and spank my ass. He was wrong, I would enjoy every single glorious—
“King!”
I jumped at the sound of my name and focused on the man in front of me.
“Yeah?”
Shane held my gaze, his nose flaring, his eyes turning this dark shade of green, the same shade when he was turned on. Oh shit…
I squirmed in my seat under his penetrating stare.
“I asked you a question,” he answered coolly or maybe he was speaking that way to calm his own raging heart.
I cleared my throat and replied, hoping to break the sexual tension between us, “Sorry, I was daydreaming about all the ways I was going to kill that bitch behind your back instead of in your face.” I smiled conspiratorially and leaned back in my chair.
Shane grunted something under his breath, maybe “never mind” or “forever mine” I couldn’t tell, and shook his head. He gripped the chair in front of him and dropped his chin to his chest. I watched as he took a few calming breaths before he addressed us again.
“Despite the meeting going to shit, I think we have a better understanding of the situation we're facing. Security needs beefed up. Josh, I don’t give two shits about you and your pride. You will have more security on you and your family that will put the president to shame. Got me?”
I could see Josh's jaw tick and tighten with rage but he didn’t reply. Shane took his silent brooding to mean he understood and looked at Sweets. “I need you to be smart and vigilant. No running off without your detail, understand? And don’t go anywhere without telling someone again. I don’t care how hungry you are, one of us will go with you at any time, understand?”
Sweets nodded her head but didn’t say a word. She was too busy sending angry eyes at her husband.
“It’s evident we are on our own here. The CIA have their own agenda. They want Perchenko yes, but for completely different reasons. We need to find him before they do.”
Shane glanced at everyone sitting at the table and received affirmed head nods. He blew out a breath then continued. “Now, before we go half-cocked and blame our own of keeping us in the dark,” He gave Malcolm a pointed look, “Let’s hear what she has to say.”
All eyes fell to me as Shane took a seat next to me. “King, you’re up. Tell us about Dennis Simon and Crasse.”
I took a deep breath and looked around the room at my audience as all eyes went to me. Everyone looked tense, anxious and riled up. I didn’t blame them. This morning had been stressful and chaotic as hell and it was going to get worse. What I had to tell everyone was going to be a tough pill to swallow, especially for Sweets. I just hoped she held it together.
I stood and started to pace a bit, absently running my fingers through my loose hair. I made eye contact with Sweets, gave her a reassuring smile and began to spill my guts. Surprisingly, they let me with a few interruptions, namely one. As I suspected, Sweets stood abruptly, looking pale as the walls in this room, and made her escape. Josh stood ready to go with her but she waved him off.
“I’ll be fine,” she mumbled and left, her hand covering her mouth.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me go back.
I stopped my incessant pacing and took in my team. I took a deep breath and replied, “Crasse is dead.”
“Fuck, Misty,” Malcolm admonished and I narrowed my eyes on him, tired of his attitude.
“Oh please, Malcolm. I didn’t kill the son of a bitch. Although I wanted to, especially after he spilled his guts. He was a traitor. Me shooting him would have been too easy. No, the bastard shot himself.” I looked over at Shane and added before he could ask. “He did it before I could stop him. I didn’t even see the gun until it was too late. It was a large caliber revolver.”
“Shit!” muttered Malcolm.
“Damn!” came from Curtis.
Silence fell over the room. I took this time to get my thoughts in order. What I was going to say next would hurt.
“Crasse believes that Davies killed his family.”
A few “no ways” and “are you fucking kidding me” rang in the air. Most of the agents were denying the claim, all but Nickels and Junior. I hated hearing it myself but the evidence was too damning for us to ignore.
“And you believe him?” Jacks asked.
“Yeah, I do. Just like I believed him when he told me Dennis Simon was an agency stooge.”
“Yeah, but that’s different. We’re talking about one of our own.” Jacks countered. “For all we know, he could be setting the man up.”
“I have to agree with Jacks,” Josh added. “I’ve known Davies for years. I’ve been to his daughter’s christening. He’s a good dude.”
“And so was Crasse, until he wasn’t.” I countered. “Think about how everything went down in Hell. Aren’t you suspicious of the whole situation? I was suspicious and as I observed Davies, I felt like something was just off. Call it a gut feeling, whatever. It just seemed too convenient, the system failure, the hacking of a super secured facility. We know how anal Shane is when it comes to security. Just think about the kind of security we have here. I know for a fact no one would be able to simply break into the super max, super trumped up security system, built by this world’s best and paranoid minds.”
“You think it was an inside job.” Jacks stated and I nodded.
“Yes, don’t you? There was no way someone from the outside could gain access except for the two nerds we have in this room. I know for a fact that neither of them would be stupid enough to betray us. It had to be someone inside that facility.”
“Right, and all evidence points to Crasse.” Josh countered.
I shook my head. “Come on. What do you know about Crasse? He’s a follower not a leader. He was a foot soldier and nothing more. No, I think it was someone else pulling his puppet strings. And my suspicions turned out to be true.” I moved to th
e other side of the table to where Nickels and Junior sat. I placed my hand on each of their shoulders. “While I was there conducting my own investigation, I had Junior conduct a more thorough investigation into everyone in that place. I needed him to dig deeper into everyone's past and current lives. I told him to look for anomalies that wouldn’t normally come up on our security background checks. And well he found a hit. He found two people who recently received a sizable amount of money from a questionable source. One of the traitors was the tech that works inside the security booth in Hell and the other was Davies. It was also discovered that Davies was living a double life.”
“Davies? Are you serious?” Josh barked incredulously as I knew he would.
“Yup,” I countered in a matter of fact tone. “The tech thought he was smart hiding the fifty grand he received but we found it. He received a deposit from an offshore bank. The account belonged to some shell company that of course looked legitimate on the surface. But after Junior looked further into it, he found three things. One, that the bank used to send the funds was none other than ONW bank, two, the account at ONW owned by the shell company belonged to one Carlos Diego, and three, that Carlos Diego is an alias used by Lieutenant Alfred D. Davies.” The room erupted in murmurs. I continued over their voices.
“As we know, we stumbled on the name Carlos Diego, while researching the ONW bank. Junior worked his magic and discovered that Diego has been a long-standing member of the ONW bank for years. They also discovered that he uhhh… had a thing for…”
I stopped talking and looked at my girl. Sweets didn’t look good at all. She looked crestfallen and pale. I knew she was in her head figuring everything out. She had been familiar with the name Diego. I also had an idea on where she knew I was heading next. If Diego was connected with the bank, and so was Noah, it was possible they had more in common than she could ever dream of.
With that being said, I had to reevaluate how I was going to say this next part. I started to speak but was interrupted by Josh, who by the way helped steer the conversation exactly where I needed it to be.
“Why does that name sound so familiar?”
