A Mad Reed Security Christmas

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  I leaned back in my chair and looked at the ultrasound picture that had been taken in the ER. Three babies. Holy shit, that was insane. A grin split my lips at the thought of having those little babies in my arms. Of course, this meant that we would have to hire help. Either that, or ask some of the other ladies to help out. But they all had their own families, and they didn’t need the extra burden.

  “You got a minute?” Derek asked from the door. I nodded, knowing this had to do with the fiasco over Thanksgiving. They hadn’t given many details, besides the threat being neutralized.

  “So, what happened?”

  “We were attacked on the way.”

  “So you said. What you didn’t say were the details. I assumed that it was easily handled.”

  “It was about what?” Derek eyed Hunter. “Eighteen?”

  “No, I’d say more like nineteen. Well, it’s hard to say. I mean, the driver wasn’t actually fighting all that much.”

  I sat up in my chair, dread pooling in my stomach. “Who were they?”

  “No idea. But they were good.”

  “Not good enough if you’re sitting here.”

  He nodded slightly. “They tailed like we would. There were at least seven different vehicles, all exiting the highway to throw us off. I didn’t even see the tail. I just had this feeling.”

  “Where’d you do it?”

  “Cuyahoga National Park.”

  “Shit. That could come back on us.”

  “We didn’t leave any evidence behind.”

  “Except the dead bodies,” I said slowly.

  “I called Rob. He sent in a cleanup crew.”

  I sighed and leaned back in my chair. It didn’t matter if he didn’t leave a trace. There was still someone that came after him and we didn’t know why. I picked up the phone and called Cazzo to the office. When he saw Derek and I sitting there, he shut the door and sat down.

  “How bad is it?” he asked.

  “Derek and Hunter were attacked on their way out of town.”

  “How many?” Cazzo asked Derek.

  “Eighteen.”

  “Shit.” Cazzo scrubbed a hand across his face. “Fuck, I thought all this shit was over.”

  “We don’t know who it was, so be on alert.”

  “Who the fuck could be after us now?” Cazzo said, bursting out of his chair. “Haven’t we killed off everyone that wants us dead?”

  “I guess the real question is, did we piss off anyone lately that we should be considering.”

  Derek cleared his throat and waited until he had Cazzo’s attention. “Cazzo, I think you’re overlooking one very obvious threat.”

  Cazzo stopped pacing, shaking his head at Derek. “No, we have evidence that could put him away. He wouldn’t risk it.”

  “He’s also very powerful,” I added. “It was different when it was just Vanessa. He always saw her as a nuisance. But Coop? Adams blames Coop for destroying all his plans.”

  “And he’s got enough manpower to pull this off,” Derek said.

  “Fuck, what am I supposed to do? I can’t tell Vanessa that her dad is back and trying to kill people I work with. It’ll destroy her.”

  “No, it won’t. Remember what he threatened to do to her. He never loved her. He never cared what happened to her. She was a pawn in his game, and when you tell her, you remind her of what he did, and explain to her that he has to be taken out. It’s the only way,” I told him. “We don’t have time to fuck around on this anymore.”

  “But we don’t know for sure that it’s him,” Cazzo reiterated.

  “No, but we need to prepare for him to come after us. And when he does, it’s gonna be one hell of a fight.”

  “So, why not have a meeting with everyone?” Derek asked.

  “You know they don’t care about the operations of it all. Let’s do some more digging into what Adams is doing. I’ll talk to Coop and explain shit to him.”

  “You know he’s not gonna be happy that you’re stepping on his toes,” Derek pointed out.

  “I don’t give a shit anymore. We need to take him out of the picture, and now.” I sighed, “Maggie’s pregnant. I found out on Thanksgiving.”

  “Congrats,” Cazzo grinned.

  “Yeah,” I smirked. “It’s triplets.”

  “You’re fucked,” Derek laughed. “I mean, I’m surprised that you’re even still standing here.”

  “Well, it might have helped that the doctor told her that she couldn’t get too worked up. I think he was saying that for my benefit more than anything.”

  “But you realize that having triplets is really fucking serious, right?” Cazzo said.

  “Yeah, I mean, I’m fucking thrilled, but I know that this is high risk. We’re going to the doctor on Wednesday, so I should know more by then. But this is why I think we need to wrap this shit up. Not to mention that Lola, Kate, Lucy, Claire, and Reese are all pregnant.”

  “Jesus,” Derek sighed. “How do we keep all those people safe when this shit is happening?”

  “That’s not the worst part,” I said slowly. “Chance told me that he and Morgan want a Christmas wedding. They don’t want to wait. They’ve even chosen a lodge. It’s way the fuck in the middle of nowhere.”

  Cazzo looked like he might puke. Talking about this was a reminder of the last time we were in this situation. We couldn’t take any more hits. The company wouldn’t survive, and I wasn’t sure the guys would come back from that either.

  “All the kids stay here,” Derek said after a minute. “We can’t force the women to stay behind. You know they’re going to want to go, and there won’t be any stopping them.”

  “What if we tell Chance and Morgan to back off. Or they could get married here,” Cazzo suggested.

  “No, they’ve been through too much. They deserve this.”

  “At what cost?” Cazzo asked.

  “I will not tell them that they can’t have their wedding,” I said slowly. “None of us have any idea what Chance and Morgan went through, but we all know that Chance had it bad. We all saw him struggling to pull himself back from that cliff, and now you want me to tell him that he can’t have a little fucking happiness?”

  “You know that’s not what I’m saying.”

  “I’ll inform them of what’s going on and let them decide.”

  ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

  “What are we all doing here, Cap?” Sinner asked. “I thought we didn’t have any jobs.”

  “We’re here because Hunter and Derek were attacked when they went out of town for Thanksgiving. We don’t know for sure who it was-”

  “But you’re pretty sure it was Victor Adams,” Coop concluded.

  I nodded, looking around at the anger on everyone’s faces. We just couldn’t catch a break. “It’s the only threat that we know about.”

  “What’s the plan?” Ice asked.

  “That’s up to Chance,” I replied. “You plan to get married out of town, where we don’t have every available resource. But I won’t tell you that we can’t do it. Inevitably, it’s up to you.”

  “That’s insane,” Alec spat. “We know this guy is coming for us and we’re going to leave ourselves in the open?”

  “Or we use it as an opportunity to draw him out,” Chris suggested.

  “You want to start a battle at my wedding?” Chance asked.

  “Maybe we should-”

  “I like it,” Chance grinned. “I mean, if you tell Morgan I said that, I’ll deny the hell out of it. But that sounds like a very…eventful wedding.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I said in shock.

  “Why not?” Chance shrugged with a little grin. “I mean, Coop’s been in hiding for how long now? I’m sure Cazzo’s ready to put his father-in-law in the ground, and it gives all of us a chance to have a little fun.”

  “Hell yeah,” Cazzo grunted.

  “You guys are certifiable,” I said in exasperation. “Do you have any idea what kind of planning is require
d to pull that off?”

  “Cap,” Derek grinned, “isn’t that what we’re trained to do?”

  “Well, yeah, but this is at someone’s wedding. Our wives will be there. Some of them are pregnant. Do you really want to put them in that kind of danger? Not to mention our kids!”

  “The pregnant ladies have to stay behind,” Sinner said.

  “Right, I’ll let you tell Maggie that.”

  “Maggie’s pregnant?” The shock in his voice matched the paleness of his skin. “Shit, Cap. Why can’t you just keep it in your pants for five fucking minutes?”

  “It’s triplets,” I grinned.

  The whole room erupted in laughter and disbelief. I found it hilarious, but I knew that Maggie didn’t. Still, if I could enjoy this moment anywhere, it was with these guys. They understood my mission in life was to knock Freckles up as much as possible. However, Lola and Florrie didn’t look like they thought it was quite as hilarious as I did.

  “They definitely have to stay behind then,” Chance acknowledged. “There’s no way we can put her in a situation that could be dangerous. None of the women should be there.”

  “Hey,” Lola snapped, “just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be there.”

  “Being pregnant does,” I corrected. “And Ryan would never go for it.”

  “Ryan doesn’t control me, and it’s not like I couldn’t take you down, pregnant or not.”

  “She has a point,” Knight said. “But I agree, the women, with the exception of Lola and Florrie, should be left behind.”

  “If we’re taking down Vanessa’s dad, there’s no way I can keep her away. After everything that’s happened, I know she wants to be there when we take him down.”

  “Yeah, you’re not gonna keep Isa away either,” Gabe sighed. “It’s not that I want her there, but she’s going to insist that Morgan can’t be there alone on her wedding day.”

  “What about Payton?” Chance asked. “I can’t keep her away either.”

  It continued around the room, everyone trying to figure out how to manage a wedding like this when we couldn’t very well just leave people behind.

  “This is what we’ll do,” I shouted over the noise. “We’ll have to get a safe house close to the lodge. If something does happen, we’ll have to have a team that will escort the women back to the safe house. The kids have to stay behind, with the exception of Payton.” I nodded to Chance. “I know you won’t let anything happen to her.”

  A throat cleared and I looked around to see who it was that was going to speak up. Sinner raised his hand. “So, just to be clear, we’re going to a wedding where we’ll draw out Victor Adams, the same man that had me tortured. There’s sure to be mayhem, and no doubt an epic showdown where Adams will bring everything he has to get rid of us. In all likelihood, most of us will die, and our children and wives will be left alone for the rest of their lives. Do I have that right?”

  We all looked around at each other, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

  “Good,” Sinner nodded, “I just wanted to make sure I had the gist of it.”

  “So, let’s plan for war,” I said with a grin.

  “Shouldn’t we have a battle cry?” Gabe asked. “I mean, this is our third war.”

  Knight turned to me, his face twisted in irritation. “Can I shoot him?”

  “Save it for the battle. No one will know who did it.”

  ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

  I had just gotten back to my office when Alec walked in and sat down in front of me. I was noticing a pattern here. All the guys came to me and sat down without saying a word when there was something on their minds. So, I sat and waited. And then I waited some more.

  “How’s Reid adjusting?”

  “He seems to be doing okay. He doesn’t talk much.”

  “Well, that doesn’t surprise me.”

  “I haven’t been able to find anything on him. He won’t tell me his name and it’s taking forever to search through databases.”

  “Has Rob looked into it?”

  “Yeah, he set up this whole search algorithm for me, but it came up with nothing that matched him. So, now we’re searching through everything else. But we’re still coming up empty.”

  “You know, it wouldn’t be the first time that a kid ran away and wasn’t reported missing.”

  He sighed and dropped his head back on the seat. “How could anyone ever treat their kid like that?”

  It wasn’t really a question. We all knew the answer to that question.

  “Well, I can ask Sean to get involved. He has contacts that can help.”

  “Don’t bother.”

  “Why not?” I asked in confusion.

  “Because he’s not going back. Obviously, whoever his parents are, they don’t give a shit about him. There’s not a chance in hell that I would ever put him in that position again.”

  “Alec…” I sighed and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my desk. “You can’t just ignore the fact that he has family. Look, I know you want to help him, but there’s a very real possibility that he has other family out there that would want him.”

  “If I find out who his parents are, he could get sent back to live with them.”

  “This isn’t how the law works. You can’t just decide that he shouldn’t live at home anymore. You’re opening yourself up to kidnapping charges.”

  “If anyone finds out,” he snapped. “Are you gonna tell?”

  “Alec, if someone is looking for him and you keep him hidden, you’ll be charged with kidnapping. You’ll lose your job and end up in prison. Is that what you want? You’re willing to destroy your life because you don’t want to do this the right way? And what about Florrie?”

  “What about her? She would agree with me.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “She would. But what the fuck are you going to do when the kid gets taken away and Florrie’s already attached to him? Do you want to be the one responsible for that?”

  “No,” he said grudgingly.

  “Look, imagine if you’re this kid’s uncle. You’re out searching for him, knowing that his home life is shit. You know that he ran away and now you’re desperate to find him. You’re spending every last dime you have to find him, but he’s just vanished. Imagine what that would feel like. Can you imagine what he would be thinking? He’d be beating himself up for not intervening sooner, hating himself because his nephew is gone. Are you really prepared to do that to someone else? To hide him from his family for your own selfish reasons? Because that’s what this is.”

  “I just can’t let him go back,” he said solemnly.

  “I get that. But we have to find out who he is. We can fight for him to stay with us. But you can’t just keep him locked away for the next five years when he’s legally able to go out on his own. That’s no life for him. If you really want him to stay here, then you do this the right way and you fight for him.”

  He nodded and stood, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Thanks, Cap.”

  I turned and stared out the window. Sometimes I really hated being the boss.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Coop

  After everyone went back about their business, I headed to Cap’s office and shut the door. He looked at me with a quizzical look and then sighed, leaning back in his chair.

  “Let me guess, you want Adams to yourself.”

  “This is my fight.”

  “This is our fight too. He may have been after you for years, but he had Sinner captured and tortured for information on Vanessa. And you know she was on the run, in hiding for a long time, just so that her father didn’t sell her off to the cartels. And now he’s coming after us again. This isn’t just your fight.”

  “He’s coming after you because you hid me and my daughter. I won’t let you all go and risk your lives over this.”

  Cap leaned forward, steepling his fingers as he quirked his head. “And you think he’s just going to…what? Come alo
ne and fight you in hand to hand combat? I mean, if that was the case, I would say go for it, but you know that’s not what’s going to happen. I have Rob digging up as much dirt as possible on Adams as we speak. Once we know what we’re up against, who’s he’s involved with, then we’ll have a better idea of how he’s going to come at us.”

  I sat down, hanging my head in defeat. “I just…this guy came after me, ruined my fucking life. I need to be the one to take him out.”

  “Get in line,” he grinned. “I’m sure Cazzo, Sinner, and possibly Vanessa will think they have first dibs. But I’m guessing there’ll be plenty of assholes for you to take out your revenge.”

  “It’s not the same fucking thing,” I shouted. I stood and paced around the room, trying to get my rage under control. Why couldn’t he just see? “Kayla’s mother and I were never married, but I loved her. Things changed between us, though. I came back from my deployment, medically discharged and fucking burned to shit. She never saw me the same way after that. And I tried to fix things with her. I thought maybe having Kayla would change things, but…”

  I stopped and stared at him. “She started spiraling out of control. She wasn’t happy and I didn’t make sure that she was taken care of. She got hooked on drugs because I didn’t try and intervene.”

  “She got hooked on drugs because she made that decision to take them in the first place. That’s not your fault.”

  “But it’s my fault that she was murdered. She was too fucking high all the time. When I got back to her house, I was going to take her away, whether she wanted me to or not. I was going to get her clean.” I shook my head, still disbelieving what I had walked in on. “Thirty-five stab wounds all over body and her skull was smashed in. I’ve never seen anything like that before. Not to a civilian. She was caught up in all this because I helped Vanessa escape. I have to make that right. I have to make sure the man that had my daughter’s mother killed pays for what he did.”

  “I get it,” Cap said after a minute. “I really do, but you’re going to have Cazzo to contend with. I’ll back you in any way I can, but when it comes time to kill the fucker, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop Cazzo.”