Adam murmured a soft, "Amen. Time for the young ones to step up to the plate. Unless it’s to deter a global threat, a brick of C4 isn't getting my ass off the ranch again." Adam looked up at Jacob. "This is a young man's game."
"I agree," Chief added from the driver’s seat. "I want to go home. For good."
"I think I'm still making an impact where I'm at now. Tori likes what she's doing. We'll stay. I can't speak for the Wonder Twins."
"Hell, Drake's got his woman. I don't know where that leaves Dixon, though." Doc glanced back at his charge.
"Fuck, you don't know, do you?" Jacob laughed and looked up at the ceiling of the ambulance. "He's got a woman."
"Who?" Both Chief and Adam asked at the same time.
"Moriah."
"The Shadow? That Moriah? Shut the fuck up," Chief said at the same time as Adam whistled.
"No shit," Jacob confirmed.
"How?"
"When?" Again, Chief and Adam spoke at the same time.
"Fuck if I know. Could be an interesting story."
Adam scratched the side of his face and asked, "Have you ever seen her?"
"Nope. I've heard the code names for hell, maybe five or six Shadows besides Bengal and Anubis. I've heard her name maybe a handful of times...if that."
Doc glanced back at Dixon. "He's been through a ton of shit in his life. Not sure he could survive much more."
"Jason said he was doing okay." Jacob glanced back at half of the original Alpha team. "If she's bad for him, she'll have more to deal with than just Drake."
"True," Chief replied. He chuckled. "We're so fucking old."
Jacob threw back his head and laughed. "We aren't though, all things considered."
"Yeah, well tell me this, old man, what time did you go to bed last night?"
"Fuck you." Jacob groaned. He and Tori had fallen into bed exhausted at nine-thirty. Which was a good thing because Jason had awakened him at the ass-crack of dawn instructing him to gather a team. He knew Doc was in town because Keelee and Tori were doing something this weekend with the box he'd had Justin open for her. She steadfastly refused to open it until both she and Keelee were able to spend time together.
Chief appeared three hours after he'd texted. His hair was once again long and fell between his shoulder blades. He looked good. Tired but good. Jacob cleared his throat. "I've been tasked with building new teams. Probably a new Alpha Team too."
That snapped heads his direction. "What? You said it yourself. We're old. This is a young man's job."
"Yeah, but dammit." Chief's words echoed his own thoughts.
"So why are we staffing up?" Adam was perceptive as usual. Chief swung his eyes to Jacob waiting for his answer.
"I'm not able to tell you the reason right now, but we are going to have twenty-six teams. I'm working with Jared and Nic to mix the teams, keeping one domestic law enforcement specialist on each unit. We are blending the responses between the two branches. The shit that is on the horizon is forcing us to streamline and move people around. Not many are happy about that. Breaking up teams was a harsh decision, but the needs of the many."
"You did not just quote Star Trek to us did you?" Adam dropped his head back, hitting the exterior wall of the ambulance with a thump.
"He did." Chief lifted his hand and split his middle and ring finger.
Jacob laughed and shook his head at his communications specialist. The man was so much more than that. The team had become his family. He'd never have believed it years ago when Gabriel had given him the helm of Alpha team, but each and every man on the team was a person he'd lay down his life for, and they had proven time and again they'd do the same for him and each other.
"We will be sending them through the complex, getting them up to speed."
"What about the Arizona complex?" Chief's brow furrowed.
"Jason mothballed the opening for a couple more months." He forestalled the questions with a raised hand and a quick, "For reasons I can't go into now." Jacob assumed it would be just a matter of time before that site was up and running.
"Twenty-six teams, plus a domestic branch and a Shadow presence. Damn, did you ever think when we joined Guardian it would ever turn into what it is?"
"What we did laid the groundwork for what Guardian was going to become." Adam's words drifted across the quiet that descended at Chief's question.
"Are you coming to the ranch?" Chief asked both of them. His eyes moved from Jacob to the Adam.
"I'll be back at the weekend. Tori and Keelee have a couple days up in Cape Cod." Adam rolled up to his knees and leaned over Dixon for a moment.
"Do you think we'll ever do this again?" Jacob's eyes were closed when he asked.
"God, I hope not." Doc laughed. "It’s time to let this go, to move on, move up, and move the young ones into our old positions."
"It was a good run," Chief added.
"A damn good run," Jacob agreed. It was the end of an era.
Chapter 24
Dixon woke up, and he wished like hell he hadn't. He groaned as he rolled to sit up. He knew the vibration under his feet. He glanced around to orient himself. He was aboard Gracie. He'd recognize her bedroom any day of the week. The door opened and Joy...ahh...Moriah slipped into the cabin. He lifted, straightening, and winced at the soreness in his muscles.
"The pirate doctor said you'd want this." She extended her hand, and he blinked to bring two Tylenol into focus. "I saw you stirring so I figured I'd go get it."
Dixon narrowed his eyes at her to keep her in focus. "Pirate?"
"Eyepatch?"'
"Oh, Adam. Wait, you were watching me sleep?"
Moriah grunted and lifted an eyebrow. "Not much else to do at thirty thousand feet above the ground." She lifted her hand again. He took the pills from her and the bottle of water she held out.
Dixon swallowed the tablets and drank half the bottle in one go. He dropped the bottle to ask, "Everything went okay?"
She nodded and sat down beside him. Dixon sighed when her small hand landed on his back, and she started rubbing circles against his aching muscles. They hurt, like a motherfucker, a side effect no one bothered to tell him about, thank you very much. Not that he would have changed his mind.
"Archangel stated there were no cell phone videos posted. A few still pictures, but what they show is the blood. You know gore sells. Guardian was able to manage the crowd at the Hill and also at the hospital, and you died officially at eleven thirty-seven this morning.
"Thank God Asp is a damn good shot." He rolled his shoulders and flinched at the ache in his ribs. He felt like he'd been kicked by a shod horse. "What about you? Did you let Doc take a look at your back?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine. Sore, but I've been there, done that...got about twenty t-shirts, you know?"
"Yeah." Dixon allowed himself to lie back on the bed. Moriah carefully lay beside him and he winced a little as she rolled toward him. "Shit moved fast, huh?"
Moriah's body tightened against his. "What do you mean?" Her words sounded cautious.
He blew out a shallow lungful of air. "Look, when Jason and Gabriel were making this plan, we didn't get much of a say in it. We were kind of swept away because shit had to get done, and it had to be done fast. Do you have a problem with me living at the ranch? I mean, for all intents and purposes, I'm dead. As in a very public, national-level-type, dead. I'm not going to be doing anything but running the complex, and whenever the one in Arizona starts up, I'll be there to help out. That's what Gabriel and Jason wanted to talk to me about. The training centers will be my life. I'm okay with it because the ranch in South Dakota is my home, but I don't want them or me to make decisions for you."
Dixon felt her move. She sat up, folding her legs in front of her and stared down at him, her knees touching his ribs. He lifted his arm and pushed her lush black hair off her shoulder.
"Fuck you."
His hand froze in mid-air. Well, that wasn't the way he saw this conversation goin
g. "Excuse me?"
Her lips pulled tight for a moment before she lashed out, "Fuck you for thinking I wouldn't come with you." She lifted away from him and glared down at him. "Fuck you for thinking I wouldn't want a home or a family, and fuck you for assuming I'd do anything I didn't want to do. I'm fucking here, aren't I?"
Dixon sat up. "You are here." He confirmed her words because, seriously, he must still be drugged. What was happening here?
"Then I've made my decision. What in our past has led you to believe I'm someone who does shit she doesn't want to do?" She stood and pulled her shirt off revealing an expanse of pale skin and a light pink bra.
Holy hell, she was pissed and stripping. Dixon's mind blanked for a moment, what had she asked? "Ahh...nothing?"
"Damn straight nothing. I'm my own person." She unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans. They hit the floor.
Fuuuck. Dixon reached out and grabbed the delicate piece of elastic that held up the barely-there pink thong. "Yes, yes, you are." He acknowledged as she leaned forward when he pulled the fabric.
"I do what I want. Always. Understand?" Her hands ran up his arms, over his biceps and rested on his shoulders.
"I understand completely and if I don’t, I’m sure you will help me see the light." He leaned forward the two inches that separated them and kissed the skin above the lace cup of her bra.
"And right now, I want to do you." She applied gentle pressure and pushed him back into the mattress.
"I'm okay with that." Dixon had about two seconds of warning before she unfastened his suit pants and pulled them to his ankles. His boxers went next.
She kneed up onto the bed and straddled his growing erection. Her hand went to the tie that was loosely knotted around his neck. She lifted it and let it slide through her fingers before she grabbed the shirt tails of his blood soaked, wrinkled white button-down and ripped every button off of it with one massive pull. "That's better." She slid the end of the tie out of the knot and tossed it to the side. Her hands ran down his chest, stopping to tweak his nipples.
Dixon groaned. He ran his hands up the length of her thigh and grabbed the thin material of her thong. She looked down at his fingers and then back at him. "What are you waiting for?"
Dixon jerked it sharply, tearing the material away from her. She laughed and reached behind her, lifting his heavy cock to her core before she lowered onto him. She wasn't wet, and the friction was intense, hot and fucking perfect, but he grabbed her hip. "I don't want to hurt you."
She reached down and removed his hand from her. "You would never hurt me." She lifted and lowered, slowly encasing his cock with her heat.
Dixon pulled her down to him when she finally took him all in. When she settled over him he spoke. "I couldn't. Hurt you. I'm in love with you."
He watched her eyes as they searched his face. There was no outward reaction to his words. Finally, she nodded. "I know." She leaned down and kissed him softly before she whispered, "Don't fuck this up, Quick Draw."
The laughter that bubbled out him wasn't intentional. The woman never said what he expected her to say. Why would he think she'd tell him that she loved him too? He brought her back down to him and consumed her in a soul-baring kiss. He did love her. The woman. The individual. The assassin. Joy. Moriah, hell even Nancy. Every facet of the woman was a revelation, and he knew he'd only scratched the surface of the countless nuances that formed the person with whom he'd fallen in love.
She lifted and lowered on top of him. The friction and heat were agonizingly perfect. Dixon's hands explored her body, caressing, touching, and holding her the way she would only allow him to do when they were together. He wanted to protect her, to encircle her in his love so no one could ever touch her or hurt her again, but that wasn't who she was, and he knew in order to love her, he needed to accept that fact. He did. He accepted her for who she was. She was his. For some fucked up reason, she had chosen to be his, and he wasn’t going to second guess it.
Neither of them broke the kiss for more than the length of time it took to fill their lungs with much needed air. Their connection was too important. When she shattered over him, he held her hips and thrust up into her. The white hot need built and catapulted him into his own orgasm. He lifted his hips and thrust into her before he released. She relaxed on top of him, and he wrapped her in his arms.
The moments like this, where she let herself be vulnerable, were her declarations of love. He understood her in a way he'd never been able to understand another soul. She was his haven, his peace, and his solace when he walked through his hell. He would be her comfort and warmth when her load became too much to bear. It was what they'd built their relationship on, and those foundations were solid and perfect...for them.
Chapter 25
Jason King glanced around the table as he entered the conference room. Jacob, Jared, Nic, Jade, Zane, and Gabriel were already seated. He glanced at Zane.
"She's on her way. There was an issue she had to handle." Zane offered the explanation as to why Jewell wasn't in the room.
Jason lowered himself into the seat, and all eyes swiveled to him. "They just touched down. They are home."
A collective sigh from all the people seated at the table sounded. He agreed. This operation had been a gamble, and the stakes were ones that he'd never want to wager again, but Dixon had hit pay dirt. Well, actually Dixon, Drake, and Moriah had hit pay dirt, and he'd like to strangle them all for the rules they broke to find the gold mine, but fuck him if he wasn't impressed. Damn rogue operators, all three of them. Hell, he glanced at the table. There wasn't one member of his inner sanctum that wasn't rogue. That made him one lucky son of a bitch.
The figure of his sister jogging down the hall stole everyone's attention. She skittered through the door, slammed it shut and hit the buttons to frost the glass and soundproof the room. "Sorry I'm late." She dropped three bags of candy on the table and flopped down beside her husband.
"What was so important that you had to make us wait?" Jason had learned his sister's priorities shifted at times.
"Whoa, it was epic. Cassie was here, and we broke the code I found on the darknet. And by we, I mean her. I have no idea how her mind works like that. I would have never thought to–"
"Jewell." Zane's voice stopped her machine gun quick spill of words.
"Huh?"
"Does this pertain to the operation we are working on?" He smiled at her. Jason took in the look of adoration on the assassin's face. Fuck, that man was perfect for his sister. He kept her focused and sane. Which, considering it was Jewell, was a lifelong endeavor of epic proportions.
She sat up straight and blinked at her husband. "Ummm...yeah kinda...well no, but it could."
"Okay." Jason took control of the meeting. "Jewell, we will talk about your code breaking event when we are done here. All right?"
"Sure." Jewell nodded and reached for the nearest bag of candy. She took two pieces, handed one to her husband and tossed the remainder of the bag to Jason. He leaned forward and grabbed the bag. "Jared, bring us up to speed."
Jared nodded and pointed the remote at the screen. Jason read the reports as they'd come in, so seeing the latest from the press was no surprise. The shooting was under investigation. The DNR they'd put in place for Senator Simmons was hotly debated in the media, as were the country's gun control laws.
"So, nothing new." Jared flashed through the headlines, stopping at several salacious ones, and the ones that screamed conspiracy theory. "How did your talks with the Director of the CIA and the FBI go?"
"The FBI and CIA aren't a problem." Guardian had deep ties to the organizations thanks to FBI Agent Cole Davis and Tori's friends at the CIA. Jason leaned forward and swiped his tablet. He started the laundry list of updates he needed to give and receive. "First, after the conclave of alphabet soup this morning, Gabriel and I briefed POTUS and have his blessing to continue to go after Stratus."
Jade's head whipped up at that. "Wait, you mean there was a chance he'd s
top us?"
Gabriel chuckled. "Weirder things have happened. Who knows how deep Stratus' reach runs?"
"True." Jason agreed. "Nic, the mansion?"
Nic read off the report. “The estate is actually owned by a little old lady who lives in a retirement home in Boca Raton, Florida. The caretaker was found dead in the tree line. The bodies of the people Dixon, Drake, and Moriah claimed to have killed were not there. The place was professionally sanitized. No fingerprints anywhere."
"They did all that in just a few hours," Zane muttered and glanced at Jason. "Sorry."
"It was my thought, too. No need to apologize." Jason agreed with his brother-in-law.
"The phone call to Dixon's phone today?" Jade asked.
"We were able to trace it to a general location. We got within a five-mile radius." Jewell tapped on her tablet before she sent a picture to the screen taking down Jared's slide. "New York. Manhattan to be exact."
"There is no way to narrow that location down?" Jacob asked that question.
"We don't even know if the caller was actually in New York. Whoever bounced this shit around the globe was good." Jewell chewed on her bottom lip and sent a glance toward Jason.
"And here is where I ask you what you found out with Cassie." He leaned back in his chair and waited.
"Okay, there are several messages on the dark web that I have not been able to break, no matter what computer program I use. Remember I told you about them when I found them?"
Jason nodded. It was part of the concern that led him to push Dixon into service to find a way into Stratus.
"So, I called in Cassie, last summer, but things went to hell for her if you remember."
"Oh, believe me, I remember." Jason sent her a look that made her drop her eyes.
"Yeah, well she's in a better place now, and she and Van were able to stop by for a couple hours and she's worked with me the last three days. She found the key, and this is what the messages I've found said. She tapped on her tablet, and three sentences flashed up on the screen.
Dixon Page 25
