Beginnings

by Sandra R Neeley

Then Nina understood. He liked Shauna. “Would you like me to introduce you to Shauna?” she asked.

  “No! I just wanted to know her name,” he said emphatically.

  “Okay, it’s fine. I was just offering,” Nina said, realizing the idea of meeting her made him nervous. “It’s okay, Two. I won’t tell her you asked.”

  “Promise?” he asked.

  “I promise,” Nina replied.

  Two smiled at her, looked away and across the park for a moment before looking at Nina. “Are you doing okay?” he asked.

  “I am. I have my bad days, but for the most part I’m doing very well. Happier than I’ve ever been after I battle the demons down each morning,” she said chuckling.

  “I’m glad,” Two replied. Then he changed subjects without warning. “You know, Lethal didn’t leave you. He would never leave you.”

  Nina sighed and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Once I calmed down I figured as much. I’m afraid I blasted him with all the anger and frustration I’d been holding inside — no, I’m not afraid I did, I know I did. I know that. And I also know that we’d made no promises to each other, we just made the best we could out of a miserable situation. I know he sheltered me while he could. At some point I owe him an apology, I just… I’m not quite there yet. But I’m trying.”

  “He made promises,” Two said.

  Nina’s heart skipped a beat and her stomach flipped. It wasn’t what she was expecting him to say, or anyone to say for that matter. “No, he didn’t,” she said quietly.

  Two shrugged. “Maybe not out loud,” he agreed.

  Two seemed content to not say anymore about it so Nina seized the opportunity to move the conversation in a different direction. “So, are you doing okay? Are you finding a way to be happy?” she asked.

  Immediately he brightened. “I am! I’m the delivery driver. I pick up the packages from the General’s house twice a day and drop them off to whoever ordered them.”

  “That sounds fun!” Nina said.

  “It is! I love the driving around part, and everybody is happy to see me at their door. I like that part a lot,” Two confided.

  “I’m sure you do. I’m happy for you, Two.”

  “Thanks,” Two said. His cell phone played an alarm and he took it from his pocket and looked at it. “That’s Hermit. I gotta go see what he wants,” he explained.

  “Okay. And, hey, for the record?” Nina started.

  “Yeah?” Two asked, pausing in turning away from her to answer the message he’d received.

  “Shauna is very nice as well. She’s trying to find her way. If you want to talk to her, maybe start little and slow and work your way up. I think she’d really like you if you gave her a chance to get to know you slowly.”

  Two blushed, actually blushed and smiled at Nina. “I might. Thanks, Nina.”

  “You’re welcome. Have a good day, Two,” Nina said.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Nina stepped out of the supply store with a bag in her hands and inadvertently stepped right into the path of a very unusual sight. She stuttered to a stop and watched as a team of five females, all dressed in battle gear, tall and muscular like the males, strode toward her. They kept their eyes straight ahead as they moved directly toward the clinic at the end of the park.

  Nina’s stomach flipped again when she realized that Lethal and his squad were escorting the females. His helmet was still on, but she’d have sworn she could feel his eyes on her. She couldn’t risk even glancing at him as he approached, but the female that seemed to be team leader of her squad met Nina’s eyes and gave a slight incline of her head.

  Nina offered a smile and waited for them to pass so she could cross the park and get to her home. As she made her way toward her home, she couldn’t help but watch the unusual female squad being escorted by her own squad. She couldn’t help but think of them as hers — she’d been housed with them and prayed for their safety and return so many times that a part of her still wished them safety. She saw how Valor rushed to open the door for them, and how Lethal placed his arm at the small of the back of the female he walked beside to usher her into the medical clinic. And she begrudgingly felt the pang of jealousy at his touch on another female. Nina shoved the feeling away from her and tried to look away, but she wasn’t quick enough. Right before she turned for her house, she saw how he turned his head in her direction to see if she watched or not just before he disappeared inside.

  “Not my damn business,” she mumbled, stepping inside her home and locking her door behind herself.

  “What’s not your business?” Acker asked from his spot on the sofa.

  “You’re home!” she said.

  “Yep. Finished up the plans early so I told them I was taking the rest of the day to spend with my best girl,” he said, winking at her.

  Nina laughed and went to the kitchen to place her bags on the counter before returning to the living room.

  “I missed you this morning,” she said, sinking into the sofa right beside him.

  Acker gathered her into his arms and pulled her in tight. “Missed you too.” He sighed, reveling in the feel of Nina in his arms. She made everything better.

  “Any of the stuff in those bags going to spoil if it doesn’t get attention right away?” he asked.

  “Nope,” she answered. “What’d you have in mind?” she asked.

  “A nap, and whole lot of loving, and then another nap,” Acker answered, kissing her forehead.

  “Thought you’d never ask,” she teased, getting to her feet to lead him into the bedroom.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Early the next morning before the sun even came up, Acker slipped from his and Nina’s bed. He dressed quietly, stopped only long enough to scribble a note for her and leave it on the kitchen table beside the bags they’d never unpacked, and left their home, pulling the door silently closed behind himself.

  He went directly to the helicopter pad where he knew his pilot most likely already awaited, and his team was beginning to assemble.

  “You’re late!” their pilot called out teasingly as he saw Acker approaching.

  “Bullshit,” Acker called back, chuckling. “You’re just one of those freaky ass people who like to get up before dawn, so you always beat all of us here.”

  “True, true,” the pilot answered.

  “Yo! The hurricane hit yet?” Findley asked as he walked up.

  “Naw, the point is to get in just before the storm, and get out with it on our heels. Hope it covers us being there,” Acker explained.

  “We could go surfing in the waves while we’re there, lots of water in Louisiana,” Benson said as he joined them and caught the tail end of the conversation.

  “No, we can’t. What, do you have a death wish?” Acker asked.

  “You know? You just not much fun since you settled down, Acker,” Findley said, shoving him lightly as he climbed into the helicopter.

  “Sure I am, just got something to live for now,” Acker answered, getting in behind Findley, as Benson and the rest of the team got in on the other side.

  The pilot started the engines and went through his flight checks for the second time before takeoff. While they waited Acker went over what he expected of his team.

  “We’re going in close to this point here. It’s rural, and with the storm chances are that no one will be nearby to see us, or witness the fact that a helicopter was even nearby. You’re all staying near the chopper, I’m going in alone.”

  “The fuck you are!” Benson objected.

  “This is personal to me,” Acker said.

  “Then that makes it personal to us,” Benson answered.

  “If the man I’m looking for is there, I will kill him. I’m trying to keep you all out of it since this is not sanctioned. All I need you to do is watch my six while I’m preoccupied.”

  “And we’ll do that. As usual. Chopper gets threatened, he goes airborne and radios where we’re to meet him. We watch the perimeter and keep things outside
under control. Things go south while you’re inside, we’ll help get ‘em headed in the right direction again and leave you to do your thing uninterrupted,” Findley said.

  Acker nodded reluctantly. “Alright. If you’re sure. Let’s do this.”

  “Let’s do it!” they all answered.

  Chapter 41

  Their flight plan had taken Acker and his team north first, then west and back south into Florida. Their target was in Louisiana, and the flight there would have been much shorter if they’d gone straight in, but no one was allowed to fly in or out with the storm headed toward them, so they went the roundabout way. Which was better anyway because their filed flight plan put them in Florida, not Louisiana and would further support their innocence if there ended up being rumors of them in the area the night a particular piece of shit died under questionable circumstances. After landing at a small private airport of a friend of their pilot, they did nothing. They checked the weather and found that the hurricane had stalled. Which sucked because the storm was their cover, so they sat and waited until the damn thing started moving again. It was 9:00 P.M. when it finally began to move north again, and they loaded back into the helicopter and started on their way. This part of the flight plan had not been filed; it was simply a favor from a friend of the pilot that he look the other way. That and a payoff.

  As they flew toward their unscheduled rendezvous, Acker removed his helmet and took his cell phone out. He intentionally didn’t call Nina because he didn’t want her even as close as a phone call to what he had planned, but he did call Roscoe as he’d promised Nina he would. After just one ring Roscoe picked up.

  “You should be back by now,” Roscoe said. “Why isn’t your pilot answering our attempts to contact him?”

  Acker glanced at the pilot who grinned and shrugged.

  “Had to wait on the weather to cooperate. And, radio silence, you don’t need to be up to date on this mission anyway,” Acker said, then he got right to the point. “Tell Nina I’ll be there in the morning?” Acker asked.

  “Why don’t you call her? You know she’ll be worried,” Roscoe answered.

  “Naw, need to stay focused. Just tell her I love her and not to worry, I’ll be there in the morning.”

  “Ya’ll going to be that much longer?” Roscoe asked.

  “No, but if she thinks I’m gone ‘til morning, she won’t lie awake all night waiting for me. I’ll be home before she ever wakes up,” Acker answered.

  “Okay. I’ll tell her. Be safe in all that weather,” Roscoe said.

  “Always!” Acker answered and ended the call.

  He looked down at his phone and the high wind advisory that had been issued for the area they were headed into and had a moment of doubt. “Ya’ll want to land somewhere and get out? I’ll be back afterwards?” he asked.

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Benson asked.

  “Bad weather coming,” Acker said.

  “That’s the whole point, no better cover,” Findley answered, and the sentiment was agreed on by everyone else in the helicopter with them.

  “Alright,” Acker said, sitting back and waiting to get there, his fingers already itching to beat the stupid bastard that had sold Nina into what was anyone’s worst nightmare. He cracked his knuckles and ground his teeth as he waited.

  “Bide your time, man,” Findley said, watching him. “Won’t be long now.”

  “I’m trying,” Acker answered, smiling evilly at his friend.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Bryant stood at the bar in his favorite hole-in-the-wall dive-bar in downtown New Orleans, with Caul by his side. New Orleans was the only city in the world that kept the bars opened for hurricane parties when one was bearing down on them.

  “You pay for it! I don’t have no more fucking money!” Bryant insisted.

  “Well, if you’d get a damn job,” Caul responded.

  “I don’t need a damn job. All I need is to track down the fucking doctor and get the money he owes me for the last delivery of girls,” Bryant answered.

  “You mean to tell me you ain't saved a single penny of all that money?” Caul asked.

  “I ain’t had to save any! There’s more coming. All I got to do is wait for the doctor to get set up again and I’ll be on speed dial again,” Bryant said. “Now pay Boogie so he’ll give me another damn drink.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Seems to me he disappeared overnight, number disconnected, personal ads stopped: the man just disappeared. You need a damn job.”

  “You’re one to talk! You need a damn job!” Bryant snapped.

  “I got one. I clean up down at the laundromat at night, and I still help out on the farm.”

  “Yeah, like that’s gonna make you any damn money,” Bryant grumbled.

  “Hey, it’s honest work. Besides, I saved just about all you give me from selling the women,” Caul bragged loud and proud.

  “Shut up, you damn idiot! Hunting expeditions. That’s what it was, nothing more,” Bryant told him, looking around to be sure no one heard Caul.

  The wind whipped outside, making a high-pitched whistling noise as it howled through the building. “We about to make it last call, boys! We gonna lock ‘er down ‘til this thing passes.”

  Bryant and Caul walked out into a gale force wind, bowing their heads and leaning into the wind as they made their way to the new fancy truck Bryant had bought. Once they got in, they took a minute to put themselves to rights, smoothing their hair, straightening their clothes and drying the rain from their faces.

  As they sat there, three women stumbled out of the bar, having had to end their hurricane party since the bar was closing.

  “Damn shame the fucking doctor went radio silent. Weather like this people go missing all the damn time. Right there walks fifteen thousand dollars. And nobody would be none the wiser with this storm blowing shit all around. Just figure they got blown away and drowned,” Bryant complained.

  “Maybe he’ll show up again. But we gotta get home. That storm’s coming in about midnight, we need to be long gone from here,” Caul said, strapping himself in with the seatbelt.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Acker and his team approached the ramshackle house silently in the darkness. There was a muted light shining from one of the windows at the back of the house and that was where Acker focused his energy. His team fell into place securing the perimeter while he and Findley crept around the house trying to determine if anyone was inside. Finally deciding there wasn’t anyone there, they kicked in the front door and rushed the house with weapons drawn, just in case they were mistaken.

  They weren’t. No one was there, and the light they’d seen was a kitchen light that had apparently been left on. They checked the house to be sure no one was hiding anywhere, then met back in the living room. “So now what?” Findley asked through the radios in their helmets.

  “Search the place. See if you can find anything that indicates Nina used to live here.”

  They searched everywhere, and found very little other than some old cosmetics in the bathroom that could have belonged to anyone. As Acker turned to leave the bathroom, he noticed a pale green flash of color in the top of the bathroom linen closet. He used the barrel of his rifle to poke at it, and then at the ceiling inside the closet, until finally the ceiling lifted up and what looked like a green, cloth sack tumbled out of it.

  Findley called out from the living room at the sound of something hitting the floor. “You good?”

  “Yeah,” Acker called back, leaning over to pick up the green sack. Then he realized it was a pillowcase. He untied the top and looked in. He shook his head as he realized what he held. This was the pillowcase that Nina had told him about. The same one she’d thrown her few personal mementos into when she’d planned to leave.

  Acker walked through the living room and into the kitchen, then poured out the contents of the pillow case onto the kitchen table. Findley walked over and looked down at the items scattered across the t
able. “There’s blood on them,” Findley said.

  “Yeah, there is. And I’m sure it’s Nina’s,” Acker answered.

  “Fucker must have gone through it to see what she’d planned to take with her then bagged it up and hid it away.”

  “He put it inside a hole in the ceiling in the bathroom closet,” Acker said, the tension clear in his voice.

  “What’s the plan?” Findley asked.

  “We wait,” Acker answered.

  “Fine with me,” Findley answered, and took up a place near a window in the front bedroom to watch for anyone approaching.

  The entire team was content to sit where they were and wait until Acker decided it was time to go. But the pilot was running out of time. By 11:00 P.M., he knew they couldn’t wait any longer.

  “Acker, it’s time to wrap it up. We have to leave the area. Now,” their pilot said into the radio that fed into each of their helmets.

  “I need more time,” Acker answered, clearly agitated.

  “Not tonight you don’t. If we don’t go now, we’re weathering the storm here. Chopper gets damaged we end up with all kinds of unanswered questions, not the least of which is why we’re here. We do not have permission to fly into a domestic area.”

  “Mission is not completed yet!” Acker snapped.

  “Make it a return mission. We can’t wait any longer. Bring it back now,” the pilot said. “I’m running through the check list now.”

  “We’ll come back,” Findley said.

  Acker just shook his head and looked away from Findley.

  “Or not. I’ll hang out with you. Send the rest back to Alliance. They can come back for us in a day or two,” Findley said.

  Acker turned around and met Findley’s gaze. He took a deep breath and huffed it out. “No. This is a personal thing for me. I can’t risk the welfare of this team over my personal vendettas. We’ll pay him another visit. Let’s go.”