Chapter 21 #2
A third man, the driver, stepped out of the car.
From the frustrated grunt and the hard slam of the door, something told me that the twins were regularly like this, and this man’s patience had been thin for quite some time.
I didn’t know about “adorable,” as these were two adult men with clear psychological complexes, but there was something oddly trustworthy about them.
“Hey, you two, tone down some of the crazy,” the driver ordered.
“That’s why people don’t want to join our camp after meeting you.
I already told Wolfe that you shouldn’t be on the welcome committee.
” He raised both hands to show that he was unarmed.
“Hi, I’m Omar. Sorry about my friends here.
They lack home training. You said you’re looking for Dr. Diaz? ”
Larke nodded. “Yes, is she at this camp?”
“You mind opening up the back? Just a precaution.”
Dallas moved to where he could better see the cargo area.
Memphis didn’t budge an inch.
Larke unlatched her seatbelt. “Not at all. We have nothing to hide. Just let me—”
“Mrs. Harding, do not step one foot outside of this vehicle,” I warned. “If anything happens to you, I’m going to hell, and I’m not going alone.”
Dallas clapped. “Naw, I like you. You might be our kind of crazy. What you think, Memph? You like him? I think the boss’ll like him.”
Memphis, eyes full of stars, didn’t respond.
Larke faced me, grinning with all the mischievousness that solidified just how much I loved this woman. “Dez, sweetie? My love, my honey bear, my sugar plum? Can you open up the back for the nice man? I love you.”
“Can I be your honey bear too, darlin’?” Memphis asked. “I’ll even take being your Sweet 'N Low possum.”
Dallas burst out laughing.
Larke gave me a “Please kill them later” look.
Unhinging my jaw, I stepped out of the van.
Neither one of the twins acted as if they expected me to pull a weapon, which told me they were as unstable as they looked. But I was used to instability. Hell, I was a brother to instability. If these two were to ever meet Giorgio Pozza, they would probably bow in worship.
I knocked on the van’s back door and kept one eye on Memphis. All he was missing was a barrage of cartoon hearts beating in the air around him. As much as I couldn’t blame the guy, he needed to cut that shit out.
“Are there actual women back here?” Omar asked.
I nodded. “Yep. I just want to make sure they’re not still asleep. The four of us came down together from our camp.”
“You mean, he was right?” Omar groaned. “Those twin psychos are not normal, I swear.”
Dallas, focus glued to the back of the van, shook his head. “Don’t listen to him. He loves us like stepsons.”
“I’m not old enough to be your father,” Omar argued.
“That’s why I said stepsons. Our mama had a midlife crisis, so she started banging a younger fella. We were just teens, and our real daddy is a piece of shit, so you took us in and treated us like your own.”
I reached for the handle, taking note of how their accents seemed to morph and change. The southern accents were almost too distinctly southern, but I couldn’t pick up on the traces in between.
“I trust Gage has his reasons for keeping you two around,” Omar said.
“Gage?” I asked. Then, I recalled him saying something about someone named “Wolfe” earlier, but my mind didn’t have enough information to make the connection at the time. “Gage, as in Gage Wolfe? Tall guy, blond hair, Aussie? Former SpecOps?”
Omar raised an eyebrow. “You know him?”
Suddenly, I felt like a kid who’d learned that college break was right around the corner, and his brother would be home for two whole weeks.
“Yeah. He’s my...” I cleared my throat. “He’s my brother. He’s really here? Gage Wolfe? He’s got tattoos, and four of them are names. Two of the names belong to—”
“Ty and Zach, his twin brothers who passed away years ago,” Omar finished, eyeing me now with more wonder than suspicion.
“Gage told me he’s been looking for his other brothers.
The ones he served with for a Black Cell operation.
Which one are you? If your name matches one of those names, then we can go on ahead inside, no more questions necessary. ”
“Dez,” I said. “I’m Dez.”
Omar grinned. “Then, you know Julien, too.”
My knees nearly gave out. “Julien’s here? What about Ari?”
“Yeah, and their daughter, Baby Thandie.”
“Ari had the baby? Anybody else?”
“No, that’s it.”
If Mo wasn’t here and Ari was, I doubted that it would be long before Mo showed up.
And if Mo showed up, Giorgio wouldn’t be far behind.
Gage had warned Giorgio away from Mo, but Giorgio locked onto her like a missile the moment he first set eyes on her.
If the pandemic hadn’t killed Mo’s boyfriend, now that there were no longer any guardrails, Giorgio most definitely had.
The van doors opened from the inside.
Sabine peered out, squinting against the sunlight. “Are we here? Is it safe?”
Dallas shoved me and Omar out of the way and dragged her out of the vehicle. Sabine, dazed, didn’t fight or struggle as he set her on the ground and kneeled beside her.
“Hi, my name is Dallas, and I want you. Can I have you? I’m real gentle. More gentle than my brother.”
Sabine leaned away from him, one hand on his chest. “Um, what’s happening right now?”
He looked down at the hand, then back up at her. “Memphis, look. She’s touchin’ me, and it’s all soft-like. All nice-like.”
Tamra emerged next, and he looked like he was about to die, which made me wonder whether there were no women at their camp.
“What’s going on out here?” Tamra asked. “Did we make it? It’s not another Totten, is it?”
“I don’t know what a Totten is, darlin’,” Dallas prefaced, “but I’ll lick it if you ask me to.”
Omar grumbled a short prayer underneath his breath and scrubbed at his face with both hands.
With Giorgio, it was usually up to the rest of the team to make sure that when he flew off the handle, we minimized civilian casualties.
Watching these two, I got the sense that they needed a similar type of protocol, which was where Omar—and, knowing him, probably Gage—came in.
These two had probably never known more than an ounce of real affection in their lives.
Like me, they were the type that love needed to avoid.
I glanced at Larke, who was in the middle of explaining something to Memphis. The way he stared at her with the same slight smile and those star-gazed eyes, it was as if she was singing a love song, just for him.
But she would never.
She knew I would kill us all.
The gates opened.
“Omar, you were right. I can’t let these two stay on the welcome committee. Thought I could reform them. Dallas, give the lady some space, mate.”
Dallas backed away a few inches, but his gaze kept darting from Tamra to Sabine.
A man approached the van, and when he stepped into the light, I felt myself cracking.
I felt like that kid again, watching his brother walk into the house after not seeing him for months, decked out in university paraphernalia.
While I didn’t have Gage’s gut instinct, this had to be the reason why I’d felt like me and Larke were supposed to head to South Carolina.
Gage paused.
Omar squeezed my shoulder. “This guy says he knows you, boss. Is that true?”
“There’s no way,” Gage said, picking up his pace. “There’s no fucking way. Dez? Are you fucking kidding me right now? Omar, where the hell did you find my kid brother?”
“Really, Gage,” I quipped, my voice unsteady. “Julien’s the ‘kid.’ I’m a grown ass man.”
Gage, laughing, wrapped me up in a tight hug.
I’d gone from assuming Larke was dead, my nights like someone trying to remove my heart with a dull knife, to reuniting with the chosen family I was lucky enough to receive as a gift.
I’d put on a brave face so neither Mae nor Larke saw how hard it had been for me to leave behind the only mother I’d ever had.
Yet, it wasn’t until this very moment that I felt the pain I’d been suppressing, though it was already giving way to relief.
I almost wanted to drive back to Totten just to let Mae know that her scrawny kid would be just fine, but in her own way, I knew that she did.
“Let them inside,” Gage ordered, clearing his throat, one arm around my shoulders. “Dallas, pull in the truck. Memph, you can pull the van in and park it off to the side.”
Omar escorted Sabine and Tamra into the camp. Memphis hopped into the van, and I watched his every movement until he was parked. Then I went around to the passenger side and scooped Larke out of the seat, pressing kisses against the side of her head.
“You told us to come here,” I whispered in her ear. “You trusted that we should come here. You even had that dream with me and you in South Carolina.”
“Because I knew you could get us here safely,” she said. “To me, baby, you could save the world.”
I walked her over to where Gage stood. “Larke, this is my brother, Gage. He’s the oldest. Julien’s here too. He’s the youngest. He and his wife, Ari, had a baby. I’ve never had a niece before, so I hope I make a good first impression.”
“Why do I feel like we’re in elementary school, and you’re showing your best friends your cool new toy?” she teased.
“I really wanted them to meet you, and I wasn’t sure they’d get the chance. You weren’t even conscious the first time Mae met you, but I couldn’t wait. Everybody should meet you, Larke.”
“You’re very cute like this.”
“You’re very cute all the time.”
“You’re melting my heart, Dez.” She extended a hand. “Hi, Gage, Dez’s older brother, who he’s talked about numerous times. I’m Larke.”
I set her on her feet. “Tell him your last name.”
“Dez, don’t make me scream at how cute you are right now, but you’re right. Let me start from the top. Hi, I’m Larke Harding, Dez’s wife. It’s a pleasure to meet—”
Gage lifted her off her feet in a hug. Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed.
“Okay, okay.” I dragged her away. “That’s enough.”
“Pleasure’s all mine, love,” Gage said.
Larke gestured to Tamra and Sabine. “This is Tamra and Sabine. They’re with us. We were stationed at a camp up in Fort Totten, and we don’t have any plans to return. We came here looking for a Dr. Tayler Diaz.”
Gage smiled.
It was brief, but I knew that smile.
Larke continued, “You see, we had a doctor at Totten. Dr. Tobe Okoro. He hit a wall with his research, so he told us about Dr. Diaz. He sent notes and research samples that he thinks not only she might be interested in, but she might be able to put them to better use.”
“Is it about the infection?” Gage asked.
“Yes. While he thinks it can’t be cured, he believes that prevention is likely. But I’m a lawyer, so there’s more medical jargon I’m sure Dr. Diaz will understand.”
Gage cocked his head to the side and glanced at me.
I nodded, letting him know that yes, Larke was “that” lawyer.
The one I’d been assigned to protect. The one who, when the guys had asked me how the assignment was going, I’d said, “It’s…
interesting,” to which they’d replied, “Interesting? With a pause? That means the lawyer’s cute, and you’re pretending you’re not into her. ”
A woman wearing green scrubs approached us next.
Gage rested a hand on her shoulder, his thumb stroking her sleeve. “This is Dr. Diaz,” he introduced. “Tayler, this is Dez and Larke. Dez is—”
“Your brother,” she finished. “I remember.”
“Damn, who didn’t you tell about me?” I joked.
Larke introduced herself and repeated the information about what we’d brought from Dr. Okoro. The more Larke explained, the more Tayler’s eyes lit up, and I felt another spark of hope. We might not be able to bring people back, but we could save the people we had and rebuild from there.
“You two must be tired,” Dr. Diaz said. “And please, call me Tayler. Gage, will you grab the items and take them to my new lab? Larke, Dez, I’ll escort you to a room.”
I wagged a finger from Tayler to Gage. “So, are you two the head of the camp then? Like, you run it together?”
Tayler looked down at the ground. “Oh, no. The head of the camp, his name’s Allen.”
Memphis grunted. “No, he’s not. We call Gage ‘boss’ for a reason. Allen’s a bitch. The doc and Gage run the camp. When they’re not running the camp, they fuck in the supply closet.”
Tayler looked like she wanted to die.
Gage, eyes closed, massaged his forehead.
I flicked my thumb over my shoulder. “Not gonna lie, they’re growing on me.”
“Yeah, it’s weird how they do that,” Gage said. “Tweedle-Death and Tweedle-Danger, grab the items from the van and take them to Tay’s lab. Omar, keep an eye on them. I’ll send help. Tay, I’ll come with you. Dez and Larke are fine, but Sabine and Tamra might need a security escort.”
Dallas grinned.
Memphis shrugged.
“Memphis, Dallas, after you’re done grabbing the research items, do a perimeter search,” Gage added. “Maybe later, if they’re up for it, you can properly introduce yourselves to our new guests.”
The twins left like a couple of gymnasts.
Gage discreetly squeezed Tayler’s hand before indicating with his head for us to follow them. Still on my “I found my family” high, I scooped Larke up again. She settled her head in the crook of my neck and snuggled into my embrace.