Chapter 5
Three Weeks Later
“What is up with you, man?” Lucky asked impatiently. “You’ve been in a funk for weeks now.”
It was oh-six-hundred in the morning, and Trigger and his team were doing their customary five-mile warm-up run before starting the rest of their PT exercises.
“He’s been that way since Venezuela,” Grover added helpfully.
“Ever since he met her,” Lefty added not so helpfully.
“Fuck off,” Trigger muttered. He loved his friends, but they were a pain in the ass.
“Why don’t you just call her already?” Doc asked seriously.
“You know why,” Trigger said.
“No, I don’t,” Doc countered.
“Because of what we are,” Trigger told him.
“What? Men?”
Trigger stopped running and glared at his friends as they all stopped as well and stared at him in confusion. “We’re Delta,” he said simply.
“And?” Oz asked when no one else said anything.
Trigger blew out a breath in frustration.
“You all know as well as I do what that means. Our lives aren’t our own.
We could be called away this afternoon for who knows how long.
We could be killed in action and no one would ever know how or where we died.
We’ve all dated, and it never works out.
Some women just want to screw a Delta. They love the idea of what we are and not really who we are as people.
Not to mention, a lot of chicks get fed up with all the secrecy and eventually end it. I won’t do that to Gillian.”
“Ghost and his team have all made it work,” Brain said matter-of-factly.
Trigger tried to come up with an argument that would make sense, but he couldn’t.
The fact of the matter was, he was jealous as hell of Ghost, Fletch, Coach, and the others.
They had made relationships work. They had women who loved them, who they loved in return, and many of them even had kids now.
Like Annie. The firecracker who had him and anyone she came into contact with wrapped around her little finger.
He sighed. “I’m afraid she’s too good for me,” Trigger said softly, hating to admit the truth. “I took a second look at the information we received from the FBI, and from what I can tell, she’s smart, extremely hardworking, and dedicated to her job.”
“And those are bad things?” Brain asked.
“Well, no, but you all know what military life is like. It’s hard.
I’m afraid I’d somehow…contaminate her. She’s strong as fuck and independent to boot.
She’s got a loving family and friends who would do anything for her.
I don’t want to mess that up. You all know as well as I do that getting involved with us means the possibility of moving, and that means taking her away from her support network. ”
“Seems to me,” Lefty drawled, “that’s exactly the kind of woman you should want.
That we all want. We need a partner who won’t crumble when we’re deployed.
Someone who can mow the grass and figure out how to call for a fucking plumber when the toilet overflows.
It’s a good thing that she has a support system.
And even if we do get moved out of Texas, she’d make a new support network, with other Delta wives.
Besides, no one’s saying you have to marry this chick.
You like her, she obviously likes you. So what’s really bothering you? ”
Trigger hesitated. He knew what he was about to say would sound crazy, but these were his best friends. Men he’d die for, and they’d do the same for him.
“I think she’s it,” he said, putting a hand on his stomach, which was spinning and rolling.
“She’s what?” Grover asked in confusion.
“I don’t know how to explain how I know, but we clicked out there. It’s stupid, I realize that. Certifiable. We don’t even know each other. But something inside knows she could be it for me. And if I get to know her better, I’m not going to want to let her go. If she dumps me, it’ll kill me.”
No one said anything for a long moment, then Brain smiled. Huge. “Congratulations!”
The others chimed in with their own felicitations.
“Hang on, you guys,” Trigger complained. “Nothing’s happened. She’s probably totally forgotten all about me by now.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Doc said reasonably. “Call her.”
“I don’t have her number,” Trigger backtracked.
“I’ll find it for you,” Brain volunteered. “And her address too.”
“Talk to her, man,” Lucky urged. “What can it hurt?”
“Why are you guys pushing this so hard?” Trigger asked. He couldn’t deny he was happy for their support, but was a bit confused by it.
“Because none of us are getting any younger,” Lefty said reasonably. “You especially.”
Trigger punched him in the arm and everyone laughed.
“But seriously, we all love the Army and what we do, but we won’t be Deltas forever.
There’ll come a time when we’ll sit up and look around and be alone.
And that sucks. I want to find someone smart, independent, and sassy as fuck.
Someone who will kiss me and tell me to kick some bad-guy ass when I leave, and be thrilled to see me when I get back.
Someone who won’t cheat on me and won’t decide that she’s sick of waiting for me to come home.
“I want her to understand what I do is important to me. In return, I’ll treat her like a queen.
She’ll be the center of my world, and I’ll make sure she knows it.
Relationships are hard as fuck, even more so for us.
So if you feel as if this woman is the one who can be all that for you, I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen for you.
And I’ll fucking kill anyone who tries to come between you and your woman. ”
Trigger wasn’t sure what to say. He was deeply touched.
“What Lefty said,” Grover quipped.
Everyone laughed again.
“I’ll think about it,” Trigger said.
Brain rolled his eyes. “I’ll have her info to you this afternoon.”
Trigger nodded, then took off running. He turned around and said, “You guys comin’ or are you gonna let this old man kick your ass?”
That was all it took for the rest of the guys to dig in their heels and chase after him.
Later that afternoon, Trigger was sitting in his office when a knock sounded at the door. Looking up, he saw it was Brain.
“You know, you didn’t really have to rush and get Gillian’s info to me,” he joked.
But Brain didn’t crack a smile. “We need to talk,” he said instead.
Trigger immediately stiffened. He nodded to a chair in front of his desk.
Brain sat, and he didn’t make him wait. “You know how Gillian didn’t turn off the phone connection that last time in the hopes that we’d be able to get something from the hijackers when they talked to each other?”
“Yeah,” Trigger said.
“We got something.”
Trigger leaned forward. “What?”
“As we realized there at the end, they had no intention of flying that big-ass plane out of there. They had a cartel pilot picking them up in the Beechcraft to take them back up to Mexico.”
“Mexico?” Trigger asked in surprise.
“Yeah. They were with Sinaloa.”
“Fuck,” Trigger said, sitting back in his chair with a thump.
“They didn’t want Hugo Lamas freed so he could escape with them. They wanted him killed to send a message to the Cartel of the Suns. Essentially, they started a war.”
“And like any drug cartel, they didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire,” Trigger said in disgust. “The people they killed on the plane didn’t mean shit to them. All they cared about was sticking it to the Venezuelans. Letting them know they got one over on them right on their own turf.”
“Exactly. But there’s more,” Brain added.
“What?”
“There was talk of a seventh hijacker.”
“What are you saying? That we missed a hijacker and he got away?” Trigger asked.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying. On the tapes, they were arguing about the Beechcraft.
Luis was saying they were good because it could hold up to twelve people—and there was seven of them with the pilot, plus two more with the women he and Alberto were taking, leaving room for their ‘amigo’ and two more, if someone else wanted to bring along a ‘plaything.’”
Trigger wanted to kill Luis and the other hijackers all over again. Alberto had planned to take Gillian with him. The thought of what would’ve happened to her if he’d gotten her deep into the Sinaloa Cartel territory was too disturbing to dwell on.
Brain went on. “But then another said something about how it would be better for their ‘amigo’ to go with the rest of the hostages, to find out as much information as possible. To find out what the government and the Cartel of the Suns knew about the op. As far as I can tell before the call was abruptly cut off, they were still arguing about that. Half of those assholes wanted to let the mole stay hidden and camouflaged with the other civilians, and the other half wanted to extract him with them.”
“So the CIA needs to look into the backgrounds of all the hostages who were on the plane. See who has connections to Sinaloa and Mexico,” Trigger said.
“Not that easy,” Brain said with a shrug. “Even if we did narrow it down, everyone’s in the wind. They all went back to their countries and lives. Hell, our target could’ve used a fake name. But I think we’ve got bigger problems.”
“Bigger?” Trigger asked.
“Whoever was in cahoots with the hijackers knows everything that went down on that plane. Everything. They’re likely aware of how their friends were killed…
and how Gillian was a big factor in giving us time to get to them and take out Luis, Alberto, the pilot, and the others.
He or she might not be too happy that Gillian escaped…
might even realize that she was giving us intel. ”
“But why single her out? There’s no reason for it,” Trigger asked. “There were a lot of other passengers on that plane who interacted with the hijackers.”