Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
PAUL
Once we finally got back to the base, Nicole was approached by Daniel with a hug and an explanation that he needed to debrief her of any information she could provide.
She hesitated, and Daniel apologized but explained it was necessary.
It was obvious she was sleep deprived and emotionally wrung out, but being the professional she was, she agreed.
“You’re not leaving the base, right?” Her words made me want to hug her, but I just nodded.
“Not without you,” I assured her. Her teeth caught her bottom lip, then she followed Daniel. I watched until they turned the corner then headed to get cleaned up. I met John’s hard stare as he leaned against a wall outside the room. “Jesus.” I nearly ran into him.
“I’ve known you the longest out of everyone in there,” he pointed to the room where I was headed, “and when you left here, after all that shit went down with Frank, I was pissed because I knew you were holding something from me.”
“Yeah, I know,” I admitted. It killed me I was in the position I was in.
“Okay,” he stared at me, “I wanted to tear you a new asshole and remind you that you’re still in the doghouse.”
“I know.”
“But what I also saw was that Cole was out of the loop on where you went as well. I felt maybe Frank was up to his old tricks and maybe he has you doing things you don’t want to be doing but you’re under orders.
” I couldn’t answer, but I didn’t break eye contact.
“And now you’re back covered in the same mud and dirt as Nicole.
Now, as I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, that woman wasn’t supposed to be extracted for another few days.
” He stepped forward so we were inches apart.
“So, I know you can’t answer, but look me in the eye when I ask this.
” I didn’t flinch. “Did you go back under cover as Eric Noah?”
I hated that I was filled with shame when I heard the name.
I’d never asked for any of it. I’d been fed a false promise that I had served my team, and I’d never have to go back to such a dark place.
My mind twisted around itself, but I reined it in because what choice did I have? I was under orders.
“I’ll never lie to you.” I held his gaze.
His jaw ticked. “Copy that, brother.”
“Hey,” Cole came up behind me, “Frank said you had something?” He stopped when he caught our body language. “Is there a problem here?”
“No,” John stepped back, “we were just discussing the trip.” Cole knew better but wisely let it go.
I held up the paperwork in the bag Nicole had given me and handed it to him.
“Nicole managed to take this from Esmerelda’s purse before she ran.
I went through it, and there’s mail in there with an address in New Mexico.
There’s a contract with the same lawyer Nicole mentioned before.
Looks like she’s interested in some land in the area around that address.
There’s also an invoice for two SUVs that have been upgraded to military level protection.
There’s some other stuff, but that’s all I got through. ”
“Sounds like you got through a lot.” His face was bright with interest.
“Yeah, and I forgot, that bag is from Smith’s food store and still has a receipt inside for some snacks. It’s time-stamped three days ago. Nicole said she saw fruit with the same logo in Bruno’s house before she was transferred to the avocado farm.”
“Christ, this is huge.” He grinned. “I’ll get the guys on this and see what else we find. You get a shower and something to eat. We ship out in two hours.”
“Copy that.”
John took a deep exaggerated breath before he walked away. Just as he did, Frank came around the corner.
“Good, just the man I needed to see.” I brushed past him, opened the door to the bunk room, then slammed it shut. I’d probably get reprimanded for my behavior, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Nicole and I slept most of the way back to Shadows. She was beat, and I needed to be alone with my head. A few times, I caught John’s stare, but I knew he wasn’t mad anymore, just concerned.
I knew Frank was being forced into retirement and was determined to have one more big win before he left. Only he’d almost dragged me down with him while doing it. I was below him in rank, so I couldn’t go against his orders no matter how much he bent the rules.
My eyes popped open when Nicole’s hand touched my arm. “We’re here.”
I didn’t even know we had landed. The others were already off the chopper, so we hurried down to meet everyone.
After the wives greeted their husbands, they went straight for Nicole to make sure she was all right. Abby came out with Chase, who wiggled with excitement when he spotted her. She wrapped him up in a huge hug and buried her face in his neck.
I stood back and watched as warmth spread through me.
She loved my son, and he loved her. She smiled and took his hand to wave at me.
I joined them, and as I did, he reached out for me.
I dropped my bag and scooped him up and held him high while I made my chopper noises.
He laughed and gave me the sweetest smile.
“Seems someone got past his nerves.” She beamed at us.
“He trusts you, Paul. We both do. That’s something to be proud of.
” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek, and that instantly caught Savannah’s attention.
Damn woman never missed a thing. Chase nosedived back into Nicole’s arms, and they headed inside the house while I stood there and tried to wipe the silly grin from my face.
“You need to tell her, man.” John came up next to me, and all the joy I was just filled with was sucked away, as I knew he was right. “She’s falling for you and is head over heels in love with your son.”
“I know.” He may be right, but I couldn’t imagine how.
“Come on, we have a lot to celebrate, so everything else can wait a few days.” He started to walk then turned back to face me with his face all serious. “Just so it’s said, you’re out of the doghouse.”
“My boy is off the couch.” Mark wrapped an arm around me with a grin. “Look at you two making up.”
I shoved him off and headed inside.
The next day, we had a celebration of life for June, in the same spot we had it for Lexi.
It was hard to process that we still had no answers for what happened, but the one thing Doc Roberts drove home was that she had lived a full, beautiful life.
One that most only could dream of living, and that was what we needed to hang on to.
The following week, things seemed to fall back to normal. The pain of June was still there, but acceptance of her loss started to take hold. Nicole worked tirelessly with us, filling in as many gaps as she could with her resources.
“Son of a bitch,” Cole said as he hung up his phone and walked into the conference room.
We were watching drone footage that Dark Water had taken of the Canos Cartel.
“Mark, bring up the map.” He pointed at the property Esmerelda had bought.
“We can’t touch it. There’s legal paperwork in place that protects it. ”
“What do you mean? What’s it filed under?” I asked.
“It’s under a privatized community project for, of all things, a religious group.”
Mike looked around. “Meaning?”
“Shit,” I rubbed my head, “it makes it damn near impossible for federal agents or the military to legally raid the area. At least without extreme justification.”
“Is this not extreme justification?” John huffed.
I pointed to the map. “Even if we could storm it, they’d have time to get rid of evidence. We’d need to know exactly what they’re up to, and we’d need someone willing to cut corners for us.”
“We need to bring the Feds into this.” Daniel pulled out his phone. “Let me make some calls, see what I can do. For now, we watch. Thanks to Nicole, we’re a step ahead of them.”
“Excuse me,” Savannah was in the doorway, and Cole’s face lit up, “I know you’re all busy, but Olivia is ready to leave for Zack’s, and I’d rather not have her friends wait.”
The heaviness from work evaporated, and we all jumped to our feet.
Olivia’s birthday that year had been a bust because of a mission, and her father promised her a redo.
He even bent a little and agreed to have it at Zack’s so she could invite some of her friends.
She was over the moon excited and hadn’t talked about anything else since we got back.
“Ready?” I came up behind Nicole as she struggled to get Chase’s mittens on. He looked like a starfish stuffed in his snowsuit.
“We are.” She handed him to me, and we headed outside to join the others.
Cole had decided to add a few more guys from the safe house for extra eyes.
With how bad things were getting, we couldn’t be too careful.
Travis was a good friend of Keith’s, and he was leading the new team assigned to us. “How was the meeting?”
“Good. I’ll fill you in tonight.”
We joined the others as they piled into the vehicles that would take us to Redstone. I shot Cole a look in the mirror when Olivia finally stopped talking and took her first breath on the way there.
The place was full of balloons and streamers. Kids ran around like it was a frickin’ Chuck E. Cheese. Thank God, Zack had closed down part of the restaurant for us because no one would want to sit through this if they didn’t love the kids to death.
I caught Mark’s smile as he spotted Liza. She’d shown up. She was still making an effort with Keith, and that meant a lot to us.
“So, this is a kid’s birthday?” Nicole laughed and rubbed my back. “I think I need a drink.”
I wrapped an arm around her waist. “Let’s get doubles.”
My ears rang from all the yelling and from some of the topics of boys I wished I’d never heard as I held the door open. The silence that blanketed us thanks to the snow was just what I needed. Nicole held Chase by the hand as she carefully walked him down the steps.
Easton yelled as he ran with Liam right on his heels. “Uncle Paul, help!” He laughed. “He’s trying to eat me!”
Mia huffed as she went by me down the steps. She had a tight hold on the hood of Tabby’s jacket. “I get why they say only have two kids. I’ve only got two hands!”
I scooped up Tabby and flung her over my shoulder.
“That’s why there’s uncles.” I grinned and raced down the stairs as she shrieked with laughter.
Keith grinned at me as the two little beasts, Easton and Reagan, both grabbed an ankle and sat on my feet when I stopped for a breath. They wanted a ride, too.
“You little monsters, get off!” I pretended to struggle as I hauled them toward the vehicles.
Easton yanked on my pants. “Faster!” I kicked my foot out to try to send him into the air, but the hyena stayed on like glue. “Again!”
“Hey, Tabs?” I whispered in her ear. “Ready for your next mission?”
“Yes, sir!” Her tongue slipped through the space where her two front teeth had been.
“I’m going to toss the ankle biters in the snow, so when I lean down you jump off and run to your dad as fast as you can.” She giggled with excitement.
“Okay!”
“Okay, one,” I swung Easton so he wouldn’t predict my motive, “two,” I swung Reagan next, “three!” I dipped down, Tabby jumped off, and I plowed the two little buggers into a giant drift.
The snow from the night before had left enough soft powder for them to shoot through the other side like the Kool-Aid man coming through a wall.
“We got you!” Tabby screamed from the protection of her father. Easton wiggled out of his jacket with a laugh, and Reagan just sat there spitting out snow. I grabbed them both by their waists and pulled them over to their parents.
“Your children fell into a snowbank. They really need to be more careful.” I dropped Easton next to Cole’s feet in another pile of snow. I really did love my role as an uncle. “Oh, buddy, did you slip?” I grinned at him.
“Just wait!” he yelped, and Cole grabbed him by the shoulder with a laugh.
“You want to ride with Grandpa or Mom and me?”
“Grandpa!” He jumped with excitement, and I saw Daniel step out of the vehicle and scoop the kid up in his arms.
“No, Dad, it was Uncle Paul who tossed us in.” Reagan outed me, and I shot her an innocent look.
I put my hands on my face. “I tripped, Reagan.” I pretended to be hurt. “Do you think I’d ever toss you in the snow like that?”
“Lies!” She pointed her mitten hand at me. “Dad!” He lifted her into the car as she kept talking. “I think I need a hot cocoa to get over this.”
“You do, do you?” He buckled her in as she added things to her hot cocoa order.
I looked for Nicole and saw her with Chase in her arms as she bent to get into the SUV at the front of the convoy.
Sue was in the passenger seat. I could hear her calling to Daniel to put Easton down.
He ignored her and kept swinging him around.
He probably was trying to wear off a little of the kid’s endless energy before the car ride.
Abby tapped her boots together and climbed in behind Sue.
Okay, that was it for that vehicle. I did a quick scan of the others. Savannah was helping Cat get little Gabby settled as John and Sloane packed the trunk with all the leftovers.
“Uncle Paul?” Olivia called, “Can you come here?” I spotted her by the snowbank where I’d tossed the boys. I chuckled darkly at the cutouts from where they’d gone through the drift and was excited to plan my next attack on the littles.
I waved at her and started to jog toward her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nicole get out of the vehicle with Chase. She looked over at me, and I sighed. It was like gathering hens trying to get everyone settled. I shook my head at Travis as I trotted by him.
“Hard to round ’em all up.” He grinned.
I heard Easton’s laughter ring out in the clear air as I got to Liv. “Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”
“What’s this?” She had Easton’s jacket in one hand as she lifted her other toward me. My stomach hit rock bottom. A silver coin with a lion’s head stared back at me from her small palm.
“Where’d you get this?”
“Easton’s jacket.”
I swung around to the line of vehicles and saw Easton being flung into the sky. “Grandpa! Again!” Just as he disappeared from my view…BOOM!
Heat.
Flames.
Screams.
That was the moment I knew our lives had changed forever.
The End