Chapter 2 #2
Glancing over at the main gate, Ian waved hello to the morning guard while Beau sniffed along the compound’s fence line.
When a person entered the compound through a manned security gate, the first warehouse they came to was home to The Covenant, a club that catered to those who enjoyed some kink in their lives.
This was another reason why the property had been ideal for them.
A few years earlier, their cousin, Mitch, approached the brothers with the idea around the same time they were trying to get Trident Security off the ground.
The exclusive club they all belonged to before then had closed down after the owner was indicted for tax evasion.
The closing had left the members searching for a new place where they could practice their individual sexual fetishes without them becoming public knowledge.
Since Ian and Devon were focused on Trident, Mitch, with his MBA, was the obvious choice to manage the club.
However, sometimes his cousin deferred to Ian on a few issues since he was the more experienced Dom.
To get from the first warehouse to the remaining three in the compound, visitors had to pass through another security gate which was unmanned.
To get through that one, a person had to be either buzzed in or scan their handprint on the sophisticated identification system.
The first of those buildings, which Ian was now standing in front of, was separated into two areas, with the main offices of Trident security at the front.
At the back end was a large vehicle garage along with the equipment, weapon, and ammunition vaults.
The next structure contained an indoor shooting range, a gym and training room, and a panic-security room in case of an emergency.
Some might call the Sawyer brothers paranoid, but one never knew when one’s enemies might come calling, so it was always better to be prepared.
In fact, several months ago, the team had almost been picked off by a sniper who’d set up in a tree just past the security system’s line of detection.
As a result, Ian and Devon were working on acquiring several undeveloped properties surrounding theirs so they could extend their lines of defense outward.
Ian picked up the hard rubber ball Beau had dropped at his feet and played fetch for about ten minutes until Devon strolled over to greet him, a cup of coffee in his hand. “Morning. Brody find out anything?”
He filled his brother in as he threw Beau’s ball again before turning around and walking back inside to his office.
Stopping along the way in their break room, he grabbed his third cup of coffee of the morning and a blueberry muffin from a Tupperware container.
The leftover muffins from yesterday were courtesy of Mrs. Kemple, their office manager, since the inception of Trident Security.
She’d resigned and moved to Miami to help her daughter with newborn triplets last summer after training a new manager.
Unfortunately, her replacement, Paula Leighton, had become too nosy for her own good and was fired three weeks ago after Brody found her one morning looking through files in the team’s war-room.
It was one of the few places which she knew damn well she wasn’t supposed to have access to.
He’d run over to the club to help Mitch with a computer glitch and left his office door open, thinking he would be right back.
After he was gone longer than expected, Paula’s curiosity must have gotten the best of her because when Brody returned, she was standing in his war-room with her nose in one of his files.
Ian had fired her that day. Marco had been the most relieved about the woman’s termination since she’d seemed to have her eye on him for a relationship that went beyond co-workers, and the man had not been interested at all.
Mrs. Kemple had come back for a short time to train Colleen McKinley, a submissive from the club.
When Ian had been talking to Colleen’s Dom, Master Reggie Helm, a few hours after firing Paula, the Dom mentioned his sub wasn’t happy with her current job and was looking for a change.
Ian brought her in for an interview the next day and hired her on the spot.
The only problem they faced with Colleen so far was getting her to call them all by their first names and not Master or Sir while at the office.
It also took the guys a little getting used to seeing her in something other than the lingerie her Dom liked her to wear at the club.
Her clothes tended to be quite conservative and professional looking at work.
At least they didn’t have to hide from Colleen the fact that Trident Security was run by, and employed, a group of Dominants, as they had with Paula.
Mrs. Kemple had known about the club since it opened and never batted an eye over it.
Five minutes before eight, Ian’s phone rang.
It was the guard at the front gate advising him he was buzzing one James Athos through the second gate.
Brody, who’d come in a few minutes ago, stood and went to the front door to escort the man in while Ian and Devon remained in the conference room.
Ian would’ve preferred to have this meeting after he spoke with Carter, but the spy hadn’t gotten back to him yet.
Brody strode back in with Athos right behind him, and both men took seats at the table. Ian wasn’t in the mood to offer Athos coffee or anything else, and apparently, neither was his brother, who also remained silent.
“I’m sure you investigated me last night and are frustrated with what you found and, more importantly, what you didn’t find.
Did Carter return your call yet? Because I know that’s the first thing you did after I left.
” Athos leaned back in his chair and rested one ankle on the opposite knee as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but Ian knew it wasn’t the case.
The man had something on his mind and was worried about it.
Ian tapped his hand on the table. “No, he didn’t. Now, instead of me asking you the hundred and one questions I have, why don’t you start from the beginning and tell us what you want.”
“As I’m sure you’ve figured out, Athos isn’t my last name. There are only two people in this world who can conclusively connect me to the man I was nine years ago. One is Angie, and the other is my handler at the DEA in Atlanta.”
Ian raised his eyebrow but said nothing. Neither did Devon nor Brody, but the geek jumped onto his laptop, presumably getting the number to the Atlanta office.
“I was recruited from the Marines after a six-year stint, four of which were spent in Special Forces. I was given a new identity, and my military record was expunged. Spent my first three years undercover with a biker gang out in Arizona and New Mexico. They were running a lucrative cocaine business from over the border. It took me a while to work my way up the ladder, but after a long investigation, we were able to shut down the pipeline. But as you know, you shut down one of those fuckers, three more pop up. From there, I worked my way around the States until I got tired of living under rocks with the scum of the earth. My handler, who was also my recruiter, pulled me in, and I’ve been working with a support team out of the Atlanta office for the past two years.
Again, it was under a new identity—as far as anyone at the DEA knows, my last name is Austin.
One of the advantages of coming in is I can see and talk to Angie almost anytime I want to, but I still keep my connection to her a secret from my co-workers. ”
Ian held up his hand to interrupt. Athos’s statement from yesterday was still eating away at his gut. Angie means the world to me . . “Who is she to you?”
The man’s hard face softened. “I told you yesterday, she’s my world—she is and always will be.
We met our freshman year of high school and clicked right away.
She’s been my best friend ever since. If it weren’t for her, I would’ve fallen apart years ago after my mother and baby sister were murdered by a drug dealer whom I didn’t know my sister got herself mixed up with.
It was while I was still in the Marines and overseas.
I would’ve hunted the bastard down and killed him myself if the cops hadn’t already done it before I could get home.
“Angie was my rock, my savior, and she’s the only family I have now, and I’m all she has.
Her folks were older when they had her, and both of them died several months apart of natural causes in their late fifties.
She had a much older brother who was killed in a car accident when she was nine, and I think that’s what eventually killed her folks because neither one of them ever got over it.
Anyway, we’ve always been there for each other over the years, and it would destroy me if anything ever happened to her because of me. ”
“You went into the DEA as a way to avenge your sister and mother’s deaths.” Ian didn’t ask it as a question, and Athos didn’t deny it. “So, where do we fit in?”