CHAPTER EIGHT
“And then he said, ‘you’re mine’. Like some primitive caveman,” she scoffed staring at the women around the table. Cooper was speaking with Ham and the others and she was seated with Lyra, Bella, and a dozen other women.
They all smirked at her, some chuckling beneath their breath, shaking their heads.
“What? Did I say something funny?” she frowned.
“Bianca, the men here are very possessive. But in the best possible ways. They protect, they love, they support, and when you belong to them, when one says, ‘you’re mine’, they mean it in every good way you can imagine,” said Sadie.
“I don’t want to be possessed,” she frowned.
“I think you do,” smiled Bella. “Most women do. Not in a violent, ownership sort of way. In the way all of our men love us. We are all free to pursue our own interests, to explore with or without the men.”
“Well, mostly,” smiled Lyra. “Bianca, these men come from very dangerous jobs where the outside world and everyone in it could be a hazard to them and those they love. Can you imagine the weight of that on a man, or a woman by the way. Piper and many other women were part of the military or government agencies. They understand what that feels like.”
“But the trackers?” she frowned holding up her wrist for the others to see the bracelet. “He’s tracking my every move.”
“You’re damn right he is,” said Sadie. “You should thank God and G.R.I.P. that he is. Imagine if someone who was trying to get even for what happened to Rodriguez was chasing you. You decide to flex your independence and take off, going into town to shop. You are not skilled enough to know when a man is trailing you or when a woman might be tricking you.”
Bianca started to protest but Sadie raised her hand.
“I didn’t say you weren’t smart. You’re incredibly smart. Imagine the guilt that Coop would feel if you were taken and he had no idea where, when or how? He already feels guilt for what happened to you and by your own admission, you wandered where you shouldn’t have.”
“Yes, but I-,” she trailed off. “Okay. Okay, you’re right. I get it. But are they following you all the time?”
“Not all the time,” said Lyra. “The comms team has a lock on where we are at all times. They know when we leave the property and when we’re on property. If someone says, ‘where’s Lyra?’, they always have the answer and that makes my husband feel much better. It’s worth it to me.”
She was quiet for a long moment, looking down at her hands. She shook her head and then looked at the other women.
“If I’d had the bracelet, he would have known, in the jungle?” she whispered.
“Yes. He would have known and things might have been very different,” whispered Winter. “Sometimes it’s not about your enemies, but about their enemies. Or it could be just some random man or woman who wants to create chaos, to harm others.”
“I get it,” she said nodding again. “I think you guys might want to create a manual at some point.” She smirked at the others and they all laughed.
“We’ve talked about a manual and book of faces that belong on the property but if that got into the wrong hands, it wouldn’t be good,” smiled Sadie.
“You’ll learn all the faces and names faster than you think.
Just know that if they’re on this property, they live here or were allowed on the property by security. ”
She nodded at the women and thanked them for having a little girl chat this morning. When she was finished with her breakfast, she left with Bella and the other women, walking toward the gardens.
Cooper’s eyes followed her all the way out the door and toward the gardens. His gut bottomed out, the feeling of loss almost instantaneous. He was craving her, needing her so badly he could hardly breathe.
“She’s it,” smirked Abe.
“Yeah, she’s it,” he smirked. “I should have seen it when we were in that damn jungle. She nearly died because of me.”
“But she didn’t because of Matthew and the others. She’s here and she’s safe,” said Ham. “What we have to figure out now is what her uncle might do. Why was she so important to him that he staged his death, killed the brothers, and her mother, but didn’t kill her?”
“AJ? Does she own any property or did her father?” asked Gator.
“Nothing that I can see other than the little store. All of it is gone now, destroyed by the fires set by Rodriguez’s men. Pablo married her mother under his own name. Those boys were his biological sons. To allow her to live makes no sense at all.”
“Why is everything so fucking complicated?” said Coop running his hand through his hair.
“Cooper, you’ve got to call command sooner or later and either ask for additional leave or put in your paperwork,” said Rush. “What about your team? Have you checked in with them?”
“I know I need to contact command and I’m pretty sure of what I’m going to do. I spoke to the team yesterday while Bianca was sleeping. They’re all taking leave as well and seem to doing fine. No one is following them, no one is hunting them.”
“Do you trust them?” asked Ham. Cooper stared at him a moment, rage building, then just as quickly subsiding. It was a fair question.
“I do. We’ve been teammates a while and I trust all of them. But Bianca said she saw many government officials, not just local but also U.S. officials. We need to know who they were.”
“Agreed,” nodded Gator. “But where do we start? Do we just start pushing photographs in front of her?” Cooper shrugged.
“Do you have a better idea?” he asked.
“Maybe,” said Hiro. “Congress is in session. We could let her watch the congressional sessions on satellite and point out anyone that looks familiar.”
“Not a bad idea. She’d be distant and they wouldn’t see her. What about Pablo Garcia? Where is he? What the fuck is he doing down there?” asked Ham.
“We could send a team down to check things out,” said Rush. Ham and the others stared at him, then shook their heads.
“No. We try the remote version first and see what we find. She’ll be bored shitless but she’ll be within your sights.” Coop grinned.
“Perfect.”