Chapter Thirteen
Rylee
Wednesday
“Why are you dressed like that?” Neesa asked as she walked into Rylee’s office.
Rylee looked down at her yoga pants and hoodie. “In just a minute, I’m going over to the warehouse to put together my jump bag, so I’m ready to rocket out of here when there’s a new call out. Then, I’m going rock climbing with Papa Team.”
Neesa shut the door gently before turning to ask, “I’m not inside your body, Rylee, so I can’t tell. Are you up for a deployment?”
“If I’m not, I’ll pull myself off the roster.” She closed the lid on her computer. “I’m not going to endanger anyone.”
Neesa got a wicked grin on her face. “I’m going to sit for a second and spill some tea while you sip your coffee.”
Rylee picked up her cup, cradling it between both hands, and leaned back. “Tea? Yes, please.”
Neesa moved over to the guest chair and sat. “Before I get to my news, are you okay from last night?”
Rylee sighed. “Fine. Just another night at the bar. How about you and Dapper Jasper? I didn’t abandon you. You had Erica, right?”
“I had a good time. I really like him.” Neesa’s face pinked. “I’m glad I went, though, I’m sorry that you had a shitty time of it.”
“Meh. One more guy removed from polite society.” She took a sip, then set her mug back on the coaster.
“The dude is getting his comeuppance. I checked the court website. He was arraigned, and he posted bail. I used his name to find his socials. He’s asking for lawyer recommendations and bitching to his bros about how women in his father’s day enjoyed being beautiful creatures for men to enjoy.
He’s got a lot of videos up about the kind of women he laments are not in his life. ”
“He needs a mommy cooking for him and cleaning the house?” Neesa asked.
“And who takes care of his natural male needs on demand. No means yes is his philosophy.”
“You did womankind a favor,” Neesa said. “But you did give your PO box and your burner phone number to the police, right?”
“Yup, and my initials. The groper would have trouble pinpointing me as RR Jones. There are about two hundred in the area, mostly men.”
“RR? Do I know your middle name?” Neesa asked.
“Rose.”
“Rylee Rose, that’s pretty. I’ve never seen your whole name written out. Rose, I heard that name recently.”
“From me. The nurse who gave me the blue sticky note that got me to the new neurologist's office is Rose.”
“Serendipity,” Neesa leaned forward. “Also, not the only alignment of fates that’s happened in the last few days.”
“This is the tea?” Rylee took a sip from her mug. “Spill.”
“Benny Burnett is with the Secret Service.”
“Our cemented-for-all-time Benny? Get out. Are you sure?”
“He’s Jasper’s colleague. And when I picked up the phone in the Metro and put it on speaker?”
Rylee stopped breathing. “Yeah?”
“That was Jasper on the line.”
“Oh my god, Neesa. Argh, that just hurts my nerves. That’s racing through my entire body like a sizzle. That’s insane.”
“I know, right?”
As the sensation faded, Rylee thought about the shifter romance she’d just finished and the wonderful sense of certainty that came when characters were fated.
Oh, to know you were with the right person at the right time and that all the world aligned to allow it.
“So when do you and Jasper get married?” Rylee grinned.
“I mean, that’s the next step in this story, right? ”
Neesa rolled her lips in as if trying to contain her joy. “Jasper called to make sure I got home okay last night. He said he was sorry that things turned out the way they did. He’s taking me out for lunch today, and he stressed just the two of us.”
“There you go. Lunch. See? That’s serious.”
And maybe this was all too romantic and too close to the fantasy fed to women from birth. From childhood books and adult romances, women learned that love was a quest filled with dragons and magic. Only once they found their prince could a woman start her happily ever after.
And yet, that was not the lived experience of any woman that Rylee knew.
“Listen, Neesa, you’re lonely for male companionship that’s meaningful and not .
.. not what either of us has been dealing with lately.
We talk about how low the bar has been set on the dating circuit.
I think a little bit of caution is important here.
I can see you’re walking on a cloud over Jasper.
And that’s a great feeling, but the Secret Service has a reputation for not following the rules of monogamy.
And that is your deal breaker, right? I mean, they look squeaky clean but—”
“But what?” Worry darkened Neesa’s eyes.
“They’re in the news every few years for doing scandalous things on foreign soil.
Back when I was with the Navy, I remember they had a whole prostitution scandal.
About a dozen Secret Service men, many of them married, paid prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, when Obama was down there for some summit.
And most of those men lost their jobs because their behavior was so egregious and brought so much scrutiny and shame to the Secret Service. ”
“Obama was a while ago. Institutions can retrain and make things better,” Neesa whispered.
“Off the top of my head, I remember reading about them drunk in hotels in Amsterdam, drunk driving and hitting the barricade at the White House, Pence’s security was suspended for meeting up with a prostitute at a Maryland hotel.”
“Maybe he wasn’t in a relationship,” Neesa countered. “I don’t think sex work is criminal.”
“But he was security for the Vice President. Breaking the law like that could easily compromise the guy. He could be fired. He could be outed to his wife. Can you imagine what a foreign government could do? ‘So we just need you to tell us X or do Y.’ Neesa, I’m just suggesting you exercise caution.
They have a culture of recurring misconduct that includes alcohol and inappropriate relationships with women.
You can’t think that their shiny badge makes them shiny people.
I’m asking you to tread carefully and not ignore red flags. ”
“But those are special agents that are on close protection duty, right?” Neesa’s brows pulled lines across her forehead. “Does that extend to counterfeiting?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just read about their douchey behavior, and if that’s what the bro club is about, it’s not for me. They do hard things, but their behavior isn’t what I want in my life.”
“You seem to be keeping a list.”
“I guess they stick with me because it’s so antithetical to what I expect, you know? It’s like the SEALs acting shitty. It’s so unexpected. And sad. I’d never date a SEAL.”
“Just SEALs?” Neesa asked. “Or are others in the group?”
“Other special operations forces? I don’t know. SEALs are the only ones I’ve heard about in the news. You said that like a leading question. Why?” Rylee asked.
“Oh, Jasper and the guy who handles the dog, Dakota, were with the Navy doing a thing I’ve never heard of before, saltwater combat crew?”
“Swift Water Combatant-Crew, SWCC?” Rylee asked. “Really?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know that existed. I had to look it up on my phone. And here I thought it was the SEALs who did the badassery.”
“Yeah, those are the guys who use high-speed stealth boats to do the SEALs insertion and extraction. They’re the ones responsible for getting the SEALs where they need to go and get them back out successfully.”
“Jasper and Dakota were in selection at Coronado at the same time. Anyway, you, Dakota, and Jasper have the Navy in common. We should all go out one night, double date.”
Rylee wrinkled her nose.
“Dakota’s cute.”
Rylee pulled her lips into a thin smile and lifted her brows.
“You’re in a dry spell.”
“Well, there is that.” Rylee stood and walked to her coat hook. “When do we think we’ll hear from Iniquus about the list of people that our teams interacted with on missions? You told them not to document the locals, right? Just the foreigners there to provide relief?”
“I did. I’m not sure how long it will take,” Neesa said.
“General Elliot mentioned something about prioritizing it in the queue. They must have some kind of triage system. They’re concerned they have counterfeit bills in their safe as well, and they’re contacting Jasper and Dakota about it.
Ironically, Hailey says Cerberus Tactical is doing Tank’s training. ”
“Iniquus is in the same boat as we are,” Rylee said. “Their reputation allows them to operate. I think that’s motivation to find out who’s doing this and deal with them. I’m glad we have tapes to maybe help figure it out. You contacted Casey Andrews?”
“I left a message to get back with me, and that it was urgent. If I don’t hear from him within the hour, I’ll reach out to Langley and give them a heads up.”
. “Okay, well, I’m off to figure out how to make life better for a group of very important people, and I’m doing it by dangling off the side of a climbing wall.”
“Enjoy.” Neesa started out the door when Rylee’s phone sounded with a new ringtone—an obnoxious, braying alarm clock.
Rylee snatched her cell phone from her thigh pocket, looked at the number, then shook the phone victoriously at Neesa. With a grin, she brought the phone to her ear. “Rylee Jones, speaking.”
“Ms. Jones. This is the scheduling desk at Browning Neurological Group.”
“Yes, thank you for calling me.” Rylee held up crossed fingers.
“You’re on our expedited list, and we have a cancellation spot this morning for a full workup if you can get here in the next thirty minutes. You will need several hours to move through the process.”
“I’m on it. I’m coming. Hold my spot.” Rylee’s hands were shaking as she tapped her app to get a car headed in her direction. “Change of plans.” She looked up to catch Neesa’s gaze. “There’s an opening at that doctor’s if I go now.”
Neesa stood up and pointed toward the door. “Why aren’t you downstairs already? Go. Go. Go.”
Rylee raced down the corridor and stabbed her finger into the elevator button.