Operation Bayou Angel

by Margaret Kay

  A grin curved Sherman’s lips. “You told me not to go there unless I could offer her a relationship. I listened.” Sherman opened the car door for Brielle, closing it once she slid in.

  Bobby followed Brian around to the driver’s side. “She’s moving in with you? Already?”

  Sherman smiled wide, proud to tell his brother. “I’m in love with her, Bobby. I’m going to marry her. And I want you to be up here with us. You’ll have an easier time getting a job up here. And it will be best if you are away from the triggers to use, down in the bayou.”

  “What in the hell happened in the last few weeks?” Bobby asked.

  Sherman didn’t answer. He opened his car door and slowly deposited himself behind the wheel. Bobby was in the backseat with the door shut before Sherman was able to pull the door shut, moaning in pain as he did. He was supposed to use his left arm for normal activities like closing the car door, but damn did it hurt!

  “Brian, are you okay? How were you injured?”

  Brielle turned in her seat to look at him.

  Sherman’s eyes went to the rearview mirror and locked with his brother’s. “We’ll talk about that when we get to my place.”

  “Damn it, Brian, Brielle, someone tell me what happened!”

  “There’s a lot about my job you don’t know,” Sherman said. “We’ll be at my place in ten minutes. Please, you need to wait till we get there.” He put the car in reverse and backed out of the parking spot. Then he drove them straight to his condo.

  Sherman parked the SUV in the driveway. He unlocked the front door and led them in, entering his code into the security system. “It’s only a one bedroom, but the couch is very comfortable.” He went to his refrigerator and grabbed three water bottles. But damn did he want a beer. “Sit.” He pointed to the sofa.

  Brielle watched Brian lower himself to the couch. She could tell he was sore. He cradled his left arm against his chest, holding it by the wrist with his right hand. She sat between the two brothers. She held her hand out to Brian. He dropped his hand into hers. Then she turned her head to gaze at Bobby. His questioning stare was fixed on Brian.

  “I’m not just an ATF Agent. I’m part of a multi-agency special task force. We investigate, but we’re also an assault team. We went into that BioDynamix facility and were met with heavy resistance. There was a fire fight, and I took a couple of rounds.”

  “Rounds, as in bullets? You were shot?” Bobby questioned, shocked and worried at the same time.

  “Yeah, one to my bicep, another grazed the skin just above my vest, and I took a couple rounds to the vest. My ribs were just bruised.” Sherman pointed out each spot as he talked. “I was lucky. I’ll heal completely and none of them were career ending injuries.”

  “Lucky, holy shit, Brian! You were shot.”

  “It’s not the first time,” Sherman admitted.

  Brielle squeezed his hand. “But I hope it’s the last.”

  Sherman kissed her. Then he proceeded to tell Bobby everything that went down. Bobby sat and listened, stunned. When Sherman got to the part that Brielle had been taken, Bobby looked angry. Sherman wasn’t sure if he was angry with him for not protecting her. Bobby’s gaze softened when Sherman told him that he’d rescued her.

  “The thing is, you can’t ever tell anyone what I really do. It’s top secret. The regular DEA took the credit for the bust and as far as anyone knows, it was one of their strike teams that raided that plant. Not my team.”

  “You were there when he was shot?” He questioned Brielle.

  “Yes.” That moment still played through her mind when she closed her eyes at night.

  “Oh my God! You’re quitting that job, aren’t you, Brian?” Bobby asked.

  Sherman’s laugh was sarcastic. “Sure, just quit on my team and kiss my career goodbye.” He shook his head in disbelief. “No, Bobby, I’m not quitting my job. This is what I do.”

  “And it’s who he is,” Brielle added. “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for him and his team. I think a lot of people can say that. What they do, is important.”

  “Let someone else do it. It’s dangerous.”

  “I appreciate your concern,” Sherman said, taking a drink of his water. Yeah, a beer would taste better, but even he knew it was not cool to have a drink in front of someone working on their sobriety. “But I’ll be keeping my job.” He rose and stepped away from the couch.

  “Brielle, are you really okay with this?” Bobby whispered as soon as Brian was behind the closed bathroom door.

  “I’m getting used to it. He won’t be going back out on any missions for three to four weeks. He’s on limited duty because of the wounds.”

  “Yes, and next time it could be worse. Well, I’m not okay with it. He could get killed doing this job, then where will you be?”

  “Here with you,” she replied, taking his hand. “You were never worried about him doing his job before. Nothing has changed as far as Brian’s job goes, just what you know about it.”

  “What about your journalism career? Did you get to write an article about what was really going on? And did you sell it to any big news outlets?”

  “Yes and no,” she replied.

  Sherman emerged from the bathroom and came back over, taking his seat beside Brielle on the couch. He took her hand back into his. “Brielle had the exclusive inside story on the arrests and what went down, but she couldn’t mention my team. The DEA took credit for all of it, which is the way it works.”

  Bobby’s eyes focused on Brielle. She looked nervous. “So, what happened with the story?”

  “I wrote it under a fictitious name, someone who was supposedly embedded with the DEA Strike Team that investigated and raided the BioDynamix facility.”

  “Why?” Then his eyes went to Brian. “Did your team make her do it that way? This sucks! Brielle Jarboe should have had the byline on the story. She did all the work!”

  “Bobby, calm down. It was my choice. And there will be a lot more articles. I got a full-time job with Brian’s employer to write these articles and help out with other reports.” She thought this would make him as happy as she and Brian were about it. It only made him angrier.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” He exploded; his eyes trained on Brian. “You’re dragging her into your dangerous job? No fucking way! If you care about her.”

  Sherman cut Bobby off, matching his tone of voice and volume. “I do care about her! And she will be in no danger. She’ll watch mission feed from our Operations Center. She’ll never be in the field.”

  “Great, so she’ll get to see you shot again!”

  “Stop it!” Brielle cut in. “Bobby, this was my choice. I don’t want to work for a regular news outlet or network. I want to work with Brian, writing stories that really matter. And the work they do matters more than any other job out there. I don’t care if the byline goes to me or to Jane Doe. What matters is I get to be with Brian, here when he’s home. His team just got back from a mission and they brought down an entire drug network in New York. They raided where the meth was manufactured and also where it was distributed from. And they arrested sixty people connected to it. And I got to write the news release about it, a story that mattered. I sat in on the mission briefing before they left, was in on the surveillance they did, and watched the raid and arrests, all from right here in Chicago. I was perfectly safe the whole time.”

  “Drugs? I thought you were with the ATF?”

  “We’re a multi-agency task force, DEA, ATF, CIA, FBI, ICE, we even have a couple of guys that carry creds from Homeland and the NSA. Drugs are a huge problem, taking a lot of American lives, cause a lot of the crime in this country. We work a lot of cases related to illegal drugs. But Bobby, you cannot tell anyone anything about me or my team ever. Living here, you’re bound to meet my friends, my team. We’re tight, spend a lot of time together when we’re not working. You have to, oh hell, I don’t know. You have to be cool with all of this and realize that they’re just normal
guys who do a job most people don’t understand and cannot ever know about.”

  “That Madison and Cooper guy who were on your boat, they’re both on this team?”

  “Yes, and my buddy Sloan who you met on the plane.”

  “Gary is one of their medics, saved Brian’s life. He and another one of the medics took care of him the last week that we were back, changed the dressings on his wounds, gave him painkillers. They’re incredible, all of them. When Brian was shot, the way they all took care of him and me too, was,” she paused, tearing up. “It was amazing. One of his teammates stayed with me from the second Gary and Doc started to work on his injuries, and the whole time he was in surgery. When Brian was transferred to a room after, they brought me to him.”

  “Mother?” Sherman asked.

  Brielle smiled fondly. “Yeah. He really is a mother hen. He took care of me and made sure I wasn’t alone during any of it. They’re special people, Bobby, and Brian is lucky to have them in his life. If anything ever happens to Brian, I know they’ll be there for me.”

  Sherman raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I pray you never have to go through anything like this again. But you’re right. Shepherd and the whole team will always be there for you.”

  Bobby rubbed his forehead. “Damn, Brian, it’s just that you’re the only family I got. With Momma gone, and Daddy God knows where, maybe even dead by now and we’d never know, you’re it, and I don’t want to lose you too.”

  Brielle hugged him. “You have me, and I consider you family.”

  “Oh, damn, Brielle, you know I feel the same way about you. I love you, girl.” Bobby shook his head. Then his eyes went back to his brother. “I promise. I’ll never tell anyone about what you really do.”

  “And you’ll stay up here with us? With your trade school certificates, you’ll be able to get a job real easy.”

  “Please, Bobby, stay,” Brielle seconded.

  “Okay,” Bobby agreed. “It might be time for a change for me.”

  “And after you get a job and can handle the payments on this place, I may let you have it and Brielle and I will get a bigger place. But if you’d prefer, I’ll get a place big enough for the three of us and you can move with us. Think about it. I won’t be thinking of making that move for a few months.”

  “If I’m staying up here, I need to go home and get more of my stuff.” His gaze shifted to Brielle. “You probably do too.”

  “Not necessary. I’m having it all shipped up here,” Sherman said. “I’m hiring packers to go to Brielle’s place and to my boat and pack it all up. Is any of your shit stored anywhere else?”

  “I have some stuff in a storage shed, but nothing I need,” Bobby said. “I just need to send them a payment next month. It’s only paid through the end of the year.”

  Sherman nodded. “I’ll help you with whatever you need. I have the name of a recruiter who places workers in local trade and manufacturing jobs. With all the trade school certificates you have, I’m sure he can help you find a job. But you have to call him, follow up on it, and present yourself well at the interviews.”

  “I will,” Bobby promised.

  “And you have to stay off the drugs. I’m serious about that. If I even suspect you’re using, I’m putting you right back into that rehab facility. That includes weed.”

  Whiskey

  One week later, Brielle stepped out of the front door to Brian’s condo into a snow globe. The swirling, large snowflakes were beautiful for about a half a minute before the frigid air invaded her. She wore her new black wool coat that hung down to her knees, her new green hat, scarf, and glove set. She had on blue jeans and her new winter boots. And she froze within a minute of being outside.

  The big black SUV pulled up, and she climbed in. “My God is it cold out there!” She said as she closed the door. Thankfully, the air inside the car was warm.

  Sherman pointed to his lips as he leaned in to kiss her. “Welcome to Chicago in the winter. Just wait till the real cold hits in January and February.”

  “I’m liking this city less by the day,” Brielle complained. “But you’re here and that’s all that matters.”

  “Should I be worried?” Sherman asked.

  Brielle smiled and settled back against the heated seat. “No, I’m just whining about the cold.”

  Sherman chuckled. “It sure is pretty outside though, isn’t it?”

  Brielle glanced back out the window as Brian backed the car out of the driveway. Pretty, no, it was stunning, a perfect winter wonderland. The snow came down heavy, blanketing everything in a lush layer of pure white. It coated the trees and the leaves that still held on. It looked magical.

  “Just wait till the sun comes out, and the snow sparkles like diamonds. This is early for a big snowfall. It won’t last long.”

  “Thank you for coming to get me before the briefing. I didn’t want to drive one of your expensive cars and wreck it.”

  “We should go car shopping for you soon and get you something that handles well in the snow.”

  “You know I don’t have a down payment saved for a car and my junker back home would never make the drive up here.”

  “Brielle, I’ve got the down payment for you.”

  “You just helped Bobby buy a car. Don’t you think you should get another paycheck before helping me too?”

  “I don’t need to. I’ve got it in the bank.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles through her gloves. “I love you Brielle. I don’t care if you drive one of my cars, but I’d prefer you don’t wreck it, so let’s get you a car before I go back on active next week and go on the next mission.”

  Brielle gazed out at the swirling snow. The flakes coming down were huge. “I’m really going to miss you. I’ve gotten used to us being together.”

  Sherman squeezed her hand. He had too, and he would miss her more than she’d ever know. “Me too. I’ll call, and we can text. And you’ll have Bobby at the condo, so you won’t be alone. Plus, I’m sure Angel and the other wives will check in on you.”

  She smiled. “I really like them, Angel and the other women. I really feel like I belong here, Brian.”

  Warmth filled Sherman. “That’s because you do.”

  Her smile was beautiful. He never tired of seeing it.

  “Did Bobby get going okay this morning?”

  “Yes. He was excited to start his new job. He was ready a good hour before he had to leave.”

  “This is just the fresh start he needs,” Sherman said. He was very proud of his brother. He’d pointed Bobby to the recruiter, but Bobby called him right away, set up the interview, and then aced it.

  His pride in his brother spiked off the charts just over a week later. It was Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. All three of them were invited to Jackson and Angel’s house for a late afternoon dinner. All of Alpha and Delta Teams were there. It was a rarity that Delta was not away on a mission over a holiday.

  Brielle made both a pecan and a pumpkin pie from scratch. Everyone brought something to contribute to the meal. Furniture was moved to accommodate the many tables that were lined up across the length of their living room to seat sixteen adults and Sammy’s highchair. The house was full of people. It was a loud atmosphere with many voices and laughter overlapping.

  Sherman introduced his brother to each of his teammates and their wives, impressed by how respectful and friendly Bobby was as he met each. Sherman had warned him before that the Operators would all be armed. He only noticed Bobby openly staring at someone’s sidearm once. He knew this would be an adjustment for Bobby, but he handled it well.

  Brielle watched as Brian took baby Olivia from Doc’s hands. “She’s grown so much since I saw her last,” Brian said. “I can’t believe she’s three months old already.” He pressed a kiss to the top of the baby’s head. Brielle was amazed at how comfortable he was handling the baby.

  Brielle watched Sammy make the rounds to all the guests. He climbed right up on Bria
n’s lap and handed him a book. Brian was animated as he read the toddler the short story, roaring like a tiger, and laughing like a hyena where appropriate. Her heart swelled as she watched him. She sat beside them. When they got to the last page of the book, Sammy took the book from him and handed it to her. She read the last page.

  Then Sammy took the book, climbed down and brought it over to Lambchop, who sat at the table, talking with Michaela. Brielle chuckled. “That little boy is something.”

  Sherman’s eyes met Lambchop’s. His gaze flickered to Michaela and then back to his team leader. A part of him felt bad for what he’d said to Lambchop about her when he was called out for sleeping with Brielle at the Coast Guard facility. But he knew that the big man had feelings for Michaela. And he knew those feelings were reciprocated. He wished the two of them would just get together already. Knowing the happiness that he felt with Brielle in his life, he wanted that for his friend too.