by Margaret Kay
“What about me, sir,” Burke asked.
“You’re on with Alpha and Delta.”
Brielle felt a pang of disappointment that Brian was back on active. She was looking forward to the week they’d have together. She also felt terribly guilty that it was her actions that led to the two men finding her, which now necessitated Brian selling his place and them moving. She didn’t bother to get mad at Dahlia. Even though she didn’t burn the address label as she was supposed to, it wasn’t Dahlia’s fault. It was hers for mailing that package with the return address on it.
She realized that everyone else stood and were filing out of the room. Her eyes landed on Shepherd. “I’m very sorry I caused this.”
“Without this happening, we’d never have gotten Farwell and his statement, which undoubtedly will bring down an entire crime network, lead to proof to arrest Stuart, and locate Jennifer Brubaker, aka Madam Butterfly. Don’t break any protocols again. They are all in place for a reason, but this time, the effects aren’t too catastrophic. You got the panic code in and are okay. Be sure to follow up with Lassiter though.”
Brielle came to her feet beside Sherman. “I will, sir, thank you.”
Zulu
Brielle and Sherman, as well as Bobby, stayed at Mother’s townhouse. It was spacious, with an open floor plan. The garage was accessed from a drive at the back of the unit. The door from the garage led into the kitchen, which was open to the family room. It had a lofted ceiling. A second family room type space was in the loft overlooking the first floor. Over the large kitchen and the two-car garage were the three bedrooms and bathrooms.
Brielle fell in love with the layout and they put a bid in on the unit across the street with the finished basement. They only looked at two of the four available units, didn’t need to look any further. They knew they wanted that one. And it was a plus that it was so close to Mother’s place. Plus, it was vacant. They could close in under thirty days.
“I still feel guilty that I caused this to happen,” Brielle said. “I am sorry, Brian.”
“Babe, please stop apologizing. We needed a bigger place. Bobby will love his suite in the basement.” It even had a bathroom and a bedroom in addition to the main area that Bobby could use as his own living room. All it lacked to be considered an apartment was its own kitchen.
“This is a good family neighborhood, lots of little ones and a park down the street,” Mother added. “You’ll like living here, I’m sure. Now we just have to get Sloan to move over here too.”
The alert they’d been waiting two days for, came. Even though Brielle knew it would come, her heart sank. She watched Brian and Danny grab their backpacks, which were near the door.
Sherman wrapped his arms around her. “If you don’t want to be here alone while Bobby’s at work, go back to the apartment at HQ or over to one of the other women’s houses. Be careful and stay alert.” He felt her tremble in his arms. “Baby, you’re safe here.”
“I know,” she agreed. “Bobby will be home in a few hours. I’ll be fine.” She reached up on tippy-toes and kissed his lips. “I love you. Be safe.”
“I’ve got his six, don’t worry,” Mother said.
Later that evening, Brielle and Bobby had just finished dinner when she got a text message. It was Yvette in Ops. The team was with other federal authorities. They would be conducting raids on suspects beginning in thirty minutes. Brielle had time to make it to HQ before it began.
“I’ll be right there,” she tapped out her reply.
When she got to HQ, she entered Ops to find a full house. Besides Yvette, she was surprised that Shepherd was there. Tony ‘Wang’ Miraldi and Caleb ‘Hound dog’ Smith were there too. She glanced up at the monitors. As she suspected, both Delta Team and Alpha Team were onsite. They were in full tactical gear with cameras transmitting. They were with what looked to be several dozen other agents also in tactical clothing, with a variety of agency abbreviations on their bullet-proof vests. They were inside a garage. A map was displayed on a large monitor, city blocks with several buildings circled in red.
“That’s the mission map,” Yvette said. “Stuart’s strip club will be raided simultaneously with three other properties that have been validated as targets. One is where the woman going as Jennifer Brubaker is confirmed to be right now.”
“We also believe that one of the locations is now producing the heroin laced stickers with slave labor,” Caleb Smith added.
“A third building, a warehouse in Camden, very well could be a major human trafficking hub,” Shepherd added.
“What’s the fourth target?” Brielle asked.
“A takeout pizza joint. The DEA believes the product is being distributed from it,” Shepherd replied.
Brielle sat at one of the desks and typed this information into her tablet. She assumed she’d be writing the DEA news release on the raid. She listened to the briefing, taking notes throughout. The Shepherd Security Team along with FBI would be executing the warrant on Jennifer Brubaker.
She watched the team get into two SUVs. She heard the chatter between them, all mission related. Then, through Gary’s camera, she watched Brian run through his pre-mission ritual. The corners of her lips tipped up. He kissed his dog tags, believing that in doing so they would never need to be used to identify his body. He made the sign of the cross, his faith strong. She loved this man, loved who he was, was proud of what he believed in, was proud of the job he did.
Then Landon said his pre-mission prayer to keep all the teams from the different agencies safe, for those they targeted to cooperate, so no one got hurt or killed. For the raids to be successful, for dangerous drugs to be confiscated so they would not make it to the streets. He prayed for any victims of human trafficking to be rescued and set free. He finished his prayer as they rolled up on the target location, a large home in the West End neighborhood.
Brielle watched as the team and the FBI Agents swiftly and silently exited their vehicles. They fanned out, Alpha Team heading around back, the FBI Agents leading Delta Team up to the front door. The wait seemed to last hours. It was three minutes until Alpha Team came up beside the two French doors at the back of the house.
“Alpha Team in position,” Cooper broadcast.
“Go! Go! Go!” Was heard.
Through Delta Team’s cameras Brielle saw one of the regular FBI Agents swing a battering ram at the beautiful front door. The lead crystal window shattered as the door splintered open with a deafening bang, the light from inside spilling out into the dark night.
“Federal agents executing a warrant!”
Then they all rushed through the front door, fanning out in different directions. All four members of Delta Team went up the lavish, arcing staircase. At the top, Brian and Gary went left, the others went right. Through Alpha Team’s cameras, Brielle saw Cooper and Madison enter the house through one of the French doors that led into a beautifully decorated family room. Doc, Jackson, and Garcia went through the other that brought them into the designer kitchen.
As they cleared room by room, “clear!” was heard resounding through the house. In the master bedroom suite, Brian and Gary came upon a locked door, the bathroom.
“Lambchop, got a locked door in the master,” Brian broadcast.
“Hold your position. We’ll be there in a few. Clearing the last few rooms on this floor.”
Brielle’s eyes went back and forth from each of Delta Team’s feeds. She, as always, barely breathed as she watched, praying that no gunfire would shatter the silence. Then the sound of gunfire made her flinch. Scanning Delta Team’s cameras, it was not from their locations.
“Federal agents, we have a warrant,” she heard Cooper yell.
Her eyes went to Alpha Team’s feeds. They were going down the stairs to the basement. She watched as they covered each other, taking turns advancing on those who fired at them from behind furniture around the room. There was a half-dozen muzzle flashes from behind a pool table.
“Fuck this,”
Garcia’s voice was heard. She watched as in Jackson’s feed, Garcia pulled a device from one of the compartments on the front of his bullet-proof vest. He pulled the pin out. “Standby, standby, go!”
Then he tossed it at the pool table. A loud explosion and a blinding bright light engulfed the room. Pieces of the ceiling fell; a cloud of dust and smoke engulfed the area. The team immediately swarmed in, neutralizing the few threats that remained. Gunfire sounded from the southwest corner of the room. Jackson and Garcia converged on that location, firing at the two men who were concealed behind a tipped over poker table.
“Federal agents, we have a warrant,” Jackson repeated.
Gunfire answered. Jackson fired, keeping the two assailants pinned down as Garcia circled to the left. Through his camera, he had a clear view of the two men. “Freeze!”
The men turned their guns in his direction. Garcia didn’t hesitate.
On the second floor, Danny and Landon came into the master suite. The four men got into position. With a powerful thrust of his leg, Landon kicked the door open. Brian rushed past him and into the room first, followed by Gary, then Danny, and finally Landon. The bathroom was huge, with two more closed doors within. Through Gary’s camera feed, Brielle saw Landon and Danny by one of the doors. Landon counted down on his fingers, three, two, one. Then Brian raised his leg and kicked the door open in front of him. Landon did the same on the other door. Both doors burst open.
A Chinese woman sat crouched beside the toilet, a pistol in her grip.
“Drop it!” Brian commanded.
Brielle’s breath caught in her chest as she watched the woman hold the gun on Brian.
“You don’t have to die here today,” Brian said. “Real easy, put the gun down.”
The woman laid the gun to the floor in front of her. Brian reached in and pulled her to her feet. Brielle recognized her from her photos. She was the woman known as Jennifer Brubaker and Madam Butterfly. Brian brought her into the larger main bathroom area and then pressed her to the wall, spread-eagle. A beautiful butterfly tattoo was on the back of her neck.
“Target acquired,” Brian broadcast.
“Basement secure,” Cooper reported.
“First floor secure,” another voice stated.
“Second floor secure,” Landon added.
Brielle glanced at the mission timer. Less than four minutes had elapsed. It always surprised her how little time an assault such as this took. The Shepherd Security Team always interfaced with other federal authorities seamlessly. The methodical manner in which they operated was smooth and expedient. And when gunfire erupted, they never hesitated. She typed her notes, the facts and her observations.
Shepherd’s phone chirped, bringing her attention away from her computer.
He raised his phone to his ear. “Shepherd.” He listened. “Very good. Thank you for the notification.” When he brought the phone down, his eyes went to Brielle. “The New Orleans FBI executed a warrant for the arrest of Dwayne Stuart. He’s in custody.”
Her lips curved into a satisfied smile. With his arrest, it was finally over. She would write one last blog post as Brielle Jarboe. Hopefully, outsiders would never again gain positions of power in the bayou. They thought the residents were backwards, uneducated hillbillies. They were wrong, and it was their downfall. Yes, Brielle was very satisfied.
Once statements were made, deals were struck, and the full picture formed, Shepherd shared it with the team. Madam Butterfly, AKA Jennifer Brubaker, AKA Fei Yue was in fact the link between the Trenton Syndicate and the Chinese. Her brother was in the top ranks of one of the worst and most powerful Chinese Triads in the United States. They ran drugs, human trafficking, committed fraud and extortion, engaged in money laundering and the smuggling of counterfeit goods. Unfortunately, he was not scooped up in the raids. His whereabouts were unknown.
Fei Yue was also Dwayne Stuart’s lover. She claimed Stuart and her brother were the masterminds of the entire plan, but the authorities didn’t buy that. Per the statements from the Chinese women who were liberated from their forced labor at the BioDynamix facility, they knew that Fei Yue was the engineer behind the potent heroin laced stickers. Statements from the women rescued from the warehouse in Camden that was raided at the same time that she was arrested, put her smack dab in the middle of the human trafficking and forced prostitution ring.
The raid on the pizza place netted the DEA over three million in heroin laced stickers packaged for distribution. The raid on Dwayne Stuart’s strip club liberated ten women forced into the sex trade and at least a dozen customers engaged in sex with prostitutes when the feds entered the premises. A back room illegal gambling operation was shut down and drugs worth just over a million were confiscated.
In the end, fourteen suspects were killed, twenty-three were arrested, and just over fifty women and teens were rescued from the human trafficking ring that had kidnapped them from many locations. New information regarding the Triad was obtained, several new investigations would commence based on what they learned. It had been a successful operation. Brielle wrote a comprehensive story about it as well as her final blog post on the happenings in Lafourche Parish. Shepherd approved both with nothing redacted.
Three Days Later
Sherman set the six-pack on Sloan’s coffee table. He took two from it, popping the caps off. He handed one to Sloan. “I talked with Shepherd. As soon as it will work operationally, Brielle and I are going to get married. You’ll be my best man, won’t you?”
Sloan held his bottle out to Sherman. “Absolutely. Congrats, man. You’re going to be a hell of a daddy.”
“And a husband,” Sherman added after he took a long pull from his bottle. “I know I haven’t known Brielle that long, but I love her, never felt this way about any woman. She helped Bobby take care of my momma when she was sick. It’s weird, she’s like already a part of the family, has been for a long time before now.”
“I’m happy for you,” Sloan said.
“What about you? When are you going to marry Kaylee?”
Sloan ran his hand through his hair. “We’re in no hurry. She’s settling into her new life. Likes working at the school.”
“Let’s make it a double ceremony. Who knows when operationally it will work again? Let’s make it easier on Shepherd.”
Sloan grinned at him and brought his beer bottle to his mouth. He didn’t answer. “Will Brielle’s family be there?”
Sherman shook his head. “She had a bad falling out with her daddy, won’t even tell him. And she says she doesn’t care if her sister is there or not.”
“She says?”
“Yeah, I don’t want her to have any regrets. She sent Christmas gifts to her sister. I know there is still a relationship there.”
“I’m glad Kaylee resolved things with her folks but having them and my brother and his family at our wedding will add a lot of complication to it.”
“So, are we doing this or what?” Sherman asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Shit or get off the head, man. You gonna marry your girl or not? Shepherd will make it work for both your families to be there.”
“Fuck, man, look at you, eager to marry Brielle and be a daddy. I never thought I’d see the day.”
Sherman chuckled. “She’s pregnant with my kid. You know the saying, step up and be a man or sit the fuck down so she can see the real man standing behind you. And there ain’t no way in hell I’m gonna let any other man take my place. I owe her and my kid that and more, so yeah, I’m ready to marry her and be a daddy.”
A grin spread over Sloan’s face. “Man, I couldn’t be prouder of you.”
“So, what about you?” Sherman again asked.
“I love Kaylee, I really do. And right now, everything is perfect.”
Sherman waited a few quiet moments. When Sloan didn’t continue, he prompted him. “But?”
“But it was before too, and then everything went to shit in a second.”
; “And you’re afraid lightning will strike twice.”
“Something like that.”
“Yeah it could, and you could be the one to take the bullet next time out, or a dump truck could hit Kaylee.”
“I know,” Sloan agreed. “There are no guarantees.”
“Kaylee loves you. She’s wearing your ring, expecting to marry you. Don’t let your girl down and don’t leave her wondering when it’s going to happen, or even worse, if it is. Marry her when I marry Brielle. Come on, we’ll do this together. We’re partners.”