by Laura Acton
“There were whispers, but only whispers, that it was a case of unit justice—a court-martial offense if true. I didn’t press further. I wanted to—I wanted to know—but I feared if I pursued it I’d lose most of my elite units. I think they were seeking justice for Daniel’s beating.
“But given the sheer number involved in the brawl, I’m not sure who is friend or foe to Daniel. So I haven’t let anyone know where he was at because I didn’t want Daniel to get any unwanted visitors.” William took a breath. Then he headed for his coffee pot.
As he poured a cup he marveled at Erik’s control. He hadn’t interrupted him once so far. William continued. “Then back in January, I found out that someone was intercepting Daniel’s mail. A former soldier who had worked in the mailroom in Ottawa and Kandahar was murdered in Vancouver when he was writing a letter to me. He was taken out by a sniper.
“I won’t go into all the details, but suffice to say, he was being blackmailed into stealing all of Daniel’s mail and forwarding it on to his blackmailer. He was in the middle of writing the blackmailers name when he was killed. All I have to go on is the first two letters of the blackmailer’s name, Pl.”
Erik was listening dumbfounded by all this information. He didn’t agree with William’s methods or decisions, but knowing his brother and how his mind worked, especially when family was threatened, it made some weird kind of sense. William was just trying to protect Dan and as usual was doing an astonishingly inept job of it.
But this new information about the letters stunned him. Erik interrupted his brother, “Will, someone stole Danny’s mail? All of it? How long? For what purpose?”
William sat back down and took a long sip of his coffee. “Not all of it. At least not at first. It occurred the entire time he was here though. The confession letter said that after three years he was told to burn all the letters to and from Daniel.”
Erik was trying to wrap his head around this. His first question was, “Did you tell Danny? Does he know?”
“I tried to tell him in April, but I screwed up and Daniel thinks I stopped his mail. Since then, he hasn’t taken a single call or responded to any of the voicemails I’ve left him.” William leaned back feeling wearier than his fifty-seven years.
“Why didn’t you call me, Mark, or Ryan? We could’ve gone to see Danny and told him the truth.” Erik stopped. Berating William wouldn’t solve anything. He knew William was misguided in his actions, but he loved his son.
The full weight of this revelation hit Erik hard. His heart broke for his nephew. “My God, William. Danny must think we all abandoned him. If he hasn’t received any of our mail in years. William this is bad, very bad. I’m going to arrange for all of us to go see Danny. He has to know the truth. We would never abandon him. Never.”
William could see he’d been so wrong yet again. “Arrange it and I’ll be there, too. Let me know when everyone can swing leave. But …”
“But, what?” Erik asked.
“I know I make a lot of errors with Daniel, but I think it should only be the guys. If the whole family descends on him, it might be too overwhelming for Daniel.” William turned the coffee mug around on his desk as he waited for Erik’s response.
Erik considered Will’s words. “Alright. Just the guys for now. I’ll call Mark and Ryan and they can call their boys and get things in motion. What about the Pletcher threat? Do you think he’s the blackmailer?”
“I’m not sure. His name does start with Pl, but there’s someone else I’m looking into. I can’t say anything over an unsecured line. If it pans out, it could rock the Special Forces community to the core.” William looked at his door as there was a soft rap that he was familiar with. He said to Erik, “Hang on a minute.” To the door, he called out, “Enter.”
Lieutenant Mike Galloway, the General’s lead security man, entered. He saw that the General was on the phone. He said quickly, “Sir, I hate to intrude, but this is urgent.”
“Erik, I’ll have to call you back.” William hung up and turned to Mike.
Closing the door Mike strode to the desk and spoke softly, “Drake and Jack think they have a lead on Pletcher. They believe he’s in Montreal. One of his aliases is booked on a flight to Toronto tomorrow and another of his aliases is booked on a flight to Vancouver tomorrow as well. With your permission, I’ll fly out on the evening transport. Craig will stay here with you, Sir.”
William nodded. “Partially agreed. Take Craig with you.”
“Sir, that leaves you here unprotected. Not happening.” Mike protested.
The General stood and used his command voice, “That’s an order Lieutenant.” His voice dropped to just above a whisper, “Mike, my family’s more important than my life. Yvonne and Becca are in Vancouver and Daniel’s in Toronto. If Pletcher is going after them, I need you to have your whole team. Two can head to each destination if you don’t catch him in Montreal.”
Mike nodded. “Roger.” He turned to leave, but then he stopped and turned back. “We’ll get Pletcher, Sir. And Sir, if you need to travel take someone from Hammer’s unit. I trust the men in Hammer’s unit implicitly.”
A small grin came to the General’s face. Mike was a good friend. “Wilco.” When Mike was gone, William sank backwards into his chair again. It would be good to know if Pletcher was the culprit of the mail theft, it would solve one thing. But it wouldn’t solve everything. No, not everything.
His gut twisted. He was afraid they had a major problem in Special Forces. More clearly a Major Plouffe problem. William opened his lower drawer and pulled out a file. He flipped it open and stared at the picture on top of a stack of pictures. This was the last one he’d gotten. It was different from the other ones he’d gotten through the years.
He couldn’t stop the tears as they forced their way into his eyes. Daniel and Brody looked so happy in this picture. But the writing across their chests twisted his gut and burned his heart. Across Brody’s was ‘All clear 184’ and across Daniel’s was ‘Bite the bullet’.
His voice choked with emotion, William looked at his son’s smiling face. “I promise to get to the bottom of this. You will not bite the bullet. You hear me Daniel? You will not bite the bullet.”
Chapter Six
July 15
TRF HQ – 6:30 a.m.
Walter Gambrill stopped outside the gym and listened to the banter of Alpha Team. He heard Dan’s laughter and he saw a bright smile on his face. It made Walter grin—it was so good to see Dan smile and interact so easily with Alpha Team. That was a smile he’d never thought to see on his godson’s face again. Walter watched a moment longer, enjoying the sight and sound of Dan’s happiness, then headed to his office not wanting to intrude on the team.
As he walked, he sighed with relief. It had taken much longer than he’d expected, but Alpha Team was now gelling like a fully integrated team. He knew that some of the blame lay at his own doorstep because of the way Dan joined the team. Normally, they didn’t do tops-down team assignments. So the way he’d put Dan on the team without their input had created an initial hurdle.
Aaron’s constant jibes about ‘string pulling’ and ‘favoritism’ helped build a barricade between Dan and Alpha Team. So too did circumstances Walter hadn’t even considered—Hardy’s biased history with Burl and Alejandro had caused the entire team to overreact when Hardy unjustly painted Dan with the same brush as those two. As a result, they all became hyper-critical of Dan’s every rookie mistake without trying to mentor him. He’d been shocked by their behavior—they’d never shown any other rookie that level of disrespect.
Walter hated to admit that their behaviors probably would’ve continued unchecked until Dan had left, if not for his own threat to disband the team if they didn’t readjust their attitude. He still wasn’t entirely sure what caused them to recognize the lost and grieving soul in their midst, but Walter knew they came too damned close to tipping Dan over the edge with their callousness.
But once Pastore recognized his e
rror, Walter was pleased with how Nick went about rectifying it—it was worth the five days off he orchestrated for Alpha Team. It was an unpleasant yet eye opening experience for all of Alpha Team when they realized the harm they’d caused Dan. It took a long time to fix because Dan had to learn to trust them after their poor treatment of him. Walter was glad that the team stuck with it—they didn’t give up—and they eventually came through like he’d initially expected.
Walter thought, better late than never. Even though the weekly meetings to check on Dan’s acceptance by the team with Pastore were no longer needed, he would continue to watch from a distance. Walter knew he wouldn’t hesitate to step in again if he felt it was warranted.
As he opened his office door, Walter smiled broadly. Today was a grand day. He was looking forward to seeing Nick’s yearly review of Dan and he would enjoy telling William about Dan’s smile and laughter in his next update.
TRF HQ – Briefing Room – 6:55 a.m.
Nick had finished reviewing the files he needed and he closed them. He swung his chair and stared out at the city—not really focusing on anything as his mind mulled over the past year with the rookie.
In his mind, Dan had made good progress in transitioning from soldier to urban police officer. Their world wasn’t black and white—shoot the bad guy. No, they worked in a gray world where the bad guy was often just a regular Joe experiencing the worst moments of his life and making poor choices.
However, in their gray world they did have to follow black and white rules and make split second decisions. They didn’t get to be judges and they followed specific protocols. Sometimes those protocols were difficult on them all. Dan had to take lethal action several times in those difficult situations.
The call at the Playful Minds Daycare came to mind—Dan’s first lethal with the team. It seemed to Nick that calls where Dan had to take the lethal shots in front of children seemed to be the toughest on the rookie. Nick could understand that. Calls involving kids were always tough on the entire team, especially when it ended in lethal action. But Nick noticed that Dan became very quiet after calls like that.
That would be one area he needed to probe—he needed to make sure Dan wasn’t unduly affected by those calls if at all possible. Dan was still hard to read, but now that Dan allowed emotion to show sometimes, it was getting a bit easier. And the smile on his face this morning was great to see. He wondered a bit at what put that smile on his face. Perhaps Dan had a great date last night.
His reflections shifted and Nick smiled as he thought about what an asset Dan was to the team. Nick couldn’t imagine the team without Dan now. It was so different from his attitude—the whole team’s attitude—a year ago. The transition hadn’t been easy—actually, it was like walking through hell. Every last one of them had made mistakes. It had taken a long time to fix what they had done. It was a good thing that Bram and Lexa were able to forge a path that the rest of them were able to follow.
Bram was the first one to make a connection with Dan. He’d seen something the others didn’t—that Dan’s emotions could be seen in his eyes if you watched closely. Bram also had a special gentleness which Dan responded to—a fatherly touch, if Nick had to define it.
Then the heart of their team slowly chipped away at Dan’s shield—much like one of her renovation projects. She made a hole and installed a window so they could all see the real man behind Dan’s shield. Then Lexa set about restoring him and helping them all to build a strong foundation with Dan.
Nick realized it had taken longer than he’d anticipated and it still burned to know he’d caused Dan so much pain. But as Bram pointed out to him over the past few months, pain that deep and walls that impenetrable, were not the result of a few months of mistrust, and callous words and actions. Those thick walls had taken years to craft and reinforce.
But today Dan had come in smiling—really smiling. And the rookie was more relaxed and rested than Nick had ever seen. Had they finally breached Dan’s walls? Did their rookie now accept that he was a member of the family? Did Dan know that he belonged here? Nick truly hoped so.
Nick was brought out of his thoughts as the team filtered into the briefing room for start of shift briefing. Today they had no warrant calls. He decided to make it a patrol day so that he and Dan had an opportunity to talk privately. Nick noted the smile was still firmly affixed to Dan’s face as he and Loki teased Lexa about her Jeep not starting this morning.
He thought for a moment that Lexa was gonna punch both of them, but then she laughed as she teased Loki about his choice of car. She suggested that he might do better with the ladies if he got a motorcycle like Dan or a truck like Ray. Loki’s retort was at least he didn’t drive a minivan like Bram. That pulled Bram into the friendly banter.
Nick smiled as he watched his family. Life was good—really good. He glanced up at Jon, who settled in beside him. “One big happy family.”
Jon nodded. “Yep, about time. It’s been a nice quiet six-weeks. Not a single injury for Wile E. Coyote.”
Nick chuckled. The nickname fit Dan well, but he still preferred Dantastic. The rookie was truly a fantastic person.
All thoughts and conversations were interrupted as the klaxon alarm went off and Tia called over the loudspeaker, “Alpha Team, critical call, shots fired.” The team rushed to gear up as Tia continued to provide them details. “911 reports several shots fired at Bang Fitness on Bay View Ave. I’m sending the full address to your phones. There are at least two hostages according to the caller. Subject is an unknown male.”
As Loki put on his headset, he quipped, “You gotta be kidding me. Shots fired at a place called Bang Fitness. Talk about irony.”
Snickers could be heard from most of the team. They could always count on Loki to lighten the tense mood with some witty, or not so witty, remark.
Tia stifled her own laugh. She loved Loki’s sense of humor. Too bad she had a rule about dating cops. She continued, “Units are on scene and setting up a perimeter. The senior patrol officer said they have three witnesses for you to talk with when you arrive.”
“Thanks Tia.” Nick then directed, “Lexa and Ray, find out what you can from the witnesses when we get there. See if we can identify the subject, hostages, and what prompted this. Loki—”
Loki preempted the Boss and stated, “Get blueprints and tap into the cameras if they exist. Got it.”
Nick grinned. He loved how well his team worked together.
Outside Bang Fitness – 7:15 a.m.
Arriving on scene, three black SUVs and a command truck came to a rapid halt. Lexa and Ray headed off to question the witnesses as Loki stepped into the back of the command truck. Nick engaged with the senior patrol officer on scene to get an update on the current situation.
Jon rounded the back of an SUV to get geared up as he handed out tactical assignments to the rest of the team. “Bram, need you to determine the best entry point. Dan, you’re Zulu One. See if you can locate the subject after you’ve set up and determine the number of hostages.”
A chorus of, “Copy that,” sounded through the headsets.
Dan rapidly assessed a myriad of conditions as he scanned the businesses across the street from the gym to determine which one would give him the best vantage. The gym had floor to ceiling glass, so visibility into it shouldn’t be a problem from any of the businesses, but the roofs were too high to give proper view into the ground floor gym. He picked a business that had windows on the second floor which opened. That position would give him good visibility to the entire gym and if he had to take a shot, he could do so without damaging the windows of the business. Dan grabbed his Remi and kit from the back of the SUV and sprinted over to the building.
Relax Now Across from Bang Fitness
Dan noted that the patrol officers hadn’t cleared this business yet and as he walked in he realized it was a massage therapy spa. He had been slightly intrigued by the business name ‘Relax Now’. Now he understood.
The looks t
he patrons gave him as he entered were priceless. Dan had come to understand that most people were a little in awe of a TRF officer in full tactical gear. It was a sight to see. The team liked to joke it was because they wore the ‘cool pants’. Dan got a few smiles and ‘I want you’ looks from the ladies in the reception area, not that he really noticed, which he didn’t usually—he was too focused on his job to notice.
His short blond hair, intense sapphire blue eyes, and rugged good looks had that effect on women—even without the TRF uniform. And today, all that was enhanced by a beautiful smile that seemed to be plastered to his face. Dan clearly had no clue the effect he had on women—devastating.
Dan calmly informed the manger of his need and she immediately granted access. The patrol officers arrived just behind Dan to clear the business and secure the building. That gave Dan a sense of relief, it was like having someone watching his back so he could concentrate fully on his job.
So far, he hadn’t run into anyone he knew from when he was in the 14th Division. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he did—would they even remember him? It was eleven years ago, ancient history. That was an ugly time in his life—one he’d rather not recall at all, but especially not today—today he was happy.
As he set up the rifle, Dan listened to the chatter of the team, keeping abreast of the developments, but he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering a bit to the fact that he was so very happy today. He was doing something he loved, helping people, and he belonged to a family. Belonging felt so good.
It had been a long road to get to this point. He wasn’t to the point that he truly trusted everyone, but they’d accepted him. They let him remain a bit aloof and didn’t push him to open up. Dan thought that boded well for him to eventually open up. He already felt a connection with Bram.
And Lexa, Sexy Lexie, yeah, that was good. He had no idea where it was headed—they needed to talk about that. But last night was more than he’d hoped for. To touch her, to kiss her, and hold her again … yeah, he was happy, really happy. Dan tuned back into the chatter as Loki spoke.