BELONGING: Hope, Truth And Malice (Beauty 0f Life Book 3)

by Laura Acton

  Bram felt anger surge in him. He decided the best way to stop this for now was to make their presence known, so he cleared his throat loudly.

  Frank, Aaron, and Kirk turned and saw Bram, Lexa, Ray, and Loki glaring at them. Kirk and Frank looked embarrassed to be caught gossiping about a fellow officer in this manner, but Aaron had the gall to smirk at them.

  At that moment, Nick approached and addressed all the officers. “Alright listen up. We have two rival gangs in play here, it’s a turf war. The Crimson Eagles, headed by Pedro Basto, controls over a third of the drug and arms traffic in the Greater Toronto Area. The Jackals, a fairly new Russian gang, is run by Radoslav Yegorovich.

  “They’ve been moving into Crimson Eagles territory and undercutting them. Radoslav is in custody and said that his gang was lured here and ambushed by the Crimson Eagles. Basto was sighted on scene earlier. Guns and Gangs would really like to bring him in alive if possible—they’d like to try and get info on Basto’s network and suppliers.”

  Sergeant Bailey of Guns and Gangs interjected, “Be warned, Basto is one nasty dude and won’t hesitate to kill. He was a champion middleweight boxer before he rose in the gang’s ranks. Three years ago, he staged a coup, killed the top ten leaders of the gang, and then took over the Crimson Eagles. Basto killed four of them himself—beat them to death—but got off due to technicalities.”

  Nick continued. “You are to use extreme caution. The gang members are heavily armed with a variety of assault weapons. Our goal is to apprehend, but given the risk presented, you’re authorized to use lethal force if necessary. Don’t take any chances. This will be no walk in the park—keep sharp and stay safe. Jon will explain the tactical plan.”

  Jon took over. “Charlie Team was able to apprehend ten of the gang members. Based on what we know so far, we’re looking for fifteen more subjects. Three are from the Jackals and the rest are Crimson Eagles. Commander Gambrill, Sergeant Pastore, and Sergeant Winter will coordinate from the command post and communicate between teams using channel one.

  “We’re mixing it up today, boys and girls. Some of you will be working with different teams. Given the amount of terrain to cover we’ll break into seven teams of four. Team one will be led by me. Team two by Camden, team three by Doug, team four by Colton, team five by Paul, and team six by Carl. Each team has been assigned a specific channel for team communication and will search a designated section of the grid—breaking their section into four quadrants.”

  Aaron interrupted, “You only listed six teams. Who’s leading the seventh?”

  Jon grinned at Dan. He was happy with Dan’s input in the planning session and he’d earned the respect of the Sergeants and Tactical Leads around that table. Jon wanted to provide Dan with tangible proof that he respected him and his skills. So instead of giving the leadership role to Bram, who was the third most senior member of Alpha Team, he chose to assign that role to Dan. The rookie had six years in Special Forces, so Jon knew that Dan knew how to handle himself in this type of scenario. It would be good for Dan to get a taste of leadership—TRF style.

  He stated with authority, “Dan has the most experience in this type of scenario, so he’ll take command of team seven with Lexa, Aaron, and Frank. You’ll be searching section seven and be on channel seven.”

  Dan was surprised and his face showed it. He grinned slightly and gave a small nod to Jon. Damn, that felt good. He would do his damnedest to prove to Jon that his trust was well-placed in him today.

  Bram, Ray, and Loki all exchanged a quick look with Lexa that said, ‘Watch Dan’s back’. None of them saw the look of disgust that crossed Aaron’s face. If they had, they would’ve spoken up immediately and ensured that Aaron was assigned to Jon’s team.

  Jon’s gaze returned to the group and concluded, “Your TLs will give you further instructions. Kirk, you’ll join with Sergeant Bradley’s team today.”

  Kirk nodded, “Copy that.” He was relieved to not be placed with either Frank or Aaron today given the tension between them. He wondered how Aaron would react to taking orders from Broderick. Kirk waffled on whether he should say anything. But he finally decided that if Jon Hardy had enough respect for Broderick to place a team in his charge, then Broderick could probably handle anything Aaron had to dish out.

  Commander Gambrill watched as the teams huddled up and outlined the plan for their sections then headed out. He was pleased to see Jon recognized Dan’s skills. Jon had listened to and acted upon Dan’s input in the planning session and had chosen to put Dan in a leadership role. Alpha Team had truly come through like he’d hoped—his godson was doing so well now.

  Walter was going to enjoy giving William an update on Dan’s progress when he returned William’s call later. But for now, Walter turned and walked to the table that contained the maps and refocused on the situation at hand. This was not going to be easy. They had fifteen gang members armed with assault weapons out there to locate and apprehend.

  Chapter Seventeen

  July 15

  Rouge Park – Section Seven – 7:30 p.m.

  Lexa, Dan, Frank, and Aaron had fast-lined into section seven from a police helicopter because it was the most remote section and farthest from the command post. They worked hard and steadily searched their section for the past four hours. It was taking a long time to clear each quadrant due to the rugged terrain and dense forest in which the subjects could hide. They’d cleared quadrants one and two and were nearly finished with quadrant three.

  Dan knew they would be losing light in about an hour and a half and that would be bad. Tracking at night was near impossible and the subjects might be able to slip away then if they hadn’t already. Coming to the end of quadrant three, Dan halted then directed his team, “I’m switching to channel one for status check in. Back in a second. Hold up and take a quick break.”

  “Copy that,” Lexa responded. She stopped and leaned on a large rock to grab a quick drink of water and a bite of a power bar. Section seven was quite a workout. They’d been up and down ravines constantly and she thought a machete would’ve come in handy right about now to deal with all the dense foliage. She was glad for the small break.

  As she bit into the power bar and chewed slowly, Lexa smiled thinking how Dan had insisted she take one of the two power bars he’d shoved in his vest. When they’d stopped for a water break and check-in an hour ago, she’d realized she was out of power bars—she’d shared her last with Dan just before the call at Bennie’s. Dan had given her a lopsided grin and said he owed her two from earlier and handed her one.

  He’d given the second power bar to Frank. When Frank found out it was Dan’s last one, Frank had tried to refuse. Dan had insisted saying neither one of them wanted to incur the wrath of Jon if Frank dropped from hunger. The humorous way Dan put it to Frank had Frank chuckling and accepting it. Lexa could see that Dan was a natural in a leadership role—it was nice that Jon had publicly shown his faith in Dan by putting him in charge of this team.

  So much had changed since last year and that was a good thing. Lexa smiled again for a completely different reason as her mind wandered a moment. Last night had been great. Dan was great in bed … a natural there too. Lexa had hoped that by sleeping with him once more that it would lessen her attraction to Dan, but … she glanced his way … it hadn’t. In fact, she felt the electric zing when his hand touched hers as he handed her the power bar earlier. It was all she could do not to react.

  Lexa, wasn’t sure what to do. Working with Dan was going to be difficult if she couldn’t touch him without feeling things that she shouldn’t—he was just her teammate—maybe a friend with benefits. She sighed and tried to put those thoughts away. Now was not the time to be thinking about her and Dan. She took a quick sip of water and put her bottle away, then scanned the area.

  Motioning to Aaron to stop and keep watch, Dan switched to channel one, “Boss, team seven checking in. Section seven quadrant three has been cleared. We’re moving into quadrant four now. W
hat’s the status on the number of subjects located?”

  “Copy that. Total located eleven. Basto is still at large. Leaving four still out there if the intel was correct,” Nick responded then gave Dan an update on the other team’s progress.

  Dan replied, “Copy that. Switching back to channel seven.” He pulled out his water bottle and took a quick drink then Dan commanded, “Team seven, let’s move out. Four subjects still to find. Basto is still at large. Team six just finished their section. That leaves only us and team three searching our last quadrants. Aaron, take point again.”

  “Why should I?” Aaron sneered.

  Dan nearly rolled his eyes and wanted to snap at the man, but said calmly, “I’m team lead and that’s my order. Got a problem with it, take it up with Jon when we get back. Until then, zip it. We have a job to do.”

  Lexa was ticked off that Aaron kept up his bad attitude towards Dan and questioned him at every turn. It grated on her nerves and she was beginning to wonder how Aaron had passed the psych portion of the qualification. She also didn’t like his sophomoric comments when he asked her to take point, but kept her mouth shut. She was glad when Dan switched up partners. She wasn’t sure why he did, but the phrase ‘keep your enemies closer’ popped into her head. Lexa was ready to deck Aaron.

  Frank wished that Aaron would realize that Dan was a damned good officer. He had no clue why Aaron persisted to think badly of him—Dan was nothing like what Aaron had described. He wasn’t a cocky, pretty boy with no substance. Dan was good at tracking and tactics from what Frank could see—and Hardy wouldn’t have put him in charge of a team if he didn’t respect Dan’s abilities. Frank also knew Lexa’s reputation—she didn’t suffer fools. If Lexa respected someone, it meant they were damned good. Her interactions with Dan today showed that she truly respected him.

  He was also just so tired of hearing Aaron’s shit. Couldn’t Aaron see he’d been wrong? Frank knew Aaron could be hardheaded. Sometimes Aaron had a lot of trouble letting go of a preconception, but until now Frank hadn’t thought that Aaron was stupid and blind. Frank sighed. He really needed to have a conversation with Sergeant Turpin because it had gotten to the point that Frank was ready to deck Aaron.

  Aaron was pissed. He was the most qualified TRF member in this team. He was more skilled in tactics than Frank, who spent most his time profiling subjects. He’d also been with TRF a year longer than Lexa and four years longer than Broderick. He should be the one leading them. Yeah, he’d be talking to Jon about Broderick’s attitude when they got back. Why the hell had Jon put the rookie in charge?

  In his opinion, they were moving too slow through the quadrants. If he was in charge, they would’ve finished clearing this entire section an hour ago. They’d already be back at the command post resting like the rest of the teams instead of still trekking through the woods on a wild goose chase.

  Aaron glanced over at Frank and Lexa as they moved out, his gaze lingered a moment on Lexa. It wasn’t too bad when he’d been paired with Lexa. At least she was hot-looking—especially her ass. He might be getting married soon, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t still look and appreciate a nice ass—so long as he didn’t touch. Aaron smirked as he recalled asking Lexa to take point because he was better at covering the rear. Lexa was so dense that she didn’t even notice his innuendo.

  Dan’s patience with Aaron was definitely being tested. Aaron was jerk like his uncle. He’d been surprised several months ago when he learned Aaron was related to Major Puffy. Aaron found him alone in the gun cage and said, ‘I know the truth about you and Brody … learned about your lover boy from my uncle, Major Plouffe. You’re such a pansy-assed screw-up. You don’t belong in TRF anymore than you belonged in Special Forces’.

  Since then, he’d ignored Aaron’s continued snide remarks and innuendos about him and Brody being lovers and that he got the job because of the General. Dan knew that there was some truth to Aaron’s claim that he got into TRF through family connections. It just wasn’t through the General—it was through his godfather and Dan wasn’t about to reveal that connection. It was just better to ignore the jerk.

  Aaron’s dislike of him, his juvenile homophobic comments, his arrogance, and his bad attitude were all things Dan could put up with. He was used to dealing with guys like him from his military experience. But Dan drew the line at actions that put the team at risk.

  Dan felt Aaron crossed that line when he’d noticed Aaron leering at Lexa’s ass when she was on point instead doing his job covering her back and scanning for the subjects. It was absolutely and unequivocally unacceptable behavior. Dan wouldn’t put Lexa at risk like that, so he’d switched up pairings.

  Aaron’s constant refusal to follow his orders was also worrisome. Dan had decided to put Aaron on point, ahead of him, so he could keep an eye on him. Dan wanted to deck Aaron, but realized that Aaron wasn’t a bad officer. He didn’t have to like him personally, but the issues Aaron had with him needed to be dealt with after this call. Left unchecked, Aaron’s attitude could put others at risk, and that wasn’t acceptable.

  “Aaron, I said move out. We’ve got a job to do,” Dan stated forcefully.

  Seething, Aaron started moving again. He wanted to deck Broderick in the worst way. He just might do it once this was over. Aaron pushed his anger down for now and focused on doing his job—he was damned good at his job and had the most experience—which is why he should’ve been put in charge of this team.

  Rouge Park – Command Post – 7:30 p.m.

  Bram, Loki, Jon, and Ray trudged into the command post having finished searching their section. They saw a table with drinks and food available to them. They grabbed a coffee and a sandwich then took a seat at a small table next to members of Echo Team. The other teams who’d finished searching were spread out around the area, many sitting on the ground and on rocks or logs.

  They were all dead tired, the terrain had not been easy. Ray sat next to Loki and lightly teased, “You survived the woods, buddy. No rabbit snares and not a single spider dared attack you today.”

  Bram and Ray chuckled.

  Jon decided to change the subject, not wanting to tease Loki about his fear of spiders and dislike of the woods today. He said, “You all did good out there today. That was some rough terrain. Ray, how’s the shoulder?”

  Ray rubbed his sore shoulder, but answered, “Good.”

  Loki grinned. “That was some taken down, Ray.”

  Jon chuckled. “Bagged us four of them gang boys. They never saw you coming, Ray.”

  Stretching his tired and aching back, Bram pondered aloud, “I wonder how Dan and Lexa are doing.”

  Nick was grabbing a coffee when he overheard Bram. He came to the table and shared, “Dan just checked in. They’re doing good and moving into quadrant four. Doug’s team is also in quadrant four of their section now. If both those come up empty, then it looks like Basto may have slipped through our net.” Then Nick sat down with his team to take a short break.

  The team sat in silence as they relaxed a bit, ate their sandwiches, and drank coffee. Each was in their own thoughts wondering how Dan was faring in the lead role. Bram, Loki, and Ray were also curious how Aaron was behaving. Would he be giving Dan a hard time or would he put his personal feelings aside and be professional? They hoped for the latter.

  Sean Boulet, techie and explosives expert of Echo Team, was beat—it’d been a very long day and it wasn’t quite over. He and most of the other members of Echo Team, rookie Noel Blythe, sniper Brett Santelli, and their Tactical Lead Carl Buckner, had finished clearing section six and arrived at the command post about fifteen minutes ago. They sat around one of the small tables that had been setup for the teams. Sean smiled as he saw his good friend and teammate Trevor McBride walking towards them with a plate of food and a cup of coffee in his hand.

  He had really missed Trevor in the past year. His friend had taken a year’s extended leave to care for his mother while she underwent a bone marrow transplant. Everyo
ne on Echo Team was glad that things were looking good for Trevor’s mom and that he was finally back with them. Trevor had only been back with the team for a week now—and boy was it a doozy—they’d run non-stop every day they were on shift.

  “Hey good to see ya, Trevor. How was your stint with Charlie Team? We missed ya out there. Not gonna lend you out again anytime soon,” Sean said in greeting as he pulled a chair over for his friend.

  Trevor, who was Echo Team’s entry specialist, but had joined with members of Charlie Team to search section four replied, “Good. We got two subjects in our section. You?”

  “Well, we got one in our section, just a kid really—he gave up easy. I guess that makes the total count eleven now. Only sections three and seven to finish clearing. Have a seat, buddy, you look wrung out,” Sean answered.

  “Thanks,” Trevor said as he sat down. “Not looking so good yourself. Today has been hell. I don’t think any of us or the guys from Alpha or Charlie Teams want another one like it soon. I’m hungry and exhausted.”

  Sean agreed, “Yeah, been a hell of a day—learned some new things though.”

  “What ya mean?” Trevor asked with a mouthful of sandwich.

  “Well, Carl here had us doing some crazy shit out there,” Sean replied. “Carl, been meaning to ask you where that came from.”

  Carl looked up from his coffee and answered, “Broderick.”

  “Broderick?” Brett questioned.

  “Yeah that guy sure knows tactics. Was real helpful with coming up with today’s plan,” Carl replied.

  “Kinda thought he might when I saw him with you guys,” Trevor offered.

  Four guys stopped to stare at him. Brett asked, “Why did you think that?”

  “Because he’s had lots of field experience. It was nice to see him looking so well for once. Almost didn’t recognize him like that. Been meaning to say hi and reintroduce myself, but we’ve been so busy since I got back I haven’t had a chance. Doubt he would actually remember me though,” Trevor said.