“Now thanks to this young man we have what we need.” He looked at Track who was standing back against the wall in a roomful of fighting men looking way too at ease.
“About that, how did you have eyes on the senator and Khalil?” Mancini asked the kid.
“I switched his glasses.”
“Come again.”
“The senator is blind without his glasses and he can’t wear contacts, they irritate his eyes. I had his glasses switched out for ones with a high-powered recording camera in the lens. Dumb fuck never suspected.”
“What the fuck, how do you know these thing? Never mind, I forgot. You ever hack into my shit kid, I’ll forget I’m in love with your sister and put one in you.”
He gave me his usual smirk and shrugged. I didn’t miss the look that passed between the commander and Samson at my words.
“Speaking of which, that’s the one hiccup I hadn’t prepared for, you and the princess. I don’t have to tell you the shit storm that’s gonna cause.” I opened my mouth to argue but he held up his hand.
“Not to worry, I’ll take care of it. It won’t be long before he knows that Khalil is no longer a threat and I imagine he’d want to make arrangements to get her back, but I think there might be a way for you to keep her and still keep the peace.”
His words had a calming affect on me, plus the fact that I knew there was no way anyone was taking her away from me kept me settled with my feet firmly planted. With Khalil gone I figured I could face whatever roadblocks stood in our way.
The rest of the day was spent playing catch up as we got the whole story out of him and his cohorts. Apparently the commander had got in touch with his friends after Kelly had been taken.
He hadn’t known that Khalil had discovered the names of his old team and had thought them out of the other man’s reach.
But once he knew that they too were in danger, he’d come out of hiding to get in touch. He’d been there the night the general had been taken out and there was no need to guess who was the one to end him.
The whole thing was almost too much to take in, and the shock of having the old man back hadn’t quite worn off. It looks like shit was finally turning around for my brothers and I.
“Wait a minute, what about the compound, the mansion? Now that you’re back we…” Leave it to Logan to be thinking about the whole picture, that shit hadn’t even crossed my mind.
“No Logan, nothing about that has to change. My will is exactly how I wanted it to be, I just didn’t expect it to be read as soon as it was. Think of it as a wedding present for all of you.”
“The compound is yours. I plan to ask my woman to marry me and travel the world. I want to see some of those places I never got to enjoy when I was in service.”
“Since you’ve left the mansion as is, I figure we can stay here when we visit but I won’t be living here any longer. My kids…”
“They’re fine, they don’t know yet though, we were waiting to tell them the whole story.”
“Well now you don’t have to tell them that I died. Hopefully they can forgive me for not being there, maybe they’d understand.”
“I’m sure they will commander, if not we’ll talk to them.”
“Cord, you and Susie.”
“Yes sir.”
“I couldn’t have chosen better for my only daughter.”
“I’m proud of all of you, now my friends and I are going to take care of the rest of this. Track.” He came forward and handed over what looked like a chip.
“What’s that?”
“It’s the conversation between the senator and Khalil on film; everything you need to bring down the whole crew.”
“Yes, once we get this into the right hands it’ll break the whole thing wide open. I guess there’s going to be a lot of destroyed lives and careers.” Mancini took the chip and looked it over.
“And you Mancini, how do you play into all this?” Lo asked as yet another layer of our new friend was exposed. When he just smiled without an answer the CO stepped in.
“Better you leave that alone boys. Let’s just say your new friend knows all the right people and leave it at that.” The CO smiled at us, which pretty much meant that was the end of that.
“And on that note, I think I’ll grab my woman and head back to New York. I’ll be seeing you boys in about three weeks. I hear there’s going to be a wedding on my island.”
“Get me the guest list as soon as possible will you. I can’t have too many unknowns roaming about my place.” I think he actually sneered.
We all got up to thank him and say our goodbyes. “I’ll let you know how Thorpe’s doing with his rescue mission. Law, we’ll get to your thing soon enough, I have some ideas.”
Was there anything this fucker didn’t know? We’d already, my brothers and I, decided that we were going to help Law with his little problem whether he wanted us to or not. But I had no idea that Mancini knew anything about that.
“How do you know about my little problem? I don’t remember mentioning it.” Law looked confused.
“Your wife told mine how else.”
Seems the women only pretend to leave shit alone while carrying on behind the scenes. I can’t say that I blame them, but like Lyon said back on the island, as long as they kept it to talking and surmising I guess there was no danger.
“I feel like a heel leaving the rest of this up to others now that our women are safe.”
“Don’t feel that way Devon, that’s what these boys do. You boys have been on this for a while now, you should take a break, spend some time with your women and enjoy the fact that you brought down one of the most wanted men in the world.”
62
Devon
Three weeks later we were back on the island, which looked like a completely different place. Cierra had shown up a few days early to get the place set up.
There were flowers everywhere leading from the lawn down to the beach and a canopy that looked like it would hold a couple hundred people easy.
We hadn’t been let in on any of the plans. After all the threats the women had made about making us help them plan. In the end it was decided that as men we didn’t know the first thing about it and were left to our own devices.
We’d used the time to take care of our business and make sure that the people we’d left in charge had done a good job, which they had.
The CO and his boys had been busy in that time and once the news broke about the trafficking ring and all those who were involved, everything was total chaos.
As Mancini had predicted, there were a lot of people with their heads on the chopping block, including the fuck up who couldn’t hide behind his past presidency.
People tend to draw the line at selling young girls into sexual slavery. Who knew the world still had a fucking moral compass.
Thorpe had come through, and so had Blade and Jake and though the girls had a long road ahead of them they were all home safe. I don’t even begin to know how they did that shit.
Apparently Thorpe was very thorough. He had a medical team that dealt with the kind of trauma the girls had endured, and his place was used as some sort of rehab center where the girls stayed while they were being tended to before going back into society.
His only issue it seems, were the many military men and women who were crawling around his place because they refused to leave their daughters now that they’d been found.
We didn’t kid ourselves that that was the end of it. There are always going to be assholes with degenerate minds, but for now, our little stint in hell was over.
The women were bustling around with excitement, and Ariel had blossomed in the last few weeks. She no longer had that haunted look in her eyes like she did when she was blaming herself. I’d taken care of that first thing.
We’d spent the time getting to know each other and she seemed to be adjusting well to life on the outside. The fact that everything was new to her, helped me to see things in a whole new light.
Things that I’d taken for granted over the years suddenly had new meaning. Even something as simple as a butterfly landing on a flower would give her so much joy it was hard not to fall a little deeper in love with her.
She made me laugh, made my heart lighter that it had been since I was a young boy who’d lost his only family. And I no longer saw the world as the fucked up place it once was.
Instead of my sisters corrupting her, she seemed to have an affect on them, though I’m not too sure that was better, they seemed sneakier to me these days.
I had a sneaky feeling between her and Kat that they’d come up with a new strategy on how to deal with us.
I knew I was right the first time I saw Dani diffuse a situation between her and Con that left him with his mouth hanging open and no wiser as to who the fuck had won the argument.
Things were peaceful on the compound, Davey had moved into the mansion since his mother and father had gotten hitched and hit the road a week after we came back.
The CO was like a new man, nothing at all like the straight laced commander we knew and loved. Once he’d broken the news to the kids, Davey claimed he’d always suspected, but Susie hadn’t a clue.
Cord had helped her assuage some of her anger at being neglected by her father. In fact she was the one out of her family who had the hardest time accepting.
The other women had accepted him easily enough since they’d heard so much about him already over the past year. And they too helped cool her anger.
It was good to see the others getting back into the groove of things with their women and life settling once more. It was almost sickening how much sappiness was floating around the compound.
Quinn and Kelly were more often than not lost in their own little world and spent a lot of time disappearing. In fact for a time there we only saw them at meals.
I can’t say anything because Ariel and I were pretty much the same. I kept remembering a conversation I’d had with Law’s boy Clayton who was in pretty much the same predicament as I.
His girl was the daughter of a senator who had no idea that she existed. His advice, get her with child and then there was no question where she’d be staying.
He’d already taken care of that part, but I didn’t know if any of the hundred times I’d taken her and resulted in pregnancy.
The CO had only told me that he’d talked to the old king, but he wouldn’t say anything more, which left me on tenterhooks for weeks leading up to today.
I couldn’t wait to get my ring on her finger before anything could go wrong. I knew once she became my wife there was no way anyone could stop us being together.
Epilogue
LYON
“Lyon your daughter is fucking adorable.”
“Dude what the fuck, she’s sixteen.” I glared at Mancini the fuck ready to take him out.
“Not the teen you ass, the little one.” That shit made me snort like Kat does. “Oh yeah?” She’s been working her con on her new uncles. To a man they melt whenever she bats those lashes of hers at them.
She knows better than to try that shit with me. That ship sailed when the little shit was three and I caught her making her own damn glue to fuck with her big sister’s hair.
“What’s she doing that makes her so adorable this time?” I hadn’t seen her in a little bit, figured she was with her mom and the other women. Thank fuck. We were here to relax after all and that one don’t know the meaning of the word.
“She’s reading to Zakira, very hush-hush. Must be some story the way the two of them have their heads together whispering.”
I flew out of my chair two seconds later. “Lyon what the fuck?” Tyler and the others looked at me like I was nuts before they came after me.
I held my hand up when we reached the door to the playroom. I don’t know what, but I was pretty sure Mengele was up to some shit.
Her mother knows she’s not to be left unattended for more than the five minutes unless she needs to use the bathroom; and even then you need a fucking armed guard at the door.
We listened as she seemed to be telling the baby a story. “Okay listen good Kira, you have to remember okay? Daddy won’t get me the real stuff like the uncles use, but I know how to make it another way look.”
She moved and that’s when we saw the line of bottles and bowls she had on the floor in front of them.
“What the fuck?” I whispered the words since I didn’t want to give away our position, not yet, not until I knew what the fuck Hitler’s youth was up to.
“I found some powder but we don’t need that now, don’t breathe okay.” She put a mask around Zakira’s face and one around her own before pouring some dark powder in a bowl very carefully. “Now we add nitroglycerine and diato…I can’t say the long word but it’s okay.”
“What the fuck is she doing?” I was at a loss, it didn’t sound like her usual recipes. At least I didn’t hear anything about sulfuric acid so we were safe.
“Dynamite. The long word is diatomaceous earth. The only thing that’s used for is dynamite. I don’t know what she needs the gunpowder for though.” Mancini answered.
We turned back to hear the rest of her little lesson. “Those bad guys come back we’ll be ready.”
“Where the fuck? Which one of you taught my kid that shit?” They started backing up hands in the air. “Wasn’t me.”
“Yeah you’re laughing now but you won’t be laughing when she blows your house to shit.
It’s too fucking early o’clock for this fuckery.”
I stormed into the room and the little sneak smiled up at me. “Hi daddy, whatcha doing?”
“The question is what the hell are you doing?”
“Oh nothing, it’s a science project.”
I looked back at the men who were all laughing their asses off and wondered what the hell I was supposed to do with my kid.
“That’s enough science for one day, go outside and play.” Geez this kid! She gave me a put upon pout and took her little friend’s hand and led her out of the room.
I heard her greet her uncles who came into the room to join me as we looked over her little stash. “Somebody wanna tell me where the fuck she found this shit?”
“Um, I might have it around somewhere. I guess I’m gonna have to up the security around here since she seems to find her way in and out of places she ought not to be.”
“You know Lyon, if you give her to me now I can train her.”
“You fancy getting shot in the ass Hank, I can help you out there. Leave my kid alone.”
“Let’s go see if the women need any help with last minute preparations.” Logan slapped me on the shoulder.
“I’m pretty sure they told us to fuck off bro.”
QUINN
The wedding is today. There had been a lot of fuss last night when the women tried selling us on some old wife’s tale about not seeing the bride the day of. That hadn’t gone over well with any of us.
The girls had planned a party on the beach in place of the traditional bachelor and bachelorette parties and we’d stayed up well into the night.
I spent most of the night watching her as I’ve been doing ever since we got back from the Gulf and no longer had to worry about being hunted.
She was completely relaxed and at ease, almost as if she’d been part of our little family for years instead of a few short weeks.
It didn’t take her long at all to find her footing. In fact she seemed to just jump into life as my woman easy enough without too many hiccups, though sometimes I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
As much griping as the others had done over the last few months when it came to their women I was kind of expecting the worst.
Instead it’s been the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. Even our little skirmishes are funny as hell because we both know there’s no way in hell she’s ever gonna win, but that doesn’t stop her from trying.
I can already see the influence of the other women, and it�
��s funny, but having her has opened my eyes to the fact that these women really do rule us. No matter how we shake it, everything we do is for them, to keep them safe and happy.
It’s like she’s taken over every aspect of my life and though I find time to do other things, like get back to work, I still spend a good chunk of each day thinking about her, wanting her.
I don’t know if it’s my ‘gift’ or just your every day lust, but I don’t think a day has gone by that I haven’t spent some part of it buried inside her.
Which brings me to believe since she’s not on birth control, and I damn sure never used a condom with her, that she might be pregnant. Since she hasn’t said anything to me I figured I’d let her tell me herself when she’s ready.
I looked down at her head on my chest, still in wonder that something this beautiful could belong to me. It’s the same every morning when I wake up next to her.
Sometimes it takes me a minute to remember my good fortune and then that feeling comes over me. A feeling of immense joy unlike anything I’ve ever known.
I no longer worry about what it had done to my dad, or that I’ll lose my fucking mind. Because when I look at my brothers, men that I trust, men that I know are strong, I don’t see much difference in the way they treat their women.
I lifted her face with a finger under her chin and kissed her warm lips until she awakened with a sigh. “Morning baby, it’s our wedding day.”
I rolled her to her back as she stretched and wrapped her arms around my neck returning my kiss as she opened her legs for me to fit in between them.
It was easy to slide into her warmth, her body still wet with my seed from the night before and make love to her slowly for once.
Our mouths stayed fused together as I showed her without words what she meant to me. And when she tightened around me and cried out her love for me I spilled my seed deep inside her.
DEVON
“Stop being so nervous, everything is going to be fine.” We were about an hour out from the wedding on the beach and she was the one reassuring me.
SEAL Team Seven Books 6&7 Quinn and Devon Page 41