“There’s nothing to explain,” Tori assured her. “I wrote the postpartum shitstorm book. And I’m happily going to remind you of what you said to me. Cut yourself a break, relax, and don’t apologize for needing me time. You earned it, honey.”
Meghan made a face. “I’m afraid you might have to make an exception for Carmen. She thinks of you like a daughter because you’re the first wife. My life will be hell until she’s seen for herself that you’re being properly seen to.”
Lacey smiled. “Carmen gets a pass. She’s the designated Justice granny, after all. Hey, any update on the honeymooners?”
“I don’t know what we’re all waiting for.” Meghan laughed.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she answered. “Maybe a reaction to finding herself on a private island with nothing but a suitcase full of sarongs and sunscreen?”
“French Polynesia. Boohoo.” Tori snorted. Lily squirmed in her aunt’s arms and made a small sound. “I think she concurs.”
Meghan started and put a hand on her belly. “Another country heard from.”
“Countries,” Lacey reminded her. “Speaking of which, we get a baby reprieve for a bit now, right? Sophie is due in May and …”
“My mom is due around Memorial Day,” Tori added.
They both looked at Meghan. “And then your big day,” she said with a smile.
“Well, June 24th has a big red circle around it, and I’m happy to hang in there till after Alex’s birthday on the 22nd. May is looking a bit crowded. Parker’s birthday,” she reminded them. “My wedding anniversary. Calder’s birthday and Uncle Ed’s. Add Sophie’s baby and Stephanie’s to the mix, and we have a full calendar.”
“It’s a gosh darn Justice jamboree,” Lacey hooted.
“Gosh darn?” Tori snickered. “Watching old Westerns again?”
Alex came and swept Meghan away a short while later. Draegyn followed suit and waited patiently while Lacey got in a last snuggle with Dylan.
“Bye, Mommy,” he said with a little wave as Drae took his hand and led him to the door. Dylan stopped and turned around then blew a kiss across the room and whispered, “Night, night, Lily.”
Exhausted but happy, she let out a long sigh and held tight to Cameron’s hand. She’d put up with staying in the hospital for another day, but then she wanted to go home. Having her two boys around to help with Lily was all she needed. Her family was everything, and for her, there was nothing like being home doing regular day-to-day things.
She didn’t need fancy vacations or closets full of clothes. All her heart needed was family, and on that score, the Arizona desert had proven to be fertile ground.
21
Following Lily Cameron’s debut, ten days flew by before Meghan knew it.
She was standing at the kitchen island with a hand pressed low on her back, looking at a catalog with Drae. He was going on and on about adding a stone fireplace to Vorticé Amore. She liked the idea. It had merit—especially since they all got so much use from the family gathering place.
Alex took a call and moved to the far side of the great room where he paced as he talked. Drae had one eye on him as he talked to her about the fireplace.
Something stirred in the air. Like a fluttering of wings or a shadow moving on the edge of her sightline. She looked up and found Drae studying Alex’s movements. Across the room, her husband’s voice raised. Fear and something she couldn’t name skittered down her neck and along her spine. She’d never heard that tone from him.
Then everything went to hell. She froze when Draegyn stiffened. Alex was yelling now in a less-than-friendly tone.
“Don’t use SIGINT like you think I don’t know what the fuck it means!”
“Oh, god,” Drae muttered.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Shit,” he growled. “He’s talking tradecraft.”
Tradecraft? Holy mother. She knew what that meant.
An angry bellow that had a horrible ring to it ripped out of her husband’s mouth. He threw his phone against a wall, and it shattered into a hundred pieces.
“Sinjin!” he yelled.
Meghan got whiplash when Draegyn snapped to attention and went rigid. She’d never heard any of the men use that term before but recognized it as a bastardized version of St. John. What the hell was going on?
“Goddamit,” her husband growled. The menace in his delivery gave Meghan the willies. “Get Cam here. Fast. And call the lab. Tell Calder we’re coming down.”
Drae didn’t respond. He simply withdrew a phone from his pocket and walked away.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Not now, Meghan,” her husband grunted before turning on his heels and leaving her standing there speechless as he stomped off toward his bat cave.
Should she do something? And if so, what? Having never seen this side of the Justice men, she had no idea what, if anything, was going on.
Draegyn hurried after Alex while speaking in a muted voice to someone on the phone.
Zeus, who’d been lounging about on her fancy doggie bed out in the breezeway between Carmen’s quarters and the back of the house, came trotting to her side. The dog licked her fingers and sat. Was she trying to tell her something? After all, the faithful black Labrador had been at Alex’s side since Justice began. Maybe this was familiar—whatever it was.
Confused and more than a little worried, she went into the great room and settled on the end of the sofa where she could keep an eye on the corridor to her husband’s geek zone. Zeus broke every rule in the book when she hopped up and plopped down next to her. She hugged the dog and then sat back to see what happened next.
“I should have fucking killed that guy when I had the chance.”
Silence met Alex’s angry declaration. He looked at Cam and Drae, knowing a line of people wished they’d taken that piece of shit out a long time ago.
Team Justice wasn’t just the three of them. There were others. Some hadn’t come back and one held a category all his own.
“Polaris,” Cam grunted. He spit dramatically to show what he thought of the man who’d chosen money and a love of mayhem over country.
Drae had the look of a man mentally sharpening his battle sword. “I cannot believe that stupid fuck Al-Awadi fell for his shit.”
“Yeah, well, part of me thinks we should leave the cowboy prince to the whim of fate, but Polaris getting his filthy paws on the stolen intel means one thing. If we do nothing, we’re fucked.”
“So now what?” Cam asked.
Alex looked at him.
Drae picked up a stapler from a desk and threw it at the back wall. He knew how he felt.
“The file’s fail-safe didn’t … complete,” he told them hesitantly.
“What’s that mean?”
Alex exhaled heavily and acknowledged Drae’s question.
“The operation started to unravel last year. Al-Awadi used too many paid players. There were a series of attempted breaches and then they hit pay dirt. He’s a world-class idiot and thought he could take care of it just by being an Arab prince. The file probably passed through a couple of hands before it turned up in Paris. That’s when Polaris got it.”
“Jesus.”
He didn’t bother to nod or agree with Cam. They all knew how easily people and information moved around Europe.
“The second anyone tried to open the file, it sent out a signal. For the past few months, I was able to remotely monitor how the thief tried to unmask the data file. The canary files were all he got. We thought we’d found a backdoor to deconstruct the data, but when our friends in Paris sent the final command, a window opened. The e-brief for the Al-Awadi operation was vulnerable for several minutes. Long enough for all of us to be compromised.”
Cam crossed his arms and stroked his chin. “Tell me again how Polaris figures into this?”
“He either set the bounty to begin with or stepped in once he got word that information on US-led black ops was on the market. He’s been
moving vast sums of money around for several weeks. Frank thinks that was him paying off some bad actors.”
“Well, that explains why Frank’s been blowing me off.” Cam’s terse comment got a nod from Drae.
“Everyone has to come in. Immediately.” He scratched his head and mapped out the first steps.
“Cam, you get a hold of Roman? Didn’t you say Domineau was working with him? She’s involved so pull her in too. Al-Awadi was a CIA stooge, and she’s the closest thing we have to a person on the inside at Langley.”
“Drae, you get Rafe on the phone. Tell him to saddle up.”
“What?” Cam barked. “Seriously? I fucking hate that guy.”
“Brutus and Popeye.” Drae sniggered.
“Fuck off, St. John.”
Alex didn’t have time for any of this. Cam and Rafe would just have to agree to play nice—that was all there was to it.
“He’s compromised too. We all are.”
He let Cam challenge him with his eyes for about two seconds and then let Major Marquez loose on him. And Drae.
“Polaris wants to take all of us down. He’s a twisted fuck, and each of us would be lying through our asses if we even tried to pretend we didn’t know this might happen one day.”
“Did they ever tie him to the bombing?”
Alex felt a red haze drop over everything. “If they had, he’d already be dead.”
They all suspected their one-time team leader had a suspicious hand in the bombing that almost took Alex’s life. Polaris went off the rails the year prior and was relieved of his command. A command they promptly handed to Alex even though he never wanted it.
But being demoted and discharged from the service didn’t mean the guy went away. He simply signed on the dotted line for one of the bloodthirsty mercenary organizations that operated with a free hand throughout the war zone, armored up, and took money for kills.
And talked endless shit about Team Justice. He hated Alex for taking his command. Hated Domineau for not standing with him when he lost his shit. Hated Drae for being Drae.
Truth was, it was a mutual dislike all around. It was a hard thing when you’re in a life and death environment and your leader forgets little pesky things like morality and the Geneva Convention. They all hated the bad guys, but there were rules. Polaris lost his moral compass, and at that point, his fate was on him.
“I’ll handle Parker. He was one of Al-Awadi’s government contacts, and his fingerprints are all over the original e-brief. We’ll need him to plug us in.”
“Plug us in?” Cam snarled. “Jesus, Major. Are you talking a mission?”
It wasn’t like they had any choice. “We need to get that file away from Polaris. Al-Awadi ran for cover yesterday. The tribals will keep him safe for a bit, but we don’t have long.”
“I’ll get Rafe on the phone.” Drae sounded less than happy.
“Original Justice,” Cam murmured.
Alex knew how the others felt. It had been a long time since the original crew was in the same room.
Draegyn St. John Sinjin —the Ninja.
Jason Cameron Cam—the Tracker.
Roman Bishop—the Interrogator.
Rafael D’Allesandro—the Muscle.
Him—the Major
And Domineau Rivera, who wasn’t military but was equally as badass as the rest. Her, they called Smoke.
Sawyer played a role—a comical one—but he wasn’t part of the working team, and they’d relegated Polaris to the status of the Unforgiven.
One other member of the OG team was Bryan Sloat, nicknamed the Medic. He’d perished in the same blast that took Alex down.
By virtue of his close relationship to Alex and his deep involvement in the war from his post at the DOJ, Parker was also an honorary Original Justice member. Alex wasn’t happy about taking the fun out of the man’s sails the minute his honeymoon wrapped up, but oh, fucking well.
Team Justice had one more mission. A mission that would either deal with some loose ends or blow up in their faces. If it did, everything they worked for would be in jeopardy. Unmasking their involvement in the setup of the black site would lead to a jihadi field day for their heads.
“Honey, come on. I have to get to work.”
Stephanie groaned and held on even tighter. “No, please. Just a few more minutes. You’re so warm and snuggly.”
“All right,” Calder said with a heavy sigh. “Five more minutes and then I really have to get up.”
She smiled to herself and enjoyed her husband’s arms holding her. “Pretty soon, we won’t have this luxury.”
“Seven more weeks,” he murmured.
Stephanie kissed his chest and let out a happy sigh. When he rumbled with laughter, she tilted her head and rested her chin on her hand and waited for him to speak.
“I was just thinking about how sweet Lily is. I’m so used to Danny and his evil twin, Dylan, that the baby girl energy sorta took me by surprise.”
“Does this mean that now you want a girl? I thought we were meditating on blue.”
“Aw, geez, Duchess. I’m happy with whatever we get. We’re so damn lucky. You’ve been amazing, my love, and I can’t tell you how relieved I am that our surprise high-risk pregnancy has been so calm.”
His phone rang, and she growled. A call meant he had to take it. She could persuade him to ignore texts, but calls? Not so much.
“If that’s the bat signal, I’m kicking a certain Major’s butt.”
Calder laughed and kissed her before sitting up to reach for his phone.
“He who must be obeyed.” He chortled into the phone as a greeting. Two heartbeats went by as she gathered some covers around her and sat up. Calder shot to his feet. She opened her mouth in surprise and started to complain, but his posture gave Stephanie pause. Something was wrong.
“No, I understand. Give me an hour. Where is everyone else?”
He listened, made an occasional noise, and then said, “Understood.” The call ended, and he stood absolutely still with his back to her for a good minute.
When he turned around, revealing the fearsome expression on his face, she instinctively covered her belly with her hands.
“I have to go to work. There’s a situation.” He waved her to silence when she started to ask a question. “It’s a Justice matter.”
He looked at her long and hard. “I may need you to run interference.”
“On who?” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“Meghan, in particular. I suspect Tori will be fine. And Lacey will need plenty of help.”
“Oh, my god. It’s all three?” She couldn’t imagine anything worse until he added icing to the cake.
“And Parker.”
Stephanie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Alex, Drae, Cam, and Parker? She asked the one question that needed an answer. “Why interference?”
Calder’s face went taut. His mouth in a grim line. “Because they’ll be using their passports.”
She jumped from the bed and plastered to the front of his body. “No, no, no! Calder, my god. Just no.”
He didn’t have time for anything; she could see it in his eyes. Kissing her swiftly, he looked at her. “I really have to go. You should get dressed and be ready. I suspect all hell is breaking loose right about now.”
“Absolutely not, Alex. What are you thinking?” Meghan rubbed her stomach and glared at him. “You can’t go anywhere. I won’t hear of it.”
Her surge of emotion triggered a hormonal explosion. She went from zero to off-the-wall frantic in less than five seconds.
“Meghan.”
She heard the commanding growl but couldn’t get a handle on her careening emotions. Was he insane? He couldn’t go anywhere. She didn’t care how urgent a reason. And the goddamn US government and military plus every frickin’ spy agency they pretended not to have could go suck a bag of dicks.
“No. Don’t pull that shit with me. I’m pregnant. We haven’t even made it to our first
anniversary.”
“Don’t make it sound like the end. I’m not going to tell you it’s no big deal, but this is something we know how to do. I’ve explained. We get over there, make contact with a team Frank is putting together, and then effect an operational change.”
“Oh, for god’s sake,” she griped. “An operational change? You mean walk into a dangerous situation, kill some people, steal back something that was stolen from you, and then walk away like nothing happened.”
She lost it and started raving like a lunatic. From the corner of her eye, she saw Duke come into the room. Alex very calmly put his hand on the back of her neck in a firm grip and held her still.
“Meghan.”
Her body responded to the demand in his voice. Her mind was all over the place, but she held still.
“Take a deep breath.”
She stared into her husband’s eyes, feeling absolutely helpless and terrified. He took a deep inhale—she followed his rhythm and took several breaths.
She spoke before she lost her nerve. “I want you to take Duke.”
The two men exchanged looks before the security chief spoke. “Ma’am, if you don’t mind my saying—I’m a bit long in the tooth for what you’re talking about. But I agree with you about a clear need for security. If it’s okay with the Major, I’d like to send along one of my guys who has a top-level clearance. Them government boys won’t have any problem with his credentials. He’ll blend right in.”
She looked at her husband, and he relaxed his hold on her neck. She tried not to flinch at the darkness she saw in his expression. Some serious shit was cracking open like a giant egg held over all their heads and released in slow motion.
“I have to go to the armory. Calder has some equipment we need to quickly modify.”
She huffed and threw up her hands. “The armory? Oh, my god.”
There were plenty of places on the Justice compound that she’d never had reason to wander into. The armory was one of them.
Everlasting (Family Justice Book 6) Page 32