Operation: Beach Angel

by Margaret Kay

  “Yeah, it was just a round to the vest, cracked the plate, I’m sure. Just sit down and try to focus on your breathing. I’m sure a rib or two are bruised if not cracked,” he told Taco.

  Several more shots sounded from within the house. Garcia was near the door. There was the sound of a scuffle, shouts, and then two more men came into view, guns in hand. Carter ‘Moe’ Tessman still crouched in the entry. He’d thrown the gun from near the downed Tango. He had his fingers pressed to the man’s neck, feeling for a pulse. “Freeze! Drop them!” Garcia commanded. Neither man complied. They both aimed their weapons at Moe.

  Garcia did not hesitate. He placed a round in the center of each man’s forehead and then in each of their chests, pop, pop, pop, pop. It was that fast. It was executed perfectly, brilliantly. It was a textbook training drill in a real-time environment.

  “Two Tangos neutralized,” Garcia broadcast.

  By the time the Shepherd Security Team pulled out from the raid location, Lambchop had already sent a text to Brielle, advising her that the raid had taken place and there had been gunfire. He also advised her all team members were unhurt. Wilson’s ribs were just bruised. A hell of a lot of drugs were seized, forty thousand in cash was found, a pill press, a dozen stolen guns, and thirty-five arrests were made. It had been a good bust.

  The team flew back the following morning. At the debrief, Lambchop voiced his concern of what transpired. The go order should never have been given. When it was discovered that civilians were at the raid location engaged in a party, the mission should have been aborted. Had the Shepherd Security Team been running it, it would have been. Shepherd agreed. He’d address it with Deputy Director Manning, their DEA contact. The rules of engagement going forward and along with roles and responsibilities would be redefined or Shepherd would pull the team from the missions. It was that simple.

  The next afternoon, Lambchop was in his office. A knock on his door startled him out of his thoughts. “Come in,” he called.

  His door opened and Michaela came in, leaving the door open behind herself. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

  Seeing Michaela always brought a smile to his face that he couldn’t stop if he tried. He came to his feet. “Not at all. I just got off the phone with my nephew. They’re getting settled in Madison’s place up north but moving to a new state and school isn’t easy on a junior in high school. I know he misses his friends. I told him that he needs to be patient and keep his thoughts positive.”

  Michaela smiled. “I’m sure you got through to him. You’re very persuasive.”

  “Am I now.” He came out from behind his desk and stood in front of it, his butt leaning against the edge so that he was in closer proximity to her. He knew his tone of voice and his actions could be construed as flirting. Their interactions did have that element often, but he was always mindful of it.

  “Yes, you persuaded me to go to Hawaii with your team. Shepherd just approved my leave. That’s if you’re still going.”

  “Of course, I am,” he said. He was elated that she had decided to go. He didn’t know she had put a vacation request in.

  “I wasn’t sure if you would have to cancel your trip because you just took time off to go to Pittsburgh and move your nephew and his family here.”

  “Nah, Shepherd was really good about it, didn’t ask me to cancel the vacation and I did offer.”

  “Well, good.” Her smile spread. “I’m glad.”

  His smile matched hers. “I’m happy you’re going. Have you made your reservations yet?”

  “Not yet. I just got the approval for the time off and wanted to be sure your plans hadn’t changed before I booked my airfare and hotel.”

  Lambchop picked his phone up from the desk. “Let me forward the info to you.”

  “I already have it, thanks. Brielle shared her itinerary with me. There are still seats on the flight and I’m sure a room or two at the resort.”

  “I’m sure.” He wanted to offer her that if there were no rooms, she was welcome to share his, but he knew that would make her uncomfortable. “It should be a good time. It’s Hawaii, how can it not?”

  “True. I’m glad I’m going. I do need a vacation and going with the group should be a lot of fun.” She stood awkwardly and just smiled at him for a second. “I better get back to my office and book my airfare and hotel.

  He watched her leave the room. His pulse raced with excitement and anticipation of this trip. He said a silent prayer to God that if it was his will that their relationship would be expanded, that it would happen on this trip. He also reminded himself to be grateful for the friendship they had, appreciate it, and accept it, if it was not meant to be.

  Romeo

  It was Thursday, two days before he would officiate the double wedding ceremony. Lambchop just finished a shift in Ops. It was nineteen hundred hours. He knew that many of the girls were setting up the room where the wedding would take place, a vacant office suite on the second floor of the Shepherd Security Building. He planned to go down and see if they needed any help. Finally, everyone was healthy. The flu seemed to have run its course.

  He received a text from Sloan, asking him to check in on the set up of the room and on Kaylee. Sloan was worried about her. She was freaking out because the National Weather Service had just issued a winter storm warning for the Chicago area and northern Indiana, near the lake, for the next two days. Their families from Ohio were due to drive in for the wedding which was now in jeopardy because of the weather.

  Lambchop had to chuckle to himself. He had spoken with Brielle earlier in the day about the ceremony. Brielle was as opposite of Kaylee regarding the wedding, as a person could get. He knew that for Brielle, all it was about was them being joined in marriage before their baby arrived. She would have been fine with him gathering whoever was at HQ on a given day and performing the ceremony in the kitchen or even in the garage. The only person she needed there was Brian’s brother, Bobby. She bought a white flowing dress off the rack at a department store. It would accommodate her pregnant belly.

  But Kaylee, being a much different person, had focused on the details of the perfect wedding she had always dreamed about. She had an expensive wedding gown from a bridal shop, was obsessed about the room looking like a chapel and how it would look when transformed into the reception. Angel arranged the catering, cocktails, and appetizers as well as the dinner, clearing the selections with Kaylee before the order was put in. Brielle had told Angel she didn’t care. Order whatever she knew people liked. Together the two brides planned the color scheme and the flowers, though Brielle admitted that whatever Kaylee wanted was fine with her.

  Lambchop took the public stairs to two. He entered the suite and was greeted by a room that had been transformed into a chapel. Rows of matching padded folding chairs were set up, four on each side of the wide aisle that faced an altar with an arch behind it. White lace panels and hundreds of strings of white Christmas lights were strung on three of the walls. The wall of windows that ran along the entire left side of the room were covered with a film that made them look like a church’s stained-glass windows. The outside parking lot lights shone through, making them glow with a stunning display of color.

  Kaylee was just stepping down from a ladder where she’d been securing the film to one of the windows. Madison, Angel, Sienna, and Brielle were in the room decorating, as were Garcia and Doc. Lambchop greeted all of them.

  “Wow, this looks amazing!” He said to no one in particular.

  “Kaylee did an incredible job planning this,” Brielle said. She wrapped an arm around the redhead. “I’m so glad we are getting married in the same ceremony so we can have this beautiful room to be married in. I truly would never have thought of decorating it like this.”

  “Yes, I’ve told Kaylee she should have her own business decorating for events like this,” Sienna added. “A side business only though because she is too good a teacher to give up the classroom!”

  Kaylee smi
led wide, eager to take in the praise. “Thank you both. I do love doing this kind of thing.”

  “I know who I’m hiring to plan and decorate Sammy’s next birthday party!” Angel chimed in. “You seriously do need to open your own events business. You have a gift. This was so simple and so cheap to do, and it looks beautiful!”

  “Thanks, guys,” Kaylee gushed.

  “It’s going to be a beautiful ceremony,” Lambchop agreed. “And I understand you girls have another room across the hall you will get ready in and wait in for the ceremony to start.”

  “Yes. Let me show you it.”

  She led him out of the suite and to a room across the hallway. “Gary said that Shepherd will have a couple men stationed in the hall to provide security,” she said.

  Lambchop nodded. “The entire building will be locked down after all the guests have arrived and Ops will monitor things too, but yes, Shepherd has already asked two of the men from Charlie Team to be stationed out in the hallway until both you and Brielle are in the wedding suite.”

  They stepped into the room the girls would get ready in. A full-length mirror was in one corner. There were a couple of couches and comfortable chairs, and a table with two mirrors set up on it. “This is it. It will be comfortable for us to get ready in.”

  “This will work very nicely,” Lambchop agreed. “You seem a little frazzled. Is everything okay?”

  “Haven’t you seen the weather forecast? We are going to be under a severe winter storm warning. Not everyone may make it for the wedding.” She frowned.

  “You can believe everyone from Shepherd Security will be here. But you’re worried more about your families in Ohio, I’d guess.”

  Kaylee nodded. “The weather could ruin my wedding. If the weather is that bad, even people here might not make it. What if it’s too bad for the caterers to deliver the food?”

  “Kaylee, no matter what, I will be here to marry you and I know the team will make it. What I have to ask you is do you want the wedding you planned, or do you want to be married to Sloan?” Lambchop asked her.

  “I don’t understand the question. It’s the same thing.”

  Lambchop gave her a compassionate grin. “Let me phrase it this way. You love Gary and you want to marry him. He told me that the two of you want to try to get pregnant this summer and start a family. Do you want to be married to him or do you want the perfect wedding you have planned?”

  “I will marry him at the wedding,” she insisted, like he was asking her the most stupid question and did not understand.

  “I could marry you two right now, sign the marriage license, and send it into the state and you would be married. The public wedding service you have planned is a separate thing.” He could see that she finally understood what he meant. “You want to be married with both your families from Ohio and with the Shepherd Security family in attendance. My question to you is, if your families cannot make it in because of the weather, are you willing to postpone your ceremony until the next time the team’s operations can be shut down?”

  Tears trickled out of her eyes. “It’s important to me that everyone is there. Landon, don’t you understand? You know why our families have to be here for it. We both had so many wasted years away from them and we want them to know that they are important to us. When we were home for Christmas it was wonderful. I can’t get married without them here.”

  “Then maybe you postpone it here and go do your ceremony in Ohio with your families,” Lambchop suggested.

  “And not have the Shepherd Security Team there? You are all so important to us. If it weren’t for all of you, we wouldn’t be together,” she whined. “You’re just as much our family as my parents and Gary’s brother and his family are.”

  Lambchop wrapped her in a hug. “Kaylee, you have to have faith that God will take care of this with His resolution. You are upset with worry over this and you do not need to be. Focus on what this ceremony means. It means that you and Gary will be joined in God’s holy ordinance. Hopefully, the weather will allow your families to make it in. If not, you will decide with God’s peace filling you if you turn it over to him. The decision will be clear if one needs to be made.”

  “So, in short, you think I am worrying before I need to.”

  Lambchop pulled away to look into her eyes. “Yes, but you also need to have faith.”

  She nodded. “I do and you were the one who reminded me of that. I know I was so far away from God during what I now refer to as my dark and lost years. I really try not to dwell on the years that Gary and I wasted apart from each other. I know he truly believes that our lives were lived as they were supposed to be to make us the people we are, that make us great together now. I’m trying to believe that and not have regrets, but it’s hard, you know?”

  Lambchop watched her tears resume as she became more emotional. “I believe God has a plan for each of us. And I too believe the people you are now, are the people you need to be to be great together, as Sloan says. Kaylee, try not to think about it as wasted years. Try to think about it in the terms of you each had time to figure out who you were and what you wanted so you would have no regrets. Marriage is until death do you part. And where you are now, is where you need to be to make that commitment.”

  She nodded again. “I know. And marrying him, not the ceremony, is what I really want. Thank you for helping me to realize that.”

  “You’re welcome. That’s what I’m here for.” He flashed her a smile.

  “I think back to the first day I met you. Remember when we talked in that hotel room. That first time alone.”

  Lambchop did remember the conversation well. He nodded.

  “What got me that day was that you didn’t judge me. You reminded me that God loved me, despite what my life had been like. And you were right, that Gary would understand and forgive me for what I’d done over the years. He did. It took longer for me to forgive myself, but I finally do. I love my life now and I can’t imagine ever wanting anything else out of life than what I have with Gary.”

  “I’m glad. You deserve happiness, Kaylee.”

  “Thank you, Landon,” she said.

  “Did you ever tell Sloan everything that was in your deposition?”

  She frowned and shook her head.

  Lambchop had been with her when she gave her deposition, outlining all the sexual abuse she’d experienced, the sexual favors she’d been pressured to give, and all that she’d witnessed that helped to bring down several very powerful sexual predators. It had left her emotionally depleted. Sloan had felt angry that she didn’t want him in the room and that damn near ended any chance of them having a relationship. Well, that and neither one of them speaking up about how they truly felt about the other.

  “We talked about it. He understands that I’m not ready to tell him, may never be. He’s okay with it. He knows that I’m in a happy place right now and sharing it with him could jeopardize that.”

  “He loves you and is secure enough to understand that it isn’t you excluding him by not sharing it. He realizes it’s about you not him. Make sure you keep talking to Lassiter about it. It’s only been six months. Complete healing could take longer.”

  “I know. Joe keeps reminding me that full healing takes time.” She embraced him. “Thank you again for everything. I can’t imagine having anyone but you, perform our marriage ceremony.”

  “I can’t either,” he agreed.

  They went back into the hallway and said their goodbyes there. He watched her reenter the suite where the wedding would take place. He reflected on how much she’d grown in the past six months. She was a happy and content person now, much different from how she was when he’d met her. The relationship he saw between her and Sloan reminded him that with patience, understanding, love, and forgiveness, anything was possible.

  Saturday arrived with strong winds from the north and six inches of blowing and drifting snow by sixteen hundred hours. The good news was, that because of the bad weather forecas
t, both Kaylee’s parents and Sloan’s brother and his family decided to drive in a day early so they wouldn’t miss the ceremony.

  Lambchop stood in his Dress Blues with his Wedding Officiant Clergy Stole draped around his neck. He held his Bible in his hand. He greeted both Sloan and Sherman when he entered the suite, both grooms stood just inside welcoming their guests. The ceremony didn’t start until seventeen hundred, but there were already many people in the room. After he finished here, he’d go to the room across the hallway and see the brides.

  Sloan introduced him to Kaylee’s father, Dale Bristow. He wore a dark suit, the proud father of the bride, ready to give her away. He met her mother, Sandy, a happy woman who engaged him in a lengthy conversation. She excused herself to return to the room the girls were getting ready in. Then he met Sloan’s brother and his family. Sloan’s nephews were about the same age as his nephew, EJ. He again felt a pang of guilt that he was headed to Hawaii the next day instead of doing more to help Shereese and the kids get settled. Sloan’s nieces were dressed in fancy party dresses and twirled around the room bringing a smile to his face. They reminded him so much of Shereese’s girls when they were that age.