by Emily Snow
“No, our little lady Belle is fine. Yours is about to admit something she chose to omit for three years now.”
“What did you omit, Isabelle Marigold Pinters?”
“Mom, you don’t have to middle-name me. I was getting ready to come clean.”
Brian gave her a look that said he didn’t believe her. Apparently, neither did her mother.
“Brian proposed to me before we left Istanbul. He did so before he found out I was pregnant with Iris Belle. I wasn’t ready for that life. Anyway, I’m back now and ready to take him up on the offer he made me before we parted ways.”
Quick as lightning, faster than he’d expect a seventy year old woman to move, her mother grabbed a bit of Isa’s skin and pinched it between her fingers—hard.
“You are the reason my creamy baby doesn’t have her Papa in her life every day. I cannot believe you let me believe that he chose to leave you. Aw, my son, you come here to me and give me a big hug. I’m so sorry for every mean thing I’ve said.” He immediately complied. Margo Pinters gave the best hugs.
Isa folded her arms over her chest. The action lifted them and he waggled his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes and shook her head in response.
“Horny jerk,” she mouthed as she turned away from him and her mother.
“Wait.” Margo stepped back as she spoke. “What offer?”
“I told her if she changes her mind and wants to take me up on what I offered then, she should look me up. She had to make the big gesture this time around.”
“Oh, and we’re here now. That was the big gesture for you, right?” Margo’s hopeful eyes landed on her daughter’s face. When Isa nodded, Margo screamed. “We are going to have a June wedding. We have little time. I need to get on the phone with the rest of the family. A wedding! Ha! Your father is going to flip, literally flip. He’s been waiting so long to marry you off and now you are marrying a military man. A wedding!”
“Whose wedding? What wedding, Grammy?”
“Your mama and papa’s. they are getting married and you get to toss flowers.”
“Yay! Mama is going to be pretty in her white nightgown. Will papa kiss mama in front of the church like he kisses her in the kitchen?”
Isa looked at Brian at the same time he looked in her direction. He knew she was doing the same thing she was. They were trying to remember what kind of kissing they’d done in the kitchen. If it wasn’t appropriate, then Margo would let them have it really soon.
“What kind of kissing, Creamy Belle?” Margo asked while cutting her eyes at the two of them.
“He kisses her neck and her head. Sometimes he kisses her shoulder. I don’t think he knows how to do it right. We might have to show him. The weddings in those movies show the boys kissing the girls on their lips, Grammy. Do you …” She paused and turned to him. “Papa, do you know you are supposed to kiss mommy on the lips when you are at the church?”
He heard Isa snicker behind her hand. It took everything in him to not laugh himself.
“I think you might have to show me, Little Belle.”
Running at full speed, she made her way to him. The distance between them was no more than twenty or thirty of her little steps, but she had to run them. At the last moment, she launched herself into the air. His baby girl knew that he would be there to catch her no matter what. It filled his chest with pride knowing that she was confident in that.
“Like this.”
She grabbed his face with both of her little hands and pulled him close. No sooner had she puckered her lips to kiss him, she was wiggling free.
“Hey, don’t I get one of those?” Isa asked.
Iris Belle stopped in her tracks of running back to her grandmother to retrace her steps back to them. Her little motions were exaggerated and it was his turn to snicker while Isa cut her eyes at him. Kneeling down, she shared a kiss with their little girl before Iris Belle gave him an expectant look.
“You too, Papa.”
“Oh.”
Turning, he gave Isa a quick peck before they both watched Iris Belle bounce away with Lead Dog turning the corner to follow her. He’d been torn between following Iris Belle a second time and remaining near Margo. He’d chosen to stand next to Margo.
“Apparently, we’re getting married in June.” Isa’s voice was filled with resolve and humor.
“Yes. I guess so. I wonder what dates our mothers will choose.”
“We’ll probably find out when we get the invitation.” Turning, she wrapped his arms around his waist. “That was easy enough.”
“It should’ve been that easy the first time, but I’m fine with where we are now. Are you ready for the hard part?”
Isa’s brows furrowed as she looked up at him. “What?”
“Telling the team about us.”
“Oh yeah. I think we should wait until we get through this next op. Stress free, the news will be better received.”
“Considering most of them are heavily armed, you might have point there.”
“Speaking of heavily armed, I believe there is a weight that needs to be taken care of down below. Mom has our baby girl and the house is watched. You want to …”
“No, nooky for you right now. You have opinions to give. You, Sgt. Major, are a bad influence on my girl. You go now and put that heavy weight down under to rest until my creamy baby is asleep later. Go.”
Brian laughed and kissed both of his favorite women on the cheeks before calling his littlest beauty out to give him a hug, kiss, and his present. She’d designed a little dog tag and her mother had it engraved on a golden tag for him.
It read: “Lead Dog hearts Little Belle and his Isa.”
“Yeah, I do, Little Belle. Love you, beautiful, and see you tonight.”
Isa awarded him with another gift. In the box was a key and an engraved keychain that said: “Our home.”
“I’ll see you later, Chocolate Ghost. I’ll take care of things here so I can take care of you later.”
“Promises, promises.”
“I keep mine. You just need to be ready.”
With that she left him to take care of their wedding plans as he went off to wrangle his crew. They had work to do.
The Internal War – Chapter 8
“Look, we need to come at this from another angle. We have too much riding on this already to not follow through.”
The voices of everyone in the room were so loud that Trig’s voice was barely heard.
“Not gonna happen. Not gonna work.”
The rumble of his voice couldn’t be heard as everyone was talking over one another. It was Sam that noticed the big man striding toward the center of the conference table. Not one other person noticed him at first, but Trig had a way of making his presence known without saying a word. When he moved to make a path then you got on board, got out of the way or were moved out of his way. Hounder was still talking, as usual, and hadn’t noticed Trig’s motions toward the table. Since Hounder’s hand was still covering the map, Trevor spun open his blade and just as quickly as he pulled out the knife did the blade make its descent to the map.
A chorus of “whoas” and “shits” joined Hounder’s voice as the blade missed his middle finger by millimeters.
“What the fuck, man? You couldn’t give me a fucking head’s up?”
“You want some Hounder then come get some. If you know what’s best for that pretty little face of yours, then you’ll back the fuck up out of mine and realize who you’re dealing with,” Trev said and didn’t change his position, but waited for Hounder to come to his senses. A beat later, Hounder backed off. “Like I was saying. Not gonna happen. This spot is a minefield and a prime spot for each of us to be picked off one by one. We need to come from multiple directions. I’ve said my peace. Y’all hash out the rest.”
Just as quickly as he’d moved forward, he moved back to the corner, pulled out his piece of wood, and began working on whatever the hell he was working on.
“You know that’s some b
ullshit, right? He could’ve taken off my damn finger with that move he just pulled,” Hounder bitched.
B.B. was the one that responded.
“Listen up and listen good. Stop being such a bitch and think about who you’re talking about. Trevor is called what again? Trig. Which is short for? All together now: Trigger. He was given that name because he is an excellent marksman. Not only excellent. That fucker is the best of the best. He has personally trained quite a few that guard at least three presidents. Do you think that he can’t guide a damn knife to a paper without cutting off your bitch-ass finger? If I were him though, I would have embedded that bad boy. That’s the hand you use to stroke yourself, right?” Sam turned away, laughing.
Hounder looked around for an ally. Everyone just shook their heads.
“Why is she such a bitch, man?”
“Because it’s what I’m good at, amongst other things. You’ll never know what those other things are so don’t worry your pretty little head over it. Okay, pumpkin?”
Brian spoke up then.
“Look, our main goal is to get Ming Ni out unharmed. Collin Mercer is going to be the main issue. He’s like a ninja. He will need to be found first. He’ll also be the most likely to be closest to Ming. Lang, the bastard that he is, is probably going to steer clear of the central areas and be holed up somewhere away from the action. Jeremy Wilkens is the one that I want the most. You do not fuck family over this way. The spoiled, rich bitch is throwing a tantrum and using his niece as a weapon to fucking score. Money and drugs do not replace a child’s life. We will come at this at multiple angles. I want this shit finished today. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“Lucky, you got a minute?” Brian asked as the team dispersed to their respective offices or the recreation center on the floor below.
Brian had watched and read Isa’s responses to him being hurt the other day. He’d had the same response when he’d learned that she’d been.
The fact that the team members doubled meant he didn’t need to have her in the field with them. She held too high of a position with him to put herself in the midst of the fray. The only reason she’d been on that op with them was because she’d had an established connection with one of the heavy hitters. From now on, she would be in office.
“Sure …” lowering her voice, she began to whisper. “Chocolate Ghost.”
Brian chuckled as he turned away from the windows that were previously behind a lowered from the ceiling projection screen. Proph told him that morning that he was working on a way to shade the windows so the screen wasn’t necessary. Proph would rather have the screen set to be a 3D map when needed.
“Soon, Lead Dog. Soon.”
Brian smiled to himself, thinking about the genius that was and is Elijah Reynolds and how little it took to have him like a child at Christmas. When Brian told him that he had an open ended budget to make the offices the way he wished them to be electronically and security-wise, the man nearly dropped his tablet. Since that thing could always be found in the man’s hand, his almost dropping it said something.
“What’s that smile for?”
Turning, he hadn’t realized she’d been looking at him until she mentioned the smile.
“Thinking about Proph and his gadgets, but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you. I wanted you to know that I am putting in a request that you remain in-house. I don’t think we both need to be out risking our lives.”
“Don’t. Brian, don’t start that shit. You know I am more than capable of handling myself. I’ve done this shit for years. I know what I’m doing. You’ve seen me in action.”
“Yes, I have. I’ve also had my focus split because of my need to have one eye on you and one eye on the target.”
She released a breath and he knew she was gearing up to do battle with him.
“We’ve talked about this and gone around in circles with it. You don’t have to do that anymore.”
Brian stepped forward and grabbed her small hands in his. Leaning down, he placed his forehead on hers before speaking.
“Do you believe me to be a stupid and impractical man?”
“No. You know I don’t, but …”
“Do you think I don’t know what it means to have you in these offices and on this team? What it means for the two of us?”
Her eyes snapped up to stare into his. They began to water as she continued to look at him. He saw the moment that things were clear for her. Isa took another deep breath before she spoke again.
“No, I see that you know what it means. I just …”
“Being here in this office doesn’t make you any less of a part of this team. You are in my world, in more ways than one. We have to think of the flower.”
Isa’s eyes closed and a tear leaked out. Stooping down, he kissed away the tear that fell.
“I am, Brian. It’s why I want to be there. I want to have your back. The people you have in place can do that just as well, huh? Some even better.”
She tried to smile, but it didn’t quite work out. Instead, she huffed out a breath and rolled her eyes before blinking away the last of her tears.
“Be here, in the fortress Proph built for our team and I’ll be sure to do my damndest to return. I don’t like the furrowing of the brow that happens when you worry that beautiful head of yours.”
Isa swatted at him before stopping his forward motion. Pulling him back to her, she stepped up on tiptoe just the way he loved for her to do. He enjoyed the moments when she took what she wanted all of those years ago. When those lips touched his, he felt like he entered a time warp. Four years had rewound and he was standing on her doorstep saying goodbye to the woman he loved more than any woman who had crossed his path. He’d left fighting off the reaction of knowing the ring he’d had in his pocket would never grace her gorgeous fingers. By no one’s stretch of the imagination was their break up foreseen. They’d been happy, but she couldn’t handle both of them being out in the field. It was too much and there were important changes happening that had her rethinking things. He’d gone to propose and she’d told him they needed to end things.
Brian wouldn’t learn until later the true reason behind her ending things. His Lucky was pregnant with their firstborn child and she was scared as shit of losing the child along with him. It was just easier for her to have a guarantee of one thing because she knew he wasn’t ready to give up the other. She also didn’t know if she wanted to be bound to someone she had to explain where they were all of the time.
Brian was in the main artillery room gearing up when Trig walked in and stood in the doorway. The entrance to the room had two doors that were locked the instant anyone entered or exited. The only way in or out was with a code that was programmed to each of the team members biometrics, courtesy of work completed by Charlie Boy and Proph. Charlie had surprised everyone with his knowledge of biology, genetic coding, and quantum theory. At least, Brian believed that was what the pip squeak and the resident geek were talking about.
Brian looked up again and noticed Trig studying him.
“What’s up?”
Trig gave him a once-over again before speaking, “You put in your request, huh?”
“Yeah, I did. She wasn’t happy about it. In the end, she understood. Isa goes out only when it’s deemed a necessity.”
Trig nodded his head and stood to his full height of six feet five inches. With his arms folded over his chest the way they were, he was a formidable man who he was glad to call his friend. Brian did not want to be on the receiving end of the man’s powerhouse punches.
“Something on your mind, Trev?”
Trig snickered before responding. “There’s always something on my mind. That’s not anything new.”
“No, it’s not. What is new is the fact that you’re hovering and not speaking your mind. That is out of the norm.”
“Yeah. I know. You’ve put in your request, now I’m putting in mine.”
Brian paused his motion of holstering his
weapon and turned to look at the big man and one of his oldest friends. He thought to himself that he must’ve heard the man wrong. There was no way that he could have just heard this man ask him to sit on the sidelines while the men and women on this team risk their lives every day. In some cases, it would be every hour.
“Trig, I’m going to hope that you are talking about something else other than sitting out one of the most important operations for this team. This Is the one that we all have to prove our worth. This group just started working together.”
He knew he was reaching, but he had to put it out there. Trig wasn’t having any part of it. Brian crossed his arms over his chest as Trig remained in the relaxed position that he’d taken on again when Brian began to speak.
“You about done?”
Brian shot his friend the death glare. He couldn’t believe this man sometimes.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You tend to get longwinded when you feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. It’s odd since we just began this discussion.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Look, we don’t need to have you out there.”
“Trev, quit shoveling shit my way and come the fuck out with it.”
“You’re lead, man. We might not have been working together long, but this is a good thing for us. Every last one of us. There was a reason, Bri. You know it.”
Brian redirected his attention at the slight mention of why he was sent home. He felt best when he was in motion in the field. He felt like he was the star quarterback and he was being benched.
“The two of you could remain here and be like our king and queen of the fortress. Proph could be y’all’s court jester.”
“I heard that shit, ass munch.”
They heard Elijah call out. It was probably from in front of his panel of flat screens.
“Make your case elsewhere. I know you have somewhere else to be. You and your silent, saintly ways. Isa’s ass probably put you up to this shit.”
“I did not. I resent …”
“Resemble,” Trig coughed out.
Brian smiled as she gave his road dog an incredulous look.