by Dale Cadeau
“We can use our home or office “Jared offered.
“Thanks, but I don’t think they’re an option. The General found your cottage, so he probably has your office and home under surveillance too,” James said, running his hand through his hair in frustration.
Brad spoke up. “I just bought a house. The paperwork is just barely dry. We can go there. I know it won’t be in any system yet.”
“Don’t tell me that you finally listened to us and bought a house?” Angel razzed him.
They had been after Brad to buy something permanent for years. But he’d always said he didn’t want to get tied down and a house would make him feel old.
“Ya, well don’t rub it in. I took your advice and looked at all the rent I had paid over the years. With that money I could have bought a couple of houses. So I finally broke down.”
“We all have to grow up sometime,” Angel told him with a smirk.
“Where is it?” James asked. “I don’t want to be too far from the city. We have to go in tonight and make sure there are no surprises in the office or my place. Or any of our places for the matter. Grace has access to all our places, and she or the General just might have left us some calling cards. After he gets wind of us getting away, which he should be receiving news of shortly, he will be out for blood. What better way than to blow up our office or our homes where we feel safe? And knowing the General, taking out a few extra hundred innocent people along the way will be the icing on the cake. It will be one more thing he can pin on us.”
“It’s not far from Angel’s house. Let’s go. I will drive the first truck and you follow.” Brad nodded at James as he made his way to the first truck in line.
Clay and the other men agreed that this would be the best place for a temporary office until they had time to regroup and make a plan.
“First thing when we get there, we have to phone the Army and get them off their tails,” James said as he strode to the second truck.
“I can just imagine the red tape we will have to unravel when we do,” Clay said, climbing in the truck and pulling Laura on his lap.
“I love you,” he whispered to her.
Laura looked away quickly, saying nothing and barely holding back her tears.
She had made a mistake by allowing people to get close to her. Ever since she had first seen that bank statement, she had gotten a target on her back. She knew no matter what that the General would always be after her. Tonight her new friends had lost their home, and the rest were lucky to still have their lives.
She decided that as soon as she could, she would disappear again. She would cut her hair, get a new ID. Laura wouldn’t exist anymore.
She had to do it. She wouldn’t let anyone else suffer. And she wouldn’t let Clay love her. No matter how hard she tried, she would only bring him pain.
The next couple of weeks were spent sleeping in sleeping bags at Brad’s new house, while the office and all of their homes were checked out carefully for bombs. As they feared, some were found set in the Braden Security office and in James’s apartment. It kept the men busy, trying to anticipate the General’s next move. Laura and the girls tried to make the best of it, but hated that they couldn’t do much to help.
The army had thoroughly questioned the men for days. Thank God no one was arrested. But with all the evidence, the hidden bombs, Laura’s information, and what Braden Security laid out with the help of the PIs, the army was finally coming around to believing their theory about the General.
The only thing was that after spearheading the mission to capture the so-called terrorists, the Army didn’t want to hear that they had been duped. With all the time taken to question them, it allowed the General and Grace to disappear.
Laura felt that it was all her fault. If only she hadn’t been such a chicken and ran years ago, they might have been able to dig up the information sooner and the General wouldn’t have gotten away with so much. He was guilty of the murder of the troops stationed in Colombia that were led on wild-goose chases to cover up the drug trafficking. Just as he was guilty of any deaths caused by the drugs the he had been paid for allowing into the country.
Clay had tried to reassure her that nothing could have been done differently. Still, the guilt was wearing her down. After all the dust had settled and everyone was allowed to go back to their lives, Laura had a hard time looking at Clay or getting near to him. She just felt that in some ways the guys blamed her.
Clay didn’t know what he could do to reassure Laura that nothing was her fault. He had tried anything he could think of for weeks after they left Brad’s house. The more he told her that she was innocent, the more she pulled away from him.
He tried everything he could think of to win her back. In the end, she stopped acknowledging him at all. He tried and tried until he just couldn’t try any more.
Chapter Nineteen
Finally, Clay had had enough. He began to hanging around the VSP club, much to Lance’s dismay.
Lance liked his friend, and since he had helped them save Cyn, he couldn’t throw him out. But Lance was getting fed up of Clay turning up every night and sitting at the bar on the Spice side nursing a beer and scowling at anyone who approached him. He was such a downer that the people who had come to play were starting to complain. Lance tried to get him to at least move over to the vanilla side, but Clay wouldn’t budge.
The Vanilla side of the VSP was where he had first met Laura. He knew that she wouldn’t be there, but he didn’t want to take the chance of meeting any of Laura’s friends. He knew they wouldn’t come into the spice side, so he was safe there.
Being at his wits’ end, Lance called Angel and explained the situation to him. “I’m really starting to worry,” Lance told Angel.
Angel agreed and told Lance “We also noticed that Clay was more closed mouth than usual. He doesn’t let on that anything is wrong. We have tried to get him to talk, but he just changes the subject or walks out of the room. Lately he’s started taking the most dangerous jobs that have come down the pipe line, and we’re starting to worry. He justifies it by saying now that James and I are married, we have responsibilities, which he doesn’t, so it is better for him to take any chances.
Grant and Brad always keep tabs on him, but they told us it is getting out of hand, he’s taking chances that he normally wouldn’t think to take.
Leave it with us and I’ll see what we can come up with to stop this nonsense.”
Angel, after ending the call, walked over to the couch where Cyn was waiting for him to continue the movie that they had been watching. When she saw his expression, she turned the TV off. She turned on the couch with one leg under her and faced Angel as he sat down.
“What’s wrong? Is it Clay again?”
“Yeah, he’s been acting cold, colder than normal for him. He has been short with all of us, sometimes almost biting our heads off if we ask if he is OK. But that was Lance on the phone. He says he’s worried because Clay has been going to the club most nights, sitting in the spice side of the bar drinking. That’s not like him at all. We are going to have to do something.”
“Sorry, Angel, I didn’t know. I leave the club at four every day and Lance has not said anything to me about it. If he had, I would have tried talking to him myself.”
Angel pulled Cyn into his lap. “Thanks, but I don’t think he would have listened to anything you would have to say. Lance probably tried, too, and didn’t get anywhere. That’s why he called. We all know Clay just can’t let Laura go and it’s eating him up inside. I don’t know why she is so set in taking all the blame on herself for what happened, and about the General getting away. You’re a good judge of people—what do you think? You girls got to know each other pretty well when we were all staying at Brads.”
“My opinion is that she is full of guilt. By her and Clay not being able to hash it out right away, with everyone staying at Brad’s, it festered in her. After all, we were there for a full two weeks. They had no alone time
. I know none of us did, but we weren’t in the same situations as them. Every night all the talk was about how the General got away and how you and the guys couldn’t catch a break. Nights were spent with the girls in one room and the guys in the other. Oh, I know we had to do it with Brad’s house being so small, and we needed the third bedroom for a computer office and base. At least James and Avery took off every once in a while, just like we did, to have some alone time. But Clay and Laura didn’t. Clay wouldn’t take the chance with Laura’s safety. I noticed a few times when Clay would approach her, she would lower her eyes and find something that needed her attention. I could see Clay’s frustration. She wouldn’t talk to us either. She just kept saying how sorry she was that she had put us through all of this.”
Angel hugged Cyn closer. “So what do we do? Laura won’t talk to the women and Clay won’t open up to us. Do we just give up? I really like the big guy. Hell, we all do. The unit has been through so much over the years that we’ve become a family. We have to come up with something.”
Cyn reached up and ran a finger over Angel’s lips, stopping him from carrying on with the subject. “I know you want him to be as happy as we are. It’s just natural that you want all of your family to be happy. But I think it’s going to take us all putting our heads together.” Cyn leaned in and gave Angel a quick kiss.
“But I think that can wait for tomorrow. You can call a meeting without Clay knowing and we’ll see what we can do. Now how about you show me what a happily married man does to keep his new wife happy.” Cyn got up off Angel’s lap and took his hand, leading him into their bedroom.
* * * *
Two days later, in the early morning, Clay woke up to his cell phone ringing. Reaching out he grabbed it off his nightstand and barked into it. “Clay.”
“Clay, I think we have a situation developing. Can you get to the office as soon as possible? I’m calling a meeting with everyone,” James told him in an abrupt voice.
Clay sat up in bed, his stomach giving a tumble from his abrupt movement and from the amount he had drank the night before. “I think I’ll let you guys deal with this if you don’t mind. I’m not feeling on top of my game today.”
James gave a sigh over the phone. “OK, I think we can handle it without you. I just thought that Laura still meant something to you. Feel better and get back to us when you do.” And the phone clicked off in Clay’s ear.
“What the fuck?” Clay hit the redial and James came back on the line.
“OK, Clay, what do you want? I don’t have time to talk right now, the guys are just arriving,” James replied bluntly.
“What the fuck, James? You can’t just drop a bombshell like that and hang up.” Clay now was sitting up straighter and running his hand back and forth through his hair.
“Clay, like I just said, I don’t have time for this. If you want to know what is going on, get your ass to the office.” James ended the call again.
Clay wiped a weary hand over his face and got out of bed. Reaching for his pants lying on the floor where he left them last night, he pulled them on. Then he dug in the dresser for a clean T-shirt.
Fuck, he hated being left in the dark, and damn, James knew he still had feelings for Laura. His heart started to pound as he tried to think of what could have happened to cause James to call a meeting. What if the General had come back and grabbed Laura? Snatching up his keys off of the hall table, he hurried out the door to the elevator and down to the parking lot.
He ran to his truck as his mind went through every possible scenario he could come up with. Turning the key impatiently he gunned the engine and tore out of the lot, almost clipping a car in his hurry to get to the office.
James put his cell phone down on the conference table and picked up his coffee cup before he sat back. He took a sip as he looked around at everyone sitting at the table.
Smiling he told them, “Clay is on his way. Now don’t forget to look worried when he gets here and we have to make sure we all have the same story.”
Twenty minutes later, Clay strode into the conference room of Braden Security. He had broken every traffic law getting here that fast. His mind on the drive over went over every minute he had spent with Laura and he knew he had given up too easy. Now he might not have another chance. His gut was clenching with the thought of losing Laura.
He knew then that he could never stop trying to get her back. He loved her. She meant everything to him, and he hoped to God that he had the opportunity to tell her that.
Walking to his usual chair, he barely spared a glance at the others sitting around the table. His attention was centered only on James, who just sat back and continued sipping his coffee.
Clay banged on the table and shot James a hard look after he had taken his seat.
“Out with it, James. I’m fucking here now.”
James sat up and put his coffee cup on the table. James was not going to give him a pass that easy.
“We”—James looked around the table at the men and the woman gathered around, even Jared and Stan with Janet sat at the table—“think that with all the runaround you received from Laura, you are determined to forget her. And think that we can handle everything when it comes to this business. In fact, I was just receiving flack from the women for calling you. The girls were just telling me that I’m not considering your feelings in the matter.”
Clay turned an incredulous look at everyone. He realized, finally, that everyone that had been at the cabin was now sitting around the table. James was right. When he had stopped trying with Laura, he had also stopped trying with his friends. He had left his unit behind, something that he had sworn he would never do. It was about time he put down the bottle and took up the fight alongside the men who had become as close to him as brothers. “You’re right not to consider my feelings. I can’t allow my feelings to get in the way helping with a job. If I’m needed, then it’s my job to help. Braden Security is a team and I’m still part of it.”
Janet, who had been sitting at the far end of the table between her men, spoke up. “Clay, I know I speak for most of us. We like both of you and wouldn’t want to put you through something that could be hard for you, and especially Laura.”
“What do you mean hard for Laura? Would she even care? She made it clear that she didn’t want me around. But if she is in danger, that’s another story. Why the hell are we even sitting around talking about this, when Laura might need us?” Clay turned back to James.
“OK,” James said to Clay. “Let’s get on with it, but I want you to tell us if it’s too much for you, Clay. We’ll understand and will handle it ourselves.” James picked up the folder on the table before him.
“James, when did you get so touchy-feely? You sound like one of the girls. Just get on with it.”
The girls in question huffed at his words and James gave them a small smile.
“It looks like Laura disappeared two days ago. Here are the pictures from the small camera that you installed just outside of her front door after we got back.” He handed a picture to Clay.
In it, Laura was being escorted to a black panel van. The faces of the men holding her arms on either side, couldn’t be seen. But they were large muscular men dressed in black hoodies, with them up hiding their faces.
Clay looked at the picture. “This doesn’t tell us anything. She might know these guys and is going willingly.”
James handed him another picture. In this one it showed them at the van shoving Laura into it. Her face looked terrified. Clay felt his stomach turn over. He wanted to reach into the picture and beat the shit out of the guys that were scaring her.
“You said this happened two days ago. Why are we just looking at these pictures now?”
“Well, Brad was just going to pick up the cameras as we all felt it wasn’t needed anymore. Nothing has happened in weeks and we all thought that Laura was safe and the danger was over. Brad, when he got the cameras back to the office, he noticed that one had went off a few times. So
he thought it wouldn’t hurt to take a look and found these.”
“Well, we sure are a good security team, when we only check the cameras every couple of weeks.” Clay glared at Brad.
“Hey, don’t blame me. We’ve all been busy and Laura is not one of our clients. You didn’t seem to care, and there has been no word of the General being back on US soil, so it kind of got put on the back burner.”
Clay rose to his feet, his face becoming red with anger. “But this is Laura, that’s what’s different.” Clay looked ready to take a strip off of Brad and even moved toward him, but James reached out and grabbed his shoulder.
“Sit down, Clay, this won’t help. We have to find out who took her. You can beat on him later.”
Clay sat down but still glared at Brad before turning his gaze back to James. “So what have you found out?”
“Well, from the pictures we were able to get a partial plate number and it looks like it might have been an associate of the General’s. Grant found that it is registered to a private that used to work for the General years ago.”
“Well, let’s go and pick the bastard up,” Clay said, getting up, ready to leap into action.
“Not so quick,” James told him. “Grant had to dig to find that out and the guy vanished from sight a couple of years ago. The plates on the van are old and haven’t been renewed. So there is no current address for the guy.”
Grant took up their tale. “I looked into old records and the guy, from what I could find out, disappeared under very strange circumstances. One day he was working for the General, the next he was gone and nobody could find him. The General seemed upset at the time, but didn’t pursue it any further when they didn’t find him after a couple of months. That’s all I could find. Nothing new. No credit cards, no new address, nothing.”
“That’s all you could dig up?” Clay asked Grant with disgust. “We find more out on the people we do jobs for. This is Laura, for God’s sake. I think you’re slipping, Grant. There must be something you’re missing, you just have to dig a little deeper.”