Assignment: Second Chances

by Honor James

  “Not throwing stones in the least,” he said. He chuckled before relaying some more information to the men on the current whereabouts of their two individuals of interest. “They are about ten minutes out if they keep going on their current heading, from a dead zone. Zero cameras in the area. You need to be on their ass before they get there or we’re hooped. They could come out anywhere, and I can’t see all areas at the same time even with Clara helping me.”

  “Copy that,” someone said. “We’re six minutes out from latest position.”

  “Good, but keep the pedal to the metal Cutter.”

  “You all had better keep up with each other and keep each other safe or I’m sure that there are several wives and girlfriends that will be seriously pissed off with you guys.” Most of the crew was married, but a couple still hadn’t tied the knot, yet. Their weddings were in process however which was good. All except for her, Lee, and Nathan.

  “And too many of them know how to use most of our gear,” Elliott muttered. He shot a look over his shoulder to where Clara was and visibly relaxed. Meeting her gaze, he gave a shrug. “Still a little paranoid, but it’s getting easier each day,” he told her quietly.

  “I know, love,” Clara told Elliott when she moved forward a bit in her chair. “But I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Elliott, and I’m damn well making you keep me, so just shush it. We are good. I promise.”

  Olivia felt a little bad listening in on the conversation between the two, but she also didn’t want to leave the room because she wanted to listen to her men.

  Catching her hand in his, Elliott lifted it so he could press a kiss to her fingers. “Never letting you go, babe. You are stuck with me, and my slobbish ways.” Smiling, he tugged her in close enough to give her a quick kiss on her lips. A loud kiss that got the guys on the other end of the open microphone gagging, whistling, and making some interesting suggestions.

  “Good,” Clara said with a smile.

  It was Olivia who said, “Oh shush it, all you guys. Seriously you boys are just being silly. Tell me that you all wouldn’t do the same darn thing if you didn’t have your women right there with you.”

  Several made grudging admissions that they would, while a few stayed mostly silent. Then someone said something in a language she didn’t understand, or recognize, and had everyone howling with laughter. Even Elliott was chuckling, and shaking his head. He said something in return in the same language, she was guessing. “You guys should be seeing them any second now,” he said, switching back to English.

  “Got ‘em,” someone said. “They are a half block ahead of us.”

  “Yeah, I see them too,” Cutter she was guessing from what she’d heard earlier. “I’m falling back to secondary now.”

  “You do know that I’m going to make you teach me that language, right?” Olivia told all of the men. “Seriously, I’m totally going to want to learn that language because I don’t like you guys holding out on me.” She was talking to her men on this one and they knew it.

  “We’ll teach you the basics,” Nathan said. “But it’ll take you a while to get it, not that I have any doubts in your skills.”

  “She does realize we know more than one non-English language right?” someone asked.

  “Shh. Don’t be telling her that,” Nathan said sharply.

  “Great, so I am going to have to learn more than one language? Seriously guys. Not fair.” She was smiling, however, she couldn’t help it. “It’s okay though, hopefully you will be able to teach me the basics of what I need to know, right?” Enough to get her in trouble that was.

  “At least eight,” Lee told her. “Though I know another couple beyond that, and Elliott is one up on me I think.”

  “You got it, though it was more out of boredom that I learned it, not for any real-world use,” Elliott said. “Okay guys, you are now officially on your own until you come out of the dark zone. I’m eyes off.”

  “We’ve got them,” Nathan said. “We’ll let you know where we are as we progress so you can track us. I’m kind of hoping they decide to stop somewhere in this nice blind area so that there’s no video proof of anything that may, or may not happen.”

  Sadly Olivia felt the same way. She wanted the guys to make sure that they were able to take these assholes down at the knees. She wanted Phyllis and her lover down at the knees.

  The men would call in cross streets as they progressed along. All of that in between a conversation of the best places for appetizers. She knew they did it, so they were relaxed before whatever happened, but it was a little like dealing with a bunch of kids with short attention spans as they hopped from topic to topic.

  Elliott sent her an apologetic look. “You oddly get used to it in time,” he told her.

  “Good heavens, are you for real?” she asked with a frown. “Because I don’t think that this is something that anyone would get used to. They are all talking over each other at times. It’s crazy. How are they able to tell what’s going on and what’s just chatter?”

  “Years, and years of practice. The only time we were ever quiet in the field was on watch, or during close-quarters missions. This is all normal to me. I can pick out each voice, know who is saying what, and still pick up what Michael and Cutter are relaying for positions. You learn to tune in and out as you listen.”

  “Right, okay.” Olivia then began to really listen. She started to listen to the things that they were saying, but also the things that they weren’t saying. She was determined to know what was happening when it happened.

  “Okay, now it’s on. I can’t believe you actually think Porter’s burgers are better than Mackenzie’s. Are you fucking drunk?”

  “They’re slowing.”

  “They are better. They don’t have all that useless foliage on them like Mackenzie’s. I go in for a burger, not a damn salad. If I’d wanted a salad, I’d have ordered one.”

  “I think they’re looking for an address.”

  “So you’re saying a little extra on a burger is wrong? I happen to like my pickles, and Mackenzie’s has the best damn pickles around. His mom makes them by the ton.”

  “Switching position.”

  “Copy that, slipping in behind them.”

  “Pickles are fine, even onion is okay as long as it doesn’t take away from the rest of the burger. It’s about the beef, not the fixings. Mackenzie’s puts way too much other shit on there with the lettuce, tomato, and fucking mayo. Who the hell puts mayo on a burger?”

  “I don’t mind mayo on my burger.”

  “Shut up, Markham!” two men said in firm tones.

  “You can order it without it, or on the side you know.”

  “Beside the fucking point. A good burger shouldn’t need to have you taking shit off it. It should be presented as is, proud, and naked. Bared for the world to see.”

  “They’re stopping.”

  “Weapons safetied, boys,” Michael said in a calm tone. “We go in soft, and take care of civilians in the area. We need to get them alone, so that no one gets hurt.”

  “We’re not done discussing this.”

  “Agreed. Because Porter’s is better.”

  “Good lord, I cannot believe that you guys are discussing whose burgers are better. It’s a known fact that Perry’s is the best.” Olivia put in there when she felt like throwing up. The thought of them with weapons drawn and safetied had her seriously freaked out. “I don’t like this. They are going out there with weapons and could potentially get shot. This guy tried to kill me and tried to kill Nathan. I don’t like sitting back and just listening, waiting.” She knew it was the safest place for her, but she didn’t have to like it.

  “At least this time he’s armed,” Elliott said to her. Then he said something in that foreign language again to the guys. They all went silent.

  “Vi, sweetheart. We’re fine, and we will be fine. But you need to keep positive thoughts. We’re not exactly superstitious by any definition of the word, but
if you’re a wreck than we can’t concentrate with worrying for you,” Lee said softly. “We’re going to be going radio silent soon, so you need to be calm and try to stay that way. Okay?”

  “I’m going to try.” Olivia took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She focused on simply breathing the way that Lee had taught her to keep her orgasms at bay. If it was enough to keep her from coming, it should be enough to help keep her from falling apart, right? “I’m good. Thank you, Lee,” she told him softly. “Just come home soon. I will even give you a massage, babe.”

  He growled softly for her. “It’s a deal, love. We’re going radio silent now. We’ll only be speaking when absolutely necessary. Same with Timmons, he won’t say anything unless it’s important. So I need you to keep your sexy little lips sealed as well, okay?”

  “They are sealed, baby,” Liv said with a smile and nodded. She leaned back in her seat and looked to Elliott. “You might want to mute my microphone for a short time because I’m not sure that I could remain quiet for a long time. I’m a bit of a talker when it comes to my men.”

  “Figured that out,” he said. Reaching over he pressed a couple of keys. “You are now muted to them. If you do want or need to speak, hit and hold down the spacebar on that keyboard there. Then release to mute once more. It’s the only thing it’s currently programmed to do so you won’t mess anything else up.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me. I think right now I’m good just listening.” She looked over to Clara and smiled. She was going fast as a rabbit on the keyboard in front of her. She was fully focused on what was before her. “She’s seriously going to town isn’t she? Does she do that often?”

  “Oh hell yeah. Fucking hot isn’t it?” he asked with a goofy grin on his face. “She is so damn sexy when she’s hacking through systems she really shouldn’t be in. But she’s trying to get us some more details on the location. Without cameras there, she’s having to borrow a satellite to give us an infrared look.”

  “She can do that?” Olivia’s eyes were wide. “I have a hell of a time with making sure that my payroll systems work correctly and that’s software that I’ve installed so I can’t imagine just how much trouble that would be.”

  He laughed at that, and shrugged. “We both can actually. We were hackers back when the Net was just getting going. There have been a few bumps on the road, but we’ve made it through it all. Not that we ever did anything malicious, or something that is a crime. We were more Robin Hood than not.”

  “Well I never doubted you guys. I mean if Lee trusts you and signed up with you then you are good people. I just hope that I never piss you guys off enough that you would erase me and the trail of me. I’m assuming that is something you could do if you wanted, right?”

  Elliott gave her the most innocent look she’d likely ever seen. “Us? Never,” he said, shaking his head slowly. Clara threw him a look that had him rolling his eyes. “Okay, technically we could wipe you off the face of the planet in a way that you’d never be able to go anywhere because you were a non-person. But we only do that to people who really, really piss us off. I happen to like you, so it won’t be happening to you.”

  “Thank you. There are a couple of people though that I think deserve it.” At his look she shrugged. “Phyllis and her boy toy. I think that those two deserve having their asses deleted. Seriously I really do.”

  “While an excellent plan, if we make them cease to exist then they can’t be tried for any crimes. They wouldn’t be who we’re saying they are, and therefore not persons of interest. It’s one of those Catch-22 deals. Damned if you do it, damn annoying because you can’t.”

  “Well hell I hadn’t thought about that,” she grumbled. “Okay, so don’t erase them but if we could ensure that they will never see the light of day again that would totally rock. I mean like whoa crazy it would be awesome.”

  “We’re working on that as well. Now that we know it’s O’Donnell we have the added bonus that the US military will want a piece of him. He went AWOL, and is officially a deserter since he’s been proven to be alive. They really want a piece of him, especially since he went out and became a hired gun. Not cool in their eyes. An embarrassment to the uniform and all that fun crap.”

  “Good.” She took a deep breath and calmed herself. “Whatever it is that we have to do to make him pay, we will do it. I’m happy that we have all of you on my side,” she told him and nodded. “I hate not being able to see or hear them.”

  Elliott gave her another look. Then he wrinkled up his nose, muttered something under his breath, and hit a few keys on his keyboard. A moment later, the screen in front of her lit up with weird angle real-time images. “Vest cameras. It allows us to see what’s going on and record it too should it be necessary for later use with the police, or at trial. It’s a safety measure for everyone in the field.”

  “That’s very freaking cool. I like it.” That way they would be able to ensure that they were never accused of something bad. “God I love that man’s ass,” she whispered as she watched Lee’s ass from one of the vest cameras.

  Clara shot her a look, and grinned. Wiggling her eyebrows, the other woman carefully waved a hand in front of her mouthing the words “hot stuff.”

  “Don’t think I didn’t see that, babe,” Elliott said. “Who are you referring to as ‘hot stuff’ by the way? Just for the record before I go kill the bastard.”

  “Lee,” Clara said without hesitation to Elliott which had Olivia grinning once more. “He has a great ass but his ass is nothing on yours. I mean with yours I could bounce a quarter on it and it would jump.”

  “Which is seriously odd given how much time I spend sitting on my ass,” he said. “Then again I do spend a bit of time in the gym most days. Plus all the butt clenches I do when you are and I are getting it on together.”

  “Damn, don’t even remind me about that. When you do that it makes me just sob. Seriously.” Clara fanned herself once more.

  “Okay, I really don’t want to talk about the way you clench your ass when you are fucking her, please,” Olivia said with the shake of her head.

  Elliott gave her a shocked look. “Olivia Green, get your mind out of the gutter! I cannot believe something like that came out of someone that oddly reminds me of an angel.” He squinted her way, tipping his head slightly. “It’s the weirdest thing.”

  “Yeah, I can trust you that I’m no angel. At all,” she confessed. She thought about the things that she liked, the things that she, Lee, and Nathan did together, and she was anything but an angel. “My horns hold a halo quite nicely, however.”

  Laughing at that, he nodded. “Good on you,” he said. “The fact you can keep the tail hidden so easily in those outfits you wear is pretty impressive. Oh, hey look at that. Good going, babe.” Leaning in he kissed Carla’s cheek. “Boys, we have infrared up and running. There are four, repeat four heat signatures about twenty feet in front of you and one floor up in the warehouse.”

  “How can you tell where they are in the warehouse?” Olivia asked with a frown, turning from the teasing that she was doing to a seriousness that she hadn’t had before. “So there are four, so that means that likely two of them are Phyllis and Patrick, right?”

  “Yup, but it’s the fact there are two more that worry me. More unknowns. As to knowing where they are.” Sitting forward in his seat he pointed to the monitor. “These here are our guys. These are the four others. The four are slightly clearer than our group, which means they are closer to the roof, and have less stuff between them and the satellite. Since it’s only a three story warehouse I can extrapolate they are on the second, or middle floor due to the slightly fuzzy readings we’re getting. Not as fuzzy as the guys on the first floor, but not as clear as if they were on the top floor, or as sharp as they’d be if on the roof.”

  “Ahh, okay. That makes sense.” She looked at Elliott and with a crooked grin and asked, “So do the guys refuse to play the Call of Duty video games with you that they seem to all love t
o play and cuss out?” At least Lee and Nathan did. They would cuss the game for being unrealistic and this and that. It was actually pretty funny.

  “Actually we have a monthly game here at the office. We use the projection screen in the conference room. The table has wheels on it so we can roll it out of our way. But yes, the damn game drives us batty. We have a list of complaints about it but we’re still working our way through so we can make it as complete as possible.”

  “Oh god please tell me that you aren’t going to e-mail it to the game makers, are you?” At the look on Elliott’s face she let out a sigh. “Son of a biscuit, you are.” She was grinning however. “Only you guys. So, Clara.” She saw Clara look her way and smirked. “When the boys have their game night, do you think that you could get the wives to get together with us and we all go do something like, oh I don’t know... a strip club?”

  Clara began to giggle when Elliott growled. “I would love that.” Her eyes were dancing in laughter, which made Olivia smile all the more.

  “No, no, and hell no,” he said. “You know as well as I do that none of the guys would let you do something like that. None of that lash batting either, it won’t work any better than any of your other distraction techniques.”

  “Oh please tell me that you just did not tell us that we couldn’t do something,” Olivia said with a frown. “No way. Lee should have told you that I so don’t do well with people telling me what the hell I can and can’t do. Now I’m determined to go to a strip club. Gosh blessed it all.” She wasn’t angry, just shocked that Elliott would say that they were allowed to do something or not do something.

  Elliott shook his head at her. “Uh-huh, we’ll see,” he said. He turned his attention back to the monitors. “Guys, there’s one person of the four moving toward the south stairwell. Connor, eyes up, buddy,” he said. “Other three appear to be wandering toward the east wall of windows. I can’t tell you who is who, my darling woman didn’t hack one of the better satellites so we’re a little stunted at this end. Still impressive as hell though, babe.”