Peace - A Navy SEALS Novel (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 3)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Peace looked over at Jill, and saw the small smile of satisfaction at delivering one of his lines back to him. “You are really something, lady. Would you marry me?”

  “I’m already engaged, but thanks for the replay.”

  Jill pulled up across the street from Ed’s. Before Peace could get out of his side to open her door, she pulled him into an embrace, which neither of them pulled away from for many moments. The passion which enveloped them so quickly, made the thought of going into the restaurant less than enticing. Jill pulled back breathlessly, fumbling with the catch on her shorts. Peace grabbed hold of her hands, nuzzling her neck.

  “Take me right now, Peace,” Jill said, trying to pull away from his grasp on her hands. “My windows are tinted.”

  “Oh baby,” Peace laughed, “you are making me crazy. What are we going to do with this inconvenient Lexus center console?”

  Jill paused for a moment, and then tried to get out the door with Peace still holding her hands. “We’ll get in the back. C’mon, no one will know.”

  “You’re nuts,” Peace replied, pulling on her hands.

  “If you can invade Mexico on a weekend pass, you can damn well climb into the backseat with me for a quickie,” Jill said matter-of-factly.

  Peace did as he was ordered.

  __

  Polasky, who had been watching for Peace and Jill’s arrival from his station behind the bar, smiled as he watched the disheveled couple stop to exchange hellos with his wife before coming into the bar. Ed noticed how Jill clung to Peace’s arm, looking furtively up at Peace, as she smiled and talked with Nancy. Even from where he stood, Polasky could tell Jill’s face was flushed. The couple walked into the bar a moment later, and sat down on a couple of stools at the bar in front of Polasky.

  “What have you two been doing?” Polasky grinned, a knowing look on his face. “Did you run here from Dan’s, or…”

  “That’ll be enough from you, Grandpa,” Peace cut in, as he glanced at Jill. She had flushed crimson right to the roots of her hair, and looked down away from Polasky’s grinning face. She glanced over at Peace guiltily, still clutching his arm.

  “Boy, you’d be great working undercover with that poker face,” Peace said, with more than a little exasperation creeping into his voice.

  “I didn’t say I was a secret agent like you, 007,” Jill giggled, as Polasky burst into raucous laughter.

  “Oh, you two are so well matched,” Polasky managed to say after a moment. “Did you square things with Dan and Bull?”

  “With Jill’s help, I made a hit. You should have seen their faces when Jill told them she was pregnant. We rounded up a wedding party for a more manageable ceremony too.”

  “Sounds good,” Ed replied. “It’s a little late now that Jill’s pregnant, but did you ever get a chance to explain the long absences?”

  “I… ah…”

  “That’s what I thought,” Polasky sighed.

  Jill patted Peace’s arm. “Becky explained the downside with Holly and me today. We were talking about what would happen if you suddenly were sent out and didn’t come back until after the baby was born.”

  “It could happen,” Ed confirmed. “It won’t be easy even in the best of times.”

  “I’m not letting him get away now that I’ve trapped him, Ed,” Jill replied.

  “I see that,” Ed chuckled as his waitress, Barb came up to say hi, and get her drink orders filled.

  “Hi Peace, playing tonight?” Barb asked as Polasky went about filling her drink order.

  Peace nodded. “This is my fiancé, Jill Gregory, Barb. Jill, this is my friend and co-worker Barb Conterro.”

  “Congratulations,” Barb said, shaking hands with Jill. “Have you two set a date?”

  “I’m pregnant,” Jill said calmly, “so it will be soon.”

  Barb laughed, patting Peace on the back. “That’s Peace alright, everything backwards. It’s marriage first, and then the baby, Peace. Didn’t you learn anything in the Seals?”

  “Okay, okay,” Peace grinned. “In answer to your question, yes I’ll be going into the back pretty quick.”

  “The sooner the better, before all our dinner patrons take off without a stop in the bar. They’ll be out of my tip range soon, so get to work,” Barb ordered, as she took her drink tray up from Ed, with the assorted change.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Peace agreed, getting to his feet. “Hey, Ed, how’s the bullet hole repair going?”

  “I’m keeping some of them,” Polasky said. “We have to retain some of the proof for our notoriety. They’re drawing curious looks every day.”

  “Leave it to you to turn bullet holes into advertisements.”

  “Business is not all about accounting, young man,” Polasky instructed. “You have to have a little bit of P.T. Barnum in you to run a restaurant like this.”

  “Well then, Mr. Barnum, I’ll go get the side show started.”

  __

  Jill lay next to Peace in his bed, with her head against his shoulder. “I had a great time tonight.”

  “I’m just glad Ed and Nancy didn’t want to play cards very long,”

  Peace replied. “I had a great time once they let us go to bed.”

  Jill giggled, moving provocatively against Peace’s side.

  “Careful,” Peace warned. “You’re courting danger, young lady.”

  “No way could…” Jill let her hand move down from Peace’s chest. “Peace!”

  “Hey, you started it.”

  “I have to get up early tomorrow,” Jill complained, yet continued to court danger.

  “Goodnight then,” Peace whispered, turning away from Jill to his side.

  “Don’t you dare turn away from me,” Jill said, moving against his back.

  Peace rolled back over to face her, kissing Jill gently, as he caressed her side. “You women can never make up your mind.”

  “Sure we can,” Jill replied. “I made up my mind you weren’t going to sleep yet ten minutes ago.”

  Peace gripped Jill’s hips with both of his hands. “You are so going to regret you said that.”

  “I doubt it,” Jill replied softly.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Career Moves

  Chuck opened up the motel room door, and moved aside to allow Peace to walk by him. “I’m going to have to buy a house down here if this keeps up.”

  Peace had taken off his ball cap, and sat down at the table, shrugging his shoulders before relaxing back in the chair. “It’s your nickel. You call, I come.”

  “Julio said to say hi. How much did you give him anyway?” Chuck asked, getting two Diet Pepsis out of the motel room refrigerator to take over to the table with him. “How much of what?”

  “Rumor has it Batiste always had at least fifty grand in his safe. Did you guys split it evenly?”

  “Batiste must have taken it out before we hit the warehouse,” Peace replied.

  “Funny, that’s what Julio said. We pay you guys pretty good,” Chuck stated, sipping his Pepsi, as he sat down across from Peace. “I didn’t know you thought it would be finders keepers when you did a job where you might run across loose cash.”

  “Want my resignation?”

  Chuck sighed, shaking his head. “Brett predicted you’d say that. I’m just screwing with you. Did you bring me back a taste?”

  “A taste of what? You sound like that Mafioso in Godfather II, Denaro has to kill to take over the neighborhood when he plays the young guy.”

  “Beak, the Black Hand guy in Godfather II says he needs to dip his beak,” Chuck laughed. “Your photographic memory going bad on you?”

  “Hey, not bad, I didn’t know you were a movie buff.”

  “Don’t change the subject. The least you could do is bring me back a few bucks.”

  “It all went into the Julio political action fund,” Peace explained. “We could use a guy higher up in the political world down there. Why not Julio?”

  “So, you didn’t e
ven keep a tip? What kind of suave secret agent are you anyway?”

  “Like you said, we get paid pretty well. I’ll need it too. I’m going to be a Father.”

  “Christ, Peace!” Chuck exclaimed, shaking hands with Peace enthusiastically. “You don’t waste any time. I think you missed a step though.”

  “I’m catching up pretty soon on the marriage aspect. You aren’t going to climb on Julio, are you? I know better than to insult your intelligence by clamming up on this Batiste money thing.”

  “That’s more polite than Julio put it,” Chuck replied with a grin. “His words were ‘Bite Me’. We’ll handle it. Your idea about boosting Julio into a position of political power is not too bad. He never hinted to me he wanted to try anything like running for office. Down there, you have to be careful about how you run for a political office. I figured he had more intelligence than to take on the political system in Mexico.”

  “Somebody has to, or we’re going to continue to have Terrorists using Mexican borders and ports as staging grounds for attacks on our soil. What kind of song and dance will you have to do over this money thing?”

  “You and Julio stopped a possible nuclear or biological holocaust. We ain’t the Girl Scouts. Since you’ve become a prospective Father, I might have to throw in a little bonus since you didn’t keep any of what you found.”

  “I’ll use it to start a college fund, thanks.”

  “It’s the least we can do. I was hoping you weren’t going to tell me you were quitting on us since you found out about impending parenthood.”

  “It may come to that some day if I don’t get a guaranteed million dollar life insurance policy in my hands,” Peace said, putting his hands out palm up on the table.

  “That’s cold, Peace,” Chuck replied, covering his face with his hands, and shaking his head in apparent disappointment. “Are you trying to tell me you don’t think Uncle Sam will take care of your new family if anything, God forbid, happens to you?”

  “Yea, that covers it nicely,” Peace chuckled.

  “I’ll get on it,” Chuck sighed. “Anything else, you pirate, before we get down to business?”

  “Did you get Julio’s car back to him?”

  “He told me to tell you the interior was dirty, and you should have vacuumed it out before you gave it back.” “I’ll bet he did,” Peace laughed.

  “He seems to have adopted a young woman you two found with Batiste.”

  “Really? I thought he might use her for bait.”

  “It seems being around you made him a risk taker,” Chuck added smugly. “What do you think he plans to do with her?”

  “Chuck, if I…”

  “Don’t do it, buddy,” Chuck warned. “I see that look on your face. You know what I mean.”

  “Why didn’t you ask him?”

  “I did, but he only has a two word vocabulary for everything of interest to me since he went with you on this mission: ‘Bite Me’. You may have to fly solo from now on if you plan on continuing this unauthorized contamination of our foreign agents.”

  “Julio doesn’t need me for original thoughts,” Peace replied. “Finding what we did down there kind of changes your outlook on things in general.”

  “I can understand that. We sent a team into Batiste’s place with the new photon emitters, incorporating carbon nanotube technology. Know what I’m talking about?”

  “Yea,” Peace nodded. “They shoot out a tightly bound emission bandwidth, revealing the molecular makeup of any substance. I can see where they would come in handy looking for what kind of bio weapons they were building up.”

  “They had weapons grade anthrax; but in addition to that, they were working on a way to distribute small pox, and a virile nerve agent related to Sarin.”

  “Jesus,” Peace whispered.

  “Exactly,” Chuck nodded. “Mexico will be tightening things up a lot from now on, because they were told in no uncertain terms what will happen the next time we get wind of something like this.”

  “With all the news breakout, is there still a chance of getting an incoming shipment?”

  “We’ll know in two days. A tanker with Iranian registry will be porting in two days. We have a sub shadowing it right now, and they are traveling incommunicado, so we’re hoping they are ignorant of our little find. Nice of Batiste to keep such a detailed log. His computer files were a piece of cake.”

  “No China Syndrome?”

  “We’re not sure yet,” Chuck admitted. “I wanted to let you know where we are in all this. Word is we’ll move quick once we establish a target.”

  “I appreciate the heads-up. It looks like my marriage will be moved up drastically.”

  “I didn’t tell you this so you could get your invitations out. This is absolute Eyes Only stuff, Peace.”

  “Dan, Bull, and the rest of the guys are all over me,” Peace replied with a shrug. “They know the Mexico thing was no coincidence, and Jill keeps quiet, but she knows too. We planned to marry quickly, so it won’t seem too contrived if we go for it within weeks rather than months. Her folks are a little torqued, anyway.”

  “I’ll bet. Okay, do what you have to do. I wouldn’t want your kid to be born a bastard. Hopefully you’ll be returning in one piece so he won’t grow up into one, like his old man.”

  “Thanks, I needed that. Want to come to the wedding as my uncle?”

  “The Company is not a marriage and daycare center, Peace,” Chuck laughed. “I’ll just have to wish you well, and let it go at that. Your bonus will be added to the account we set up for you in the Cayman’s, as per your paranoid wishes.”

  “Hey, it’s not me who keeps talking about plausible denial. Money trails are the pits. Think about what a mess it would have been if the cops had delved into my private bank accounts over the Batiste thing.”

  “You think we weren’t all over that. They would have never made it in.”

  “Just the same,” Peace insisted. “I like the way we do it now.”

  “You must have quite a stash in there by now. You certainly haven’t been spending it on cars.”

  “As if you don’t know how much,” Peace retorted.

  “I believe you have overestimated our relationship to the Cayman’s, little buddy. That’s why you picked it, I’m sure.”

  “I’ll bet their whole board of directors is on your payroll, or are being blackmailed in some way,” Peace replied, watching Chuck closely.

  “Maybe we do,” Chuck smiled, returning Peace’s intent look. “Maybe the only money you have there is on an accounting sheet.”

  Chuck’s eyes never wavered, nor did the slight smile on his lips change in the slightest. “Was it good for you too?”

  Peace leaned back in his chair, relaxing and sipping his drink. “I’m like Daffy Duck compared to you. I believe you could keep up this inane stuff for days without blinking.”

  “How many times have I told you,” Chuck shrugged. “You imagine too much. Don’t give so much credit. Not everyone is an evil genius just waiting to thwart you, Duddley Doright. I’ve watched you real close the last couple of years. I was way behind you when I was your age.

  Those little adlibs, as Julio calls them, you make on every mission, really are instinctive. I think you have a future with us when you get out of the field. How would you like to run these operations someday?”

  “I’ll think about it. I just don’t want to end up an old bitter drop out like you.”

  “Ouch!”

  Peace laughed. “Any other fallout you want to go over?”

  “Nope, I just wanted to put you on notice we are working on who to go after from this Batiste mission. Let’s plan on meeting back here in two weeks. I’ll know more by then. This Iranian angle may lead to another desert incursion for you and your buddies.”

  “Seal Team Six is not the only special forces bunch in the service, you know. Why not give this to Delta.”

  “We don’t have any recruits on Delta. In addition to that, they don
’t have anyone who speaks any Arabic dialects. You were our first, and so far only, experiment with having our guys in actual units like the Seals.”

  “You guys have your own teams,” Peace replied. “I can understand why you would want people in place everywhere you can, but…”

  “You’re a little special, Peace,” Chuck admitted. “You have a unique combination of skills, experiences, and dedication we don’t have elsewhere. You may think I’m yanking your chain, but think about it. Sure, we have skilled, experienced people; but if we had sent any of them into Mexico, their probability of success would have been much lower than yours.”

  “You’re making me blush,” Peace retorted.

  Chuck put up his hands. “Okay, fine, but if you know of any ex-hostages out there with a Master’s Degree in computer technology, who speak five languages including Arabic, with sniper’s and Seal skills, do me a favor and sign them up. We’ll take them in a second; but then think about how tough it would be to find someone like that, with your hard earned outlook, and dedication.”

  “Let me tell you something, my friend,” Chuck continued, “I have to convince Brett, and the others above him, to even let you go out on an op. They don’t want to lose you. They want to lock you down in a situation room, and use you like that guy on the TV show… ah…”

  “The Pretender?” Peace offered, laughing.

  “Yea, that’s the one, but it’s not as funny as you think. Hell, we’ve trained you to fly small planes and helicopters. Even your instructors were astonished at how quickly you became proficient. If we needed you to fly fighter jets, you’d probably be flying them off a carrier within a month. I’m only saying this stuff, because we don’t want you to think of your CIA association as some lark you’re doing. We need you to make a career with us.”

  Peace stayed silent, considering Chuck’s words.

  “Did you really think we sent all our operatives to every special school under the sun? You’re remarkable, Peace, even if you didn’t have the skills you have. Your IQ is off the charts, and yet your common and logistical sense are second to none.”

  “Common sense and logic were not in me for a long time. They were beaten into me in Iraq,” Peace replied with a grin.