Sacrifice Love: Saints Protection & Investigations (6 page)

He pierced Jack with a hard stare. “You asked me in the interview a year ago why I wanted to leave the ATF. What I told you was true. Almost three years in and I was tired of the bullshit. You thought I only meant the bureaucracy…I did, but I was also speaking of the personal relationships that were fucked up. I never regretted the move…best goddamn decision I made.”

He then moved his piercing stare around the table to every single Saint before continuing. “But I’ll stake my reputation and my life that Adam Turner was not working with terrorists.”

The silence continued for a few seconds before Marc proclaimed, “Good enough for me, bro.” The others followed in unison.

Taking the meeting back under control, Jack said, “Let’s work the problem, men. We’ve got assignments to divide among the group and to do some reconnaissance.” The meeting continued, but Chad had to force himself to focus. His mind was still on Adam’s possible involvement…and what that would mean for Dani.

*

Dani walked out
of her office to head to a meeting down the hall. Leaving the ATF and working for the Marsden Energy Systems and Munitions Plant had been a good decision. The job did not pack the immediate punch that her ATF investigator position had, but the pay was good, work was steady, and they were thrilled to hire the former officer. With her background and knowledge in explosives and detonators, she was hired to work in their Military sales department.

In the past couple of months, she finally came to grips with Adam’s infidelities. They had started as friends and she knew they should have left their relationship that way. She missed his company…his smile…but realized her heart was only wounded, not broken.

“Hey, Danielle,” Aaron greeted.

She turned and smiled at her counterpart, the person in charge of the Industry sales department. While she worked with the military side of the business, he was responsible for selling the explosives to private companies, such as road constructions, mines, quarries and others who needed their products.

“Hi, Aaron,” she returned his friendly smile. The tall blond, with his ready grin had quickly become one of her favorite co-workers. He and his wife had invited her out a few times and she appreciated the offer of friendship. The past three months had not been easy, starting over. She thought when she left college and began working at ATF her lonely days were over. Now here she was, in her late twenties beginning a new life…again. New home, new job, new career.

Only a couple of former girlfriends from her past were still friends…the ones she believed did not know about Adam’s philandering. Even if their marriage had not been one of great love, he had sworn to be faithful. And failed.

As always, her mind wandered to Chad, torn between hating him for not being there for her and wishing—

“You’re lost in thought,” Aaron said, laughing.

Blushing, she responded, “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re right, my mind is all over the place right now. What did you say?”

“I was wondering if you had any experience, when you were with the ATF, with the detonation studies for the latest SMC’s robot model. I thought I’d read where the ATF did some studies with the company. I’ve got a meeting with them next week and I wanted your input.”

Dani scrunched her face in thought before admitting, “That sounds familiar but the reports would be about five months old. I…well, I have a bunch of things in storage from when I was with the ATF. I’ll search for you.”

“I don’t want it to be a bother,” he said.

“Oh, no bother. To be honest, I’ve needed to get into the storage unit for a while. I can easily go after work.”

“By the way, Melissa wanted me to ask if you’d like to meet us for dinner this Saturday night. We’re going to Stella’s, to celebrate our tenth anniversary.

Dani smiled, secretly envious of their successful relationship. “I hardly think you want company on your anniversary,” she joked.

“Oh, this’ll be some friends getting together. She and I’ll celebrate alone later.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Friends? Why do I get the feeling that’s code for trying to fix me up with someone?”

Throwing his hands up, he laughed. “Hey, don’t blame me if Melissa is a secret matchmaker. But honestly, it’s just some friends. It’ll be fun.”

“Okay,” she finally agreed. “I’ll run by the storage unit today, but it may take a day or two before I can locate the information for you. The studies would be public record, but I’d need to look them over again before I can give you my personal take on them. This gives me the push to do what I’ve needed to do anyway. I need to move the rest of my boxes to my house.”

“Perfect,” he said, “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Continuing down the hall, Dani walked into a large conference room for a meeting. Her discussion with Aaron made her a few minutes late and she slid into the closest chair. Todd Marsden, president of Marsden Energy Systems, smiled her way. His daughter, Cybil, was presenting a report and Dani quickly began taking notes.

The door opened again and Jahfar Khouri slipped into the seat next to hers. Glancing over with a smile, she continued to take notes. He seemed flustered, having not brought his tablet with him…or even a pad and pen to write with. Leaning over, he whispered, “Can I acquire the notes from you later? I forgot we had this meeting today.”

She nodded silently, wondering what had the usually unflappable man so distracted. Looking to the other side of the table, Cybil’s fiancé, one of the plant managers, Ethan Petit, was staring at Jahfar. Dani’s mind wandered momentarily, thinking,
I wonder why Ethan is glaring?

As the lights came back up after Cybil’s presentation, Dani startled and looked down at her notes.
Thank God, I paid attention to most of the speech.
She turned to Jahfar, blushing, and admitted, “My mind wandered at the end, but I can email the notes that I have to you later today.”

He smiled, saying, “That’s perfect, Danielle.” His dark eyes cut over toward Ethan’s and he said, “I’ve…um, I need to be going. Talk to you later.” He stood up with the others and hustled out of the room.

Staring at his back, she jumped when a hand touched her shoulder.

“You okay?” Ethan asked, concern in his eyes.

“I’m fine,” she smiled up at him, as she pushed her chair back to stand. He was handsome, in a stylish way, and she could see why he had caught Cybil’s eye.

“I wanted to tell you that you’re doing a really good job here. We were glad to get you.”

“Thank you,” she replied, her gaze moving to Cybil and Todd as they made their way over as well.

The group of four chatted for a few minutes before Cybil and Ethan headed down the hall. Turning to Todd, she smiled, saying, “I want to thank you for allowing me the chance to be a part of Marsden Energy Systems.”

Taking her hand, Todd replied, “Danielle, I will echo what Ethan said—MES was lucky to employ you. How are you settling in?”

“Two months in and I’ve learned a lot,” she answered. “Just when I think I know what I’m doing something new crops up.”

Laughing, Todd admitted, “I’m the one who took this ammunition business over from my father and grew up in the trenches…and I still learn things.”

“Then that definitely makes me feel better,” she said, smiling as they walked out of the room. Saying goodbye, she walked down the hall to her office. Her heels clicked on the tile floors and she smoothed the pencil skirt over her legs. She enjoyed dressing up for work, something she never did with the ATF.
But for how long?
she wondered.

Entering, she sat down in her chair, leaning over with her keys in hand to unlock the bottom drawer where she left her purse. The drawer was partially open. Pulling it all the way open quickly, she breathed a sigh of relief seeing it still there. Lifting her large purse into her lap, she dropped her wallet into it then noticed her cosmetic bag was opened and the contents spilled out.

Her years as an investigator with the ATF had her on alert. Carefully going through her purse, she did not find anything missing, but the idea that someone had gone through it took root. She hesitated but hated calling security, since nothing was missing and her desk lock did not appear tampered with.
Maybe I really am losing my mind!

C
had’s feet pounded
the ground in a familiar rhythm as he ran along the perimeter of Jack’s property. A great place to keep in shape, it also doubled as a way to keep a check on the expensive security equipment in place. Having trained for the ATF bomb squad, he had run in full gear, weighing over seventy-five pounds, so running with no extra weight felt light as air.

Winding through a dense copse of trees, he glanced down, easily maneuvering the protruding roots. The back of the acreage sat at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains and he began to climb slightly. The oak and maple trees created a complete canopy overhead. Moss and fern grew beside a small stream and he heard steps directly behind him. Jude came alongside and, without speaking, the two ran companionably together for several more minutes.

Jack kept his property in top shape, so the weekly runs were good for maintenance of both body and mind, as well as scoping out the perimeter. The two came upon Bart and Cam as they rounded the bend heading back to the house.

“Weather’s great for this,” Cam remarked, enjoying the spring sunshine. “Although the humidity sucks.”

“You wimp,” Bart joked. “Hell, me and Jude would have considered this to be a walk in the park when we were SEALs.”

Jude laughed his agreement, his blond curls plastered to his head with sweat.

“Well, fucking sorry I wasn’t in your Navy,” Cam said jokingly. “But growing up in El Paso, hell, the heat there makes this seem like heaven.”

The banter continued as they made their way around the house and toward the deck, seeing the others already there. Water bottles sitting in an ice chest pulled their attention. Guzzling the refreshing liquid, the group cooled off in the shade as they reported their perimeter checks to Jack. Chad leaned over the railing and poured some of the water over his head to cool off, before giving his head a shake. A few of the others followed suit, dousing themselves to combat the heat of the day.

“You’ve got a tree down on the east perimeter, about five klicks due east,” Blaise reported.

“Camera in the west corner needs to be checked. Some kind of ivy shit is growing on the tree. Not interfering yet, but by summer, it’ll be a problem,” Marc added.

Jack made notes on his tablet. “Got it. I’ll grab the chainsaw and we’ll work on it after the briefing.” He looked around the group. “When I first bought this place, I wanted to set up a state-of-the-art security system around it. Figured to some it was overkill, but I knew that, one day, it would be needed. Up till now, the biggest threat was some hiker getting lost and strolling around where I didn’t want them.”

“Like Bethany?” Blaise asked, his eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face.

The others laughed, having been witness to Jack’s first meeting with his now wife. “Yeah, no more wanderers.” Jack looked into the distance, taking in the various greens covering the mountains. The flashes of color from redbud and dogwood trees broke through the almost solid greens. Sucking in a deep breath of fresh air, he said, “Change is coming, men. I understood it then. I feel it now.”

The others, quietly listening to their laconic leader, knew what he was saying. They felt it too.

“The world has changed. Gone are the days when we knew our enemies. Gone are the days when those of us in the military fought overseas against the ones who would threaten our country. Now the enemy has slipped into our borders and creeps toward our very foundations.”

“Something new come in?” Monty asked.

“We’ve got the official go-ahead to pursue whatever threats we uncover. I anticipate within a week or so, some of you will be flying to different cities to bring back the proof of what some of the new recruits are working on. Not going over that today, but just know it’s coming.” Slapping his hands on his knees, he stood and said, “Tomorrow night, we’ll be at Stella’s, celebrating Bart’s upcoming wedding. Now…we cut up a fallen tree.”

With
hell yeahs
ringing through the air, the men headed off to work on the grounds. Soon the sight of shirtless, muscular, sweating men filled the view. Bethany looked out the window, nearest to her computer, where she continued to work on the marketing of her wedding venue next door. Smiling at the sight of her husband, Jack, and the other Saints had her thinking she must have the best job in the world.

*