Saturday is meeting day. Since the inception of Big Three Bounty Hunting, the three partners, Ford, Lincoln, and Dodge had met to discuss the week's activities and dole out the work. Ford primarily found them the work since he had this business going before Lincoln and Dodge joined him, which meant he had the contacts. Lincoln, and especially Dodge, like being on the road.

Dodge pulled his truck up to the garage door of Ford's house on top of a mountain, owned by Ford and Megan, named Lynyrd Station on the Hill, where the views were breathtaking and the air was clean. Stepping from his truck he could hear the baby crying, and he twisted his neck to and fro to ease the tension. Shelby, Ford and Megan's three-month old daughter, had been colicky the past couple of weeks. He knew she was uncomfortable and Ford and Megan were doing all they could for Shelby, but dog gone dammit that crying got on his last nerve.

If he were being honest with himself, he'd say it was because he'd had a shitty night last night. But, what did honesty ever get him?

He stepped up onto the deck that wrapped around the house so he could enter the house at the front. Sliding open one of the glass doors the volume of Shelby's crying rose another decibel. He took a deep breath and let it out. Quiet as a mouse, not that anyone would hear him over the crying, he made his way across the room to the coffee pot, opened a cupboard, and helped himself to a cup. Ford knew he was here, his security system would have alerted him as soon as Dodge began coming up the driveway.

Taking his mug to the sofa, he glanced at the coffee table and noted there weren't any folders for he and Lincoln filled with work orders. His brows furrowed as a myriad of thoughts about why this would be swirled through his head.

No work.

Unlikely.

Ford hadn't had time to pull them together.

Highly likely, lately, with a new baby at home.

Walking to the glass doors he looked out at the view and took another deep breath as the peaceful scenery acted as a bit of a balm to his mood. That and the warm coffee in his mug.

The crying softened just as his friend and partner, Lincoln walked around the corner of the house and silently opened the glass door. Dodge stepped back to allow him entry. Shelby wailed out again and Lincoln winced. The two men said nothing but greeted each other with a nod and a handshake.

Lincoln walked to the coffee pot while Dodge turned and sat on the sofa to wait for his partners. Shelby's crying subsided, and Ford emerged from the baby's room looking bedraggled and tired.

Softly he greeted them. "Morning guys. Meg had to run down the mountain to get something for Shelby's tummy at the pharmacy and I'm on dad duty until she gets home. Sorry."

Dodge replied first. "No problem. Will she be gone long?"

Lincoln chuckled. "Subtle much?"

Shaking his head, Dodge brought his coffee to his lips and decided to let his caffeine work a bit before saying anything else.

Luckily, Ford understood and saved him from replying. "No, she's already on her way back." Just as Ford had the words out of his mouth the security system beeped and Ford commented, "She's coming up the drive now."

"No work this week?" Lincoln asked before Dodge got the chance.

"Here's what I'd like to discuss." Ford poured his own coffee but before he could continue, the door to the garage opened and Meghan walked in with a little white bag from the pharmacy in town. He leaned in and kissed his gorgeous wife, she waved to Lincoln and Dodge, then went into Shelby's room with the medicine and closed the door.

"Okay, so as I said, there's something we need to discuss." Ford continued. "We're not running out of work but we now have two bondsmen who haven't paid us. Rumor has it a third will be having issues paying us as well. This on top of the fact we're killing ourselves, so we need to discuss expansion of the company."

Dodge shook his head, "That makes no sense. Clients aren't paying us so we should expand?"

Ford sat on the chair at a right angle to the sofa where Dodge and Lincoln sat, set his cup on the coffee table, and folded his hands together between his knees as he leaned his forearms on his thighs. "I got a call from Gaige Vickers, team lead for GHOST. Rory told us they are in town, and they are after the Santarinos’ activities, much like we are. Different targets though. Our client, Guardwell wants the pink diamond back and it told us Mangus Santarino stole it from them; they want the whole operation. GHOST has offered to give us a shot at working with them to see if we're a fit." He looked up and his face showed worry. "I never have to worry about money again, guys. You know that, but I can't retire. I've thought about it. Meg and I have talked about it, and you guys know just these past few months of finding the work and managing the business isn't my cup of tea. Now we have clients not paying and I'm wondering why we'd keep doing business this way when we could try to work for GHOST, get paid, well I might add, and enjoy what we do." He took a sip of coffee and Dodge let that sink in for a minute.

Then he blurted out. "How well?"

"Very well. GHOST is largely hired by the US Government. Rory thinks they’re getting Mangus from a private client who might be an arms dealer that the Santarino brothers screwed over, his daughter was caught up in it and killed, but he’s not positive. They're undercover most of the time, they're experienced, and they have equipment that would make Jared Timm piss himself with glee."

Now that sounded fantastic. One of Dodge's dreams was to be able to pay off his parents’ house for their anniversary. He was close, but if clients stopped paying, that would halt his progress. His mind floated over money, equipment, and working with experienced operatives. A dream come true for sure. He rubbed his thumb over his bottom lip and began thinking of the possibilities.

Lincoln began asking questions. "It'll affect Skye since she won't have a job any longer. Again. And, how often would we be gone?"

Dodge looked at Ford as he shrugged. "I think the way they operate is by round table. A job comes in, they discuss it among the team and a decision is made. If you want to stay close to the home front, I’d bet concessions can be made as long as they don’t harm the team. They run a clean operation and they work together as a tight unit. I won't lie though, the reason they're interested in us is because they've recently lost three operatives in the field, one of them Jake Masters, the operative Skye saw murdered in her parents' field. It can be dangerous."

Lincoln rubbed the back of his neck before replying, "I'll need to talk to Skye first Ford, it affects both of us."

"I'm aware and wouldn't expect anything less from you."

Ford turned to him then, "Dodge, what are you thinking?"

"I'm interested. But, I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a mood today so I don't want to be rash. When do we have to let them know?"

"They've asked us to come to their headquarters here in Lynyrd Station at 19:00 hours to talk about how it all works and what we'd be doing. We'll also meet their operatives and see how we get along."

He and Lincoln nodded then Ford changed the topic of conversation. “So, here’s where we’re at with Mangus and Limitless. It appears that when Limitless was in business, before the feds came in and shut them down, Mangus hated the arms dealing. He knew Victor was doing it, he knew Victor placed hits on people and largely ran on the wrong side of the law. He looked the other way as long as Victor was around to deal with it. Not anymore. He’s also not innocent. He’s continued with his jewelry and art theft, but he’s stepped it up because money is tight now. He’s more than likely a bit more desperate and that means, more deadly. So tell us what happened last night and if you saw Mangus."

He filled them in on what happened, his anger at missing Mangus leave growing in the pit of his stomach once again. He had to take deep breaths to keep his temper in check.

They left their meeting, and Dodge's job was to read through some reports that Jared Timm, their buddy from the Army and resident computer hacker/conspiracy theorist had sent over to Ford. Jared didn't come cheap, but he always came through for them. His spider networks were the stuff that would make the government cringe. So to hear Ford say that he'd be impressed with GHOST's computer network and equipment was saying something.

*

By 19:00 hours he and Lincoln were once again at Ford's to meet up for their interview. He felt jittery for some reason and brushed it off as being too sedentary today, reading up on Mangus Santarino and some possibilities on where he's living at the moment.

They agreed to take separate vehicles so they could each go their own way after the meeting. He followed behind his friends' trucks down the mountain, telling himself to calm down and buck up. He was good at his job. They all were and fucking GHOST would be damn lucky to have them on board. The threat of death didn't scare him off after three tours in Iraq, and then working as a cop then a detective for twenty years at home in Alabama.

They drove through town and Ford pulled into the driveway of a beautifully kept Southern mansion. The wrought iron gates were ornate and massive. A light on the security box blinked, and flashed before the gate opened inward to allow them entry. The estate came into full view and the enormous white home, complete with a large covered porch and baskets of flowers hanging in several places greeted them. It looked like a traditional Southern mansion you'd find in Savannah, Georgia. Then Dodge’s mind tuned to what in the hell they were doing here!

He watched as his two friends parked and exited their trucks, both of them looking in awe at the overly large home they stood before.

He followed suit and the instant he closed his truck door a man stepped from inside and greeted them. "Welcome Big Three. Come on in and I'll introduce you to the crew that's here. I still have three guys out in the field."

They stepped up onto the porch and he shook hands as they each told him their names. "My name is Gaige Vickers and I'm the team lead for GHOST. Come on in."

They followed him inside and awe wasn't a strong enough word. The dark wooden floors gleamed from the light cast by the chandeliers above. The wall coverings were of high quality damask in muted tones of mauve and light greens. The curved staircase with its gleaming dark mahogany banister and white marble stairs were impressive and that was saying a lot since this entire place was impressive.

Gaige stopped and looked around as if seeing it again for the first time. "It's incredible, isn't it?"

Ford spoke first, "It certainly is. I'm stunned and impressed as I wasn't expecting anything like this for the headquarters of a government agency."

"Ah, well, that's because we aren't government. The government is our primary client, but we are completely independent. We do have some private clients. The government and our clients pay us well. We do things the government can't because of regulations or appearances. If we’re caught by any authority, the government will deny any knowledge or working relationship with us. But, someone high up signs a check and we're golden."

Dodge finally found his voice. "So, why this? It's impressive for certain, but it hardly allows you to blend."

Gaige laughed then and Dodge begrudgingly thought the women probably swooned for Gaige Vickers. He was tall and broad with the dark blond hair and chiseled jaw he heard them chatter over during his military and police days. "We're not trying to blend. This house was available when we came to town. We didn't have that much work to do to it to update it. We hired an interior designer and she completed the house to return it to its natural origins, but with us in mind. Her team swooped in and had us up and running in no time. It also offered us what we really need and that's room to spread out, work out, and practice. We have two floors below this one. One is our main headquarters area complete with workout facility, computer lab, gun range, conference room, and medical unit. The lowest level houses our vehicles. We're bulletproof in case we're found out, and our lower levels also serve as a bunker should the worst happen and we have to be locked down for any length of time."

"Wow." It came out of his mouth before he could catch himself. The last thing Dodge wanted was to come in here and seem like an overly impressed teenager, but damned if he wasn't doing just that now.

Gaige chuckled again and continued. "Come on down and meet some of the team."

Dodge followed Gaige down a corridor which held four wall niches, each one with a light shining down on a bronze statue of soldiers on horseback. He recognized George Washington and he assumed one was Robert E. Lee, but didn't have time to read the inscriptions on any of them.

Gaige waived a security card in front of a small, deep bronze panel on the wall, next to a door that to the outside appeared to be a bedroom door, five horizontal panels, painted white. But inside stood an elevator. A large elevator. Each of them stepped inside and Gaige pushed a button, the doors closed and their descent began.

Reaching the floor just below them, the readout on the panel said, Conf., the doors opened and he ushered them across the hall and through a glass door. This level was the complete opposite of the first floor. Glass doors, and frosted glass windows gleamed down the hallway. Lighting from the rooms lit the hallway and movement could be seen behind the glass but nothing distinguishable. They entered the room and the array of computer equipment was staggering. One wall held various monitors and screens, some of them on, some not. Computers lined up along that wall, had their screen savers showing slide shows of various designs. Dodge assumed each team member had their own computer and screen saver.

"This is the computer lab in case you didn't guess by now. Generally, I run the computers, but Josh over here is no slouch on that front, either." He turned to the man he called Josh and addressed him. "Josh Masters, meet the Big Three, Ford Montgomery, Lincoln Winter, and Dodge Sager."

Josh shook hands with each of them and they were ushered to a conference table. Josh said, "Jax will be down in a minute. In the meantime, what can we get you guys to drink?"

"Water is great, if you don't mind." Dodge replied and his friends nodded in agreement. As Josh brought bottled water from a refrigerator and set them down in front of each of them, the door whooshed open and he damned near spat the large gulp of water he'd just poured into his mouth.