Chapter
7
Bobby
“Anybody know what the fuck Baker’s problem is? He’s acting like a pissy, little girl today. I’m about to kick his ass to New York and back.”
“Don’t you have man-scaping, or something, to do, Lucas? Leave Bobby alone, he’s having woman problems,” Declan shot back down the conference table where those of us not on shift yet were all sitting, eating pizza.
“That sweet, little, blonde ATF agent? What kind of problems could you have with a piece of ass that fine, man?”
In general, I usually didn’t mind locker room talk with the boys, but when it came to Belle, I’d be damned if I was going to let anyone call her a piece of ass. Pointing my finger in Lucas’s direction, I growled, “You never call her a piece again! You got me?”
Lucas seemed surprised at my vehemence on the subject, but he gave me a chin lift that told me it was all good. Rubbing a hand over the back of my stiff neck, I once again mentally kicked myself in the ass for sleeping through Belle’s departure from my room. The woman was seriously starting to give me a complex. One thing was for sure, though, next time I got her in bed, I was going to handcuff her ass to me. It would be amusing to see how she would try and get out of that one. I was staring down at the uneaten pizza slice on my plate when Riley’s voice cut through my thoughts.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, man, but I hope you’re not giving up on her.”
Looking over to him, I shook my head. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. From the moment she walked into headquarters over a week ago, I feel as if I’ve been tripping over myself to talk to her. When I feel like we’ve taken a step forward, she turns around and takes two steps back. After last night, I’d honestly thought we’d gotten somewhere.”
Riley gave me a sad smile. “Man, don’t you know just because your girl gives you the business, does not mean she’s over whatever snit she’s worked herself into. Trust me on that. My wife would give me the cold shoulder, I’d warm her back up, if you know what I mean, and yet, I’d still find myself sleeping on the couch.”
When he stopped talking, I couldn’t help it, but my jaw dropped in shock. “I think that’s the most words you’ve ever said to me in three years.”
He punched me in the shoulder. “Shut your trap. We can’t all be touchy feely with our emotions like Declan.”
Looking at the older Sullivan brother, I saw what most of our team saw. An outstanding soldier. An honorable man who had the back of anyone in our group. An accomplished SEAL. He should be a happy man with nothing except good things to look forward to in his future, since he was only thirty-one with presumably many years ahead of him. However, he was a shell of a man. Sure, he went through the motions. He ate, slept, worked and even hooked up on a regular basis like the rest of us, but his heart wasn’t in it. According to Declan, his brother’s heart hadn’t been involved in anything since his wife had miscarried their first child and then left him. Riley Sullivan was a ghost of a man walking around with a shit load of regrets. I did not want to end up like him.
He was a man who was entirely too astute to what other people were thinking because he took one look at me and knew what had crossed my mind. I knew this beyond a shadow of a doubt, too, because he shrugged a shoulder and murmured, “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be me, either, if I were you. I guess you better do what I never did and fix it.”
He picked up his empty plate, walked over to the trash can to dump it and then left the room, presumably to head back to his own where he would puff on more cigarettes than humanly possible while playing his acoustic guitar. The former of his activities would probably give him cancer before he was forty-five because he smoked so much. No one had a clue how he managed to stay in the top physical condition he was in. The latter of his activities was pleasant to listen to because one of the good habits Riley Sullivan had picked up after his wife had left him was how to play guitar. Amazingly, the man could seriously fucking play. All of that being said, I still did not want to end up anything like Riley—a shell of a man who missed his wife more than anyone knew was possible with no prospects on how to get her back.
No, I wanted to do what he hadn’t done; I wanted to fix what was wrong between Belle and I. Of course, in our situation, I was not the problem anymore. I’d apologized to her. I’d even tried to tell her I loved her before she’d pulled her feisty monkey routine and climbed up my body like it was a vine in the jungle. Now the problem was Belle. The million dollar question was: how to fix the problem?
I watched as Lucas got up from the table, threw his plate away, gave me and Jaxon chin lifts and then exited the Commander’s hotel room. It didn’t take long before Jaxon filled the silence.
“So, she snuck out on you, huh?”
Cringing at his choice of words, I tried to save face. “I’m not sure if she snuck out on me…”
“Yes, she did. I was at the end of the breezeway getting ice out of the machine when I watched her tiptoe out of your room and then haul ass to her truck. That’s practically the definition of the next morning sneak out.”
Glaring at the other man, I mumbled, “You trying to stomp all over my pride?”
Jaxon pointed one of his fingers at me. “That’s your problem.”
“What’s my problem?”
“You thinking you can hold onto your pride and win her back. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that love has no pride?”
“Commander, did you just quote a Bonnie Raitt song to me?”
“Well, at least you didn’t say it was a Linda Ronstadt song. How the hell did you know that?”
I laughed at the ridiculousness of this situation; two grown men sitting around, talking about a love song from the seventies they weren’t even around to hear because we hadn’t been born yet. “My mom is a huge Bonnie Raitt fan. We might not want to let the other guys ever know about this conversation, though. We may never live it down.”
“I won’t say a word, if you won’t. That aside, my point is still the same. If you want her back, you’re going to have to put your pride aside.”
“That’s not a problem. The problem is she’s slicker than snot on a glass doorknob. Every time I think I’ve got her right where I want her—like last night—she ends up twisting me all up in knots until I don’t know if I’m coming or going, then slipping right past me.”
Jaxon sat there tapping a finger against his lips as he contemplated me. It was the equivalent to feeling like the bug under the microscope in science class. Not fun.
“You ever hear of Sun Tzu, Bobby?”
“Who hasn’t, when you do what we did in the military?”
“How familiar with him are you?”
“Not that familiar. What’s your point, Commander?”
“In The Art of War they quote Sun Tzu as saying, ‘He will conquer who has learnt the artifice of deviation.’ Do you know what that means?”
“Are you giving me advice or a history lesson?”
“Both, so listen up, knucklehead. Back then, the generals would sit on top of a hill, or something, so they could have a vantage point over the ongoing battle below them. Select soldiers were charged with carrying flags that would be used to communicate with their fellow troops to show them when they were supposed to move and where they were supposed to go. A good general would use his vantage point, his signal system and his intelligence to his advantage in the sense that, if his opponent changed course, he could signal his own troops to deviate from their intended destination and converge on the opposing troops wherever they may be.”
“The purpose of the history lesson and the quote is that, sometimes you have to know when to adjust or deviate from a change in battlefield tactics while the battle is still ongoing so you can win it. Up to this point, you’ve tried giving Belle patience, time and space to work through things. Then, last night, you used Declan and Riley to try and surprise-attack her, in a sense, with your presence in the room so she couldn’t escape you. You may have made some headway with her, but the war is still ongoing.”
“Alexander the Great’s ability to change tactics during his battles won him many wars. You want to be more like him. Right now, you’re acting more like the United States and the lack of tactics they used in the Vietnam War. The U.S. would not convert to the guerilla warfare tactics that the Vietnamese soldiers used, so we lost the war and suffered heavy casualties. Stop acting like one of those casualties. It’s time for you to reconsider your tactics and change them. Next time she starts to outmaneuver you, change your approach again to keep her on the edge. Eventually, you’ll find the way to break through.”
This was the reason why Jaxon Wall had been picked to be the Commander of the Ex Ops Unit. The man was highly intelligent, had an excellent head for tactics and strategy, and somehow managed to still be approachable to his men. “I didn’t think you ever used your super powers for good, Jaxon.”
“What in the world are you talking about, Baker? I’m here with the good guys now, aren’t I?”
“Yes, but usually you don’t use your super powers for good when it comes to us. Most of the time, you seem like the evil villain with the stick stuck up his ass and who hasn’t been laid in at least a year.”
“Name one time I was this so called ‘evil’ to you!”
“Well… there was the jungle…”
Throwing his hands up in the air, the man stood up and walked towards the door grumbling. “I send him to the jungle one time, where a monkey flings shit on him, and he’s yet to let me live it down.”
The door closed behind the now grumpy Commander and I couldn’t help smiling as I sat in his empty room. I should stop picking on the man. He had a good point about what I should do next when it came to Belle, but he made it too easy sometimes to poke a little fun at him.
First, I was going to lay it all on the line for her. Bare everything I had and set aside my pride. Maybe even throw in a little groveling. If that didn’t work, I would sit down and think on how I could change my tactics with her to switch it up. One way or another, I was going to win this little war she’d put us in.