* * *

The men all started to laugh and Quinn sidled up beside me. “So what’s she like?”

“Innocent.” I didn’t even have to think about that shit, it was the one word that summed her up in my mind.

He just nodded as Lo moved to the front of the room. The screen with the women ran in the back with the volume off as all eyes turned forward to Lo.

“Mancini pull up that board again.” Hank worked his magic and the board we’d been working on earlier slid out of hiding.

“Okay, so…we have the target in house. The only thing left is finding the Fox and retrieving the women who’ve already been taken.”

“I already ran the names in the book like you asked me to Lo. There’re twenty girls unaccounted for.” Law moved to the board and wrote the number twenty.

“Law gave me those names and I put them through the database.” Mancini pulled up another screen on the opposite wall.

“Of the twenty maybe four are still on domestic soil. I’ve done facial reconstructions, changed hair color and styles just in case.”

“Thorpe has a network overseas and he’s called in Blade and Jake to handle the domestic side.”

“How did you arrive at those numbers?”

“It was easy Logan. Since we’re pressed for time I broke into the FBI files and followed their little crumbs. They might be fucked in the head but since meeting my wife I’ve come to accept that some of them actually know what the fuck they’re doing.”

“Well if they know where they are why haven’t they gone in and got them?”

“Because they don’t know Zak, they estimate and that’s where we’re going to pick it up. Well where those boys are gonna pick it up. Thorpe just needs a general location and he can do the rest.”

“The ones who’ve been taken out of the country are his specialty, believe me, if they’re out there he’s gonna find them. So are we all cool with this?”

“If you vouch for this Thorpe guy I’ll take your word for it. We’ve already trusted him this far.” That was tantamount to high praise coming from Logan.

“Great, now let’s move on then.” He pulled up another board and started writing. “Ariel is here, the women are here; all the women are here, including your daughter Lyon.” He looked around the room.

“This island can only be approached by air or sea. Anything heading this way without an invite will be shot down or blown out of the water no questions.” Mancini assured us.

“I would show you my security measures but then I’d have to kill you and I’ve grown to like you boys so we’ll leave that alone.”

He didn’t even smile to pretend he was kidding. “Now onto the most important matter here, where is this Khalil fuck? Anyone have any ideas?”

It was Lo’s turn to take over. He wrote Khalil’s name in the middle of the new board and then a list of places he’s been known to hide out.

‘The problem with this guy, he doesn’t stay in the same place for more than one night. The good thing is he never leaves this general region, he’s paranoid as fuck.”

“Is there no way to whittle this shit down? You’ve got him from Baghdad to Kabul, that’s a lot of area to cover.”

“We know Hank. We’ve been trying to catch this guy for the better part of five years and each time we think we have him cornered he slips the noose and disappears.”

“What about this general? Seems to me he’s the answer. Wouldn’t he know where he is? And how do we get to the general?”

“That’s a good question to both Lyon. But like I said, we can’t just go after this guy.”

“I’m thinking you might have to rethink that shit Logan. All roads lead to him. You’re gonna have to make peace with whatever it is that’s holding you back, but so far you seem to be the only one who has a problem going after this hump.”

“How many ways can I say this? If we go after him now and don’t get what we want, all we’re doing is showing our hand. We need to have this shit on point before we move.”

“I’m pretty sure we can handle that. So where is he?”

“Fine, the truth is he might know or he might not, I don’t know. I don’t imagine there’s a whole lotta trust between those two. As to where to find him, he’s in D.C.”

“We can be in D.C. in two and a half hours.” I didn’t have to look at my brothers to know what they were thinking once Mancini said that.

If we made this move there was a good chance the general would be spending his last day on earth. Now that my anger has cooled I’m not sure we’re ready to face this fuck, or if we can let him breathe long enough to give us what we need.

He’s responsible for a lot of the shit that had gone wrong in our lives in the last year and a half, starting with the death of the CO and sending us into a trap that almost got us killed. Had it not been for Quinn’s gift in fact, we probably wouldn’t be here.

“Give us a minute.” Everyone else left the room at Lo’s suggestion, leaving just me and my brothers behind.

“We all know what this means if we go there now. I want your word, especially you Tyler, that you’ll keep your shit together so we can get what we need from this hump.”

“Yeah well I’m not making any promises.”

“You’re gonna have to brother. I want his blood on my hands as much as you. But if he can lead us to Khalil then we’re gonna have to fucking deal.”

“He killed the CO what the fuck Devon.”

“I know, you think I don’t know? Look at her.” They all turned to look at the screen.

“She’s not like your women. What do you wanna bet her whole fucking life she’s been hidden away? She doesn’t even exist anywhere, do you know what the fuck that means?”

“If we don’t find Khalil and end him now her life is fucked. No one is killing that asshole until we get what we need. Don’t make me go against you…”

“Devon!” Quinn’s terse voice brought me out of whatever the fuck I’d just stepped into.

“Do you hear what you’re saying? Do you really believe that any one of us would jeopardize her future? The CO lost his fucking life trying to keep her safe.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me. I don’t… I haven’t felt this way since I lost my parents. There’s something growing inside me and it scares the fuck outta me.”

“That’s normal brother, we all have that. It’s like Lyon said, it’s a sign that you’ve found ‘the one’. I’d like to tell you that it gets easier but it won’t. But I promise you, once you get past the fear, the love is…”

“Oh for fuck sake Cord. Listen you, get your head outta your ass. You know what your problem is, you’re fighting it.” Tyler got in my face. What’s with everybody getting in my damn face?

He wasn’t done apparently. “I think every man here can tell you it’s a losing fucking battle so give it up. You can’t control it like you try to do everything else either so give it a damn rest.”

“Now, we’re going to D.C. and we’re gonna beat the shit outta this fuck until he gives us what we want and then Lo’s gonna cap his ass and we come back here to our women and get a good night’s sleep. I’m tired of having to ride herd on you freaks get your shit together.”

“Tyler, anybody ever tell you you’re an ass?”

“Yeah, meanwhile I’m the only one of you who keeps a clear head when it comes to this shit.” That didn’t even warrant a response.

“I still haven’t heard what I want from you lot. If we do this, I want your word that none of you will move on this guy until we get what we need.”

“Fine, but if he pops off any shit about the CO it’s a fucking wrap. His ass is gonna get slept.”

“How about we leave your ass here.”

“You can try Con, but then where are you going to live?” Tyler smirked.

The fucker is crazy enough to carry out his threats. “Call in the others let’s get this shit moving.” I could tell that Lo wasn’t too happy, but even he had to admit that this was the only way.

It could take us months, even years to pin down Khalil’s location. I for one wasn’t willing to take that route.

* * *

The room really did become a war room once the others rejoined us. Everyone had an opinion on how and when we should go in.

Lyon wasn’t saying much, his only interest was in the end result so he just sat off to the side playing on his phone and listening in, grunting out an answer every once in a while.

The other military men were on board with the decision to go in, because as Justice put it, fuck the general if he was involved in this shit. Which is pretty much the sentiment of everyone here.

Every once in a while I’d look at the screen to check up on her, read her body language. “She’s tired.” What the fuck, I keep speaking out loud when I don’t mean to.

The others looked at the screen and we all stretched to work the kinks out after standing around for so long.

“Let’s take a break boys, looks like we’re just in time for a late lunch. We’ll come back to it later. We can’t go in until dark anyway.”

Mancini pushed away from the desk and stood after releasing the locks and we all filed out of the room. I felt a little more at ease now that we’d made the decision to pay the general a visit.

We joined the women and kids on the front patio for lunch and the difference was like night and day.

For the first time I understood why the guys always go to such lengths to keep things from the women.

It just seemed like none of this should touch them in anyway. Like they should be protected from all the dark shit we’d just waded through.

There were times when I had my doubts about leaving them out of shit, especially Vanessa. Here’s a woman who’s served her country in battle, had even been taken prisoner and survived on her own.

But when I look at Ariel, her sweet childlike innocence, I don’t want her mixed up in any of this. My sisters would probably have a fit and call me a sexist or whatever, but no fucking way.

It’s almost ingrained I guess, for men like us to want to protect our women…oh shit. I stared at her as she sat beside me picking at her food while talking to Kat across the table.

Is it really that easy? Does the perfect woman just fall into your lap out of the blue when you’re not expecting her? Or am I setting myself up for a fall?

“Stop overthinking shit brother, just go with it trust me.” I turned to Ty on my other side about to ask him what the hell he was talking about until I realized they were all watching me.

“Oh for fuck sake!” How could I forget how this works? My brothers are worse than women when it comes to sticking their noses in.

I ignored them after throwing a general finger around the table and pretended an interest in my food. In reality I was highly aware of her next to me.