* * *

“Nice of you to join us lover boy.”

“Shut the hell up Tyler.” Jackass.

“Hello Ariel, are you ready?” There was a certain reverence in Mancini’s voice when he spoke to her and he all but bowed.

I gave him a look and he smiled before taking her hand and leading her to his command center. That’s what we’d taken to calling it.

“What do you need from me?”

“Just the number, Devon, you sit here.” She scooted over on the chair that was all but swallowing her and I sat.

There wasn’t enough room so I pulled her onto my lap and watched over her shoulder as she got to work once Mancini gave her the number.

No one said anything as she concentrated and got to work, but all eyes were on her and the screen. I’m good at hacking, it’s my specialty among other things so I’m pretty familiar with most of the methods used by my ilk. The shit she was doing didn’t look familiar.

“What code is that?”

“Mine!” She tapped a few more keys.

“Yours!”

“Yeah! I upgraded master locater and added my own backdoors. It’s much more sophisticated if I do say so myself.”

“And how do you plan on keeping him from knowing that you’re in his system or, from sending a trace back this way? I’m pretty sure he’s savvy enough or has people who are.”

“You see these first few lines here? They work kind of like a firewall. He won’t know I’m in there and there’s no way to trace.”

“Your brother left a trace.” Logan said. I hadn’t had time to fill them in on my talk with her brother the night before.

“If that’s true, then it was deliberate. He never gets caught.” She didn’t stop in her typing and her focus was razor sharp as she continued adding code almost as if she had it memorized.

“You seem pretty sure.”

“Oh yeah, and from the looks of it, your friend here isn’t even close to the hardest I’ve breeched. He has some great security measures here but nothing I can’t handle.”

I looked at my brothers, because quite frankly we were never able to get into his system. He changes his phone at least once a month on top of that, and it had been a while since we’d been able to get the latest one. Kudos to Mancini and whoever he had working for him for getting it so quickly.

She did come magic on the keyboard and all I could do was stare at her as information scrolled across the screen.

She doesn’t know this, but like I said, this is my specialty and she was totally showing me up in front of my brothers. I’ve never been more proud of anyone in my life.

The men were all making appreciative noises as they read the information as it unfolded, but I was still mesmerized by her.

Her brain has got to be like a fucking machine to do this shit on this level and I already knew she was better than me because she was already breaking through Khalil’s firewalls and shields.

“Time?” I looked over at Quinn who was breathing down my neck almost as excited as I was to see if she could really do it. “Thirty three seconds.”

“And we’re in.”

“What? No, what is this?” Are you fucking kidding me? The record is a full minute. It takes me a little more than that.

“I not only hacked in but now you can see every number he calls and this…” She tapped a few more keys, “will record what’s being said. We haven’t perfected the translation code as yet so you’ll have to get that some other way.”

“You can do that?”

“On no you don’t Hank.” Fucker had a gleam in his eye. Everyone started talking at once as they studied the screen on the wall.

“Oh man, baby, that was amazing.” I kissed her again and gave Tyler the finger because I caught him out the side of my eye making kissy faces.

“Good, so you can go get him now and the girls can get married and be happy.” She got a little sullen there at the end and I lifted her chin with my finger.

“Do you want to get married baby?”

“Do you?” She wouldn’t look at me, but pulled at the bottom of her shirt.

I had to glare at my nosy ass brothers. “I’m not talking to the rest of you.” I got to my feet with her in my arms and headed out the door.

I found the nearest corner that didn’t have an obvious camera pointed at us and caged her in with my hands beside her head.

“Yes I want to marry you, more than anything in the world. Do you want to marry me? Keep in mind no matter what you say we’re getting married.”

She laughed and kissed my cheek. “That’s more like it. The girls keep telling me about what cavemen their men are, and I keep telling them how sweet you are to me. I was beginning to think you didn’t feel the same about me as your brothers do their women.”

“That is one convoluted statement, but I think I get it. You don’t want to be treated with kid gloves, got it.”

“Well now, we all want to be treated like a princess, just, you know. Don’t treat me like I’m going to break.” I studied her after she said that but there was nothing in her eyes, it was just a throw away comment, the princess thing.

“You are my princess and I’ll try to remember how tough you are. You just kicked my ass in there in less than a minute so I guess you’re not as innocent as I thought.”

I meant it as a joke but she seemed to take it as some sort of badge of honor. These women are crazy.

“Where are you taking me? Aren’t we going back in?”

“Nope, you’re done here. I’m taking you back to the girls.”

“Devon…”

“Not this fight baby, you’re not gonna win this one.” I left her at the door to the media room where the women had moved. They couldn’t be up to much since the kids were in there with them.

I made a hasty retreat and got the hell outta there not only because of the women but the look Lyon’s kid gave me was kinda spooky.

“Hank you sure this room is secure, you got rid of whatever Catalina left in here?”

“Yeah why?”

“I don’t know; she just gave me this look.” I mock shivered and took a seat.

“Well her little device was a cheap bug you can pick up at any Sharper Image stuck in gum and left under the desk. Since we’re all friends I didn’t see the need to sweep, but I won’t be making that mistake again.”

“Seriously? Who the hell put her up to it?”

“Who do you think? All of them! Apparently they got their tails in a twist because Ariel shared a little bit more of her childhood than she should or that we expected her to at any rate.” Damn, no one thought to tell her not to say anything.

“My wife being the fucking spook that she is, decided that there was more to the story and they started comparing notes again. That’s when your wife Lyon, decided that your innocent daughter was the perfect fall guy.”

“What the fuck are we dealing with here?” Law shook his head

“You didn’t think this was gonna happen when you put them all together here on an isolated island with nothing else to do?”

“Davey, they got to him somehow, because they didn’t know shit before.”

“Nah, he’s been hanging around my people trying to learn the ropes, when he isn’t moping around behind Lyon’s oldest.”

Lyon’s jaw twitched and he looked like he was about to spaz the fuck out. “Chill Lyon, I had a talk with him and he knows she’s already got a boyfriend.”

“Fucking parasite. Say Hank, don’t you have another one of those things you took down that plane with? I got a town I’d like to level.”

The conversation switched to Lyon and his soon to be son in law, which led to my brothers and I and all the men in the room discussing offspring and their wish to father only sons because girls were too much trouble.

Of course we knew we were just letting off steam because in the next few hours we’d be heading into danger and leaving our women behind.

“Are we telling Susie and Davey the truth now or later?” I’d forgotten that Cord was in the same position as I to a certain extent.

“I thought we decided to do that after this was done.”

“I know Lo but what if something goes wrong?”

“Like what Cord, what do you think is gonna go wrong? Have we ever gone into an Op with anything less than confidence?”

“This time’s a bit different Lo, this time we have pregnant women waiting for us to come back.”

“Yes Con, that’s why this time even more than ever we have to go in with our heads on straight. There’s no room for doubt here. Anyone doesn’t feel right they can stay back here with the women.”

I’d forgotten what a hard ass Lo can be. “Logan I’m gonna let that slide because we’re all under tremendous pressure and it looks like we’re finally gonna see the light at the end of the tunnel. But don’t you ever question my readiness again.”

“Oh for fuck sake we’re not doing this. Cord, stand the fuck down, you know how Logan is. We have one enemy and he’s out there, not in here. Everyone’s all tied up in knots because of this shit now that we’re this close to ending it, we’re not going to disintegrate.”

“Logan Susie is Cord’s woman, yes she’s the commander’s daughter and we all feel a certain responsibility to her, but at the end of the day she’s his, it’s his call.”

“And you Cord, you know he gets nervous before every Op, like a fucking mother hen, just ignore his jabs the way we always do. I’m gonna go hang with the women until you fuckers stop acting like you’re on the rag.”

“Whoa, was that my boy Ty?” Lyon looked after him as he headed out the door.

“Yeah, he gets mouthy when it’s time to kill. Only time you can get anything smart outta him.” I grinned because this shit never changes.

Cord and Lo hugged and whispered to each other and went back to acting like nothing happened, which is the way with all of us.

Con’s gonna be next to show his ass and Quinn and I will keep our mouths shut and grit our teeth. And the rest of us will make sure that Ty stays safe because he’s the baby. And also the hothead who likes to put himself in the line of fire. Nothing new here!

I on the other hand had no choice but to tell her the truth for her own protection. It was never more obvious than now why we stuck to our pact in the past. This shit felt like sawing off an arm and leaving it behind.

Only I wasn’t just leaving a woman behind while I walked into danger, I was leaving a woman who had no idea that this whole thing was all about her.

“It takes a day and a half to get to Doha from here, when do you want to leave?” Mancini asked the room at large.

“No time like the present. There’s a seven hour time difference let’s say we go in at nightfall the day after tomorrow.” Logan answered.

“That would mean leaving in a few hours.” I almost choked on the words. This is happening. I thought I would be able to handle it but now I need more time.

But the longer he’s alive, the longer she remains in danger, not to mention the other women still left on his fucked up list.

“Yeah, so I guess we better let the women know we’re gonna be gone.” That was Mancini’s way of saying we should spend some time with our women before we left.

We headed downstairs to find them and once again I separated her from the herd. “Let’s go for a walk on the cliffs.”

The rain had stopped and the air was fresh and heavy with the scent of the tropics. The sun played on the blue-green water making it sparkle like diamonds and I remembered the way she’d sung that song so beautifully, the way she’d danced on the beach.

I felt the photo in my pocket the one I’d downloaded from Mancini’s computer before leaving his private room.

The next few minutes could decide my future and I was more afraid now than I was of going into enemy territory in a day and a half.

“Have you told me all you know about your childhood?” She’d already told me that she knew she’d been adopted but that was as far as she’d gone.

“Yes, have something happened?”

“No, no, everything’s fine. I have to tell you something and I don’t know where to start.”

She took my face in her hand and turned it towards hers. “Everything has been hidden from me my whole life Devon, always a secret.” I kissed her palm.

“It seems like I’m the only one who doesn’t know the truth. If we are to be happy together, you must never keep me in the dark again. Especially if it has something to do with me.”

“I can’t go back to the way things used to be. These last few days with you and the others have been the happiest of my life. I never knew how bleak my life truly was until now. If I had to go back it would kill me I think. Kill my soul.”

“You’re not going back, no matter what you’re not ever going to be locked away again.” As I said the words I realized how freeing they were.

If I handed her over to her real father, what would her life be like? What am I really keeping her from if I keep her; marry her? Would that really be such a bad thing?

It made it easier to start the dialogue that until a few minutes ago I’d been dreading. I took the printout from my pocket and unfolded it.

“Let’s sit down.” I pulled her down beside me on my lap as I sat on the flat surface of the bluff above the cliffs.

“Do you know this man?” She studied the image looking at it intensely for a few seconds before giving me an answer.

“I think so, take away the robes and the turban and it could be my uncle.”

“Your uncle.” I was holding a picture of the old king.

“Yes, he came every year that I can remember, at the same time on the date of my birth. I’d awaken to find him in my room just sitting there quietly. He’s the only person other than my parents and brother that I was allowed to see. But he looks so different here. Always before he wore a suit and his hair was different.”

“Has something happened to him, why do you have his picture?” I took a deep breath and told her the story as I’d heard it on the video the CO had left us from the beginning, making sure to leave nothing out.