“Does this make you my fairy godfather?”
“No, that would be Bubba.”
She stared at the ticket, at the card, at the bank balance in front of her. “So I just travel with them? I can’t shoot. I’m not a fighter.”
“We need more than guns in this fight,” he said, the good nature draining from his face, replaced by the hard gaze of the former military intel operative. “We need electronic fighters. We need hackers. We need people who can help dig out info. Who can take shit down from the inside out. The infrastructure holding everything together. You think that Houston was the only place they can make this shit? Think again. ‘They’ told you about LA and New York. How many other labs do you think there are? We know they have a lab in St. Louis.”
He leaned in close. “There are fifteen strongholds total,” he said. “Let that sink in for a minute. That means, not counting Houston and LA, there are thirteen or maybe even fourteen other possible places out there, at least, where this kind of shit can be happening.”
“So I just…what, walk away from my job?”
He pointed at the tablet. “Regardless of what your answer is now, that is still yours to keep. In addition to that, you’ll be getting a salary, deposited as usual. Twice what you’re making now. And then once all this is over with and—hopefully—everyone’s survived it, you’ll find a grateful nation will be well-compensating you and your…special friends.”
“What are you telling me?”
“That you can go upstairs, quit, go home and pack, and we’ll fly out of here tonight. If we’re at the airport by four, that’s plenty of time.” He smiled. “I have connections to bypass the quarantines.”
“Of course you do.” She still stared at her tablet.
That was a lot.
Of fucking.
Money.
“How do I explain this to my parents?”
“That you received a job offer you couldn’t possibly refuse because of the money. Especially in lieu of losing your brother. A top-secret federal job.”
“How dangerous is this?”
He shrugged. “Probably less dangerous than trying to charge into an unknown situation armed only with a nine millimeter that you’d never fired before and didn’t even remember to deactivate the safety.” He smirked.
“I will never live that down, will I?”
“No. That story’s just too damned good not to tell. You have a lot of balls.” His tone gentled. “It also shows how much you care. Your spirit. Let’s channel that into something you can do to help fight this from the inside in a way that will mean something.”
“I thought Bubba was a hacker? And what about Lima and Ax?”
“Despite his reputation, Bubba is neither omniscient nor omnipresent. Boots on the ground. You’ve demonstrated a skill level that we need. Lima can teach you even more. And Ax…He’s got some other things to handle and will be leaving for a while.”
“And I can’t tell anyone where I’m going, can I?”
“Nope.”
“Am I going to regret saying yes?”
“Probably not as much as you’d regret saying no.”
She stared up at the building. “I need to go quit.”
“I’ll be waiting down here for you.”
She found Lou in his office. When she walked in and closed the door behind her, he sat back and cocked his head. “What’s up?”
“You know how you told me that if I ever found another job that paid better than this one, that I should take it?”
“Yeah?”
“I found it.”
He sighed. “Can’t say’s I blame you. When do you start?”
“Now.”
He stared at her for a moment before he shook his head and laughed. “Son of a bitch.” He stood and opened his arms for a hug.
She went, genuinely sad to say good-bye to him.
“They need anyone else, put in a good word for me,” he said.
She laughed. “I promise.”
Ten minutes later, she’d headed downstairs, what few personal items she’d had at her desk stashed in a cardboard box that had held copy paper.
Kant awaited her. “Ready to start your adventure?”
She nodded. “I need to go pack and say good-bye to my parents.”
“Then let’s get moving.”
* * * *
Juju leaned against the trunk of an Australian pine that sat beyond the high-tide line on the beach. His carbine was slung over his shoulder and he stared off into the inky darkness over the Gulf. Well past midnight, the cool November sea breeze had mostly died down, leaving only the sound of the waves washing over the sand to disturb the night. Even the sea birds had gone quiet for the most part.
He missed her.
This had been the longest goddamned two weeks of his life.
Why the fuck didn’t I beg her to come with us? He regretted shutting Delta down that last evening with her. He knew damn well if she’d come with them, Bubba would have figured out how to take care of her parents and make up the economic shortfall.
But he didn’t want her in danger. She was far safer in Houston than she would be on the run with them.
Even though he was second-guessing the hell out of himself now.
He couldn’t blame this on Delta. This one was all on him. And while Delta hadn’t said so in so many words, Juju knew his partner blamed him for it, too.
Rightfully so.
The fact that Delta had barely spoken two words to Juju since their return, much less to anyone else, told him that.
Shasta was a hacker. She had mad skills that had helped make their mission successful.
Imagine what she could do with us helping her.
He understood why they’d been rotated out of Atlanta and back to the Florida base. Papa wanted to debrief them and evaluate their state of mind.
“Heartbroken” pretty much summed it up.
Still, they’d carry on and fulfill their mission even though Juju wondered if he’d ever be able to repair the rift he’d caused between him and his partner.
Shasta wasn’t a fighter. She had parents to take care of. She had a job, and Houston was relatively safe, now that they’d taken the Kite lab out of commission.
There wasn’t a logical reason he could put forward to ask her to come with. The best he could do was promise her they’d come back for her when they could.
He spotted movement in the dark that turned out to be Yankee.
“Papa wants you down at the dock.”
“Why?”
“Because he said so. I’m to take over your watch for the rest of the night.”
It was too dark for him to clearly make out Yankee’s expression, but it almost looked like the man was trying to hide a grin.
Fuck it.
He trudged through the sand dune until he crossed a main path that led north-south along the whole length of the island. Following it, he reached the path east to the dock. As he approached the dock, he realized Delta was also walking up from the south.
He stopped at the dock and waited for his partner. “What’s going on?” Juju asked him.
Delta shook his head. “Don’t know. Orders. Oscar said he’s taking my watch.” He didn’t wait, walking past Juju and heading down the dock.
The plane wasn’t there, but Papa was, sitting on a bench with a smile on his face.
“What’s going on?” Juju asked him.
“Panda radioed she’s about ten minutes out.” In the distance, they heard the drone of a plane’s engines. Papa held up a remote control and hit a button.
In the distance to the south, in the landing channel, a series of small buoys lit up with blue LED lights to guide her in.
Their CO wouldn’t say anything else as they waited while the engine grew louder. Panda always ran without lights at night from Venice south, staying over the water and low enough to avoid radar, switching her beacon off to mask her presence.
Then she was there, landing on the cal
m inlet water, taxiing to the dock.
Papa stood as she drew near, Juju and Delta laying their carbines on the bench as they both grabbed boathooks and snagged the plane, pulling it in before mooring it with ropes.
Panda shut everything down while Papa switched off their landing beacons. Then the door of the plane opened and Panda stepped out.
“Any problems?” Papa asked as he helped her onto the dock.
“Nah. Smooth flight.”
Papa waved the men over. “Well? Start unloading. That’s your package, after all.”
Juju and Delta exchanged a confused glance and started to climb in when another person appeared in the plane’s doorway.
Juju wasn’t sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing, but then he and Delta both nearly knocked each other off the dock and into the water while trying to help her out.
Papa and Panda got safely out of the way as Juju and Delta hugged Shasta, Juju kissing her first before he let Delta spin her around and kiss her.
Papa cleared his throat. “Gentlemen, may I present your package. Code name…” He smiled. “Code name ‘Stu.’”
Juju had spun her back around to face him. “Seriously?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Bubba offered me a job. My parents think I’m working for the federal government in a top-secret position.”
Papa laughed. “Well, technically, you are. That’s not a lie.”
Delta wore a beaming smile. “You’re really with us for good?”
“Yeah. As long as you want me.”
“Fuckin’ A,” both men said. They grinned and high-fived each other.
* * * *
Delta was sure he was going to wake up and find it’d just been a dream. He’d dreamed of Shasta every time he closed his fucking eyes, and it was ripping his heart out a tiny piece at a time.
He knew he had a mission to do, but dammit, seven other sets of them had found happiness in the midst of hell, so why couldn’t they?
He hadn’t wanted to admit he hated Juju just a little bit, even though he’d known the man was right.
Delta also knew neither of them would be getting any until after the apocalypse was over and they tracked Shasta down again. He was in love with her, Juju was in love with her, and unless she’d been a far better liar than Delta was a bullshit-detector, she’d been in love with them.
Turning to Papa, he asked, “You did this?”
“Nope. I didn’t find out about it until this morning when I was told to order Panda to Memphis to pick her up. He sent someone to Houston to talk to her and safely escort her to meet Panda. I didn’t know it was her until after Panda was in the air in Memphis and back on her way here. That’s when Bubba gave me the deets.”
“What does she do?” Delta asked.
“She answers her own questions,” Shasta said, gently poking him in the ribs. “Because she’s standing right here.”
“Sorry, babe.”
“Intelligence support,” she said. “Bubba wants me to work with Lima for a while to get up to speed and then help run the electronic assault on Silo’s operation. Keep him busy on multiple fronts.”
“What about Ax?”
She shrugged and pointed to Papa. “That I don’t know about.”
Papa’s smile faded. “We’re going to be losing Ax. Whether it’s for a while or for good, we don’t know yet.”
“What?” the men asked.
“Bubba said we need to let him follow his own lead. That Bubba will coordinate with him once Ax has left us. Ax will still provide us with intel and support, but we need to let him go.”
“When?” Juju asked.
Papa glanced at his watch. “Soon. Days. No one else knows about that yet, so keep it close. I’ll pass the word around when I’m ready.”
“Can we trust Ax not to rat us out?” Delta asked. “And what about Mary Silo?”
“That’s all part of the bigger picture. Bubba is comfortable letting him go into the wild. It might be the only way we finally get Mary Silo without blowing her trust. But it’s come to a point that we’re to provide him with a vehicle, supplies, funds, and weapons, and let him leave.”
“What about what he’s been doing?” Juju asked.
Papa nodded toward Shasta. “You’re looking at her.”
Panda crossed her arms over her chest. “Ax can identify both safe house locations, and he knows logistics details about the Atlanta CDC. What happens if he gets caught and interrogated by another of Silo’s merc teams?”
“That’s above our pay grade,” Papa said. “We have to trust Bubba. Now, gentlemen. I’m sure Panda wants to lock her plane up. I suggest you get your lady’s gear and go do…whatever it is you plan on doing.” He smiled. “Lucky bastards. Panda and I will bring your weapons up to your room for you.”
Delta stared down into Shasta’s blue eyes.
Sweet, beautiful blue eyes he’d been sure he’d never see again in his life.
“Love you, baby,” he whispered.
She hugged him. “Love you, too, you big monkey.”
“What about me?” Juju asked, grinning.
She turned to him and hugged him. “Love you, too, sarge.”
Juju nuzzled her head. “Love you so fucking much, baby,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I walked away from you. I was wrong. I should have been begging you to come with us.”
Like that, Delta’s ire vanished. It wouldn’t do any good to hold on to resentment for something that wasn’t even an issue any longer. And besides, he loved the asshole.
“Let’s get her shit and get back to quarters,” Delta hoarsely said, choking back his pent up emotions. “I have time I want to make up for with her.”
“You ain’t the only one,” Juju said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Shasta couldn’t even begin to express how happy she felt, something she wasn’t even sure she’d ever get to experience again in her life. No, the digs weren’t ritzy, just two bedrolls, which they quickly shoved together, in what had once been an office, but she didn’t care.
She had her two men back.
They soothed her soul in a way it nearly frightened her to admit.
Taking their time, they slowly undressed her, putting her glasses safely on top of a bookshelf along the wall, and eased her down onto the bedroll. They stared down at her, hunger in their eyes as they quickly stripped and joined her.
She was happy to see both men’s cocks were hard and ready.
“Miss me, boys?”
They grinned. So different, and yet so identical. Delta’s sweet brown gaze, Juju’s dusty green eyes—they owned her, heart and soul.
“You have no idea,” Delta purred. He immediately shoved her legs apart and dove between her thighs while Juju’s mouth closed onto hers, muffling her moans.
This. Sooo much this. She closed her eyes and let her mind detach from her body, from the cares of the world, and focused on the pleasure they were giving her.
Delta didn’t waste any time, quickly licking and sucking the first climax out of her, a direct frontal attack on her clit that drop-kicked her over the edge into what she hoped would be the first of countless orgasms with them.
Juju lifted his mouth from hers even as down below Delta started eagerly trying to replicate her previous response to his oral fixation. “I think tonight we’re going to take our time making your head explode until you melt into a puddle on the bed.”
Her heart raced as she stared up into his dusty green eyes, crinkled in amusement at the outer corners as he smiled. “I can live with that.”
Juju grinned, sealing her fate.
This whirlwind romance not only felt right, it felt like it had always been in her life. Like everything before Juju and Delta was a muted, fuzzy, sepia-toned existence and their entrance wiped away the filters and brought forth stunning colors and brightened her soul in a way it had never felt before.
Love. She’d never really been in love before now. Relationships? Yes.
Love?
r /> No. Never anything like this. Letting them go had ripped her heart out.
It was a mistake she damn sure would never repeat.
She wanted them on her, in her, part of her, forever. Juju’s mouth closed over hers, this time hungry, crushing, not just swallowing her moans of pleasure but sucking them right from her lungs. Delta slipped two fingers inside her pussy and started finger-fucking her, hard and fast, launching her into the second orgasm.
With her arms wrapped around Juju’s neck she rocked her hips in time with Delta’s motions, trying to fuck his face and hand, that damned evilly delicious tongue of his that could rock her world whether it was buried in her pussy or speaking sexy naughtiness in her ear.
Juju broke their kiss and sat up, cupping the back of her head in one hand and encircling the base of his cock with the other.
“Open up, baby. Let’s muffle those moans with this.”
Her lips eagerly parted, reaching for him, wanting the feel, the taste of his cock on her tongue, the heat of it in her mouth, his salty pre-cum already leaking from his slit and over her taste buds.
Perfection.
Juju let out a hiss as she moaned with her third Delta-driven orgasm. “Easy, baby. I want this load going in that sweet pussy of yours. Don’t suck me dry yet.”
Delta sat up, making her gasp at the sudden disappearance of all that wonderful sensation.
“Hold on, baby,” he hoarsely said. “Just a second.” He grabbed her legs behind the knees, shoved them up, and then his thick cock was filling her, stretching her, bottoming out inside her pussy.
He sat up, holding her ankles as he smiled down at her. “Now then. That was at least three I gave you. That’s a fair trade for right now.”
Delta started pistoning his hips, his cock gliding over that sweet spot with every thrust. Her gaze darted back up to Juju, who also wore a delectably evil smile.
“Baby, you have no idea the night you’re in for,” Juju said. “Gonna fuck your brains out. Maybe take you down to the beach and fuck you in the water. Going to make up for the past couple of weeks. I’m an idiot. I should have begged you to come with us and figured out how to make it happen.”