Code Name Shadow

Chapter 8

Brielle

It's been a few days since the party and things have been going really well.

I met up with Gemma for lunch yesterday, and we sat there for about three hours just talking, laughing, and getting to know each other. It was nice being able to talk to her. I feel like I haven't had true girl talk in forever, and I didn't realize just how much I missed it until we were talking.

I'm getting ready for work right now, trying to figure out which outfit I should wear. Esther said I didn't need a formal uniform to work at her shop so long as I dressed appropriately and wore my name tag. I settle on a blue blouse and black jeans, smiling as I looked at myself in the mirror. This is one of my favorite outfits. I love how it looks with my dark hair and hazel eyes, and I take any opportunity to wear it.

Just as I'm figuring out what to do with my hair, there's a knock on my bedroom door. "Come in" I say. The door opens a crack and I see Beckett's reflection in the mirror. I smile at him. "What's up?"

"Change of plans for work today I wanted to let you know about."

Realizing he wants my undivided attention, I turn away from the mirror to face him. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. It's just that one of the targets we're looking for is believed to have a safehouse a few hours from here, and Aaron, Jack, and I are being sent to a location nearby to conduct surveillance."

"That sounds dangerous." I say, trying to hide the fear I know is evident in my voice.

"It's not, I promise. We're under strict orders not to engage, just try to gather intel for a potential strike later on. He might not even be there, but we have to find out."

"Okay, so what does that mean for you then?"

He sighs, which isn't a good sign. "It means I'll have to stay there overnight. I'll be with my teammates, so I'll be fine, but...I know after everything you don't like to be alone. If there was any way I could stay you know I would, but I can't. I just want to make sure you'll be okay."

I'm not going to lie, the idea of being here by myself for almost two days terrifies me; however, I know there's nothing Beckett can do about it so I try to force it down for now. He's going into a dangerous situation as it is, the last thing he needs is to be distracted worrying about me.

I force a weak smile. "I'll be fine, don't worry about me. I feel safer here than at our old house, and we have a ton of security. Nothing bad will happen." I try to convince him while simultaneously trying to convince myself.

He looks at me skeptically for a moment, but eventually just nods his head. "I know you will be. But, in case something were to happen, I wanted to give this to you." He pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through it. When he finds what he's looking for, he looks back up and hands his phone to me.

"This is Cody's contact information. I'll give you Damien and Cohen's info as well, but I figured that since he's my best friend and you already got to meet him you might be more inclined to call him if you need anything."

I take the phone from his hand and look down at it, furrowing my brows in confusion. "This is for Cody?" I ask. He nods. "Why is he labeled as Shadow?"

"Everyone on the team has a code name. We use them a lot on missions when we don't want people to know our identities, and most of us have changed our contact names also in case our information was to ever get stolen."

"Oh, that makes sense." The idea of having code names has always fascinated me, and it was interesting to see how comfortable Beck already was with it. "What are your other teammates names?"