---Declan’s POV---
“Are you sure?”
Those were the first words out of my mouth after Samuel has pulled us all apart and proceeded to inform us of what had occurred just outside. The tension in the air was palpable as we all exchanged worried glances.
Just a few minutes ago, I had still been snuggling with Sage on the sofa, thinking of possible future scenarios before I had heard the front door opening and closing again, accompanied with Ellie’s chirping as she chattered none-stop at Samuel.
I had known right then that something was up; school wasn’t due to end for three more hours, so why pick Ellie up so soon? Sage had tensed beside me before we both gazed in each others eyes, drinking the other in. It was as if we silently agreed to tell each other everything, but not now.
Sage had gently pulled himself out of my arms and drawn Ellie’s attention towards the kitchen, where they still were by now. Me, Richard, Josh and Samuel were holed up in our HQ, staring worriedly at each other.
Josh was resting his fists on the table, frowning sharply at the tabletop while Richard leaned against the wall, arms crossed and expression solemn. Sam nodded his head as Josh smothered a growl and looked up.
“Aye, the car wasn’t lost Dusty.” I blinked at my codename and found myself cursing because now I just knew how serious this shit was. “Fuck! Damn it all to hell. How did they found us so soon anyways?”
I glared at Richard, as if he was going to give me any answers but he held his hands defensively in the air. “Don’t you look at me, I have no clue whatsoever. What we can’t afford now is to lose our cool. We need to think, make plans and make sure those kids are safe. There’s more at stake for you guys, now more than ever.”
Josh yelled in anger before flipping the table over, crashing everything on it on the floor before he stomped through the room, breathing heavily through his nose. “Those bastards know of the attack, no doubt. They’re doing a little recon.”
I nodded, feeling myself getting back in the game as I thought of every possible thing that could be important right now. Walking towards one of the writable walls, I grabbed a pen and started jutting notes down.
“It could be one of the higher ups checking up to see where the remnants of Wolfpack and Neptune are.” Richard added, though he didn’t sound very hopeful. Nonetheless, I added that to the list as well.
“Let’s say it’s the Black Sun. What then?”
Samuel frowned slightly, winching in pain. He had hurried to get Ellie as fast as he could, but trying to jog wasn’t a bright idea on his part. Now he was paying the price.
“They wouldn’t dare to attack out in the open; that’ll draw attention that they donna want.” He drawled whilst rubbing his leg. I scribbled it up in short notes before frowning slightly.
“I doubt that school is safe though.” I muttered whilst Josh walked towards the wall and grabbed a pen of his own. “They can’t go off on their own anymore; whoever is out there will most likely wait for them to be alone. They want an easy target, not someone who’s gonna fight to defend themselves.”
“No, y’all thinking about this from the wrong angle.” Samuel suddenly said as he sat down, still massaging his sore leg. “Think ‘bout it; if ya gonna pull them outa school, you’ll draw attention to ourselves, attention we don’t want.”
Josh’s eyes flared up with understanding as he nodded his head while I rubbed over my chin, thinking it over. If we reacted like a scared mother who had left her child at school for the first time, we’d endanger anything we fought for.
By pulling the kids out of school, the Black Sun would know that we had learned of their arrival, losing our own element of surprise. By letting them think we didn’t know a thing, they’d poke around for information, leaving their guard down enough for us to do our own poking.
It felt like we’ve spend the whole day inside that tiny room, planning and making sure that we knew what we were doing before coming out to reveal our plan to Sage. Both Laura and Davy would be informed of the basics of our plans.
I smiled as Sage slipped next to me before I pulled him on my lap, needing him to ground myself and stop all these scenarios in my head from escalating even further. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent, listened to the steady beat of his heart while the others sat down as well.
“So…All of us need to be on guard from here on out. We’ve sent our information back to our allies but sadly, “I glanced around with a pointed look aimed at my love, “Our little escapade hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Sage paled slightly but he didn’t seem all too surprised when he nodded and brushed a slender hand through his silky brown hair. “They must have made a list of all my ghost accounts and ordered their men to check the locations out.”
Richard nodded, silently agreeing before we explained them in detail of what they could expect from now on. “So, I want you guys to immediately let us know if something is off. Even if it is something as silly as classmates bothering you about personal information, tell us.” I stated, eying them all to get my point across.
They nodded before the twins retired from the night. Little Ellie was already sound asleep in her bed so I knew we were safe to talk more openly to Sage. Samuel was writing things down, thinking hard as he did so which made me look at his writing to notice he was writing everything in code.
He noticed my look and smiled grimly. “We need to be cautious and have our heads on a swivel. We all better keep in mind that they’ll resort to breakin’ in to get what they need.”
Sage smiled weakly before sagging in his seat. “So…now what?” he asked tiredly before I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer against my body. “Now we live our daily lives but keep a watchful eye out. We’re close to completely cracking their code thanks to your help and more importantly, Richard has discovered some files that might hold the names of the leaders of the Black Sun.”
He seemed to brighten a bit at that notion and smiled warmly before snuggling comfortably in my arms. I wanted nothing more than to simply relax and drag him to our room for a relaxing and pleasurable night but duty came first right now. I needed to distance myself a bit from our close bond to make sure I wasn’t endangering him and missing important clues.
---Viper’s POV---
Josh sat beside me in the car, both of our attention on the blue ford that has passed our door a few days ago. Since that first moment of anxious activity and the sharp bite of fear, Mother’s kids had luckily winded down a bit and relaxed more, though I noticed from the three elder siblings that they hadn’t forgotten the invisible threat.
“They’re out.” Colt said sharply, making me focus back on the road to see three men and a woman step out of the hotel and walk towards the car. My eyes scanned their faces, which were unknown to me but the way the kept close to another and nonchalantly glanced around made me aware that they indeed were up to something.
No-one simply observed their environment constantly, not with that kind of persistence. They knew they had to tread carefully, the possibility of their secret coming out to the world was enough to make them cautious.
“Four targets on route…Wonder if they’ll lead us to their den?” I remarked as Josh started the car and followed them from a safe distance, keeping at least one vehicle between us at all times.
“I just hope there aren’t any more rats waiting for them.” Josh grumbled under his breath but I heard him anyway and shot him a glance before sighing. “Rats tend to group together but it’ll work in our advantage. Follow one rat…” I trailed off as the car made a left turn and stopped in a neighborhood close by Mother’s house.
“You’ll get to the whole nest.”
Josh cursed softly as we drove past; we couldn’t afford to let them detect us, since we weren’t supposed to be here in the first place. We both were disguised as civilians but if there was a rat that knew us by face, then we were in some serious-
“Shit! I think I recognize that guy.” Josh hissed as he parked the car a fair end away from the house, giving us a clear view of the four approaching the house as a fifth member walked out and greeted them warmly.
I took several pictures, doing my best to get enough face snaps to use as evidence as well as to search a name with the face. “That blond guy in the baggy jeans.” Josh pointed the man out before continuing, “I think I’ve seen him working together with Sgt. Grey and Lt. Mathews.”
“Rank?” I asked while storing that part of Intel away for later use. Josh pinched his nose in thought before saying, “Infantry, I think. Pretty low on the ranking but easier to hide in the masses. He can keep his ear up for any whispers out in the troops and inform the higher ups.”
I nodded to indicate I heard him before continuing to take more pictures. The group dispersed and went inside while one of the guys stayed out and started to look around. “Our cue to get the hell outa here.” I remarked, causing Josh to drive away, succeeding in not drawing any attention to ourselves.
When we came home, Josh instantly went to park on the driveway but I laid my hand on his wrist to stop ‘em. “Do one more block.” When he didn’t respond right away, I yanked on the wheel and said again, “One block.”
Josh did as I asked while I guided him several streets away from the house before I ordered him to break harshly. The screech of our tires was nothing compared to the screeching of the car behind us. Because both of us had our seatbelts on, we didn’t have any injuries but the car tailing us wasn’t so lucky.
The driver had bashed his head on the wheel was out cold, his buddy shaking his head slightly. I rushed out of my car and opened the door of the passenger before wrapping my arm around his throat and squeezed.
“Night night.” Josh commented beside me while I reached for the back of my pocket and grabbed one of our little tracking devices. Josh motioned for me to hand it over while I grabbed the other thing; two small needles with injectable trackers inside, much like a chip for animals.
As soon as they both were injected and the trackers were all in place, Josh and I made sure that there was no evidence of our presence and left home quickly. Richard smiled and nodded with his head, already watching the two blips on his screen. After a few minutes, they started moving again, frantically searching for us before they returned to the others.
I patted Richard on his shoulder at a job well done as we watched over his shoulder while his fingers flew over the keyboard. Smiling slightly at his enthusiasm, I limped out of the room to get another dose of my painkillers.
On the way down, I passed by the lounge room and paused. Laura was teaching Ellie how to play on the guitar. Though the instrument was a bit too big for the kid, she really did try, her tongue poking out of her mouth in concentration as her sister told her where to hold her hands.
Without really noticing it, I was leaning against the doorway as I watched them both with a smile on my face. Laura laughed at a horrifying tone, making both the girls winch at the first note before they giggled and laughed it off.
“You…have kids of your own…don’t you?” I didn’t look away from Ellie as I nodded to Davy’s question. Ellie’s giggle rang through the room while Davy stood beside me, looking from me to his siblings and back again.
“A girl…Marley…a real princess that one. She had blue eyes, pretty blond curls like her momma and the prettiest smile you’d ever lay eyes on.” I sighed, looking at Davy as he stared at me.
“Then why are you here? Shouldn’t you be with your wife and child?” He asked, trying to stop himself from sounding accusing. My hands instantly found my daughter’s necklace, worn around my wrist as a bracelet.
“Let me tell ya a little story.” He nodded for me to continue while I kept an eye on Ellie. “A few years ago, I was a prideful man. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my wife with all I had and more. We were expecting a little girl and my wife was adamant that we’d named her after Bob Marley. A few months later, there she was. A little angel.”
I chuckled at the sad memory and shook my head. “She never liked my profession but understood my need to serve and protect. When I was called out on a mission about three years ago, Lesley begged me to stay home but…” I sighed, gazing in the distance.
“My commander at the time let me know it would be a big opportunity to raise in the ranks. So I took it.” Pushing myself off the door, I walked away from the living room to get my pills. Davy followed without making a sound, his usually joking expression turned solemn.
“What happened?” He asked hesitantly, as if afraid to learn what happened to me. Letting out a sigh, I shook my head whilst I grabbed a glass. “Well, I was young, stupid and had my priorities mixed up. The night I left, someone broke into our house.”
I chucked the pills angrily out on my hand and snapped the bottle back on the counter, taking a deep breath through my nose. “Lesley caught the man red-handed before he pulled a gun on her and shot her point blank. Marley woke up from the blast and being the curious four year old she was, she walked in the hallway.”
Davy raised a shaky hand to his mouth as I gulped the pills dry before chasing them with the glass of water. Placing the glass on the counter, I rested my fists beside it before taking a deep, calming breath and looked up to see Declan and Sage standing behind Davy, listening to the story I hadn’t told to anyone.
“H.Q. snatched me out of the mission and brought me back to base, asking me to go home so I could identify-“ My voice cracked and I swallowed sharply before shaking my head. “Ya don’t know what it does to a man, seeing yaw family, ya heart and love laying on a cool slab of metal with a sheet over their faces. I buried them back at home and fixed my mess up here.” I stated while tapping my temples, sighing deeply. Declan seemed shocked that this happened to me but before they could say anything, a little voice broke the thick tension clinging in the air.
“Sammy? Are you going to tell me about the cowboys today?” Ellie asked sweetly as she peeked her head out in the room. I cleared my throat at the painful memory of my own little girl and nodded. “Sure thing, sugar.” She sheered loudly and grabbed my hands, dragging me out of the room, where the rest of the team still felt dazed at my confession.
Ellie was chattering away with excitement, asking all about horses, cowboys and cowgirls and giggled with excitement when I started to explain how to wrangle a cow and my day to day activities on the ranch.
I realized right then that even with all my talking about keepin’ a level head and locking your heart out of the mission, my own weakness was sitting right in front of me. And for being the man of 185 pounds trained muscle, I was too weak to escape the hold she had on me.
---External POV---
The small group of informed soldiers was scrambling to gather their stuff and get to the next location. They knew the traitors of their land were up to something big but they needed to break up camp and move from time to time.
One man in particular didn’t like the idea of moving again, and his superiors knew it. Moving meant him going back to the enemy’s side and gather Intel, but he’d rather stay on the right side. Every time he had to put his game face on and play nice to the traitors, his stomach turned with disgust.
“Jayke? Are you ready son?” Jayke looked up and stood before saluting to his Commander. “Sir, yes Sir!” He nodded once and smiled warmly, brushing his blond hair out of his face. “Stay focused soldier, we only need to find out who the top dogs are and then we can wrap things up.”
I nodded, though my stomach twisted slightly. “Permission to speak sir?” He nodded once and I continued, “I feel it would be best if I went straight for the source. I have a feeling they’re getting too cautious for my liking.” He seemed to think this through before sighing.
“Let me get this in front of the border but until then…” He patted my back and smiled encouragingly. “Take care.” I swallowed thickly but nodded, knowing that this might be the last time I got to see the light of day.