Chapter 28
~Lucie’s POV~
The feeling was eerily familiar. The room was basically the same. The topic was foreign though, along with the people. I had gotten used to the different scenery. No long nights crapped into a black surveillance van, no more countless hours wasted on strategic planning with my ‘father’ going over the rights and wrongs of planning a preemptive strike. But here I was back in a darkened room surrounded by some of the most intelligent people in the pack.
“Lucie are you alright?” Casey’s eyes were filled with concern, but the only thing I could do was turn away and grasp the edge of the large table with my hands as I tried to quell my jumbled nerves.
“Fine. It’s just been a long time since I was in an Operation room and let’s just say that I’ve always hated them.”
“Operation room? Like the game?” Alayah was trying to make light of the situation and I saw that. I offered her a weak smile, but I still couldn’t shake the nauseating feeling that was still getting from being in the room.
“Back at the compound my brother and I always made up names for the missions when we were younger. Eventually the compound started to notice and then gave me the pleasure of naming all of our… operations. Hence the name.” Alayah raised an eyebrow and I knew she wanted some examples.
“Operation Romeo, Banshee, Backhand…,” the names kept rattling off in my head, each with strong buried memory attached to them.
‘Oh come on, you had to have a favorite name, Lu,”
“Rock and Roast,” it was my favorite name. But it was one of my least favorite maneuvers. I must have cringed visibly because Alayah turned away. Guilt had begun to eat at my chest, but I knew that I had to block off all of my emotions before we could start planning.
“Let’s begin. Casey.” I turned my attention towards Casey and he nodded, walking over to the head of the table. I walked to the opposite end, just as I had done with Darcy.
“Alright, with the information that we just obtained from Auggie we now know that the Refugee Pack is now off the board on the offensive side. This lowers the opposition’s fighting strength significantly. Thoughts?” I took a breath. I had seen this exact battle plan before about three years ago. Darcy had been in Barbados, undercover with a small group of rogues that had been spotted. I doubt he even knew about the mission I had been on.
“Three years ago I had been in an operation much like this one. I was sent in with about ten other operatives to deal with the Hollow Peak Pack. They had been aggressive towards humans for the last ten years or so. We let them be because they hadn’t killed anyone yet. We would have upheld that policy if they hadn’t banned, with the Wild Darkness Pack. The WDP had been our hit list for over fifty years. Numerous attempts to take out the pack had been implemented. None of them were successful. But now they had a weak point. We had a way in. Turns out that had never been the plan. WDP had joined up with Hollow Peak because they wanted something from them. Once it was in their sights they struck. Everyone but the people they wanted were killed.” I still remembered calling it in to my father. Explaining a battle strategy to my father that I had never heard of or understood was something that was quite new to me.
“All that work for just a couple of people? Are you kidding me? That can’t be true.”
“The people they wanted would have never joined them on their own. WDP had to convince their marks that the pack they were in wasn’t safe. That the pack they were in was out to get them and wasn’t treating them fairly. They always kept one of the members of the pack that their mark was close to. That person would have seemed to have ‘betrayed’ them, but they still loved or cared about the mark.”
“What did you guys do about the Wild Darkness Pack?”
“We killed their mark,”
“You can’t honestly be suggesting that we kill someone right?”
“You have to evaluate the worth of a life. Is the life of one worth more than the lives of many? Does the death of one justify the safety of many? It was a lesson I was asked repeatedly during my childhood.” I still remembered the first time I was asked that question.
My bunny had just given birth to a litter of bunnies. I was so excited that I ran straight to my father and wrapped my dainty arms around him before I even registered what I was doing. He had a no touching policy when the other big men were in the room.
“Daddy, Daddy! My bunny had her babies!” Daddy gave me the smile he always gave me before he was going to test me. It made butterflies in my stomach.
“Well, let’s go see them Lucielu!” He picked me up and sat me on his hip and I couldn’t help the smile that came onto my face. Every time he picked me up I was always so happy because of the contract. Daddy stopped at the door and turned around to face the big scary men in the room.
“Excuse me, gentlemen. It’s time for one of my daughter’s lessons.” I could hear laughter in the room and this time the butterflies were replaced with a sick feeling in my stomach that made me want to puke.
“Okay sweety. I’m going to give you another lesson okay?”
“Okay daddy,”
“Now out of this litter which one of the new bunnies do you think is the cutest?” I smiled. That was easy. Caesar.
“This one,” I pointed to Caesar smiling.
“Okay Lucie. You can chose to have either Caesar as your bunny or you can choose to have all the bunnies but Caesar.”
“Lucie!” I snapped out of my daydream and returned my attention back to the people around me.
“Let’s just say that I’d give up Caesar any day,”
“Caesar? Who the hell is Caesar?”
“He was the one that I couldn’t give up. For three extra days Caesar lived while everyone Caesar cared about was dead. My father had someone kill Caesar three days later. He said that my choice didn’t ensure that Caesar wasn’t going to get killed by someone else, the death toll just would have been a lot lower and maybe someone of the people that Caesar cared about would still be alive.” Silence had enveloped the room in a matter of seconds. Everyone’s eyes were trained on me all with mixed expressions of pity and sadness. Caesar might have been a rabbit, but the Caesar represented more than a rabbit. He represented the life of one that I had foolishly believed was worth more than the others. I wouldn’t make that same mistake again.
“We need to figure out who Caesar was in this situation. Do we have any intel on who it could be?”
“No, but I do know someone who might,” Dom had been silent through out the entire ordeal. His face was contorted with disgust and whoever Dom was about to mention, was someone I don’t think Dom had ever wanted to see again.
“Beau Bowen,” that was a name that I never thought I’d hear again. One that I also had hoped never to hear again. But Dom was right. If anyone knew anything on rebel packs it would be him. The god damn specialist.
~☾~
It took only one phone call to track him down. I had his direct number memorized for years now. I had sworn to myself that I would never call his number unless I was dying or something close to it… I’d even promised the man himself the very same thing. After a brief exchange between Dom and I we had cleared the room, with him saying that it was him that knew his number. All of the others were taking a break except Casey, who was standing guard in front of the door. I knew that the second that Beau picked up the phone and he started to talk to me that the cat would be out of the bag, that it was me who knew Beau the most, not Dom.
“So how did you know Beau?” The clear resentment in my voice must have spoken volumes of my own opinion and encounters with the rich rouge sleaze bag. My own interactions with Beau were enough for him to resent him, but since he didn’t know about my history with Beau I could only assume that it must have been something nasty for Dom to loath him this much.
“I probably didn’t know him in a much better light than you. He met me when I was at my lowest, he found me drinking my problems away. I guess you could say I was a very impressionable drunk. We lived together for about three months, with him trying to curb my drinking. That was until I found out the real reason he brought me in. He brought me in because he thought I needed to be watched because I killed my parents. Hell, he said he was trying to rehabilitate me. I left after that.” It scared me to realize how much that statement didn’t surprise me about Beau. Thinking the worst about someone and trying to fix them with no regard to the actualities that caused the problems.
“We should probably call him now.” I nodded, trying to calm my racing heart. I picked up the pack phone and dialed his number. It rang twice before he answered.
“What can I do for my delicious cupcake today?” I felt my cheeks instantly flush with color. He just called me a barf worthy nickname… and it wasn’t even the right one.
“Did you start calling someone else Cookie or are you just trying to mix it up?” Dom’s expression was priceless and I nearly cringed when Casey threw open the door.
“Just because I knew it was you Cookie doesn’t mean I wasn’t checking to see if there was an audience. Turns out there is by your more startled than usual response. Come on now Cook you got to know me better than that by now. And after all that time we spent together. I have to say that I miss you here. Your lips on mine, the feel of your hands slowly moving down my-,”
“Who the hell do you think you are to talk to my mate like that?” Casey had ripped the phone out of my hand obviously not happy with where Beau’s conversation was headed.
“Ah, you got yourself a mate huh? That explains why my beds been cold the last few nights.”
“Me having a mate has nothing to do with you not getting laid Beauregard,”
“Oh, hush. Using my full name I see… maybe I should just hang up right now-,”
“No! I mean, I still need your help,”
“Ah a rogue you need me to track down? No problem, standard price I assume?”
“We’re not looking for a rogue Bowen. We’re looking for intel on the rebel pack run by Dion Kozar that just took out the Refugee pack.”
“Then this will definitely be a probono job. I’ll be there within the hour. Prepare two rooms for me dear, I’m bringing a guest.”
“A guest? I thought you said you weren’t getting laid?”
“And my guest is the main reason I’m not getting laid. It’s surprising how few girls are willing to throw themselves at you when they think you're sleeping with someone more attractive than them.”
“I don’t follow,”
“I have a partner now, Lucie. Someone both you and your overgrown friend Dom used to know.”
“Who?” Dom had gravitated closer to me, putting his face almost as close to the phone as mine was.
“Lexa Ramsey,”