SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 11
“Okay,Chance, you called this meeting. What do you want to say? Is Rory okay?”
Alex “Ghost” Bishop sat at the head of the oval table in the SCIF, which had been built especially for this mission. It was made from a shipping container and held state of the art electronics and communication equipment. The facility was small but secure. It had to be since the president herself sometimes briefed them from Washington.
It was fully contained inside the building that housed the range, and accessed from Ghost’s office. There were two doors, one that required a code and one that required a palm print scan. To anyone looking at the entry door from the outside, it looked like storage.
Chance swallowed. It was after six and they were closed for the day. Daphne had locked up and gotten a ride home, and it was just his team. His brothers.
Chance let his gaze slide across five expectant faces. His heart thumped a little harder than usual. Telling these guys he’d gotten Rory pregnant wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t for the mission.
Ghost Ops. Six men with no family ties, no connections. All they had to do was fly under the radar and make sure the Athena project stayed on track by any means necessary. They were supposed to be operators with nothing to lose, men who could disappear if they had to. Men who could follow orders and get the job done, no matter what it took.
They weren’t supposed to build permanent ties to the community, and they definitely weren’t supposed to get anyone pregnant. They were ghosts because they had to be, and they were expendable if the mission went wrong. They all knew it, all signed up for it.
But now he was expecting a kid with a woman who deserved the best he could give her, no matter what she thought about him.
Blaze had made it work with Emma, but Ghost had been pissed when Blaze got involved with her. They lived together, but it wasn’t technically a relationship and they weren’t supposed to do anything that hinted at commitment until this mission was finished.
Even though everyone here knew they were committed.
“Uh, Rory is fine. I couldn’t find any evidence her intruder was the construction company guys, and if anything’s missing from those sheds of her grandfather’s, nobody would know it.”
“You need us to do anything?” Seth asked.
“I need to change out the cameras for the higher res when they come in, and install the hard drive for the system, but I can do that myself. Though I’d like a couple of you to come go over the grounds, see if I missed anything.”
“I can do it,” Kane said.
“Me too,” Seth added. “Can help with the cameras as well. It’ll go faster with more than one person.”
The other guys offered as well.
“Thanks. I appreciate it. And could you check out D&B Properties when you get a chance? Just want to know a little bit about them.”
“Yep,” Seth said, scribbling the name on a notepad.
Chance rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. He was fucking sweating. He’d been as cool as you please striding into terrorist cells the world over. He’d taken out drug dealers and terrorists, fought his way out of more shitty situations than he could count, and this is what threatened to undo him.
Because he didn’t want to disappoint the man at the end of the table. A man with more commendations than anyone Chance knew other than General John “Viper” Mendez, the commander of the Hostile Operations Team. Ghost had single-handedly saved HOT from annihilation when he’d run ops from the basement of a residential house in order to clear Mendez’s name a few years ago. Ghost was legendary.
“Just spit it out, man,” Ghost said. “You want to tell me you’ve got the hots for a Southern girl same as Blaze here? Fine, shack up with her, but I don’t want to know if you’ve pledged your hearts and gotten matching tattoos, okay?”
Oh Jesus. He was in so much fucking trouble.
“Uh, it’s a bit more complicated than that, sir.”
Ghost groaned. “I’m not gonna like this, am I? What’d you do, Wraith? Bad news doesn’t get better with time.”
Chance met the man’s gaze. Swallowed. “Rory’s pregnant.”
Ghost stared. The room was dead silent. Jaws dropped a little. Blaze was the first one up, clapping an arm around his shoulders and squeezing. “Man, congratulations. That’s fucking awesome.”
Ghost banged his forehead against the table while the other guys jumped up and joined Blaze in congratulating him.
“Are you assholes trying to get me removed from this command? What’d I ever do to any of you other than drag you away from the military and get you sent to Sutton’s Creek, Alabama, where there’s a psychic who sees aliens and a bunch of friendly locals? You’ve got a town quainter than anything Hollywood could dream up, Southern cooking, and you get to spend your days teaching self-defense to people who aren’t actively trying to kill you. It’s a fucking Hallmark movie here, without the snow.”
“Sorry, boss,” Chance said sheepishly.
“I’m gonna be scraping chewing gum from under tables at a fast food restaurant in Bumfuck, USA, before this is over. Hell, maybe I should just call the president and resign now, make it easier on her. Then she can send somebody down here who can maintain control and keep you jerks laser-focused on the mission. Did I mention national security is at stake? Millions of people’s lives? Ring any bells?”
Heat crept up Chance’s throat. He wanted to tug his collar but didn’t. The other guys looked chastened as they took their seats again. Chance sank into his chair as well. He’d stood to address them, but now he joined them around the table.
“The situation is complicated, boss, but I don’t think it’s all bad. I’m not technically in a relationship.”
“Explain.”
He cleared his throat. Man, it was gonna hurt to say it aloud, but what choice did he have?
“Rory and I had a brief fling but she doesn’t like me. Told me so just today, in fact. I think she’s as shocked about this pregnancy as I am, maybe more so since she’s a diabetic and there could be complications. We were careful, but it wasn’t enough. She’s not asking me to marry her, and even though I would because it’d be the right thing to do, I’m not offering because it isn’t what she wants. She intends to keep the baby, and I intend to be there to help her out. But we aren’t in a relationship. She’s made that clear.”
Nobody said anything. Chance sighed as he shoved a hand through his hair.
“It’s okay. Really. We’ve never gotten along, other than briefly after she and Emma were taken, so it’s not like there’s a lot of emotions involved. We had a fling. It was fun. Thought it was over, but now there are consequences. I’m not abandoning her or my kid. I intend to be there for them both, and I’m staying at the farm for now because we don’t know who’s been trespassing or why. It’s not permanent.”
Ghost eyed him. “This going to affect your work?”
“No, sir. My head’s in the game. Rory’s health concerns me, but she’s getting a doctor who can monitor her during her pregnancy. I intend to keep her safe from assholes who want to harass her over her property, but that’s not going to stop me from doing my job here. Nothing’s changing other than I’m having a kid.”
Which meant everything was changing, but he couldn’t wrap his head around that yet. Could he still return to HOT and active ops when this mission was over? Did he want to?
Ghost sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “All right. We’ll go with that for now. But you ever feel like you aren’t in this the way you should be, I need to know. I can’t have you endangering the mission because you’re distracted. It’s too important.”
“Understood. But I’m committed. I know what we’re doing means my kid will grow up safe. If we fail, that doesn’t happen—and I won’t be the reason it fails.”
“I believe you,” Ghost said. “Nothing like a baby on the way to make you more determined to succeed.”
A sense of relief flooded him. He tipped his chin at Seth. “Thanks for taking my place today.”
“No problem, man.”
Ghost sat up and tapped his pen on the table. “All right, let’s hear the report then. What happened at Griffin Research Labs?”
Seth’s expression was grave. “Talked my way past security with a fake badge and some technical talk. Walked all over the facility. Some of the labs require codes to get in, but others I opened the door and walked through them with a clipboard, pretending to make notes. When I’d seen enough, I went straight into the CEO’s office and took a seat in front of his desk while he looked mildly confused. Then I pointed a finger gun at him and told him if I’d been an intruder, he’d be dead.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t like that,” Kane said with a chuckle.
“Not a bit. He called an emergency meeting of his security team and we went in there together. He proceeded to chew their asses over their negligence. I explained to him that anyone could have made the mistake to let me in, that it was a matter of training and strict adherence to protocol even when you recognize the person you’re demanding credentials from. Then there was the matter of the labs where nobody questioned me. He fired the security manager on the spot and threatened the rest of the team.”
“He called me when you were done,” Ghost said. “We’ve got a contract to train their people and advise them on security.”
“Which means we’ve got a way in,” Ethan said. “This is good.”
“Damn right it’s good,” Ghost replied. “We still don’t know who coordinated that shipment of fake microprocessors we destroyed or how they knew the real ones would also be passing through Royal Shipping. It’s either an insider at Griffin Labs or someone in the government who knows the project’s inner workings. Considering how important this project is, it’s fucking ridiculous Phantom got as far as he did. Hopefully nobody else has breached the labs yet, though it’s possible.”
“The area where they’re working on the command and control system is off limits to most. I wasn’t able to get into it, though if I’d had more time I think I could have hacked the entry code.”
“Not encouraging at all,” Ghost said, “but we’ll know more about their operations after we spend some time going over their employee records and security procedures. Which we will start to do on Monday. Good job, Phantom.”
“Thank you, sir,” Seth replied.
“If nobody’s got anything else, let’s get over to the Dawg and grab dinner.”
“It’s Friday,” Kane said. “Been thinking about that prime rib all day.”
“Is Daphne joining us?” Ethan asked as chairs scraped back from the table.
“How would I know?” Kane replied. “She doesn’t tell me what her plans are.”
Chance exchanged a look with Seth. Seth smirked.
“Somebody call her,” Seth said. “Or maybe Blaze can knock on her door.”
“Think she had a date tonight,” Blaze said mildly.
Kane didn’t react in any obvious way, but Chance would have sworn the temperature in the room went down several degrees. Kane’s look was pure frost as he glared at Blaze.
“When did she tell you that?”
Blaze shrugged, seemingly oblivious. “I don’t know. Might have been yesterday when I drove her to work. Or the day before. Some guy she met at the Piggly Wiggly. Think she said he was in the chess club at the library. Hell, maybe that’s where she met him. But he works at the Pig. I can’t fucking remember. Why are you asking me? You want to know, ask Daphne.”
“I don’t care,” Kane scoffed. “Just wondering why she didn’t tell all of us.”
“Hell if I know. Maybe because you’ve been a grumpy bastard lately? Think you need to call Lainey or one of those other women you’re teaching self-defense and get laid. Might sweeten you up.”
“Now kids,” Ghost said. “No fighting or you won’t get any dinner.”
“Not fighting,” Kane grumbled. “And not grumpy.”
“Me neither,” Blaze said, palms facing out. “Just stating some facts. I’ll call Emma on the way and ask her to go upstairs and see if Daph’s free tonight.”
“Problem solved,” Ghost said to nobody in particular. “You fuckers ready?”
“Hell, yeah. Let’s eat!”