Page 10 of Cord SEAL

“Mancini seems to know a lot more than we do, which begs the question how?” It looks like we were ready to get down to business. After returning from Lyon’s place for the holidays we’d done an intent search on the elusive Mancini and found nothing. Which in itself told us a hell of a lot.

Since pooling our resources with the others we’ve uncovered a lot more than we would have if we’d kept going on our own, even with all our own Intel. But as fast as we discover one angle, another blindsides us out of left field and it just goes on and on.

We’ve also had to deal with the women and their meddling. Something happened at Law’s that had unleashed their annoyance gene and only seemed to get worst since our return from Lyon’s. Where before it was easy to just tell them to stay put and they’d listen, or at least pretend to, now they weren’t so easy to placate. There’ve even been instances of outright mutiny. Which is no small cause for concern.

I know my little hellcat is the worse of the bunch, she questions everything, wants to know all. Since I started taming her I’ve broken her out of most of that shit though. She knows to be my woman, there’s only one-way, mine. And though she had a hard time of it in the beginning, she’s been coming along just fine thank fuck. My dick couldn’t survive much longer if I had to wait for her to toe the line.

I heard Tyler throwing around ideas as to who Mancini could be. The man himself had not been too forthcoming in that one meeting we had, but we knew enough to know that he was well trained and very well connected. “Maybe he’s a mobster, he did say he was Mallory’s cousin.”

“I doubt it, he might have those connections as well, but that guy is deep under. Whoever he works for has him well insulated. I thought we were ghost, this fucker is a phantom.” The admiration in Logan’s voice was evident, and that was a hard thing to come by.

If this guy is half of what we suspect, then we’d really stepped in it now. We’d made some inquiries on the down low after deciding that it might be best to keep our association with him in the dark for now. The very essence of the way he’d presented himself told us that the man wanted to remain hidden. But we hadn’t come up with shit.

Meanwhile he’d only added salt to an already festering wound with his assumptions, which seemed more like fact coming from him. The discovery that some of our nation’s most trusted denizens were behind this shit didn’t sit well with men who’d put their lives on the line to serve and protect.

It wouldn’t be so damn frustrating if we could get a bead on exactly what it was we were dealing with, but there seemed to be more than one fire burning out of control at once and the shit all seemed to be geared at us.

It was anybody’s guess what else was gonna fall into our laps next. The thought pissed me the fuck off. This wasn’t supposed to happen, we had put it all behind us or so we thought. This was supposed to be our golden escape after putting in the time.

When we first settled here we thought ‘this is it’. Finally a little piece of heaven! A place where we could relax and put all the bullshit behind us. The CO had gone above and beyond in his generosity when he left us everything. Which brings me to another thought, why did he leave us everything if he had the slightest suspicion that Susie and Davey might be his, unless he didn’t know? And how the fuck does that work?

If they were twins that could be doable I guess, but they’re at least three years apart. How could the man I knew and loved be so thick that he didn’t know they were his? There was a story there that we were yet to uncover, but we had to put it on hold for now while we dealt with the more pressing horror of child trafficking and whatever else these fucks had up their sleeves. Not to mention watching our six and keeping our growing family safe.

In the beginning we’d thought we were merely dealing with drugs. That was a danger in itself; right here in our own backyard in the town of about three thousand. But after the shit we’d dealt with drugs were a minor nuisance. Then in the last few weeks with the help of our new friends, we’d uncovered something much worse.

Now it seemed we were all very intimately involved in something we had not been anticipating. I guess it was wishful thinking on our part to believe that we could get away clean.

This shit would’ve been dealt with in a whole different way if not for the fact that we had the women. It didn’t help that so far these fuckers had only gone after them and not us. So far Susie had been spared any direct contact and it better stay that way or all bets are off. The fact that she’s in that book for whatever reason was already a death sentence for who the fuck ever was in charge.

I was keeping my cool as best I could while we waited for all the information we needed before making a move, but in the last few weeks that shit has been getting harder and harder. I didn’t much like feeling like I had a target on my back, or having to stay close to home just to keep things safe.

Our whole lives have been impacted and for the first time since I made it out of the hell I’d escaped as a kid, someone else was pulling the strings. It wasn’t the same as when I was in the service, there you expect to take orders, but I’m fucked if I’m gonna play this game on my own fucking time.

We’d made strides to clean shit up on our return from Law’s place. Stockton’s operation had been dismantled, and his men dispersed. But we knew it didn’t end there because there were some major players involved and it went much deeper than we’d thought. It was because of that that our hands were tied in a sense. We have to tread carefully if we want to destroy the network completely, which is no easy feat. And it would help if we knew what the fuck we were dealing with.

Now this Mancini guy had hinted at something even more disturbing in the works and I was inclined to agree. When it comes to the Fox, I won’t put anything past that fuck. But the fact that he seemed to know so much about our lives here, didn’t sit too well with me. I mean how did he even know that Susie existed when we hadn’t? The commander had never mentioned her or her brother. And the question remained, why her?

I was at the point where I was ready to go on a rampage to get some answers. Seeing her name in that fucking book had killed any give I had in me. Pretty soon the streets are gonna be littered with bodies if something doesn’t give. The strain was getting to me and I can only imagine what it must be doing to her having to curtail her daily life.

I imagine the others were at their breaking point as well, I know I was. Not only because the shit was like the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, but also because it was keeping me from her.

***

My mind went back to that first meet, the first time I ever laid eyes on her. The day my world changed and some of the grey edges drifted away to let in the light. After years of knowing that my life was destined to be a lonely one, in one moment she’d given me a glimpse into what could be and the beast had popped his leash.

I didn’t know that it would happen like this, wasn’t even sure that it would ever happen. And then one look, that’s all it took as banal as that sounds. But she came through the gate looking for her little brother, a mere nuisance I thought at first. We didn’t have time for this shit. Things were heating up around here and my brothers and I, were hip deep in some fuck that we still had no answers to. We were swinging in the wind, a feeling that has never sat well with me. I like to be in control, have to be in control.

So when the young girl had flown through the gate like an avenging angel I wasn’t in the mood. But then she opened that mouth of hers and turned those eyes, spitting fire on me, and the bottom dropped out. I knew in that split second when I turned to her and her breath caught and she stumbled just a little, that I was going to take her on a journey. One that I always thought I’d walk alone.

I saw it in her then too before she pulled herself together; saw that flash of interest before she went back to spitting fire at me. I wonder if she knew that I could see right through her? If she knew that she had given so much away in that one unguarded moment?

She was the first woman to stop me in my tracks. As far as I was concerned, up until then, pussy was pussy, some better than others, but nothing to lose my head over. Then I took her in from head to toe and felt it.

I didn’t give anything away as I studied her. But after that little telltale sign from her, I was hooked. I held my silence for a hot minute, just taking her in, taking it all in. I wanted to remember everything about the moment my life changed. As Tyler would say, that was bitch made moment number one.

After the ringing in my ears had calmed down, and the haze had cleared from my sight, the need to separate her from the herd, to keep her scent away from the others had been strong. It was the first time in my life I’d reacted that way to a woman, and I was sure it would be the last.

I wasn’t sure if it was love at first sight, I know fuck all about that shit. But I knew there was very strong interest and attraction on my part. For me, at the time, that was more than enough. Only time will tell if she could hold my interest, if she could fit into that slot that I had pushed way back in the recesses of my mind when I’d given up on such things ever happening for me.

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