Page 24 of Liberating Mallory

Marcus looked at Opie before sighing deeply. “I need to call our team leader and XO to inform him of the situation, as well as get permission to talk about the op.” Marcus stood up with Opie following him.

“It’ll be fine.” Pratt said, grabbing Raso’s hand. “Our boys will be safe. We’ll make sure of it.”

After several moments, Opie and Marcus returned to the table, both men rubbing their faces with their hands. Marcus pulled Raso into his lap and held her close, murmuring into her ear as he rubbed her pregnant belly, assuring her quietly before kissing her head.

“Taz’s information is correct. Six months ago, our unit was dispatched to a Sinaloa compound. We were told it was to be a rescue operation, but the intel was sketchy.” Marcus started talking, keeping Raso in his arms.

“Only problem was the information on the person we were supposed to rescue was even sketcher. Mallory handled our intel for the op. She felt there was something off about the intel that the senator provided. He claimed it was a family member, but our research never showed this family member existing.” Opie stated, rubbing his head as if he was in pain.

“Which senator?” Jordyn asked, skeptical of what she was hearing.

“Senator Gaston…” Marcus answered, looking around the table.

“Mother fucker!” Pratt and Raso yelled at the same time.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” The rest of Alpha Squad yelled out simultaneously.

“Fuck!” The Trident Security group mumbled, leaning back in their seats.

Marcus, Opie and Highlander shared a look with each other before looking at the rest of their group in confusion.

“Would someone like to enlighten the rest of the class?” Highlander asked, a dark brow lifting as he studied his wife and the rest of the group.

“Senator Gaston is a senator for California. He’s also on the military committee, which is hilarious because he makes Bill Clinton look like a saint when it comes to screwing around on his wife, and he’s also never served a day in the military. In college, he called anyone who serves in the military fucking morons, stating they were only good enough to lick the dog shit off his boots.” Taz answered, anger in her voice.

“He gets elected because of his good looks and his wife’s money. This last election, he squeaked by thanks to the sympathy votes, due to his wife’s death.” Pratt answered then suddenly looked at Carter. “Is there any way he could have found out about the investigation?”

“How did you know about that?” Carter asked, eyes narrowing at Pratt.

“Who do you think called it in to the uncle?” Pratt responded with a look at Carter as if saying ‘duh!’.

“Yep, she’s totally racking up the spankings once that baby is born.” Brody laughed, winking at Pratt as she stuck her tongue out at him.

“What investigation?” Opie asked, confusion on his face making him look younger than he was.

“His wife died last year, just before the elections concluded.” Diesel advised Opie, taking a sip of her drink.

“Yeah. That was huge news, but she was killed in a mugging gone wrong.”

“I always thought that was a little too Bruce Wayne, or Tony Stark, if you ask me. It’s like the dude can’t make up his mind if he was a Marvel or a DC Comics fan, ya know. Like he was confused between Batman and Ironman or wanted to create his own character…’IronBat’ or some shit like that.” Diesel mused, shrugging as she drank more of her drink.

“Anywho…” Raso interrupted Diesel’s musings, shaking her head. “The detectives who caught the case thought a few things were hinky. At first, they didn’t realize it was her due to there being no purse, her wedding rings weren’t on her finger, and she wasn’t in her normal designer clothing.”

“The purse and rings the mugger would have taken. But what’s so big about the designer clothing aspect?” Marcus asked, confusion in his face as he looked around at Alpha Squad. “I mean if the mugger was a woman, a man isn’t going to care about clothing.”

“She wasn’t seen at any of the events he did once he made the announcement that he was running for another term. He had made a statement at one point that she had taken ill, but he wasn’t slowing down to be with her or anything. There were rumors that they were separated or divorced but wouldn’t make the announcement until after he secured his position as a senator.” Rameriez answered Marcus, leaning back in her chair, crossing her arms across her chest.

“From what’s been found so far, she’s not had any Dr visits or anything. She basically fell off the grid roughly a year and a half ago. Autopsy reports showed still healing fractures, bruises…” York continued, scratching her head as she put her elbows on the table. “She was also malnourished, dehydrated and looked like she had a baby a few months before. The damage to her body suggested the mugging gone wrong theory was a cover-up.”

“Okay, what does this have to do with what happened six months ago?” Abbott asked, looking at Alpha Squad. “She wasn’t the one rescued in Mexico, so who was?”

“The mistress that he’d been banging since before the wife was killed. There was even some speculation that the wife was killed to pave the way for the mistress.” Opie answered for the group.

“There was speculation that since the wife never gave the esteemed senator children, that he started banging the mistress to procreate. He’s well known for saying that a woman’s only job is to obey her husband and procreate, securing their husband’s legacy.” Pratt growled out, rubbing her belly as she shifted in her seat.

“Wait, I thought you just said her autopsy report claimed she had recently had a child?” Knight asked confused.

Pratt looked over at Raso. The two women stared at each other for a bit before Raso picked up the information sharing.

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