Page 26 of Operation: Reckless Angel

He laughed. “So, you’re breaking your promise to them?”

“Whatever your side hustle is, and I don’t want to know what it is, if the Feds couldn’t prosecute you for it, but made you promise to stop, would you?” she posed.

“Point,” he agreed. “Just be careful. I seriously don’t want to see anything bad happen to you.”

“Thanks, Finn. I don’t either,” she said with a laugh.

“Okay, so I’ll go down and take a look at the underside of the van. You and Miss Mittens, make yourselves at home. I’ll bring her litter box bin up. Is it in the back of the van in its usual place?”

“It is. Thank you. I wish you were straight. You’re great boyfriend material. Why don’t you have a partner? Or do you?”

He sighed, an exasperated sound. “With my family? Yeah, that would go over great.”

“You deserve to be happy and have a person to share your life with.”

“You do too. Where’s the man who you should be sharing your life with?”

Now Briana sighed. “I’d like there to be someone again, sometime in the future. I thought I found him once, a long time ago, but he died before we could figure out if we would last.” She had never spoken about her personal life with Finn like this, or anyone other than Cam. She wasn’t sure why she was now.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. And there’s been no one since?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Ah, so there’s been someone, but did you maybe not give him a chance?”

“I didn’t say that,” she argued. “For a long time, I was stuck wondering what could have been. And then life got busy. Besides, I’m rarely in one place long enough to have a relationship.”

“Girl, you just haven’t met the right man yet. When you do, none of that will matter,” Finn said. “I’m going to go get Miss Mittens’ litter box. I’ll be right back.”

Briana stared at the closed door after Finn left. She had never really thought about it before, but had she met Mr. Right since John died, she would have put down roots wherever he was to be with him, not that she’d give up her mission. She’d just do it from a new base of operations. And realistically, anyone who was in her life would have to support the work she did. Well, that explained why there was no man in her life.

Finn thoroughly went over every inch of her van and found nothing on it that didn’t belong. He assured her with total confidence the van was clean. The next morning, she rolled out of his garage well rested and feeling less paranoid. She made good time and arrived in Detroit earlier than planned. Thankfully, the predicted snow storm wasn’t as bad as the forecast and the roads were clean. Michigan in December was a crap shoot.

It was Sunday and the meetup to extract her client was set for ten thirty, right in the middle of her client’s regularly attended church service. It was one of the few places and times her client knew she could step away from her husband in public and be able to get the children, who would be in the Sunday school program, without her husband knowing for at least ten or fifteen minutes. And by then, they’d be long gone. Briana had conducted this type of job many times. She called it a rescue and run mission.

Briana had already pulled identities from the CIA database for her client and her two children before the encounter with Sebastian and his team. Janice Wesley and her two young children, Mason and Mia, would become Renee Oliver, a recent widow, who, with her children, Jason and Leah, would move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for a fresh start and a new job, which Briana had also already arranged with a former client.

As she was early, Briana parked down the street from the church in a strip mall after going through a drive through to get herself coffee and a late breakfast. She communicated with Janet Wesley’s best friend, Sonia Harvey, via text to advise she was nearby and waiting for the appointed time to meet them at the rear, lower-level door of the church. She attached dummy license plates to the vehicle just in case a camera caught her vehicle.

Shortly before she needed to drive to the church, she put Miss Mittens into her carrier so she wouldn’t sneak out of the van when the door opened for her clients to quickly enter. They’d get in the back and lie on the floor until Briana told them it was safe to get up. They’d stay in the back though and not show their faces until they were at least out of the state of Michigan. Briana hoped the kids wouldn’t have to use the bathroom for a few hours, or until they crossed into Ohio or, even better, Indiana.

At twenty after ten, Briana shifted to drive and pulled out of the parking lot. As she approached the beautiful church, her adrenaline spiked, which, combined with the caffeine from the coffee, had her blood pumping and her heart racing. She looped around the parking lot and accessed the back driveway. She pulled up next to the door and hit the button to open the side sliding door.

A single woman emerged carrying two backpacks and a large duffle bag. “Lisa?” she asked, stopping in the open doorway of the van.

“Yes.”

“I’m Sonia.” She tossed the bags into the back.

Only then did Briana notice the back door was still cracked open. As soon as Sonia had placed the bags inside, the door opened all the way and a woman with no coat came out holding a little girl on her hip, who Briana knew was eighteen months old. Dangling from the hand that held her were two children’s coats. Her other hand held her four-year-old son’s hand. She dragged him along at a fast pace.

Sonia helped to lift Mason in, as Janet Wesley sat her daughter on the floor. She gave Sonia a quick embrace and then climbed in, sliding the door closed behind herself. Briana shifted to drive and pulled away as Janet got them all settled on the floor, covering each of the children with their coats. She held them close to herself, relieved they were on their way. This moment had been thoroughly planned, and she’d risked so much by pulling the trigger on it. But she knew the next beating from her husband may very well cost one of them their lives. All three of them had fresh bruises from one of her husband’s outbursts a few days earlier.

Briana’s eyes noted the time on the clock as she pulled out of the church’s parking lot and pointed her van towards the on-ramp of the interstate. It was ten thirty-three. Janet Wesley had planned to leave the church pew at twenty-five after, knowing it would only take her five minutes to collect both her children. Briana knew from experience that it would be about now or within three minutes that her husband would wonder what was taking Janet so long in the bathroom.

“I have pillows and several blankets on the floor for you to use. It should only take a few minutes to heat it back up in here. I have the heat on high,” Briana said, her adrenaline receding slightly, just slightly.

Janet put pillows under their heads and spread the blankets over them. “Thank you so much. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

---