Page 83 of Avenging Kelly

Daisy and I made our way through the airport, my head on a swivel per usual as we approached the security exit. “There! There’s Uncle Dallas!” I glanced in the direction she pointed, seeing my brother standing in a corner with his phone in his hand and a cocky smirk on his face as he leaned against a large column. I gave a loud whistle and watched his head jerk up before that slow smile spread and he motioned for me to hurry up.

Daisy held her arms up and took off running, and when she reached my brother, Dal scooped her up and swung her around. It warmed my heart to see how happy he was to be holding her.

It had been six months since our last visit to the States, but we’d video chatted every week with the whole family, so Daisy knew everyone—except her birth mother and grandmother. Kelly’s mom and sister had never spoken to us again after the adoption had been finalized, but I knew why, and we did our best to ensure Daisy didn’t miss out on anything as far as family was concerned.

It seemed like eons since we’d left the States, but it also seemed like yesterday. It was a hard decision to make, but Kelly and I both knew it was for the best.

* * *

September 2023

I walked into the Victorian with baby Daisy on my hip. It was a warm fall day, and I was busy helping Casper in his new role as the Administrator at Golden Elite Associates-America. He’d turned over all of the assignment scheduling to me, and we’d hired a couple of new operatives to help carry the load since I wasn’t taking cases that involved anything more than a nine-to-five schedule.

I walked into the daycare to see Romeo Torrente in a highchair with a teething biscuit and that famous Torrente grin. Gabby and Fitzgibbon Morgan were in Italy for Fitz to meet the Italian operatives and get up to speed regarding how GEA operated.

The other new guy, Zayn Reddy, was in DC with Nemo for an assignment to escort a congressman around town while the Capitol Police tried to figure out who was trying to kill him. Nemo and Ben lived in town, and Zayn had once worked on a presidential security detail a few presidents ago, so they were the best qualified for the job.

“Hello, Miss Nadine,” I greeted the woman Dex and I had agreed to hire to take care of our little prince and princess. The young woman was mid-twenties and had a sweet wife who attended yoga classes at the studio, so it was a fantastic fit.

“Good morning. Lawry asked if I’d send you up,” Nadine Costa answered.

I handed over Daisy and the diaper bag and kissed my little sweetheart goodbye, patting Romeo’s wild hair on my way out. I jogged up the stairs to see Kelly standing at the top. He’d come into the Victorian early so he could work out with Duke before he went to work at Corby’s garage.

It had been a real blessing that Corby had needed another mechanic—or was willing to make a spot for Kelly to work at his garage, which was what I suspicioned. My man was getting restless at home, and Kelly was definitely the type of guy who needed to be busy all of the time.

“Hey, aren’t you going to be late for work? How’s your ass?” I asked before I gave my man a kiss and a little squeeze on said ass. We’d fucked like rabbits before he’d left the house, and just seeing him standing there fresh from a shower made me want him again.

“Just the right kind of sore. Casper asked me to stick around, so I called Corby and told him I’d be a little late. We finished the inspections for the city vehicles yesterday, so it’s a little slow right now. How was the little princess? Any problems getting her ready?”

I took his hand and led him to Casper’s door, knocking twice. “Perfect little angel,” I answered as Casper invited us inside.

He was ensconced in his kingdom, which was comprised of computer monitors of varying sizes, but he didn’t look too happy, which was unusual. “What’s up?”

“I got a hit on Dr. Frances Ritchfield,” he answered, the furrows on his forehead deepening with concern.

There had been a huge media skirmish to get the scoop on Operation Jackpot. We’d given the FBI all of the information Casper had found, plus, we’d given a packet to The Times. Apparently, someone from the FBI had leaked the story to another news outlet, and the race was on for who got the story first.

Ritchfield had been taken into protective custody as far as Casper had been able to find out—Fitz Morgan was a former US Marshal and was able to confirm with a friend that they had her in an undisclosed location and they were keeping a sharp eye on her.

“What about her?” Kelly asked, his voice filled with the dread brewing in my gut.

“She’s dead,” Casper informed us. I looked at Kelly to see the surprise I expected. We purposely hadn’t killed that bitch because it was more important for the program to be shut down and she had the knowledge to do it. Now, someone had taken her out, and I wanted to know what the fuck happened with those vigilant marshals.

“I thought—”

Casper held up his hand to stop me. “You and I know how government agencies work. This particular clusterfuck belongs to the Army, and we both know they don’t want their secrets getting out.”

Yeah, he was spot on with that comment.

“How’d you find out?” Kelly asked Casper.

“A little birdy I attached to her file on the FBI server told me there was an update, and when I checked it out, the word deceased was splashed across it.”

Casper stood from his desk and walked around, leaning against the front of it. “Thing is, the file isn’t closed, which means it’s still being investigated. My advice to you, my friends, is to disappear for a while. If she’s the source for information and she’s dead, they’re going to start looking for other members of the teams she had in her project so they can find out more about it. The Army won’t want that to happen, so they’ll fight it, but the FBI will win the argument since the media is aware of the operation,” Casper reasoned. I could see where he was going with it, and a chill went down my spine.

“You will become a hunted commodity, and with that chip in your spine, I’m not sure they can’t reactivate it at some point in time. But, like everything that operates on a frequency, there is a range. If you’re out of that range, they can’t find you,” Casper finished.

We’d had the chance to learn if there was a chip inside him completely by accident. Kelly had fallen off a ladder when we were unpacking the last boxes after he’d come home from rehab. After watching him scowl in pain for two days, I insisted he go to the doctor, who had sent him for an MRI. When the results came back, there it was, next to his spine, a tiny rectangular spec on the screen.

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