Page 2 of Very Special Forces

"Baby?We have a baby?" asked Jord, pretending to look puzzled. He checkedthe imaginary watch on his wrist. "I think we have plenty of timeleft for fun."

"Mom andDad will love any extra time they can get with Poppy," I told them."Take advantage of it and enjoy yourselves. Anyway, you knowVictoria loves playing with Poppy. Poppy is the only member of thefamily smaller than her."

"I don'tneed to be told twice. Do you?" asked Jord.

"Leadthe way to the bar," replied Lily and they scooted off hand-in-handwith Garrett and Daniel following behind.

I lookedaround for my colleagues at the Solomon Detective Agency, spyingFletcher, Flaherty and Lucas waiting at the gates to the enclosure.Only Tony Delgado was missing and that was because he was currentlyon his honeymoon with my sister, Serena. They got married a monthbefore but had to delay their honeymoon slightly due to acombination of work commitments and Serena's fussiness about wherethey should vacation. With Serena's daughter safely ensconced at myparents’ house for ten days, they headed to white sand and blueseas, their exact location unknown.

"Thiswas fun. Lily enjoyed it even if she's not an officialcrimefighter," I said, slipping my hand into Solomon's as wefollowed our team to the exit.

"She'sone of the family," he replied. "This was much better than justholding a team building day for the private investigator squad. Weshould do it more often."

"Maybenext time we could have more padding." I winced as I breathedaudibly, certain I would wind up with a bruise or two by themorning. "Fun as this was, I don't want any bruises when I wear mywedding dress."

"Dulynoted. Only two weeks until the wedding." Solomon smiled. "Are yousure you don't need any time off? I don't want you to feel rushedwith the planning or overwhelmed by the job."

"I'mfine," I told him, and I truly was. Having smugly wrapped up mylatest case, a simple desk job, mainly running background checks ona department store's employees after a wave of thefts, I wassatisfied. It didn't take long to ascertain that one long-standingstaff member incurred a bad gambling debt after severalbereavements and felt compelled to resort to theft in his effort tosolve it. I recommended the staff member be moved to a position ofless responsibility, more monitoring, and provided with counselingas well as any reasonable measures the store manager was amenableto. I was feeling more than a little proud of myself for mycompassionate response. "I need to do something or I'll just get inFrancesca's way," I said, referring to our wedding planner. Shepicked up the bulk of the wedding work once we decided what wewanted and how we expected our wedding day to play out. Now it wasmerely days away, and all I had to do was avoid getting intotrouble before the happy event. How hard could that be?

"ThenI'll expect to see you in the office at nine sharp tomorrow," saidSolomon. "I'm sure we can find something for you to do that doesn'tinvolve chasing down lunatics or getting shot at. Until then, Icould use a cold beer, a hot shower and a home-cooked meal. I cancook it."

"Yousound like you're married already. You'll make a terrifichusband."

"Bestcompliment you've paid me all day," he said, stopping to kiss meagain. Behind us, someone cheered.

~

"Ninesharp," I said. I tapped my watch as I pointed to the clock on thewall. Solomon and I entered only a minute earlier, the first toarrive in the PI's shared office. We both made for the smallboardroom where we held meetings and I looked around. "Where iseveryone?" I wondered as I moved to the window and looked down atthe street below.

"Some ofus don't carpool with the boss," said Fletcher, yawning as hewalked in. Pulling out a chair, he slumped in it and yawned again.Usually he looked stony, like the hard ex-CIA agent he was, but nottoday. Today, he looked like he needed to go back tobed.

"Some ofus have to because he makes breakfast," I pointed out. "It would berude not to carpool. Why are you so tired?"

"Ididn't go to bed until three am, thanks to your brother andsister-in-law insisting that I do shots until the weehours."

"Therewas nothing to ‘insist’ upon," said Flaherty as he strolled in, abox of donuts under his arm. He dropped the box on the table andFletcher's hand moved towards it automatically, his fingers feeblyattempting to flick open the lid. "I'm surprised Fletch canmove."

"Practice," groaned Fletcher. He dragged a donut from thebox. "Reflexes."

Igrabbed the back of a chair and pulled it out before dropping intoit. "How come you look so awake?" I asked Flaherty. Matt Flahertywas a former detective and long-time friend of Solomon's. He'd beenrelegated an invalid after being shot in the line of duty butseemed content to work for the agency rather than enjoy an earlyretirement.

"I wenthome at a reasonable hour and didn't imbibe like the world'salcohol was becoming a scarce resource," explained Flaherty. "Notall of us want to look like gnarled, old PIs."

"Idefinitely don't," I agreed. I glanced down at my pink pants, creamblouse and darling two-tone heels. I couldn't be further from agnarled PI, which was exactly why Solomon initially hired me. Ourtargets never suspected me.

"Anyoneknow where Lucas is?" asked Solomon. He stood at the head of thetable, his arms folded, waiting.

"Here!"said Lucas as he hurried in, raising his hand and sliding into thechair next to Fletcher. "What happened to you?" he hissed, takingone look at Fletcher's bleary eyes.

"Seriously?" Fletcher raised his head wearily. "I'm the onlyone with a hangover?"

We allnodded and he slumped even further into his seat.

"Let'sget to it," said Solomon. "As a caveat before we start, Lexi and Iare both reducing our workloads in the run-up to the wedding; soanything that looks time-consuming will be handed over to youguys."

Therewas a small chorus of 'you got it, boss', 'we can handle it' and'does that mean extra donuts if Lexi wants to fit into her dress?'The last one I took particular offense at. Like I could leaveanyone my allotted share of donuts! I reached for a jelly-filleddonut dusted with powdered sugar and stuck out mytongue.

"Gladwe're all up to speed," continued Solomon without defending me onthe donut issue. He began to hand out a sheaf of thin files. "Wehave several cases in this week. There's a neighbor problem arealtor has asked us to look into. Something to do with a boundaryline potentially being illegally moved. I know, I know. Notriveting stuff but you never can tell when small cases like thesecan end up generating a big lead later."

---