Page 61 of Six
“You think it will go as planned?” Gavin asked, pretty sure he knew the answer Joe would give. His training—both their trainings—didn’t allow them to assume anything would go as planned. Ever.
“Probably not,” he answered. “Something will go wrong. But the good news is everyone here is more than capable of handling whatever Julia Newcross and the Fogartys throw at them.”
“And then some,” Gavin added.
Joe nodded. “The leaders of Shanti Joy might be grade-A assholes who deserve to rot in prison, but there’s no way they can outsmart or catch that lot off guard,” he said, once again nodding to the women inside who were all now walking toward them.
Gavin turned as Violetta led the group out onto the porch. All four wore purple dresses, which had, apparently, been Jeremy’s favorite color. Violetta and Devil had paired theirs with four-inch heels, Nora with flats, and Cyn with matching purple boots that just covered her ankles.
Tomorrow, everything would be put into play. By the end of the day, everyone involved in, or who had turned a blind eye to, the activities of Shanti Joy would know their mistake. Several of them would likely be behind bars if all went according to plan.
But now, today, this afternoon, it was time to honor the man who had started it all.
* * *
Three hours after the end of the funeral, Six was sitting in Nora’s living room waiting for her friend to bring coffee for everyone. As she waited, she stared out the big picture window that looked out onto Nora’s property. The iconic red barn was catching the evening light, and a deer was drinking from the far side of her pond. Out on the lawn, between the house and the barn, Abyasa, Candra, and Shinta were sitting on a blanket with a litter of two-month-old foster puppies. Michaela, Cyn’s personal trainer, was watching over them, just as she and Dan had done when they’d brought the women to Jeremy’s funeral.
Six hadn’t wanted them to come. With DePalma dead, she was pretty sure no one was looking for them, but because she couldn’t be certain, she’d wanted to be cautious. She’d been overruled by Gavin, though, who felt it was important for the women to have an opportunity to say goodbye to the man who had tried to help them and had died for his efforts. In the end, they’d reached a compromise. The three had attended the memorial, but they’d done so from the balcony at the back of the church and out of sight of the other mourners.
The women were smiling and laughing at the antics of the five black-and-tan puppies who seemed to want to climb them like jungle gyms. Every few minutes one or the other would pick a puppy up and cuddle it, rubbing her face along its soft fur. Six was well acquainted with the healing power of puppies, but even so, she was grateful that Nora had also found a counselor for the women who spoke their languages. Abyasa, Candra, and Shinta were strong. And they were drawing even more strength from being part of the efforts to bring Shanti Joy down. But no one who’d experienced what they’d experienced should have to process it all on their own. And Nora had at least made it possible for the women to talk to a professional should they choose to. Of course, playing with the puppies seemed to be having a healing effect, too.
“We’re all set,” Cyn said, drawing Six’s attention as she rejoined everyone in the living room after taking a call out on the screened-in back porch.
“Franklin came through?” Gavin asked.
Sitting beside Six on the sofa, flipping through a magazine, Devil let out a sardonic laugh. “Franklin doesn’t evernotcome through when it comes to us.”
Gavin flickered a glance at Joe, and the two men shared a look that Six didn’t understand, but then returned his attention to Cyn. “Shall we go over the plan one more time?”
Devil groaned, but everyone ignored her. Six could almost sympathize with her friend. When working alone in the field, none of them had anyone to answer to and certainly didn’t need to coordinate plans. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. They often needed to coordinate intel with other agents or with headquarters. And occasionally, they needed to coordinate the timing of specific actions. But generally, they worked alone. What was planned for Monday morning was entirely different, though, and Gavin had a point. In fact, as former military, he and Joe had far more experience than Six and her friends in orchestrating the kind of operation they intended to implement.
“Heather just called,” Nora said, walking into the room carrying a tray of desserts and a pot of coffee. Gavin got up to take it from her, then set it down on the large square coffee table. Nora turned back around to get the mugs from the kitchen.
“What did she say?” Six called out. The distinctive clacking of dishes filtered into the room as Nora took mugs down from the open shelving.
“She put the finishing touches on the complaint and will have it uploaded and ready for filing as soon as we give her the green light,” Nora answered. She returned to the room with a second tray that held six ceramic mugs made by a local potter.
Cyn leaned forward from where she’d taken a seat on the floor with Joe behind her in a chair and poured a cup of coffee. Handing the first cup to Joe, she then poured another before leaning back against his legs. His free hand came up and rested on her neck.
Six’s attention lingered on her friend, and the partner she’d chosen to share her life with, until a steaming mug came into her line of sight. She switched her gaze to Gavin and his dark brown eyes, slightly creased at the edges from years of smiles and experiences she knew nothing about. As she took the mug, she realized that Cyn had been—was—much braver than she. Yes, Cyn and Joe struggled every now and then with their relationship. But those struggles, those little tiffs and fights, had more to do with figuring out how to be with someone when they’d both never had a long-term relationship before. Unlike her, Cyn had never once balked at the general idea of letting Joe into her life.
“It’s not a latte or a flat white, but it smells good, and I think we’ll need it,” Gavin said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Thank you,” she said, wrapping her hands around the mug. He waited until Nora and Devil had their drinks, then poured himself one before taking his seat beside her. Devil sat on her other side while Nora had curled up in another chair.
“So, the plan again?” Gavin prompted. At least this time, Devil didn’t groan. Although that was probably only because she had just taken a sip of her drink.
Six was about to run through it when her phone rang. Glancing at the number, she frowned, then held it up for her friends to see, eliciting the same reaction from them.
“What?” Gavin asked.
“It’s fine. Probably good,” Six said in response to the wary tone in his question. Then, hitting the Answer button, she put the device on speaker. “Aren’t you on maternity leave yet?” she asked.
“Don’t fucking talk to me about these kids,” Beni Ricci, now Beni Matthews, snapped back. “And I’m not going on maternity leave until they make me,” she added. Six held back a laugh, but Cyn snorted.
“Fuck you, Cyn,” Beni said. “You wait. And even if you decide not to have kids, I’m going to thrust mine on you for the fun of it.”
“Babe,” Calvin Matthews’s voice came through. Beni and her now-husband, Vice President Calvin Matthews, had met Cyn and Nora on an op the year before when Beni was on a special FBI task force. The op had brought the couple back together and they’d married a few months ago—when she’d already been pregnant with the twins she carried. Now the two bundles of joy were expected within six weeks. Six didn’t want the twins to come too early, but for Beni’s—and Cal’s sake—maybe they’d make an early appearance.
