The Squad

“Leave it to me!” I started to object to Lyon’s order, but Gideon shook his head slightly. That’s right; I’d forgotten that Lyon was the leader of this outfit. It’s easy to forget since he’s always griping about it and his aversion to being the leader of a band of misfits as he’s fond of calling his friends and brothers in arms.

“Isn’t anybody going to ask me how I know that she’s pregnant after one day?”

“It’s that blood thing Mancini talked about, isn’t it? That’s why he’s trying to turn you into some super-soldier or some shit because of your senses.” Logan was talking about me, but his gaze was on Quinn.

“All of you…all of us, have enhanced senses to a degree, but some of us more than others. I was going to wait until we’d had some time to get used to these new changes before tackling that, and there are still a lot of things that need to be done before we turn our attention to that. I’m pretty sure all of you know what your strengths are in that capacity; now we’ll see the uses for them.”

Oh, that’s right, I almost forgot, Quinn’s a damn spook too.”

“Shut up, Ty, you ass.”

“So, you’re saying bitch made sensed his kid at the time of conception? That’s some serious shit. What’s it feel like? Bitch made.”

“Why are you calling me that?” I sat up and planted my feet on the floor, glaring at his grinning ass.

“Bruh, you fainted; that name was made for you.” Somehow I wasn’t as offended by his crap as I should be. In fact, I felt like laughing at nothing in particular. I turned my gaze to my brother, who was still hovering like a wet nurse.

“I’m going to be a dad.” For some reason saying the words out loud made it seem more real. He nodded and clasped my shoulder. “We have a lot to do to prepare. Hopefully, the world will settle down some by the time the little one is ready to be born.” The men all offered congratulations which in itself wasn’t so surprising, but the fact that they all seemed genuine was.

Now all those times I’d seen them with a kid strapped onto their chests since we’ve been here was starting to make sense. I’ve seen my brother with his kids, of course, but never knew that there were others like him. Now I see why these rough and tumble men were so soft when it came to their wives and kids.

When they’re yours, your woman, your blood, it changes everything. I feel such a strong sense of protection already for both of them. “I have to get back to her, but I’m going to need a new workspace; I’m not doing any of this around her after today. Mr. Lyon, sir, whatever you’re going to do to get her to give you the information, please do it quickly.”

“Mister? Sir?” The guy is a real grump, like his dad said earlier. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe I was overly excited about the baby, but I’d heard him threaten death and mayhem to anyone who said the next words that came out of my mouth, and it still didn't stop me. “I’m sorry, your highness.” The room erupted with laughter, and I felt the last of whatever barrier was between them and me subside. Their ready acceptance of me was one thing, but now they’d accepted my woman and my child without question.

“Don’t worry about your workspace; you won’t be doing much in the next day or so since Track will be busy elsewhere, and after that, he’ll be here so you two can work up here with the rest of us. In the meantime, spend some time with your girl; we’ll keep the fires burning for a day or so.”

That quickly, the conversation changed, and we were discussing how far Track, Roxana, and I had gotten with the names on the list. “She knew or knew of more than half of them. We compared the list of names she was able to steal from her captors before escaping to the one you gave us and found some of them there. The others, we’re still digging. I already told you about the place she mentioned in New York; maybe we’ll find some of them there as well from before she was taken.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. Lyon, what trick are you going to use to get her to give up the information. The sooner we have that, the sooner we can get moving. We need to know if New York is the only place they’re supplying or if they’re part of a bigger network. This way, we can hit them all at once. I don’t think the group in Philly is affiliated with them personally, but I think the brothel in New York might be the catalyst if not one of them.”