The Squad

“Listen, I told you that we’ve brought in the girl you asked me to protect, that she’s safe.” I’m still not sure what led to that, and she hasn’t said anything about it to me since giving me the heads-up about Roxana. But the fact that the young woman seems to know my wife in some way leads me to question whether or not their paths had crossed at some point in time.

“Yes, where is she? You wouldn’t let me meet her early this morning when she landed.”

“Of course not. I had to see her for myself and be sure that she posed no threat, and besides, you were asleep.” I haven’t told my wife as yet that Roxana had only agreed to come once hearing her name.

When I mentioned her name to Cierra earlier, there was no sign of recognition. She just seemed genuinely worried about a complete stranger whose pattern of kills had told a story that the profiler in Cierra had picked up on right away. The shit was making me confused, and if not for my gut telling me that the girl was okay, I’d probably have quarantined her. Something I wouldn’t have liked doing after the hell she’s already been through.

I knew that Roxana would search my woman out right away and wanted to be there when she found her. Though the kid has been passing all the tests, even when she took the weapon earlier, I still won’t be leaving my wife alone with her until I know for sure what she’s after. Catalina had been the final test, sort of. The kid, without knowing it, has a great capacity for reading people and judging their character.

The way she’d been automatically drawn to Roxana, the way she’d taken her hand and led her away from the room full of men where she herself was safe spoke volumes. I’m sure none of the others were thinking along those lines, except maybe Lyon, but it’s what I do.

I can only hope that everyone I draw in is a good fit. I’m dreading the day I make a misstep as is bound to happen. But for now, I have more than enough people here that are experts at fishing out the chaff from the wheat even though they don’t know it yet.

Quinn, with his abilities to ‘see’ into people and things, will be of great use in the not too distant future. But his brothers in arms have some of those same skills even though theirs aren’t as organic as his. Tyler’s capability to blow up shit with just about anything he gets his hands on will also play a huge part going forward. No wonder he and Lyon gravitated to each other upon first meeting; they have a lot in common after all.

Connor and Logan, I can see being of great help in the leadership capacity since they have such level heads. Whereas Creed and Law are great at recon. Thorpe, like myself, has the ability to get in and out of most places without being seen, which means that even if people see us with the eye, they never really know why we’re there. He’s been doing that shit for decades now, unbeknownst to everyone except his team. All in the name of saving the innocent.

Blade, Summers, the rest of the SEAL team, and all the others who have yet to be called in have their own specialties in one way or another, whether it be combat, organizational, or medical, as in the case with Roman Blair. The only reason I haven’t brought him in as yet is because I need to work on his uncle and brother.

The latter isn’t as bad as the former, but in the last few years, ever since the thing that went down with Roman’s now-wife, Julius has become a bit of a rogue and is heading hard for his uncle Marcus territory. If I don’t bring him in soon, though, I’m afraid he’d be headed for destination fucked. Things aren’t as simple as they seem, and he’s been letting anger and hatred for the things he saw and the people who betrayed him guide him.

His uncle, true to his creed, hasn’t betrayed his membership in the organization since it’s a hardcore rule that no one outside of the group can ever know of our existence, but I know it’s been getting harder and harder for him to keep quiet after the shit that went down in their little town.

As far as they know, he worked for some shadow government team before going maverick, which none of it is true. As much as I want to give Marcus the peace of mind to bring his brother and nephews in, I’m hurrying that along for the sole purpose of getting Roman, Catalina, and her grandfather together in a lab. But that’s another story.