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After she disconnected the call, she went back into the house. Tessa was on the phone. From overhearing the call from Tessa’s words only, Briana deduced that she was talking with her mother. And by the sound of it, her mother was trying to convince her to come back to Indianapolis. After she hung up, she turned to Briana. “No matter how old I am, my mom will always worry.” She seemed a little embarrassed.
“If my mom knew exactly what I did for a living, I’m sure she’d be worried, too.” She didn’t say out loud that maybe Tessa shouldn’t tell her mom everything if she knew she worried. To Briana, it was just common sense.
“What does she think you do?” Tessa asked.
“Corporate freelance trainer specializing mostly in employee issues for HR, including employee mental health, substance abuse, and anger management.” She paused and chuckled. “The truth is, many of my clients are being impacted by the men in their lives who struggle with one or more of the three.”
“Me included. He has to be mentally ill to stalk me as he has,” she said.
“I agree with you,” Briana said. “That doesn’t make him any less dangerous, though.”
“I hope they perform a psych eval on him and discover he’s insane. Lisa, I am so glad you were here. I don’t know what I would have done. Can you teach me anything to be better prepared to handle myself?”
Briana was surprised by her request. “Yes, I suppose we could go over some things this afternoon.”
***
“Gentlemen,” Shepherd greeted the team in the video chat window. BT was online from his office at HQ as well as the six men onsite. “I’ve confirmed the visitor was who you suspected. He contacted me, actually. We will not say the name aloud, even on our secure channel. The code name for him during this Op will be the Matador.”
“What the hell was he doing here?” Jackson asked.
Shepherd’s lips dipped in a scowl. “It goes without saying that what I’m about to tell you will never be repeated. He was personally delivering a program that our target will install in a system he is providing, due to be unveiled Saturday evening. The Matador wants to know all goings on at the target location for the next week until the product is delivered fully completed.”
Reading between the lines, Roth and every other man knew this meant SecDef suspected John Wells may sell the classified program to an unauthorized buyer, a buyer who would visit his ranch within the next week. “So, what, we’re just to watch, record the visitors, but do nothing to stop the unauthorized transfer of the product?”
“That is our mission,” Shepherd said.
“That’s crap and you know it!” Garcia grumbled.
“It’s the mission,” Shepherd repeated.
“Did you get your nuts slapped by the Matador?” Cooper asked.
Shepherd’s lips tipped into a grin. “Let’s just say his hand never made contact and he won’t make that mistake again. He now knows this team only engages with all intel available.”
“So, he knew it was us. Sorry we tripped their security, Big Bear,” Jackson apologized.
“He did, and it wasn’t your fault. We were not provided with the complete layout and security measures at the target location. We can expect that intel within the hour.”
“That’ll make our job easier,” Roth remarked.
Shepherd nodded. “Carry on. I expect an update in twelve hours, sooner if there’s something to report.”
Shepherd exited the video chat room.
Roth looked to BT for any sign he knew more. He was at HQ with Shepherd. Roth anticipated a conversation between the two had taken place, maybe even including Madison and Brielle if the Digital Team was actively investigating anything for Shepherd. BT could know more. Before he could ask any questions, Doc beat him to it.
“What else do we need to know, BT?” Doc asked.
“Depending on your reports, I wouldn’t be surprised if your mission parameters change,” BT said.
Roth knew he definitely had info they did not.
“Good to know. Thanks, BT,” Cooper said.
Mike
As Briana settled into bed later that night, she received a text message from Sebastian. Despite not wanting to, she smiled, seeing his name displayed on her phone.