Page 73 of Operation: Valiant Angel

“You just talked about your commitment to us, to me, and called us a family.” She smiled, a big grin on her lips as tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t want to assume you wanted me to live with you, especially now that Lilly is part of the package,” she said. “Not many guys would take on a little girl that isn’t theirs. "

“There’re two of my teammates that are married. We were on a mission in this third-world hellhole. We came across a couple of those containers like they load on the back of semi-truck trailers, the kind that get stacked on boats and shipped all over the world. And inside those containers were hundreds of women and girls, fucking chained like animals in the worst God-awful conditions I’ve ever seen humans held in. We freed them and turned them over to authorities to get them home, to keep them safe. But there was this one little girl, couldn’t have even been four, was a hell of a lot smaller than Lilly. There was no way to find her family. And one member of our team, Madison, she formed an attachment to that little girl. She told her husband she couldn’t leave her, and they were taking her home. He agreed to it because really, what else could he do? She instantly became amom to that kid, and he instantly became the kid’s dad. I never understood it until I saw you with Lilly and you said you wanted custody. Then I got it. You were going to be Lilly’s mom and because I care about you, I’m going to support you any way I can and I’m going to be the best damn father to that kid I can be. It doesn’t matter if she’s biologically mine or not. This isn’t something a person can do half way. It’s all or nothing.”

Her heart swelled and the admiration and affection, and yes, she was sure, the love she felt for him doubled, maybe tripled. “You’re a unicorn. Men like you don’t exist anywhere but women’s fantasies.”

He leaned into her and kissed her lips. “I’m real, baby, and I mean every word I said.”

“I liked lying in bed with you and won’t want you down the hall in a different bedroom at night. I want us to share a bed. I want to snuggle with you. I want to fall asleep with you holding me and I want to wake up the next morning the same way. I want to go all in on this relationship.”

“Good, me too,” he said. He kissed her again.

“Wait, since when does the DEA have missions in third-world hellholes?” she asked.

“That’s the other conversation we have to have. My job. I carry DEA creds and a badge, and I earned them. But I’m not really a DEA agent, well, not a traditional one, anyway. Some of the guys on my team carry an FBI badge, ATF, CIA, or ICE. Lambchop’s credentials and badge says NSA. The official line is that we’re a special multi-agency task force, but what we really are is a military black ops team operating mostly domestically. Most of us were recruited from the special forces. That’s what you have to know, have to know what getting involved with me means. You’ve already seen the dangerous work we do, but it’smore than that. Our missions are important. There’re not many people who can do what we do, that have the training to do what we do. Often, people’s lives are at stake. We get scrambled at all hours of the day and night if there’s a true emergency. Often plans get interrupted. You have to be okay with it for us to work.”

As Reina listened to his words as he told her what his team really was, what they really did, she shouldn’t have been so surprised. “Razor, Garcia was with the special forces?” Accepting that he was a DEA Agent had been hard enough. Now, knowing he was also a member of the military in the special forces was even harder.

“Yeah, he’d been a highly decorated Army Ranger,” Wilson said.

“Were you a Ranger too?”

“No, I was with Delta,” he said. “I was a sniper.”

This took her by surprise. “A sniper?”

He could see her unasked question all over her face. “Yeah, I took out a lot of really bad terrorists over in the Middle East.” She looked away and he couldn’t read her reaction to his admission. He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “I did my job, Rae, and I did it damn well. And now, I do my job in this unit. We help people. We save people’s lives, and I still do my job damn well.”

She was impressed by how strong and unapologetic his voice was. He was proud of the work he did. He wouldn’t shrink back from it, no matter what she may have thought about it. Now she understood so much about him, about his unit. “I have to believe it takes a very understanding and a self-sufficient woman to be with someone who does your job.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“It’s a good thing I’m both. I know first-hand, times two, how dangerous your work can be, but also how important it is. Remind me of that if I’m ever less than understanding that you suddenly have to go to work. And I’ve made my own way since I was fifteen, younger really.”

Wilson swallowed her in an embrace. It was all on the table and she was still there, wanting to go all in. And just like that, he was going to have a relationship and be partly responsible for a little girl. And both Rae and Lilly would need to recover from the traumatic events of the past few days. He’d get an appointment with Lassiter ASAP for Rae and get a referral to a child trauma specialist for Lilly. Lassiter would demand a couple of appointments with him too, he was sure. Well, hell.

Whiskey

Reina settled back into her seat, now that the jet had leveled off. She adjusted her arm, which held Lilly, who was asleep. Her gaze rose, focusing on Jimmy, who sat across from her, watching her. The last time she’d been on this plane, he sat beside her. She remembered how kind he’d been to her that day. She would never have guessed how important to her he’d become.

“Kids, I envy how they can sleep anywhere, anytime,” she said.

“Sleep’s the best thing for her right now,” Jackson said. He sat beside Wilson. “They’re also very resilient. She’s going to be fine. You know that, don’t you?”

Reina shrugged. “I hope you’re right.”

“I have two kids. Another of our teammates has a daughter around the same age as Lilly. She’ll have kids to play with until your new identities come through and you can get her back into a preschool,” Jackson said. “Getting her back into a normal routine will help her a lot.”

Reina nodded. “Yeah, that and reassuring her that she’s safe and will be cared for. I don’t know what I should tell her about her mom.”

“I still want you to talk to our team shrink. He’ll be able to help with what we should tell Lilly,” Wilson said. “He could probably give us a referral to a good child trauma counselor.”

“Angel, Madison, Elizabeth, and Sienna will be helpful too,” Jackson said, his gaze on Wilson. “It was the four of them who got Hahna settled so well.” His gaze shifted to Rae. “She’s a normal and very happy five-year-old now. You’d never guess she went through something so horrific.”

Wilson saw the uncomfortable expression on Rae’s face. “They’re the wives of several of our teammates. Well, Angel is Jackson’s wife and our office manager at work. And Madison and Cooper are the team members who are married that I told you about. They’re the ones who adopted Hahna. You’ll meet them all.”

“That’s good to hear that the little girl is doing well,” Reina said. “It’s encouraging that Lilly will, too.”

“All the wives will give you support,” Jackson said. “That’s one thing that’s a definite. The ladies help each other. We’re all an extended family.”

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