Page 84 of Operation: Valiant Angel

“I know this is a fun tub,” Reina said. “I promise your next bath can be longer.” Reina dried her off, put her pajamas on her, and then the shoes and socks while sitting on the living room couch.

“Why shoes?” Lilly asked.

Oh boy, Reina hated to lie to her. “We’re going to go on a little adventure before bed.” She wondered if that was what her mom had said to her when she’d turned Lilly’s world upside down.

It was only a ten-minute wait before Madison told her the team had arrived. They stood on the other side of the front door. Reina peeked through the peephole. She felt so relieved to see Sloan’s face through it. She swung the door wide, so appreciative to see the three men crowded around the door.

“AirTag?” Lambchop asked, his cupped hand hanging between them.

“Yes,” she said. She pulled it from her pocket and dropped it into his palm. “Thank you for coming.”

“No worries,” Lambchop said.

“Lilly, do you remember me?” Sloan asked her. She nodded that she did. He lifted her into his arms. “We’re going for a ride.”

“Yes, I told her we’re going to have a little adventure before bed,” Reina said.

“You are,” Lambchop agreed. “I’m not sure, but I think an ice cream sundae may be involved too.”

Lilly’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Lambchop said. His gaze went to Reina. “We’ll escort you out to the SUV in the parking garage that we have parked right in front of the door. Mother’s behind the wheel. He and Sloan will bring you to our HQ.” He noticed Lilly hung on his every word. “Madison will take you to her place for a sleepover tonight.” He smiled at Lilly. “She made a point of telling me you’ll have ice cream sundaes when you get there.”

“That’s very nice of her,” Reina said.

The three men clustered around her as they guided her through the hallway and to the door to the parking garage. Lilly never noticed that the men gripped their weapons beneath their jackets. They knew she didn’t need to see them carrying. Sloan carried her backpack.

“Coming out,” Lambchop broadcast through comms to Mother.

“Roger,” Mother replied. “No movement.” He stood beside the driver’s door, which was open, his eyes sweeping the parking garage, his gaze penetrating every corner and every shadow. His ears listened intently for any sound. Nothing.

As the door opened and Lambchop came out first, Mother slid back behind the wheel of the SUV and shifted to drive, his foot heavy on the brake. Reina, clutching Lilly to herself, was clustered between the three men. They were a wall around them. Before she knew it, the car door was open. She slid in with Lilly, and Sloan crowded in beside her. As he closed the car door, Mother pulled away and drove them away from the others. The windows were all tinted. There was no need to crouch down. She fastened Lilly’s seatbelt and then her own, relieved.

Sherman and Lambchop crossed the garage to Sherman’s Hellcat. He’d driven himself, Sloan, and Mother, meeting Lambchop, who drove an SUV, there in the parking garage. It always amused Sherman, watching Lambchop fold himself into his little red sports car.

“Stop laughing,” Lambchop said, tucking his six-foot five inch, two hundred sixty-five-pound frame into the car with a roof height of four-foot seven inches.

“Where do we take it?” Sherman asked, shifting to drive.

“I talked with Shep on the way over. He’s got an empty unit on the third floor of the building. If someone was watching the tracker all day, it would have shown a stop at the office. Going back there at this time of night shouldn’t tip anyone off the tracker was found. We place it in the unit. Shep has Requisition Ryan making the unit look inhabited, and he’s placing remote locks on the doors so we can lock and unlock them at will. We can use building cameras to surveil anyone coming into the unit and intercept.”

“Perfect,” Sherman agreed.

***

When the SUV entered the underground parking garage area within the two large doors that made the area private, Madisonwaited near the elevator. Mother pulled the car up right next to her.

Madison opened the back door. She beamed a smile at Reina and Lilly. “You’re coming to my house for a sleep over!” she said in an enthusiastic tone of voice with a big smile on her face. “My daughter, Hahna, is going to be so excited.”

“Yay!” Reina said in a mock excited voice with the best smile she could muster. “This is going to be so fun.”

“Lilly can sit in Hahna’s booster seat on the drive to my house,” Madison said.

“Is Hahna with Elizabeth?” Sloan asked.

“Yes, she’s going to bring her home and meet us. Ice cream sundaes for everyone,” Madison said, giving Lilly a big smile.

After Lilly was buckled in and Reina and Madison had settled in the front seat of her SUV, Reina relaxed. “Thank you,” she said to Madison.

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