Page 15 of Deception and New Direction

Atlanta wasn’t a far home base from my sister either.AndmaybeIcould convince her to leave that asshole boyfriend and move down south with me.

We’d spent the next few weeks chatting about it when we could, and figuring out some details, but ultimately, we’d decided we were in.Wewere all on our final tours, though mine would be the last to finish.

The plan was the guys would get the business up and running whileIfinished out the last few months of my tour and would join them.RangerShieldSecurityhad begun.

In the end, everything had worked out.RangerShieldSecuritywas now growing faster than we could keep up with, and we found ourselves even to the point of turning clients down.Wehad plans to hire more people, but that took time.

But this was a good problem to have and one thatIwas proud to be a part of.

I still suffered fromPTSDfrom time to time, but so had the menI’dserved with, so they understood.

It was after my second deployment thatIrealizedIlikely hadPTSD.Ionly had a mild case, butIknew enough of the symptoms from other comrades to know the signs.Notwanting to go down that dark hole too far,Ifirst reached out to our military chaplain about it, because, similar to a priest, they weren’t obligated to share anything you told them in confidence—and there was definitely a stigma toPTSD, even nowadays.

The chaplain had set me up with a counselor confidentially through theVAoffice.Manypeople didn’t realize how important theVAwas to military personnel or veterans.Forme, it was a lifeline.Thatcounselor helped me out greatly, and while myPTSDwasn’t gone completely,Iwas able to live my life and not let it control me like it did some other friendsI’dserved with.

I came home from my final deployment—PTSDin check—happy to know my sister had moved into my place.Ihadn’t known the whole story at the time but just knew that she had gotten rid of that douchebag she was dating.ThenIfound out she andWadewere an item and practically living together.

Admittedly, that bothered me a bit at first, butIknewWadewas a good, honest guy, andIsaw the way he was withEllie.Hewould lay down his life in an instant for her, and that was what she needed.Especiallyafter the last prick.

I knew it was complicated for them in the beginning because he was her manager at the bar, so they were worried about a conflict of interest, but it all worked out in the end.Hopefullythat would bode well for me too, sinceIhad every intention of also pursuing a workplace relationship withRuthie.

I just needed to get her on board with that idea.

6

RUTHIE

I had only been in the office about an hour when a beautiful woman walked in the door.Shehad the most stunning rich tawny-colored skin and long black hair that went down to her mid-back.Shecarried herself in a very secure way, andIcould only hope this was the woman we were interviewing today for the job opening.

I had been onArcher’scase lately that he only hired men.Tammy, the main bartender next door at the pub and assistant manager, backed me up at the bar one night, pointing out that if she were ten years younger, she would have joined his private army of badasses, but she wasn’t sure he would take her on.Heassured her he would, soIwas taking his assurance and running with it.

“Hello.CanIhelp you?”Iasked her as she walked up to my desk.

“Yes, my name isDeliaAbbas, andI’mhere for a job interview,” the woman said. “Thoughthe womanIemailed with said to show up twenty minutes early to fill out some paperwork.”

Dash, who had popped his head up to see the newcomer—likely hoping they were dog friendly and would lavish him with pets and affection—started to wag his tail as she came closer.

“That was me,”Itold her, excitedly. “I’mRuthie.It’snice to meet you.Thisis my dog,Dash.He’svery friendly,Ipromise.”

“Oh, hi,Ruthie,” she replied, smiling brightly at me. “Thankyou for your kind words in your email.”

She turned toDashand reached her hand out for him to sniff. “Andhello to you too,Dash.”

I had messaged her a few days ago, telling her thatImoved her application up to the top because her resume was incredible.FromwhatIhad read—plus whatAxelhad dug up in a more advanced search—she was anAmerican, born toEgyptianparents who had fled to escape political crisis.

Wanting to thank this country for adopting her family in their time of need, she decided to give back by serving in theAirForce.Butshe hadn’t ended up in just any role…Nope.She’dbecome a hurricane hunter with theAirForce—one of the people who intentionally flew airplanes into hurricanes to study them and send back data that helped make forecasts more accurate.

The mere thought of being inside a plane that would bounce around inside a hurricane just made me want to puke, and this woman spent a decade doing just that.

However, now her mother was very ill, and she was in search of a job where she could stay closer to home and not be deployed for long periods of time anymore.

Her military background made her more than qualified for the job, plus she spoke four languages—Arabic,Greek,Italian, andEnglish.

Plus, she was stunningly beautiful.Notthat that was a requirement for the job, butArcherhad mentioned that one area in which the company really needed help with was what he referred to as “honey traps.”

Archer said this was a tactic commonly used by law enforcement and military by having a woman lure a man into giving her intel or perhaps compromising a target who was the spouse of a client.

Not to mention, people always assumed security personnel were men, which meant she could blend in to certain security operations and be less obvious about it than some of the guys.

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