A Sense of Duty: A Former Navy SEAL Falls in Love and Begins a New Journey with his Private Consulting Company: Dark Horse Guardians (10 page)

~Lara~

She was dying for Ben to kiss her. Normally she would have pushed such an advance away. Lara felt she was in dangerous territory but she couldn't stop herself. His lips brushed her cheek lightly then he gently kissed her. Ben's lips were full and soft; his kiss lingering and sensual. Her heart was pounding. It was the only time Lara ever
liked
the feeling of being powerless. Ben tasted like mints. He had planned this moment. Lara imagined very few women had ever said no to Ben's charm and good looks. An ugly thought intruded into the romantic moment:
Oh god, why does he have to be married?
Why does he have to be so handsome? She turned away and Ben dropped his face into Lara's thick dark hair. He heaved a dramatic sigh. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She felt his breath on her neck. She was frightened things were progressing too quickly with Ben.

Lara stood and took his hand as she encouraged him out of the porch
glider, "Goodnight, Ben." As they parted on the porch to walk up separate staircases, Lara was dazed by his kiss. Every cell in her body was alive with a wild feeling she was not accustomed to and it frightened her. She wanted to kiss Ben more than once and felt if she did, she would not be able to stop herself. He was incredibly handsome, but more than that, he had character and substance. Lara respected him. She had to know more about him. She was becoming preoccupied with everything about Ben, but didn't want him to know how strong her feelings were becoming. She needed to keep her emotional force field intact.

She lay in bed that night knowing he was only a wall away and could not sleep. The intense light from the super moon came directly through her stained glass window in the bedroom creating a kaleidoscope of color on the wood floor. She stared as if in a trance reliving the details of Ben's sensual kiss in the porch glider. Her reverie was interrupted by her ringing phone. It was Eliot. "Hello…" Lara said sleepily. "Why didn't you call me this afternoon?" Eliot sounded slightly annoyed. "I had something to attend to first." Lara said vaguely. "What's up?" He was being evasive. "I just wanted to see you. That's all. Will you be available tomorrow for dinner?" Lara replied, "I don't know. Give me a call tomorrow. I have a busy day lined up." The phone call ended and she contemplated why Eliot called her at such a late hour. But, she drifted off to sleep thinking about Ben's kiss in the porch glider and could hardly believe he was now sleeping on the other side of the wall.
             

Rusty's insider government friend came through. Lara's phone rang Sunday morning and it was Rusty with a few more details about Ben. Rusty told her he would not sugar coat any of it. He started by saying that Ben was an adjunct history professor, not a full time faculty member, small detail. Benjamin Aiden Keegan was born in Boston in 1983, the last of seven children. His family emigrated from Ireland in 1975. Ben graduated from the high school in Newton Massachusetts 2001 Valedictorian. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, graduating in 2004. He served in the U.S. Navy, but those records were classified because he was a SEAL. He served eight years as a SEAL, if you combined training and time on the battlefield. Ben had an SWO rating. That meant he was a Special Warfare Operator. Back in 2006 the
U.S. Navy authorized the establishment of the SWO rating to allow sailors to focus on rating-specific technology, skill sets, and training systems demanded for the global war on
terrorism
.
Ben was now a well-known military consultant with clients in high places. A Department of Defense insider revealed that DHG had been paid $17 million. In fact, he was working on cases for the CIA involved in a shadowy counter-terrorism task force. Ben's consulting group was called
Dark Horse Guardians. All of the work Ben did was classified, black ops. Rusty had no way to obtain specific details. The bottom line was: there was a real risk of danger in this line of work.

As for his personal life, he was married, but there was a divorce pending in Vancouver. Ben was still financially responsible to support his wife, Sienna, and his son, William, until the divorce was final. His earnings from consulting were substantial. His clients were not only the U.S. Government, but also all over the world, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Turkey, to name a few. The most difficult information to dig up was Ben's property ownership and financial information. The Dark Horse group did not own any property. Only one piece of real estate was on the books and it was held jointly with his wife; the home they shared in an exclusive gated community in Vancouver Canada. His wife and son, William, remained there. William attended a boarding school. Rusty had to go through several sources to find the other properties held by Ben. This was top secret. One was a cabin off the grid on a remote beach on Prince Edward Island and there was a mystery property in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Prince Edward Island cabin was utilized primarily by Ben for respite from his work and was purchased long before he married Sienna. His wife never traveled there. Sienna did not work outside of the home. She came from a privileged background and had her own wealth. The marriage was never happy. Ben married Sienna because she was pregnant, not because he wanted to. Ben was obsessed with his work and spent a great deal of time traveling. Sienna's family was very powerful in the province and she had access to their money and influence. Sienna contested the divorce at first, but seemed to be cooperating now. She coddled William excessively, according to reports at the school. Sienna had exhibited some unstable behavior when Ben told her he was leaving her. A former model, she suffered from anorexia and was hospitalized many times throughout the marriage. This was a union that was not made in heaven. "That's it," Rusty pronounced, "He's handsome, loaded with money, successful and brilliant, runs the secretive Dark Horse Guardians and has a crazy wife." There was a period of silence on the phone. Rusty knew Lara was in a state of momentary disbelief. "Got to go, have an appointment for a gun permit arriving." and he hung up the phone. She thanked Rusty for the report, but he was gone. Lara sat in stunned silence in her parlor on a beautiful Sunday morning
absorbed in thought. Who
was
this guy?

Her silent reverie was interrupted when she received a text from Ben asking her to meet him at his unfurnished university office that afternoon. His text was upbeat and there was a happy face embedded in it. Folding laundry and cleaning her condo, Lara jumped at the chance to make the brisk walk across the street to the campus to see the dark haired stranger who had captured her attention. Sundays on the campus were peaceful. Many students left for the weekend or were recovering from hangovers. The building was quiet and she found Ben in his stately, but somewhat empty, office with his eyes riveted to a computer screen, one of three on his desk. "Hello, beautiful," he smiled and jumped to his feet to greet her. Lara noticed he had minimized the screen quickly. "I need your decorator's touch to help me with this office, please." She looked into Ben's blue eyes and could not seem to break her gaze for a moment. There was so much about him she didn't know. In order to find out more, she would need to get closer to him. Lara decided to take the job to renovate Ben's office.

Scrutinizing Ben instead of his office, some of the pieces were beginning to fit together. She should have picked up on the fact he had military training. Incredibly physically fit, he was solid muscle on a six-foot two-inch frame. His mind worked like a computer. He took in information at a rapid pace and analyzed everything instantly. His memory was sharp, and Lara sensed early on that his intellect was far beyond what he chose to reveal. Once in a while, he slipped, and she got a glimpse beyond the façade that he wanted her to buy into. She was noticing Ben's consulting work was much more involved than he had initially led her to believe. He was secretive and evasive regarding his work for the government. Meanwhile, she had been busy observing his daily schedule and memorizing his patterns. Ben was constantly buried in his computers, running three simultaneously, and was careful to lock the screen when he moved away from them. He was utilizing FedEx and UPS as couriers to send off envelopes and packages on a regular basis.

Standing in Ben's empty office Lara was slightly amused with his plea for her decorator's touch. With ulterior motives, she agreed to help. She expertly sketched Ben's newly designed office on a piece of photocopier paper. "There!" she announced proudly. "We just need to find the proper furnishings and get some painting done. What is your budget?" Ben told her to go forward with the project. He stated there was no budget. He wanted to personally pay for her services. At the moment, Ben's office looked pathetic. The stark room was quite large, had three computers with huge flat screens, a beautiful antique mahogany desk, probably original to the place. There was a well worn large black leather chair. With all of the technology in the office, it had more of a stock broker
's feel than a professor's office. Einstein's bed and dog dishes were moved in, along with Einstein snoring softly in the corner.

Ben sat in the worn leather chair and gestured to Lara and she lightly perched on the arm. "What color would you paint in here?" Ben asked as if he was interested in the décor. "Oh, it needs to be a deep red." she said with certainty. Ben's eyebrows rose; then he furrowed his brow. "Red, really?" he flinched. The walls were now a stark white with dirt marks on them. "We need to warm this room up." Lara said expertly. At that, Ben pulled her in one swift move with incredibly strong arms off the edge of the leather chair into his lap. They were suddenly nose to nose. Ben examined her closely. "Let's warm it up, then." He whispered, gazing directly into Lara's eyes with a mischievous look. The office door was closed and she suddenly felt nervous sitting in his lap. She jumped up quickly, silently chastising herself. She should not have sat so closely to him on that chair. Lara had never thought of making love in a leather chair. But as she looked at Ben sitting there, the thought ran through her mind. She sensed he was thinking the same.

"Oh, one more thing, Lara," Ben said, as he reached into his pocket. "Here is the key to my office. I know you will need it to renovate the place. And, I need to give you some money to get started." He reached into his pocket and peeled off twenty thousand dollars in cash. Thanking him for the key and the cash, she got back to business quickly, "I will draw up the plans and get shopping." she said as she made a hasty exit knowing her face was flushed and red. Lara could sense that Ben was happy about making her blush. He was smiling as she closed the door. He was buried back in his computer the moment she left.

~Ben~

Today was no different than any other Sunday, except when Lara walked in the door and sat on the arm of the leather chair. She brought him back to the normal world for a few moments. He wondered if he could ever live a life that was ordinary. He had to find a way to blend the two. He needed to fulfill his mission and he needed Lara by his side. But would she have him?

Sundays Ben dedicated a great deal of time to communicating with overseas clients and local informants. He lined up conference calls, Skype chats, and used a secure encrypted satellite phone. He was in the business of gathering intelligence and performing sensitive reconnaissance work. Most of his confidential informants were well paid by him in cash through personal meetings or via FedEx or UPS. The recon work was now being done by a team of thirty operatives that he had gathered in the last two years. There were lots of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan who needed work and he found things for them to do. It was cash on the barrelhead but it paid the bills. As long as they passed his vetting process and produced results in the field, he was happy to have them. It had taken a lot of work to assemble the team he had now. Jake, Tom, Elvis, Nate and Gus were first on board. The payroll for these top guys, plus his, came to one million.

The most distasteful part of his contracting business was the required meetings with those in power at Langley who employed him. He had to wear a suit and make nice to people he sometimes disliked intensely. But, he knew being persuasive and social was part of the job and he took care to win the trust of those who hired him. Ben listened more and talked less whenever he was around the Central Intelligence crowd. The less he said, the better, as far as he was concerned.

The first few missions he was given were fairly simple. There were a few mundane security jobs all over the globe. He took on the task of building a security team for the King of the United Arab Emirates. Then he started on a large project: surveillance of suspected terrorists in the Boston area and supplying intel to the CIA and the FBI. Eventually, the missions became more complex and dangerous. He became the problem solver. They gave him the gist of the problem, and they really didn't give a shit as long as he solved it and their hands did not get dirtied in the process. He had taken out a few terrorists living in the New England area, plotting attacks on soft targets. Ben made sure to use the least violent course to resolve problems. He made absolutely sure the target was a real-life terrorist before he put his plan into action, but it wasn't difficult to prove these things. If he set up surveillance on a target and found bomb-making materials inside, it was a cut and dried case. There was a lot of recruiting of American citizens going on in the Middle East. Plots were being formulated each day to do great harm to the United States. Ben had taken a few jihad recruiters out of business. Some of them went missing. Their bodies were never found. Most of them were living here in the United States illegally to begin with. Many came here on a legitimate visa and simply overstayed. This administration made it impossible for law enforcement agencies to actually
enforce
immigration laws already on the books. Thus, the Department of Homeland Security was a paper tiger; they were puppets. Immigration and Customs were often prevented from doing their job. There were good men and women working in the field, but even if they apprehended criminals, the suspects were never prosecuted. They were turned loose.