Halfway Between (9 page)

Harper woke in the morning feeling just as frustrated as she had when she went to bed.  The only thing that seemed to work was exhausting herself to the point she fell into the bed and went into a restless sleep.  One with dreams filled with two obnoxious teasing men who pissed her off more than life itself.  The fuckers knew exactly what they were doing when they sent her to bed last night like a virgin.  Damn, they only had to follow her into the room and she would have been more than happy to stop this game they were playing.

She was not a delicate flower, she was a woman who had every intention of kicking them in the nuts if they didn
’t do what she wanted them to do.  She knew she could be demanding, all of her boyfriends had been good enough to point out her faults before they had walked out the door.  All except one, he just disappeared mysteriously one day after she had gone to work.  After making sure he was alive and apparently staying with his mother, she let it go with a shrug.

This time she was not, she was going to kick someone
’s ass and then let them know she wasn’t a freaking normal woman.  She wouldn't be played with, or sit in a room and cry if they ignored her.  Harper would make them pay for what she thought they did and make them cry like girls, before she ever would let them see her cry.

She groaned in frustration and then got up, she needed a shower, a cup of coffee, and some chocolate, maybe not in that order, but somewhere in the next hour would probably do.

“But Bailey, how the hell do we get her to agree to this?” Drake argued.

“
Listen, you called me and asked my advice, Harper sounds like a woman who already knows her own mind.  She is not going to argue or waffle, if you give her a choice, she will make the right decision.  She will get offended by anything other than the hard, honest truth.  Where some women need to be wooed, you are going to give her a gun as a present.  She sounds like a ball-busting bitch, whom I am going to completely adore.  Now, put the phone down, quit acting like a pussy, and go to the nearest gun shop and get her an engraved gun, something with a pretty design, she may be a bitch, but she is still a woman, they like shit like that,” Bailey said and laughed before hanging up.

“
That was so not helpful,” Joel groaned.

They had spent the night hashing over the way they wanted this relationship to work.  Both had agreed on every point as they talked into the night, which made them both hopeful this was going to work, since they had the same values and ideas. 

What it had boiled down to was the feelings, they weren't enough for one woman.  However, after talking about their pasts, they agreed this would work since they both had different issues.  Harper would be taken care of no matter what.

“
Okay, Romeo, how do you want to deal with this.  I have called my last female I can ask, they all said the same thing, and they laughed at us.  Sable and the crew were all in agreement.  Then the others were all in agreement with them.  If we try the sweet route this is gonna fail.  She is not like other women, the foo-foo shit isn’t going to work.”  Drake shrugged.

“
But a gun, seriously.  Nothing says romance like a firearm,” Joel grumbled.

“
Think of it this way, at least we will know what weapons she has readily available.  So if she gets pissed at one of us, we lock the gun safe and put the other weapons away.  We stand a better chance of getting to apologize,” Drake said.

“
Great,” Joel snorted.

“
Hey, if you are having second thoughts tell me now,” Drake said.

“
No, shit, no.  It's more like how the fuck to get this started so my blue balls are relieved.  Shit, I had to actually wear sweats today because when I think about her I get hard.  Do you know how uncomfortable I am?”  Joel laughed.

Drake stood and pointed to his sweats and said,
“Yeah.”

“
So, what do we do?”  Joel laughed.

“
We make it through the meeting this morning, ask Tank to point us to the closest shop, and then we set out to convince our dangerous little woman she can't live without us,” Drake said.

“
Do we buy nut cups anywhere in the day,” Joel said and stood.

“
We should maybe get them now, 'cause I would bet that right about now, she is a force to be reckoned with,” Drake said.

Where the fuck were they?
she wondered in her bitchy thoughts.  Since coming downstairs she had been a bear, and her mood wasn’t going to get any better it seemed, the coffee, the chocolate, nothing worked.  She was about ready to ask Thane if he would like to spar this morning.

“
Good morning,” Drake yelled and walked into the dining room followed by Joel. 

Oh really, they were going to play this that way were they.  Bring it.

The guys murmured a greeting and she grinned as if she didn’t have a care in the world.  She was certain she could hide her intent until they had a chance to show her they totally weren't playing with her.  She watched them closely. 

The guys had agreed they hadn't wanted to make her uncomfortable until they held the meeting.  Things did take precedence.  They got a plate and filled it with what the buffet offered and then sat on either side of her and smiled.  Both of them brushed their hands against her leg as if in greeting, wanting to lean over and kiss her good morning but not daring to until they had gotten things settled.

Harper visibly relaxed as she felt their touch.  However, they could still see she was on edge, it was just what kind of edge they were worried about.  It would soon be dealt with.

“
We meet in fifteen in the conference room.  Harper, would it be okay to ask for lunch to be brought in, I think we have a lot to talk about,” Thane said politely and they waited for Harper to nod at him as the rest of the guys walked out of the room.  She shifted as if to stand when Drake and Joel both put a hand on her arm.

“
Sweetheart, I don’t know what is going on in that pretty little head of yours, but we will be having a discussion tonight about a few things until then—” Drake said, leaned over, and kissed her, and smiled when he pulled back.  She turned her head and Joel smiled and did the same thing.

Shit, they were going to kill her, how the hell could she sit in a meeting while her underwear was soaked with arousal already.  Heck, all she had to do was see them and she got wet.  She was pathetic
—a weak woman.  Well that was a bit dramatic but right now she was pretty sure she was entitled.

“
Well then, I would suggest we go to where we are supposed to go, and get this worked out,” Harper said.

The men laughed when she stood.  She needed to work something out, and right now the best course of action was to make it through the meeting, this was important.  And she was going to handle business first.  The men continued to laugh as they grabbed their plates and walked behind her into the meeting room.  The screens were all running and it looked like something out of the
NORAD center.

Thane stood,
“Let's go over what the hell we have all found.”

Vince stood. 
“My part is the blanket.  I have been making calls trying to figure out why I am involved at all.  I was shocked to find out everything I had known about this woman wasn't true, she had taken me just like she had a lot of her contacts.  She put on a good front.  Amani is not her real name.  She was married to a man who is staying at our facilities in Guantanamo.  For years, they were dubbed the King and Queen Terrorists of this small country.  They ruled by fear, until Amani had the great idea to apparently infiltrate NATO, she wanted to know exactly what was going on.  They made an alias for her, and she went to another country and made sure she was held in high esteem.  Her husband kept being the bastard, although right about now, I think he is a puppet.  Amani is the terrorist.  Her son, whom we knew nothing about, has taken over the reins from his father, while Dario has no idea what the fuck is going on.  If my people are adding the dates correct—I'm Dario’s father.  Yep, a bit of a shock, but it is what it is.” 

The room sat in silence, Jessie stood,
“Uh…I don’t think I can top that one.  I took the picture of the keys, I have narrowed it down to one of two missions we were on.  I am still checking one more source but should have that soon.”

“
Yeah, a bit anticlimactic here.  I kinda feel like there is a possibility I may be a bit gun shy,” Alex said.  “However, we never looked into the man who was the suicide bomber.  To be honest, he was crazy and misinformed by someone.  When we were on a mission, I think it was the first one Sam came on for.  We were in a small town in the Middle East, our mission was just to collect information for another team's mission.  We were in a market, and some crazy ass blew up that restaurant?  Knocked us on our asses, remember, the guy we were supposed to be watching was killed, end of mission.  Some of the locals caught sight of Americans and blamed it on us.  But there was no media on it because they found the dude who supposedly blew it up.  Well this guy was the owner of the restaurant, his whole family was killed, he refused to believe the man who did it actually was to blame because he was a friend.  According to our sources, someone sent him a picture of where we were going to be at.  That is why he never came onto our radar, he wasn’t involved in anything.  He wanted revenge and we got caught in the middle.”

“
Yes, we apparently have a lot of things going on.  Things that we are being blamed for that may or may not have been something we are responsible for.  I have verified every mission we were one.  We had solid orders for each and every one, and there were no civilian casualties.  They were sanctioned kills.  That being said, there are connections to a lot of our missions because we were chasing the same people for a few years, of course they are connected.  Which brings to mind in the last few years, some of our cluster fucks, the missions that had gone a little wrong?  The word is that someone is giving information about our missions.  I am trying to trace the leak back.  I have informed the Commander and the SEALs are being locked down, the only information coming in or out of the base is through the Commander.  The civilian workers are being detained until cleared, and military are confined to base,” Mason said.

Gage started,
“Okay, the missions we have been focusing on are the ones where things have been FUBAR.  I have been looking at the higher ups that okayed and orchestrated our missions.  I have a few Senators on the Defense funding board.  They have all checked out and so I am looking farther down, I started from the top because we needed to know how far reaching this was.  Right now, I am at the people who actually write the mission details for the vote.  I have found a few instances where the mission was supposed to be changed.  No one caught it because the missions were failures.  There are two men and one women who have been involved in this.  Currently running their location, because the funny thing is—one would work for a while and then quit, the next would do the same, and so on.  We need to find them and see what the hell was going on.”

Drake said,
“Joel’s assignment reeks of someone covering up shit.  The investigation notes are a mess, basically Joel went in there with the mole from what we can discover.  Frank thought he could cover his tracks if he got assigned the case.  Joel was the agent requested, and so he requested the transfer that put them together.  The guns were taken right out of our warehouses with our approval to be delivered overseas.  The name who approved the transactions does not exist.  Someone was stamping them, and no one looked close enough because they saw a signature.  The FBI is doing an internal investigation, all very hush-hush because they don’t want anyone to know if there are more moles.”