The team chuckled at the silly nicknames for Rayna and Tinley. It was all in good fun.
Patrick went over some general weekly stuff. He recognized some members of the team with special achievements. Birthdays, birth announcements. One of the security guys had proposed to his girlfriend last week, and Patrick played the casino floor camera recording for everyone to see.
The entire room laughed and offered their own narratives to his special moment. The friendly teasing suggested a strong bond within the team. It didn’t mesh with the idea of them being a criminal organization; little of this did.
He finished the meeting with a brief reminder of the littles’ weekend coming up and announced Rayna and Tinley would be attending. Some in the group smiled at the news. The girls had charmed the security team as well. It all seemed so strange. Unless . . .
“We scheduled a site visit for when?” Patrick asked.
Martin flipped through his notes. “Monday afternoon, the week of.”
“Okay, we’re going to brief Kyler and Josh on Tuesday.”
“Rayna’s going to be all over the place.” Martin added. “Tin, we’ll see how she does. Keep a close eye on her, yeah?” He nodded toward me.
I nodded back while reeling on the inside.
The team’s sole objective was to keep Rayna and Tinley in check.
The outing may be just the right time to help them escape.
CHAPTER 10
PATRICK
Though not SEAL team material, my team members had military backgrounds, underwent careful vetting, and represented a diverse range of experiences. Some spoke several languages, and we paid them well to do their job and to keep their mouths shut.
Some were in the lifestyle, and others became so while working here. Others were regular vanilla people doing a job. We didn’t discriminate, but we preached respect, tolerance, and discretion.
After the meeting, I sat back and watched Kylie interact with the team. Her confidence was palpable. Her former position garnered her some respect, but it would be up to her to prove herself to the team. Martin, Josh’s head of security, and she got familiar quickly. She asked the right questions, and they seem relevant to her looking after Tinley. Even with the theory of her ulterior motives, her primary goal, we hoped, was to keep the girls safe.
We ran through some training drills for Team One and Kylie kept up as if she’d been doing it for years. She even offered otherteam members some tips on moving in such a sizable space with multiple sight lines needing to be covered. She impressed the hell out of everyone, even me.
The next three weeks fell into a comfortable rhythm.
Kylie worked tirelessly, sifting through mile's worth of data to find targets to expose. She attended all security meetings and training sessions. On the morning of the site visit, she was almost giddy with anticipation.
The weekly security meeting just broke up.
“Shuttle to the venue leaves in twenty minutes.” Branson, the head of Quad IV security and the point person for the outing, called out across the room. The team filed out.
I pulled Martin aside.
“What do you think about Kylie?”
“She’s good. Inquisitive, knowledgeable. She’s short for guard duty, but her FBI background means she knows how to use a gun.”
“Yeah, look at her scores in the gun range from the last couple of weeks.” I chuckled. “Outshot us all.”
“The girls have met her and like her.” He nodded. “I told you it would be good to have a woman in the role.”
“Just keep an eye on her, okay?” I patted him on the back. “Until she’s up to speed.”
“Sure thing.” He headed toward the bus. “You coming to the venue?”
I searched the room for Kylie. I wouldn’t normally need to, but for some reason I didn’t want to let Kylie out of my sight.
“Yeah, I’ve got some time.” I nodded. “I’ll meet you there.”
