Page 4 of Redeeming Violet

“Who’s responsible for the strap?” Jasmin asked, and pointed at me. I’d kept my temper in check for as long as I could. Hearing her call me a strap had me seeing red. She’d said it to be a bitch, implying I was being strapped to the team and was a hindrance. In a normal operation the extra personnel that were not part of the team such as the linguists, were called straps. They were extra weight, someone the team had to cover because they had subpar, if any, combat training.

“My name is Violet, I suggest you learn it and use it. I believe my job title and clearance are higher up the food chain than yours. Just because these men pussyfoot around you, and think it’s cute to let you play G.I. Jane, doesn’t mean I will. I’ve heard all about your itchy trigger finger, and how you fucked up in Russia, too busy playing Miss Rambo to see the threat. You’re a cautionary tale of what not to do. You think because you’re Zane’s sister-in-law and the President’s niece your shit don’t stink. Well guess what sweetie, I’m coming on this op, and if I have one fucking problem with you, I’ll use your ass as my shield.”

“Can I shoot her now? It’s been weeks since Penelope has come out to play,” she asked.

I knew about that too, her naming her gun Penelope. Yet another thing I didn’t like about her. Who the fuck named their gun?

“You’re on thin ice,” Zane growled. If I didn’t need to go on this op so badly, I probably would’ve run. He scared the shit out of me – they all did. “You forget I was on that Russian op, too. Do you think I was out playing Rambo as well?” Zane stopped and turned to Jaxon, “Blue, she’s your problem. Keep her ass in check, by any means necessary.”

Just a means to an end, I reminded myself.

I could do anything for him.

I would do anything for him, including selling my soul, facing life in prison, and keeping company with a group of people that would sooner kill me than believe me.

Chapter Two

Jaxon

Little Violet was scared shitless, but she still put on a brave front and went toe-to-toe with Jasmin. I was impressed and curious. There was no reason to lash out at Jasmin the way Violet did, which made me even more suspicious of her intentions. She was desperate and that was always dangerous.

Violet was hiding something. She thought she’d covered the shame in her eyes when Zane told the team she was the traitor we’d been looking for. She’d tried to look cavalier, but she wasn’t a good actress.

After Zane had called the President and briefed him, we’d boarded a chartered Learjet Tex had arranged and were on our way to South Sudan. I had to say, the man hooked us up; we were traveling in luxury this trip. It wasn’t often we didn’t get stuck on military transports. Two hours into the flight Violet had finally fallen asleep and I took in my fill. She was a small little thing. fun-sized and feisty. She wasn’t the type of woman that normally caught my attention, but there was something in the way that Violet moved that captured my attention.

I made my way to the front of the aircraft where Zane was going over the mission brief with Eric and Jasmin. Leo and Colin, the two other men on our team, had stayed behind at the President’s request. He’d asked to borrow them for a security detail, and Zane had agreed. Much to Linc’s annoyance, he still hadn’t been cleared for field work and was stuck at HQ with Garrett to run tech and communication for us.

“Anyone else having a problem with the false bravado?” I asked.

“It was fun to watch the billy-badass routine when she stepped to Jas,” Eric said.

“Fun? Is that what you call it? I’m still on the fence about tossing her ass out at thirty-two-thousand feet.”

“I’m not buying it,” I told them.

“We’ll know more when Tex gets back to us. The initial report didn’t say much beyond her work history. She started with the FBI, then moved to behavioral science where she worked with them more as a consultant. From what I gather she is somewhat of a human lie detector. They used her in interrogation. That’s her specialty. The CIA recruited her much for the same reason. Only there she was used to debrief returning agents. She also vetted the Level I agents going under for long-term infiltrations.” Zane stopped and huffed out a breath. “Ironically to see if they were vulnerable and could be turned.”

“Remember when we got back from Iceland and we debriefed the President? After Siles told us his contact was a woman, we’d agreed that women are often easier to blackmail.” I reminded Zane.

“As if,” Jasmin interjected.

I ignored her and continued, “Blackmail, not turn.”

“If she’s being blackmailed, the question is, who is she protecting and why,” Eric added.

“That we’ll have to wait on Tex for. I don’t think she’s going to give us any answers, and I’m not sure I’d believe her if she did.” Zane went back to his brief.

“Yet here we are trusting her with intel and planning an op around it. No one else thinks it’s weird she insisted on coming with us?” Jasmin asked.

“I don’t trust her with shit. She’s a trained liar. But, if she was sending us into an ambush why would she want to be there?” Zane looked up and handed Jasmin a map. “South Sudan is controlled by warlords. She’d be stupid to send us into a setup, be present, and think she’s walking away alive. Not to mention, she wants something Wolf has. She won’t turn on us until she has it.”

“Well, her intelligence is still in question. I reserve the right to say I told you so if I live through this cluster fuck.”

“Eye on the prize, Jasmin – getting Wolf and his men out alive.”

***

Several hours later I moved back to my seat to get some sleep before we landed. I was surprised to see Violet awake.