Page 1 of Mountain Target

1

Beau

Beau Fontaine looked around at the empty office.

“You don’t like it?” Damien asked, coming up behind him.

Beau shrugged. There was nothing wrong with the space, objectively speaking. Six desks, one for each of his men, arranged next to two windows. A glass wall, separating them from Damien’s team.

“It’s fine,” he said gruffly.

“Why are you frowning, then?”

“I did as you suggested,” Beau sighed. “I gave the team a choice: stay in Annecy in a different role, or move to Chamonix and stay with the PGHM.”

“And?”

“They all chose to move. They’ll be here on Monday.”

“That’s good, right?” Damien insisted, leaning his long frame lazily against one of the desks.

Beau frowned. “I feel like I forced their hand.”

“They’re grown men, Beau. They make their own decisions. Besides, you fought this as long as you could, but even you have to admit, it makes more sense for our two teams to be together, and not forty minutes away from each other.”

Beau frowned. He didn’t necessarily disagree with Damien, but he wasn’t big on change.

And this was a big change.

He had to find an apartment. Make sure everyone in his team had a place to live. Find a new fucking doctor for his knee—preferably somebody who refilled his meds but didn’t ask too many questions.

“How’s—”

Their phones started ringing at the same time, but Beau got to his first.

“Beau Fontaine,” he said.

“Commandant Fontaine,” a professional-sounding feminine voice said. “Colonel Pelegrin would like to see you.”

Beau looked down at his watch. It was closing in on six p.m.

“Now?”

Beau felt a headache building behind his eyes. He was going to hate living in Chamonix.

The voice on the other end of the line didn’t even bother replying to his question before hanging up. Beau locked eyes with Damien.

“You too?” Damien asked, already standing again.

Beau nodded. “I wonder what the old man wants.”

“He’d better not hear you refer to him as such.”

Damien started heading towards the stairs. Beau threw the elevator a longing glance, then clenched his jaw and followed the other man, taking long, loping strides. His knee burned with every step, but he ignored it.

Damien couldn’t know how bad his knee was getting.

Nobody can know.