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“If memory serves, we were fed the name Dirty Dozen,” Killion added. “We didn’t come up with it.”
“Great,” Bozz said. “Just… roll with it. Go on. How the hell was Hen planted on my team?”
“It was easy. Just a new recruit after you’d lost several of your operatives. You were grieving, pissed, and needed new skin in the game… enter Hen,” Brodie said. “If it helps, Wit was planted with the Keepers. It wasn’t by chance that he and Coy Stone were on that first Safe Haven case with Mercy Wyatt. We put them there and knew BK Security would absorb Safe Haven as a part of their duty and need you two to manage it.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Wit whispered. “So much for fate.”
“It was always your destiny to work in this capacity. It wasn’t until BK really took off and had the kind of resources they do now that it became clear where you’d work,” Brodie continued.
Ronan leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh. His tone became menacing and accusatory. “You keep saying,we. Is this where you’ve been all these years? You know… when we thought you were dead?”
“Easy, Ro,” Ryker said. “Not yet. Let him explain himself. If it isn’t a good enough reason to let your family believe you’re dead, then we give him shit.”
“Agreed.” Brodie nodded. “There’s still a lot to explain, and you’re probably not going to like it. Coming out of hiding comes with rewards and challenges. One of those challenges is earning the trust of my family again because this… this was a shitty thing to do… to all of you. But it had to be done. I owed it to all of you, all of those I served with over the years, and to my mentors here at Safe Haven. And to their dad.”
Brodie pointed at Wit and Hen at the mention of their dad and waited for that to sink in.
“You knew… him?” Wit asked.
Brodie nodded.
“So he was a military guy. That wasn’t…”
“He was,” Brodie answered. “Along with your foster dads.”
“My foster dad was an insurance salesman,” Wit said.
Hen nodded. “Mine sold medical equipment or something to doctors’ offices.”
“Traveling salesmen, huh?” Brodie prodded with a smirk. “Gone a lot, came back rough, always had an excuse for the bumps and bruises?”
“Holy shit,” Wit said. “I thought he just had a little drinkin’ issue when he was on the road and liked to ruffle feathers. Those black eyes and stitches weren’t from bar fights then.”
“Nope.”
“You know, I’m glad to hear that. I never saw him drink a lick of alcohol, and bar fights never did seem to suit him.” Wit went on. “But in hindsight, neither does secret operative. What the hell is happening here?”
“They all worked together. The original Dirty Dozen, if you will, though I’m not sure how many there were.” Brodie chuckled. “They were the first group of operatives recruited to do the dirty deeds for Chalice under the guise that they were working for the greater good. By the time they’d figured it out, Chalice was a monster. They revolted, and your dad, having discovered the conspiracy, had a target on his back from that day on. He stayed away to protect all of you, but that blew up on him because then he lost track of you and what was going on back at home.”
“What was his name?” Wit asked.
“Cormack. Cormack Chester Roosevelt Meyer –– bunch of family names wrapped up in there. We all called him Mack,” Brodie said.
“Was? So he’s…?”
“I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, Wit. I’m sorry. You see, when Safe Haven came to be, Skriver and Tillman –– Hen’s foster family that just… passed –– were the first to go underground with the network. They were in hiding the best way they knew how.”
“In plain sight,” Wit added.
“Like their own version of WITSEC, and the sole purpose was to protect the two of you.” Brodie grabbed his water bottle from the table and took a long drink like it was a way to delay the delivery of the worst news yet. “Your dad finally found you, but you were already in the system because your mother had… passed. He’d check on you when he could, but quickly realized the danger in that when Hen’s adoptive family, the Hendricks, were killed in that fatal crash.”
“It was a hit,” Hen whispered.
“It was, and you nearly died right along with them. Hen… your dad pulled you from the vehicle first before it was completely engulfed in flames. He didn’t have time to get the others. You’re here because he saved you.”
Hen swiped away at the tears falling from his eyes pinched shut to fight the overwhelming emotion threatening to consume him.
“I-I remember that night.” Hen’s voice quivered. “I remember him being there. I had no idea who he was. It was a rural area, over a country bridge if I recall. That man, our dad, held me, comforted me, and waited with me until first responders arrived. He left just before they got there.”
