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She turned to her dad. His jaw tightened, and he seemed less than pleased at this visitor.
“Hello, Mr. Vickers. This here is my daughter, Lara. This is her bakery.” He nodded at her. “Honey, this is Tate Vickers. He’s new in town. He and his teammates were hired to help with security at the base.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Vickers. I wish you were here to help with security in town.”
The corner of her father’s mouth turned down, and she felt bad. Sort of. “Lara, honey...”
“Nope, Daddy, I’m sick of this shit.”
Tate turned as he took in all the damage. “You mean those men in the trucks shooting at us did this?”
“They sure did, and this is the third time this month.”
Tate looked at her dad. “Officer Bennit, my team and I are coming into the police station tomorrow morning to talk about what’s going on here. It appears there is a lot to discuss. Are they breaking into all the businesses in town?”
Lara didn’t let her father answer. “They’ve broken into the gun shop. They stole handguns, rifles, and a shit ton of ammunition. They’ve broken into the gas stations in town and stolen gas. They broke into the electronics store and stole a bunch of things from there. Though I don’t know why. It’s not like they have internet up there.”
Tate smiled reassuringly at her. Her lungs tightened, making it hard to take a breath. Then he turned toward her father once again and stared. “Why?”
“I told you, I don’t have jurisdiction.”
Tate inhaled deeply, and she saw his impressive muscular chest expand and stretch under the gray t-shirt he wore. Her eyes trailed down his arms and saw the muscles and veins, but she didn’t trust herself to scan lower.
She turned toward her father once more and watched his face. It had been bugging her lately at how quiet he got when they talked about the BRR.
Shaking her head, she slowly made her way across the floor and stepped behind her bakery counter where she had set her cleaning supplies. “He won’t talk about the BRR. He won’t do anything about them either.”
“Honey, I’ve told you, it’s complicated.”
“It sure as hell is, Daddy. ‘Cause I’m going to carry my gun and if one of those little fuckers comes back here, you’re going to need to come and get him with the hearse.”
“Lara, don’t do that. It’ll start a war.”
“They’ve started the war. This year they’ve been terrible while making their brew. It’s intolerable and apparently, the folks who are here to help us...” She waved her hand in her father’s direction, “don’t have jurisdiction or, likely, the courage to do anything about those bastards.”
“Lara...”
She held up her hand. “Nope. I don’t want to hear anymore. I’m calling someone to install a security system and I’m going to catch them on camera. Then, I’m sending it to the governor and I’m going to cause such a stink here. They’ll need to do something about this bullshit.”
“I can help you with the security system.” Tate said.
Chapter3
Tate pulled the speaker to the center of the dining room table in their rented house, but while they were here it was their office, conference room, and operations room. His five teammates sat around the table, laptops open.
His phone rang. “Vickers,” he answered.
“Tate Vickers, I assume.”
Tate grinned. “Yes, sir. I suppose I should have clarified.”
“I knew who I was calling, Tate. My code name is Casper. That’s all you’ll ever know me by. I know your father has told you about our relationship and you know that my job here at the Department of Defense is top secret. But our relationship with GHOST over these past forty-plus years has benefitted us all and saved countless lives.”
“Yes, sir. We’re aware.”
“Good. Please introduce yourselves, and just for fun, since I know you all have parents working with GHOST, tell me who your parents are so I can get a feel for who I’m working with on this team.”
He looked around the table and nodded to Aidyn at his right.
