Page 7 of Liberating Mallory
“Oh yeah she has!” Taz ratted her out.
“Ladies, let me introduce you to Darius ‘Batman’ Knight and Lindsey ‘Costello’ Abbott. They are with Trident Security, the Omega Team.” Brody introduced the two new people in the room to the women.
“Batman? Lord help us, we’re going to stick with calling you Knight instead because when Diesel gets back from the prison, if we introduce you as Batman, we’ll never hear the end of the DC comments and I, for one, do not want to hear them, much less have you guys hate us before we find Mallory.” Sgt. Brocard commented, shaking her head as she shook hands with Knight.
“I’m sure I’ve heard them all ma’am.” Darius chuckled as he shook hands with Sgt. Brocard.
“First, cut the ma’am shit. We’re probably the same age, if not a few years apart. I’m not old enough to be your momma. Second, you haven’t met Diesel, yet!” Sgt. Brocard winked at Darius, as she stepped back to retake her seat.
“Noted. What have you found on the case so far?” Darius asked, cutting to the point.
“My kinda guy. Jumps intro’s and goes right into the case. Anywho, before we do that, I’m Laura Pratt, the woman you insulted off the bat is the team lead for us is Sgt. Helen Brocard, the hick next to her is Tarilyn ‘Taz’ Cortez, and behind her waving her fingers is Alexis Rameriez. We have two more, Renee York and Cheryl Diesel who are paying the prick who kidnapped her in the past a nice visit to get their opinion on him for this. Lindsey ‘Ice’ Raso went downstairs for a minute.”
“Why do you think he may have something to do with his?” Abbott asked, tilting her head to the side, watching the women in the room.
“Why not? I mean, if Mallory hadn’t escaped their grasp, daddy and both of his brothers may still be alive. Who best to set her up than the ex-boyfriend, someone that seems harmless?” Rameriez shrugged, assessing Knight and Abbott’s reactions.
“Bullshit! She didn’t cause their deaths…” Knight burst out in anger before being cut off.
“Clam down, buster! We know she didn’t cause their deaths, but that’s how Greenly probably sees it. I’ve known Mallory ever since she got stationed in San Diego and started hanging out with Opie. I like the girl, otherwise our asses wouldn’t be here.” Pratt put her hand out to calm Knight down, shaking her head.
“I can say this with no issue, Ian didn’t like the ex-boyfriend at all. He was glad when word got back to us that she’d joined the Marines and dumped his ass.” Brody admitted to the group of women.
“Why is that?” Sgt. Brocard asked, “I didn’t think she communicated in depth that much with anyone?”
“I can say that with her parents, it was usually a ‘hello I’m alive, all is well, and life is good’ type generic email with her parents and uncle once a month. I know from what she’s told me, and I have seen with Sawyer and Knight she would send more information to them. I asked her about that once and her response was after what her mom had done, she limited her information of where she lived and what she did with them.” Opie admitted to everyone in the room.
“Ian thought the guy was a french fry short of a happy meal the day he met him when Mallory was rescued. Before she joined the Corps, Kevin was really trying to talk her out of joining the Marines, pushing for the ‘next step’ in their relationship.” Knight remembered their talks shortly after Mallory was rescued.
Just then, Raso walked into the room with York and Diesel walking closely behind her, several bags of food in each hand. York and Diesel also carrying a case of drinks under each arm. Brody, Carter, and Knight jumped up to help the three women with their items.
“Hey Carter! Jordyn! Sexy as ever! Brody how the hell are you?” Raso asked, smiling at the new faces in the room.
“Doing great, beautiful. Wait, you’re knocked up too? Does your man know you’re here?” Brody asked, looking between Raso and Pratt.
Raso laughed as she hugged Brody. “Yes, Marcus knows I’m here. He called me when Opie got the call from Mallory’s parents. I married Highlander’s brother who is in the Marines. I’m a little over seven months now with this little jarhead in the oven.” Raso smiled as she rubbed her baby belly.
“Ah, you married a MacLeod too, huh? They really must be good!” Jordyn laughed, winking at both women.
“And you’ll never know, brat!” Carter growled, pulling Jordyn over to him, causing all the women to laugh at his possessiveness.
Having seen Opie walk out to grab the rest of the items the women had in their SUV for drinks and food, Knight decided to ask the question that was weighing heavily on his mind. “What do you know about that Opie guy? I know he’s with Mallory, but she hasn’t really told us much about him other than that she’s dating him and that he’s a fellow Marine.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare over at Knight. Abbott, Jordyn, Carter and Brody all froze when they saw Pratt’s eyes narrow and get dark as she stared Knight down.
“Excuse you?” Pratt asked, looking over at Brody and Carter for a quick moment.
“The guy that just walked out…playing devil’s advocate here, why hasn’t anyone looked into him where Mallory’s disappearance is concerned?” Knight asked, watching Alpha Squad’s reaction to his question.
Rubbing her baby bump as if to calm herself down, Pratt looked over at Brody and Carter again. “Who the hell is this joker again?”
“He’s one of ours, Red. He helped with the rescue of Mallory.” Brody answered, arms crossed over his chest, knowing he was caught between a rock and a hard place with this live wired situation.
“Did Ian forget to administer an IQ test with this batch? I didn’t think he was that hard up to just hire anyone. Is this guy seriously questioning how we handle things with the person who called in our team to help find Mallory within seconds of getting a phone call from her parents letting him know she’s missing? Let’s not forget he was on the beach with his team, and my brother-in-law, Raso’s husband, when said parents called. A Marine who informed said father that he was going to come in with or without their permission to find the woman he loves.” Pratt fired out, glaring at Knight.
“I didn’t know…” Knight stammered, looking between Pratt and Brody.
“That’s right you didn’t know. But your question literally put into question an entire Raiders team, a man we trust and our ability to know the difference between someone lying to us and using us. That man has been through hell and back, nearly losing not only his life, but his career when his own father murdered his mother and his brother and tried to pin it on him. A murder that took place while Opie was trying to get himself together after losing half his fucking team to an ambush in the Middle East, after bad intel was fed to their team by a Taliban sympathizer, working for our own fucking government. We fought through living hell to clear that man’s name and let me tell you something else…” Pratt seethed, glaring Knight down.