Chapter 6

Ace

I walked down to the lobby and met up with Wildcat. He hadn’t come alone. He’d brought his mechanic with him. They’d left their fabricator and paint guy behind.

They both were big guys about my size. The mechanic was older. Devlin stepped off his bike and hugged me in that quick, manly way with a hard slap on the back. I felt his hand slip into my shirt pocket and out, and I knew he’d place the bottle of Paxil in so as not to embarrass me by mentioning what the real reason for their visit was. “Hey Commander. We’re heading to the local watering hole. Your sister was telling me it’s got the best burgers and cold ones.”

I nodded. “Yeah, old Walter Breland cooks a mean burger. Tell him you’re helping on the ranch and he’ll make you a bison burger. If you haven’t had one, try it. Meat comes from our herd.”

The mechanic shook my hand. “They call me Gear Box. I wasn’t special forces like you boys, but if you could use an old Marine gunnery sergeant, I’m glad to help. In the meantime, I saw an old 1920s red tractor in your equipment garage. You mind if I tinker with it and try to get it running again?”

“Gunny, if you can get that old thing running, my dad will be your best friend. That was what he learned to drive on. Plowing fields with it as a kid.”

Wildcat pointed at Gear Box. “If anyone can get the old girl purring, it will be Gear Box. He has a way of making magic with engines.”

“Have at it then. I’d love to see Dad have it to play around on the ranch with. Hey, speaking of which did my brother Taylor talk to you guys about the ranch custom build?”

“No, he’s been hiding since Jane saw him.” Wildcat was beaming.

“What why?”

“Let’s just say our director, Jane Fazenbaker, has no filter. She took one look at him, licked her lips and asked if he was gigantic everywhere.”

I laughed. I could just see my virginal preacher brother being chased by some long-legged Hollywood director who wanted to corrupt him. Not like he didn’t have enough of that here in town with every member of the blue hair brigade trying to marry him off to their granddaughters or, even worse, Debra Mathews. Don’t get me wrong, I love Debra and so did Taylor, but like another sister. She was Violet and Skylar’s friend and Taylor’s best friend, but there just weren’t any romantic sparks between them.

“Well, Taylor watches your show all the time. He had a great idea, I thought, for the ranch bike. He said you’ve never done one of those Trike Bikes on the show. His idea was to have you build a two-seater trike bike for Dad with a custom teardrop camper. Something he and mom could use in parades to promote the ranch and that would give them a fun vacation bike yet still be safer for them.”

Devlin looked at his mechanic. “We haven’t done one of those and the idea of creating both a trike and teardrop camper that are part of the same design is interesting. What do you think? It will excite Horny Harry to design not only a trike but also a matching camper.”

“You know it. He would have more surface area than we’ve ever given him to work with as a canvas.”

“Both would be a first for us and we could cut costs by building the camper on a flat trailer base from a big box store.”

“Yeah, would save some time that way as well. Do a cattle theme? That would let Harry put horns on it. You know how he is when we let him use horns.”

“I like it Ace. It would give us a reason to have your dad sit with Jane and the TV crew and tell them tales about the ranch. That would keep them busy when we need to be invisible.”

I looked over at Gear Box. “How far are you willing to go in this fight, Gunny? I mean, this guy we’re on the lookout for, he’s majorly connected. His Daddy is one of our congressmen who is gearing up for a presidential run. I may have to take a team and go Delta Force on him quietly. I mean, like oops, where did that guy go? He just disappeared.”

“Ace, I’m originally from the Appalachian Mountains. I heard what that fella did to your teammate’s sister. Guys like that need to be eaten by the holler as they say back home.”

I nodded. “That will work, then. I’ve promised to try to work within the letter of the law. So we need to make sure the outside fence around the ranch is posted with no trespassing signs warning that violators will be shot. But I also don’t want this hanging over Jaelyn’s head for a long time. If once she’s healed, he hasn’t shown up to cause trouble, I may have to do a little ninja work and go ghost the man.”

“How you going to do that with a big name daddy?”

“I’m not letting the Congressman run for president. May have to use some of that specialized training to help the old fellow decide to retire for health reasons. If he doesn’t get the point, then I do still have access to some of the old gear that might have gotten lost.”

Wildcat laughed. “You mean you’ll call Liam McMillan and ask for a vial of something.”

I smiled the smile only my team had ever seen. “For reasons of national security, I can neither confirm nor deny any such rumor or innuendo at this time, Senator.”

Wildcat shook his head. “Did you ever have to actually use that speech?”

I nodded. “Twice during my exit debriefing. When some politician tried to pin me down on what exactly my CMH and Silver Star were for. Apparently some general somewhere talked in his sleep.”

“Oh, I bet that didn’t end well for the General or the Senator.”

I smiled and slapped my old teammate on the back. “For reasons of national security, I can neither confirm nor deny any such rumor or innuendo at this time.”

Then I looked at him. “I need to get back upstairs. Will you guys do me a big favor? Grab me two bison burgers with cheese and everything but onions, and two orders of fires and bring them up to room three twenty for me after you eat your meal. I’ll introduce you to Jaelyn then. She may not react well. Then again, with me there, she might be okay meeting you. It will give me a head’s up for tomorrow when we get out of here.”

Wildcat nodded. “Can do. See ya in a few.”

With that, I hightailed it to the water fountain, took my dose of Paxil, and went back up to check on my girl. Misty was just stepping out of the room when I came off the elevator and she saw me.

“Hey Ace. I’m leaving a prescription for your friend to go with her discharge orders. For someone who has been abused for four years straight, she’s fairly solid, but she has some anxiety issues. I’ve set her up with counseling at my office, but she wasn’t sure about taking the medicine. I know you understand why, but your word means a lot to her. If you could encourage her to take it even for a short time until she heals physically, it would be helpful. I also left orders for them to give her one as needed tonight and tomorrow before her discharge.”

I nodded. “Yeah okay. I’ll see what I can do to encourage her.”

“Good. Oh, and take it slow, okay. While she seems okay now with your physical expressions of affection, that’s no guarantee for the future or anything deeper.”

“Thanks, I’ll remember that. I told her we’ll move at her speed.”

Misty nodded. “Good, you’re a good guy, Ace. I really hope the two of you can make it. Just remember she spent four years being put down and controlled. But it’s obvious you two have a connection. So I’m rooting for you.”

“Thanks Misty. I need to let her know I’m back.”

The doctor left and in a few, the neurologist was in and ran her exam, also declaring Jaelyn all good. “I don’t think any damage was done, and that alone is a miracle. Just like I’m sure everyone else is telling you, take it slow and if you have any complications talk to your primary and she’ll get in touch with me.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

Once the doctor left, there was a knock on the door and Wildcat stood in the doorway. “Hey Ace. Thought you and Boomer’s sister could use some contraband.”

He held up a white bag with the burgers and fries in them. I smiled and stood looking at Jaelyn. She looked a little worried, but she wasn’t freaking out like she did with Fletcher earlier.

“Jaelyn, this is Devlin Jefferson. He was part of the team with Boomer and me. He came to help keep you safe. We call him Wildcat.”

Jaelyn looked at my buddy and smiled. “Hi, thank you for coming to help me.”

Devlin smiled at her and moved closer. I knew this was my pal and that he was just being friendly, but suddenly I wanted him gone. I didn’t want him giving Jaelyn those flirty smiles of his and I definitely didn’t want him getting closer to my girl.

“It’s truly my pleasure, Firecracker. When the Commander calls for my help, I’ll always come. Especially when it’s helping protect Boomer’s little sister.”

They chatted and Wildcat told her a couple of humorous stories about her brother from our time in the desert, and then a couple from some of the more eccentric clients he built bikes for. Like a lot of people, she’d seen his show on TV. Then he looked at me and said, “Well, let me head on back to the ranch and make sure those lazy security company guys did their jobs right. I’m gonna test that fancy new security system before you come home tomorrow. Time to see just how good it and that Blackguard operative and them Ryders really are.”