Love Struck Delusion
Chapter 198 - Bodyguards.
Raptor's POV. The next morning.
"Braf! Braf!"
Opening my eyes as I heard the high pitched voice of my dog in my right ear, I found her on top of the bed with me. She was staring into my eyes with a wagging tail going a hundred miles an hour. With a small smile I asked her as I sat up.
"Hey baby. What's up?"
"Braf! Braf! Braf!" She replied as she hopped down from the bed. Collecting myself I questioned for a second just how much sleep I needed now that I was what I am now. I felt the exact same as the day before. Only difference was I could feel my power was back. I don't even know why I tried what I did. Thankfully Marcus was there to keep me above ground. I should have listened to him, but fuck it. I did something I wasn't supposed to be able to do and that alone felt good. But now that I was up and he was gone I wondered what to do now. Looking at my watch I saw it had become morning. I slept through the whole night? I asked myself as Molly made it to the door. Now she was just waiting as I collected my cloak and stood back up.
"Braf!"
"I'm coming." I told her as I fixed my quills and proceeded to head for the exit. The second I opened the door she flew right out and into the hallway. Keeping my pace a bit back, I soon reached the main lobby to find a few people waiting on me. My eyes couldn't help but question what was going on as it was clear things were amiss with Zeta, Pepper, and Cody all prepared for what looked like war to come. Blitz watched over everyone as Zeta soon caught my eyes with that wide smile she had about her. With Molly at her feet she said to the little girl.
"Good girl Molly. How are you?" That question was directed at me as everyone took notice of my presence now. They knew the answer to that still, but regardless I replied.
"Bought as good as I can be. What's going on here?" I asked as Zeta had her M4 in her right hand and held at her hip. After a moment of fixing her hair she replied with a tone I knew was covered by lack of sleep.
"We were just checking our gear. Since we're gonna be going soon, I wanted to be sure we had everything."
"You sound tired." I stated as she turned back to the table while giving me a slight chuckle.
"Pepper and I were up all night. Figured we could sleep on the flight back."
I got alongside the wolf and began to look over the table. A lot of things I saw I remembered from before. But there were some new things laying around. One of which was a pair of masks. They looked like they weighed ten pounds. Two almost identical ones at that. Carved in what to me looked like a wolf. But it formed together almost like a ballistic mask. It had to be. Each one had a different set of color laid to it's frame. One had blue painted along the features and the other orange. I could figure out whose was whose without needing to ask. They sure as shit looked scary enough. With Zeta working on her vest which laid on the table I asked.
"What's the masks for?"
Pepper and her both looked up to me as it was clear it wasn't a casual sounding question. I was serious and they knew it and carefully Zeta replied.
"To cover our faces. Pepper brought up a good point last night while you were asleep. Even though we may be free now we still have enemies. No point in showing off when a contract might not matter as a reason in the first place to shoot us. Which Raptor we need to talk about. What you did yesterday…...at the meeting?" I nodded my head as Pepper stopped what she was doing to walk on over to our side of the table. Zeta widened her eyes as I looked away from her and to the masks again to reply.
"I don't want to hear anything about that. Just drop it. It's done and that's what I want it to be."
"You can't just do that dumb fuck." Pepper replied back with a smile as she was clearly trying to get me to laugh. Zeta watched closely as I quickly stated while looking back to her.
"I can and I don't want to hear shit about it Pepper."
Zeta now broke her train of thought to reply.
"Raptor you can't expect us to not say thank you at least."
"And you're welcome, but that's it." I replied as Pepper muttered through a lost tone.
"Why are you being like that? We owe you….?!" Jumping my voice up a notch in shear volume I shouted at the twins.
"You don't owe me shit!"
Everyone was caught off guard completely by the anger I had for this conversation. Cody and Blitz stopped what they were doing to just watch as the twins were stunned and unable to react. Knowing I made my point I ordered.
"You don't owe me anything. None of you do. Right now I need to make something very clear. We're going back to Iraq tonight. Once we touch down there won't be a moment where we won't be in danger of a firefight breaking out. I can't have any of you distracted. This whole plan I have isn't about just me. It's about everyone over there who is counting on me to do something about this fucking mess; and the last thing I need is one of you getting killed."
Zeta was still stunned by this as her sister said with a much more direct tone to her voice.
"We're not distracted by anything. The only thing we care about is keeping your ass safe while you sort out the rebellion bullshit and whatever personal business you have left. This is about you. Like it or not."
"Pepper chill." Zeta ordered her as she put an arm between us now to state while staring back into my eyes.
"This is about you Raptor. I told you before if you got me out of my contract I'd do anything to help you after. Now that you have we decided to be your bodyguards through this. We're willing to risk our lives to keep you safe through this. Getting killed isn't something you need to worry about right now. We're more than ready to handle anything that comes our way or stands between you and Hecan getting the middle east back in fighting shape. The masks are in place to cover our asses from being discovered again by the wrong people. But like she just said to you. We owe you. Whether you like it or not."
WIth the girls standing their ground I urged them.
"The two of you don't owe me anything for what I did. The contracts Zeta were part of the deal we made back in Afghanistan. You helped me with Gorgona and I finished my end of the bargain. Take this as your chance to leave now and go somewhere better. The two of you. You have more than enough money to go live safe and happy."
Immediately Zeta gave me this absolutely stunned look. Pepper on the other hand gave me this slight chuckle to question.
"You want us to just leave? Like nothing happened and this was some sort of business trip we were on? You're joking right?"
My face said it all as Cody jumped in to back me up.
"I'd hate to say it but he's right. You guys aren't getting paid for this. You're both free now and you should take advantage of it before anything else happens. It's not like there would be any hard feelings right?"
"That's not the point about this though Irish." Stated Pepper as Zeta added on.
"This isn't about money. We owe you our lives Raptor and I didn't go through all this just so you can toss us aside."
"I'm not tossing anyone. I'm just telling you the truth. Gorgon is finished, the contracts are gone, and I have a plan now. So just do what I'm saying and go somewhere. Somewhere better than this. I don't want you to risk everything you've worked for and now that you two are together again you have a chance to make things right. So….?"
"Fuck you! Just shut your mouth!" Zeta ordered me as her sister widened her eyes to the sudden outburst. Getting in my face and pushing me slightly she shouted.
"Don't tell me what to do! This is my choice! Not yours!"
"Zeta…!?"
"No!" She replied as I took a moment to breathe. During which time Zeta said.
"This is my choice. I want to do this. We want to do this." She stated as she looked quickly over for Pepper's confirmation. My eyes looked to her as she nodded her head. Zeta however refocused her sights on me and urged.
"Get over it. This is happening and we aren't going anywhere. Not till this shit is over. Not till I feel I paid you back and that goes for both of us."
I couldn't do much from this point on. Molly came right under my legs to bark drawing our attention off the fighting. With Pepper kneeling down she jumped up on her and began to nudge her neck. Pepper smiled and stood back up to say to me.
"What she said dumb fuck. It's our choice if we want to do this and that's already been decided. So get over it. You're stuck with us." She stated with a smile as I decided enough was enough. Zeta however was fuming still as I began to nod my head. After a second I just walked my way over to Cody to ask.
"What about you?"
Keeping his smile and high energy together he replied.
"I'm getting paid. On top of that I'm getting the chance to work with you and do something that can have an impact on not just me but the whole world. I'm not going anywhere Commander. Plus those two fucked with my gear so I owe them that. They want to stay? I'm not going to say more than I already have."
Cody just kept smiling as I let out a sigh and replied.
"Fine. Then make sure you guys have everything before we leave. I'm gonna call Hecan and tell him what's going on. After that Cody, get heading to the plane and get everything warmed up. We leave in an hour. Understood?" I asked as I looked from face to face. Not getting any backlash from the commands, I nodded my head and proceeded to walk away from the table. Zeta on the other hand came right after me. Her sister remained where she was watching in confusion as I didn't fight the distance gap between us. By the time I reached the hall she grabbed my shoulder from behind to spin me around. Of course I turned and with her voice down she asked.
"What the fuck are you doing telling us to leave like that?"
"You know it's not personal Zeta."
"It's fucking personal to me!" She replied doing her best to keep her voice down so as not to draw her sister's attention. I couldn't help but feel somewhat bad as she told me.
"I love you. Even though your a fucking asshole. Don't you ever try to kick me out like that from your life again. This isn't a conversation we need to have and I never expected it to come from you. You still love me, right?"
Keeping my voice stable unlike hers I replied.
"That's why this is something we need to talk about. I do and the last thing I want is you getting killed. I can't nor want to deal with another loss. So I'm sorry that it hurt to hear, but know it hurt me a lot to say it. You want to stay? Fine. But what I say goes from this point on Zeta. Even if things get dark I need to know you have my back."
"I'm not leaving you Raptor." She replied as we both went silent for a second. Maybe after another moment or two I ordered her.
"Go get ready."
"Do you love me?" She asked again as I nodded and grabbed her hand. Her eyes didn't leave mine as I leaned in to kiss her. Once my lips pulled away I urged her.
"Yes. Now stop wasting time. Go get ready. I expect your ass on the plane by the time I get there."
Giving me a soft chuckle she replied.
"My ass will be asleep by the time you get there."
"Good." I stated as I left her side now to head back to my room. Before I got there I got out my phone and prepared the call with Hecan. Hopefully by the time we were in the air I'd have everything ready.
Char's POV, Ron's bar, Twelve hours later.
"Here you go Char." Ron said as he came over to my side of the bar to hand me my drink.
"Thanks Ron." I replied as I let out a soon to be yawn. With Ron going back to helping other customers I tried to focus on my drink. I had some people keeping a close eye on me as I drank. Probably worried I'd shoot them or something like some of these other fucking assholes who have taken it upon themselves to abuse the power set forth by Archer these past few weeks. I've seen so many things since this happened and there wasn't much I could do either. I kept my friends in line and away from any trouble, but it wasn't going to be enough to come out clean after this was settled. Even Hoffer was trying to keep the city tame. By no means was he doing what Archer was doing in Afghanistan. He had to obey some things but so far the situation has been a lot better here than over there. Yet still there were riots and innocent people getting killed for nothing. Hundreds of small teams assigned sectors and ordered to watch out for any signs of trouble. Be that lethal or verbal. It was crazy to think about. Getting a break in between was another issue. Everyone was on duty; even me. I was just disobeying my job to get a drink right now and it wasn't like anyone was going to stop me. I'm in charge of special forces and who was going to trouble a guy like that? The only people who would were these Ying PMC pricks. Another whole story to write about.
With time passing I just shut my eyes and tried to relax. It was maybe five minutes later I felt my phone vibrating off in my back pocket.
"Who's calling me right now?" I asked myself as I pulled it out to widen my eyes. I couldn't believe it at first. I even hesitated to answer, but when I did I said in what to me felt like shock still.
"Hello?"
"Hey Char. How are you?" It was Raptor and that alone was enough to make me readjust in my seat as I replied.
"I'm good. Holy shit man, what's going on? Are you okay? It's been….?" Cutting me off he stated in a direct tone.
"I know. I'm good. Listen I need to ask a favor of you. You okay to talk?"
Looking around for a moment I soon replied.
"Yeah I'm good. I'm at Ron's just having a drink. What's up?"
"I'm going to be flying into the city soon. I need a rebellion escort. Is there anyway you can meet me at the airport?"
Shaking my head I replied.
"Ahhh man listen. The airport is locked down here. Archer ordered it a few days back to keep everyone in and anyone from getting out. The only flights allowed through are from those Ying PMC guys and I can't just override that."
"Okay okay…..shit. Well how about the airstrip outside the city? You know what I'm talking about? The one a few miles west of the border?"
"Yeah I know that one. It's the same place you blew to shit right?" I asked him with some laughter as he quickly replied.
"Yeah the same one. Can you meet me there and provide escort into the city?"
"Wait…..what's the pickup? Just you?" I questioned in confusion as he quickly replied.
"No Char. You'll need two vehicles at least for this. Can I count on you here?"
"What's going on?" I then asked as he sensed my concern to reply back.
"I'll talk to you about that, but right now I need your help. You're the only person I can trust with this. Please Char."
He was serious and looking back down to my drink I let out a deep breath to think for a moment. I knew this was important. Much more important than anything up till now. Raptor who waited on my answer soon broke my silence to whisper.
"Please. I need you to trust me. Char?"
"Fuck." I mumbled as I committed my answer by saying.
"Yeah I can do it. When are you going to be there? Do I have time?"
"About an hour." He replied as I began to get up from the bar. Waving goodbye to Ron, I got myself outside to say to Raptor.
"I'll figure something out. I'll get heading out as soon as I have another ride."
"Thank you Char. I'll remember this."
"Just don't keep me waiting Commander." I told him as he hung up and left me to figure this out now. Heading for my humvee which was parked on the other end of the street. I soon got in and proceeded to think. After a moment I decided to give Roz a call. If anyone was going to help me it would be none other than Raptor's old teammates. He answered about as fast as I expected him to while asking.
"What's up Lieutenant?"
"I need you and the boys to get together and meet me at checkpoint fifteen. Bring a humvee and gear up. We got a mission."
Somewhat confused Roz asked.
"What's going on?"
"The Commander is coming home. Any other questions?"
Roz took a second to understand the words that just left my mouth, but as expected he replied.
"None. We'll be there in fifteen."
Hanging up the phone and starting the engine, I focused now on driving to the border checkpoint. Everything plays out right and we'll have some answers to what exactly has been going on. Answers I hoped gave me faith.
mT Shadow.