Avenging Laura (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

Chapter 42

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Highlander walked into the conference room to find his wife and the rest of her team were all staring at the two whiteboards they had set up in the room. Laura was standing in front of the board with a marker in her hand looking at what she’d written down on both.

Studying the whiteboard himself, he realized it was a timeline that she had come up with on how everything worked, that she knew of. While he stood there looking at it, one of the others would ask a question that would have them all looking at the board more and other possible questions coming to mind.

This was his wife and her team. Her sisters. While she thought they had abandoned her, they had her back the whole time. They didn’t call or physically check on her. They didn’t knock on the door. But she had never truly been alone. They sat outside watching the house trying to find out who was terrorizing their sister.

They gave her the space she demanded she needed. They thought if they had stepped back, she would have come to her senses sooner. His lass was a stubborn one. That was for sure. They were still kicking themselves for not physically going into the house and forcing her to wake the fuck up.

“What is known about this Deanna Placid?” Sgt. Brocard questioned, looking from the whiteboard to Laura.

“Not much really. She’s from a wealthy family like David and Kathy are. Her father apparently made his living in financing while her mother was a housewife who raised the children. Deanna is one of three it looks like. This is interesting. Looks like she and my incubator went to high school together and were good friends according to the yearbook Tex found,” Laura told her teammates as she looked at a file.

“Did David go to the same high school as they did?” Raso chewed on her lower lip as she tilted her head looking between Laura and the board.

“No. David actually went to a rival school. If I remember correctly, they had the same friends thanks to the fathers all knowing one another. David’s father and Deanna’s father went to basic together in the Marine Corps as a fuck you to their fathers who wanted them to go to work in the factories and stuff. They met in basic and formed a fast friendship and then when they got out went into business together. The rest is history so to speak,” Laura answered Raso as she turned to look at the timeline.

“Doesn’t explain how David’s father got into the whole trafficking thing though,” Diesel said, trying to figure out some of the gaps in the timeline.

“That’s what I’m not understanding too. I know David’s father was a part of it but how he got into it I don’t know. I know Deanna’s father and grandfather came from money, so that could be how it started,” Laura considered as she tried to figure out the same train of thought that Diesel had on the whole thing.

“How about instead of trying to figure that part out, since those men are dead, ye lasses focus on finding Cyrus and taking down David and Maria. If ye can find Cyrus, there is a chance ye can figure out the gaps in those timelines. I would also be prepared to accept that there may always be gaps in that timeline because they may not even know.” Highlander made his presence known in the room.

“He’s right. Both sets of parents that got them started are gone. Although it would help to understand Deanna’s place in all this, we need to be prepared to accept we will never have all the key players in this.” Laura sighed heavily as she put the marker on the table.

“Where is David’s older brother? I know one died in the Middle East, but what happened to the other one that was older than David?” Diesel looked over at Laura as she rubbed her chin as if in thought.

“I don’t know. I know Dominick doesn’t know either. He’s only met him twice and when it was declared that Dominick wasn’t going to be a part of the program, they basically ignored him,” Laura stated as her brother’s previous statement came to mind. “We should let the captain have her fun with interrogations of the swamp rat.”

“Why not ye grandmother? Let her deal with ye incubator on that question. Have her and the captain go in. I’m scared of ye captain, but I can answer for the whole of the SEAL community, ye grandmother and captain scare the living hell out of all of us. If they had both of them lasses working in our BUDs, we’d give up state secrets if they demanded it.” Highlander shivered at the thought of both women together.

“Don’t let them hear you guys admit that or they may just do that for shits and giggles.” Sgt. Brocard patted Highlander on his arm when she passed him to leave the room.

“Ok. While the sarge sets up that entertainment, how do we draw out Cyrus? I say we find Deanna and then use her to draw out Cyrus.” Diesel rubbed her hands together with an evil grin.

“I have to agree. While the others weren’t raised by their mothers, Cyrus was raised by his. I suggest we find Deanna and use her to draw him out. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Deanna is still on David’s pinky.” Raso smirked over at Diesel following her idea.

“I’m of the same frame of mind. We need to find Deanna. Tomorrow is Friday. She tends to go and get her hair and nails done at the same beauty shop every week. I think we will pay it a visit once she shows up. Bring in Bravo team to watch the back. Highlander, your team can watch the front with a few of ours while myself and sarge go in and bring her in,” Laura decided as she looked around the room to everyone nodding.

“Alright, let’s go let the captain know our plans and put everything together with Highlander’s team. We need this to go down smoothly. Not send him further into hiding.” Diesel clapped as they all stood up and started filing out of the room.