Finding Jess (First Wave) (19 page)

“Lt. Jacobs, you may as well come
in now.  Your being outside is kind of pointless at this juncture.” Banatar
conceded.

He couldn’t possibly argue the plan
when every person had already absolved her of it, and he really thought the
plan had been brilliant (what he knew of it anyway). Obviously, he was going to
have to have a private talk with Jax regarding all of this. Much later though.

“Sir, Tricia is on the phone. She
says it’s important.” The voice came abruptly over the building intercom system
startling everyone since they had become used to using the Valendran comm
systems which were much more private.

“Give me a moment.” Banatar said
quickly, grabbing the phone in the middle of the table.

“Tricia? Yes, I know. The warehouse
district. We’re just losing the two then? Yes. Thank you as always, child. Are
you and Tristan well? I’m glad to hear it. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
Banatar sighed heavily as he hung up the phone.

“Well, the government has decided
to take this place and our ranch in Oklahoma under an imminent domain. Luckily,
it’s only the two properties we have under the same business name, so the
warehouse district and the other locations are secure for now. But we do need
to hurry if we’re going to get out of here, and to the warehouse before they
come to evict us. I suggest we table any more of this discussion until after
we’ve resettled everyone at the new facility.” Banatar said, not the least
surprised at the government’s antics. This wasn’t the first time that they had
claimed imminent domain when they found one of their safe houses, and he
figured it wouldn’t be the last either. In this new technology era, it was
getting more and more difficult for them to hide from their enemies.

“Then I suggest we get things
packed and transferred as quickly as possible. Risk and Lagor have set up a
port station that should be able to take everything but the vehicles. Now that
the traitor is no longer a threat, I will have more men sent from Adaria to
assist. We can meet again once the location is up and running.” Ivint told them
before walking out of the room and dismissing them.

“So tell me how you trained the
birds to attack Atane.” Reven whispered to Jax, wondering what the joke was
when she started laughing at him.

“I didn’t train them; I asked them
to do it. My gift is the ability to speak to animals. Probably, one of the
reasons Gibly and I get along so well. And I didn’t need you to defend me, you
know.” Jax whispered angrily back at Reven.

“You don’t need anyone to defend
you Jax. But a babysitter sounds better every moment.” Reven joked with her and
enjoyed seeing her face flame with embarrassment. Realizing she was getting
ready to retaliate, he ran to catch up to Ivint.

“What do you need me to do, Jax?”
David Jacobs asked, not quite sure what all was going on.

“Well we need some help getting the
equipment and supplies to the port station. If you don’t mind some pretty
back-breaking work?" Jax asked with a smile, knowing full well the man
obviously didn’t mind hard work if the bulging muscles on his body were any
indication.

“After being in that tree for four days,
I would love to do some physical labor.” David laughed and followed Jax down
the hall, Gibly close on their heels.

Epilogue

Jess wakened immediately when she
heard the tiny footsteps padding lightly to the bed she was sharing with Amun
at the warehouse in Knoxville.

“Come here baby.” Jess leaned up
and pulled the covers up so that Lily could climb in with her. Once Lily had
climbed in, Jess cuddled the little girl tightly to her and breathed in the
wonderful scent of her baby shampoo.

They’d only been at the warehouse a
week, but things had already calmed down into the regular routine the children
were used to and things were going very smoothly; all things considered.

Jess was really glad when she’d
found out that Jax and Reven weren’t going to be in trouble for her plan.
Apparently, when she was finally able to explain the whole thing to Ivint and
Banatar, they were very impressed with the way she had executed it.

Between having all the women
dressed as her to confuse everyone, the way she had created only one feasible
way in or out of the compound for the traitor and had it defended to the max,
and even her foresight in having Reven bring down Adaria crew instead of
trusting the forces already there, had proven to be solid and carefully thought
out. Even Lt. David Jacobs was proving to have invaluable insight and knowledge
that they needed and had become a permanent member of their slightly ragtag
crew.

Ivint had offered for them to move
to Adaria permanently or even Valendra if she wished, but Jess couldn’t bring
herself to do it. This was her home; it was all she knew. And even though she’d
go anywhere for Amun and Lily, she felt there was more that she needed to
accomplish here. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew she was right.

“How are my girls this morning? And
why are we up so early?” Amun asked dragging both Lily and Jess towards him at
one time and hugging them both, to Lily’s giggling delight.

“I couldn’t sleep anymore and
missed you. So I came to see if you were awake yet,” Lily admitted with a
smile.

“Oh I see. That’s ok then.” Amun
gave his little one a genuine smile, then moved his hips slightly enough for
Jess to suck in a gasp as she felt the hard length of his cock pressed up
against her back.

“Lily, why don’t you go see if Maggie
is up yet, and if she wants to help us make pancakes for everyone this
morning?” Jess suggested, giving Amun a hungry look.

“Pancakes!!! Yay!!!” Amun waited
until he heard Lily bang out of the door to their rooms, before pulling Jess
underneath him.

“I love you so much.” Jess
whispered as she leaned up and kissed him passionately, tunneling her fingers
through his soft curls to pull him closer.

“I love you more than life,
Amalaya. It may have taken many galaxies to find my heart, but you and our Lily
are worth every star I had to pass to get here to find you.” Amun whispered and
vowed to show her just how much he loved her as, he started pulling her
nightgown off.

*****

Banatar paced the new room set up
as a conference room in the warehouses that they currently occupied. They
bought the entire block of a dilapidated and run down row of warehouses near
downtown Knoxville and the Market Square area and converted them to their
need's years ago.

This was the first time they’d ever
had to occupy it for more than a few days though; he just couldn’t bring
himself to leave the area. Not while Dare was still missing, not while there
was even a slim chance, he could get her back.

He waited silently as everyone else
entered the room. Ivint, having just come back from visiting his mate, Sacara
aboard the Adaria, sat beside him. Jax, Reven, Niklosi, Simya, Risk, Ivint’s
son Scaden and Lt. David Jacobs quickly filed into the room and took seats
around the table.

At Ivint’s nod, Niklosi began,
“After interrogating the two prisoners, searching the area and speaking to
witnesses, I think it’s safe to say that Dare and Balduen were taken. We aren’t
sure if she was heading to this location or not, but Balduen must have spotted
her and realized she was one of the gifted women and followed her.”

“Unfortunately, it seems that
whoever she was trying to evade found them both. They were taken away in a
black van, with heavily tinted windows and the license plate obscured. There
have been no other sightings of them since their initial abduction that we
could find.”

“Sirs? If I may?” David asked Ivint
and Banatar. At Ivint’s nod, he continued. “Jax and Gibly told me about Dare,
and I called a few of my friends who are also out of the service and working…
not so legal jobs in order to survive.”
“There has been a surge in requests for mercenaries lately, and it appears some
of them are from the Relians looking for help in finding and abducting more
women… and children.” At their concerned looks, David rushed to reassure them.

“The majority of us ex-military
would never do something to harm a woman or child, and these men are not
accepting the jobs. However, one man, in particular, that we call ‘Tiny’ was
hoping to find out more so that they can neutralize the threat he felt they presented.”

“He was able to get close enough to
a location, here in Tennessee where he saw a woman, fitting Dare’s description
screaming out a name he didn’t understand very well as she was dragged from one
room to another. He thought she called the man ‘baldy’.” David ignored the
startled gasps from around the table and continued.

“We have the location, and
preliminary recon has shown that there is enough evidence to suggest that there
are captives being held there. But at this time, we can’t say for sure that
it’s Dare and Balduen without further recon and a plan to get inside. Which is
where I thought Jax and Reven could help.” David finished shooting a quick wink
at Jax, while Reven growled low in his throat at him causing him to laugh out
loud. Although he loved irritating the big guy, he truly did admire and respect
him.

“Did she look well?” Banatar asked,
trying hard not to hope too much.

“She looked a little worse for
wear, but she was whole and mobile.” David wished he’d had more information for
the old guy; he couldn’t imagine having his child go missing; and if the
Relians truly did have her, she was in a desperate situation.

“I want a plan by tomorrow night.
Can you do that?” Banatar looked directly at Jax and Reven when he asked the
question.

“We’ll get all the information and
get something to you by then.” Jax agreed, looking at Reven’s nod for
confirmation that they could do it.

“I’ll get you the maps and local
information on the location and any other Intel I can come up with that may be
useful to you.” Risk offered immediately before leaving the room to do just
that.

“You will of course, have full
support from us in any way that you need.” Ivint added, placing a comforting
hand on Banatar’s shoulder.

“Thank you. All of you. I just want
my little girl back home.” Banatar said before he walked out of the room, the
sadness in his eyes tearing at everyone still in the room.

Everyone else had stood to leave
when Ivint’s voice stopped them. “Jax and Reven, we would appreciate it if you
kept us informed as to the entire plan this time.” The broad grin on his face,
told Reven that his old friend was actually looking forward to whatever they
came up with. Truth be told, it was going to be whatever Jax created, and he
managed to interject common sense into. However, he wasn’t going to say that in
front of everyone.

“Of course Sir.” Jax returned
Ivint’s smile with a sly one of her own before turning and striding confidently
out of the door.

“Good-Luck man.” David said
flashing Reven a smile before he growled again and went to catch up to Jax.

Everyone else slowly filed out of
the room, leaving Gibly, David, Ivint and Scaden.

“How bad was she?” Scaden asked
bluntly when the room was cleared.

David sighed, glad that he didn’t
have to say anything in front of Risk and Banatar.

“She was in pretty bad shape. It
was hard for Tiny to determine the extent of her injuries from so far away, but
she looked like she’d been harmed… and often.” David said as anger flooded
through him at what may have happened to the poor woman. No woman or child
deserved to be treated as badly as these women were, and he had no regrets
signing up to help the aliens. He’d seen the body scans and read the reports of
what they’d done to Jess and the children there, and he couldn’t think of a
better reason to fight again.

“There were no indications that
Balduen was alive?” Scaden asked quietly, hoping that his friend was.

“Other than her shouting for
someone called ‘Baldy’, we have no sightings of him after they were both taken
in the van months ago. I’m sorry.”

“You will be very surprised at how
resilient we are, lieutenant. Do not discount Balduen yet.” Scaden told the
man, hoping like hell, he was right.

“From what I’ve seen already, even
your women and children are pretty damn tough. I won’t believe for a moment
that he’s gone, until we have absolute proof. Right now, we should go on the
assumption that they are still together.” David agreed, not wanting to tell
them that if they hadn’t seen their friend yet, that they probably wouldn’t again.
He knew that from experience.

COMING MAY
2014

CHASING
DARE

Thank you
for choosing to spend a few hours sharing my world. I love to hear from my
readers.

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ML