Nobody Girl (33 page)
“Is that a reference to my former breast size?”
“No. It’s your initials, silly. Delia Donovan.
Double D.”
“Oh, yeah, right.”
“You know I love your body just the way it is. I love it so much that tonight –”
“Delia. Chase. Cut it out,” Sam ordered over the system. “You do realize everyone can hear you.”
“Sorry, Sammy Sweet Tooth,” Delia said with a giggle.
“Don’t call me that. You know I don’t do that stupid nickname thing.”
“Well, I’m not sorry. You all are just jealous I have a hot wife,” Chase said.
Three or four guys grumbled into their transmitters. Another one started singing “Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gaye.
“Maybe we should make that his new nickname instead of Frankie Blue eyes,” a voice Delia recognized as Two Ton
Tony’s
said.
“Sexual healing?”
Scary Harry said.
“No, Marvin Gaye,” Two Ton Tony corrected.
Nicknames weren’t really necessary for the job, but the guys insisted on them. Sometimes they acted less like highly trained civil servants and more like children playing Cops and Robbers.
“Let’s put the hotness of your wife aside,” Sam said. “We’re on a stakeout. If you lose the mark because you’re daydreaming about your wife’s breasts I’ll –.”
“Crap, I lost him!” Chase interrupted. “He was just there a second ago drinking coffee.”
“I’m
gonna
kill you, Donovan!” Sam said.
“Don’t worry, Sam. I got him.” Delia clicked some buttons on her computer. “I triangulated his location based on his last cell phone call and turned it into a makeshift tracking device.”
“Wow,” Bacon Boy said. “Good job, Newbie.”
“Yeah, thanks, baby,” Chase said, standing up from the café table and heading for the exit.
“You’re welcome, baby.”
“I officially decree that ‘baby’ is not an acceptable code name in the field,” Sam said.
She and Sam were the only ones without code names. Sam refused because he thought it was childish. Sam was enough of a nickname in his book. Delia hadn’t been with the team long enough to acquire one, but she definitely wanted to be included in their ritual.
She thought about her last two months working as a code breaker and computer analyst for the D.C. police department. She had never felt so fulfilled in her life knowing that she was contributing to the safety of the city. She was helping put away
more hard
to catch criminals like the ones responsible for Lena’s death. Now on a daily basis, she felt an emotion she wasn’t used to feeling: pride. Gone was the low self-esteem
Nobody
Girl she had grown up with.
“Well, if ‘baby’ can’t be my nickname, I think I know what I want to be called,” Delia said. “Just call me Somebody Girl.”
Leslie
DuBois
lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and two children. She currently attends the Medical University where she’s earning her PhD in Biostatistics. Leslie enjoys writing stories and novels that integrate races.
DuBois
No Sunshine
Visit her
website
to learn more.