him back to the fact that David and Rick had been killed, and whoever it was now seemed to be targeting him—no, he had targeted an innocent civilian and in Shane’s book that meant the man was probably some weak, unethical bastard that got denied because he couldn’t live up to the code. Every branch of the military had a code, but the Dove Team had stricter guidelines, and those guidelines and rules were not optional.
This wasn’t just some elite country club. They were working on security breaches closer to home; on things that would impact the citizens in their backyard and in a situation like that there was no margin for error. If any one of them went off half cocked it could get more than just the team killed. It could get the kids on their way to school, their parents, their entire community, killed. It wasn’t a game, and though they sometimes had to find fun activities to take the edge off, they all had to stay alert, vigilant and realize the seriousness of every mission. Maybe that’s why the applicants were so many, yet the members were so few in comparison—not everybody was cut out to be a member of the Dove. Clearly somebody on one of these lists couldn’t handle that fact.
Shane sat through the briefing, feeling as if he had never left his team, as if he had never retired. Once again they were reunited for a common goal, justice and survival. It was good to be back, but where he wanted to be, where his mind had already traveled to, was back home. He was worried about Alyssa. Not only had he brought trouble into her life, there was still a maniac terrorizing the shops on the Row. The cops had released Dumas which meant they were back to square one on finding, and stopping, whoever this man was. Shane wanted to keep her safe. He knew she could hold her own if equally matched, but whoever was after him wasn’t likely to be her equal match on the battlefield and he couldn’t stomach the thought of what could happen to her; what would happen to her if he didn’t find out who this guy was and stop him.
“Gary,” Alyssa smiled. “What are you doing down here? You never leave the studio.”
He laughed. His big brown eyes wide and bright. “I heard about what happened.” He paused as Leo stepped out of the security room. Alyssa had told him he could go enjoy the shops or even the park if he wanted to. She would be fine, or at least she thought so, since the stores were open and nobody would try anything during the day. Leo didn’t think so obviously because he refused to go anywhere.
“Gary this is Leo; Leo this is Gary. He runs the art studio and gallery down the street.” Leo nodded, but he failed to retreat back into the security room. She resisted the smile that threatened to grace her lips. As much as she wanted to think the men currently in her life were far too overprotective, she had to admit she felt safer with them around. If anything did happen, and she wasn’t able to handle it—like the other day, then at least she would have backup. Or maybe it was more like she could be their backup if they needed it because she was sure neither Shane nor Leo would let her go in fighting first.
“I wanted to come down and make sure you were okay,” he said. “Did you fire the other guy?”
“How do you know about the other guy?”
“Craig’s been up and down our block telling everybody. He said he was short.”
She laughed. Compared to Leo she guessed he was short. “Not short really, but yeah, this isn’t him. I didn’t fire him; he is just away on business. He’ll be back soon.”
Gary nodded. “You’ll still come down to the opening next Friday night?”
“Yes,” she nodded. Leo cleared his throat as if he was trying to tell her not to promise anything, but she had already done that weeks ago. Gary’s art students were displaying their work and he was going all out with the opening. He promised wine, finger foods, music and of course, great art. She wasn’t going to miss that. She loved art too much to miss the opportunity. “I promised Gary a couple weeks ago that I would go to the opening,” she told Leo because she wanted him