a team there." Gaige informed him.
"I'm in. Who else is going?"
Gaige looked over at her and Axel. "Josh, here's the rest of your team." Gaige tapped on his laptop. "Wheels up in an hour. All data is uploaded into the server in a separate file in the Caulfield file labeled, 'Ukraine'. Clever, I'm aware." He smirked and she thought he had a dry sense of humor and instantly saw what Sophie had seen in him. Handsome, strong, sure of himself, and no nonsense with an understated wit. That worked.
Axel interjected. "We'll go pack. Josh, we can come up with a plan on the plane."
"Roger that."
Closing his laptop, he smiled and left the room and Axel turned and walked to a desk close to the wall, grabbed a laptop, case and a couple items and tossed them in his laptop case, then walked toward her and nodded.
Without another word they walked from the room, but she heard Gaige say, "Is Falcon ready for tomorrow?"
Trying to keep up with Axel and Josh, who was just stepping on the elevator, she rushed in right in front of Axel. As the doors closed she asked, "How old is Ford's son, Falcon?"
Axel looked over her head to Josh who shrugged. "Mid-twenties I'd guess."
Axel then added a bit more information. "He just got out of the Army after two tours overseas in Afghanistan. Ford shared with him that we're shorthanded now and as we all age out, we'll need new blood, and so encouraged him to come back and work with us. What we do is dangerous, but we have some great equipment and sadly, we're better trained. The military trains the masses, only being able to achieve what their weakest link can achieve. Here, we take that training and enhance it with more one on one training and individualized development."
"Maybe I'll have to apply, too. My livelihood was just torched, and I have all of those skills and then some."
"What about Aidyn?"
She turned to look him in the eye. "Are you going to be less of a father because you have a job?"
"No."
"Why would you think I'd be less of a mother? After all, to this point, I've done it all on my own plus started a thriving business."
"I didn't say you'd be less of a mother. I simply meant, if we're both gone who will take care of him?"
"My mom is here, Axel. She's been taking care of him for us while we're working. She took care of him while I was gone, and you were looking for me. She's been my rock since Aidyn was born."
She tried keeping the sarcasm from her voice but wasn't very successful.
"How would I know that, Bridget? You haven't exactly explained very much to me about how he's been raised. You haven't exp..." His exasperation was apparent. He turned to look straight ahead, his jaw tensing and relaxing as he stared at the elevator doors.
The instant the doors opened she stepped out and he flew past and to his room. Without another word to her or Josh.
Josh stepped off and walked past her and when she opened her mouth to say something, he shook his head and kept walking, but his smirk told her he'd been amused at their argument.
She turned to her room, and luckily hadn't unpacked anything except her shampoo and conditioner. She grabbed those from the bathroom, decided to use the toilet while she was in there, washed her hands and came back out to find her mom sitting on the sofa.
"Hi. Where's Aidyn?"
"In Axel's room. He wanted to bring Axel a cookie from downstairs and knocked on Axel's door. When he opened his door, Aidyn rushed in chatting about the cookie. Axel smiled and waved, and I let them have some time together. They need it you know."
"I know."
"Why didn't you tell me who Aidyn's father was, Bridget?"
It wasn't accusation as much as hurt in her voice.
"I didn't know. Mom. And before you take that the wrong way, Axel was undercover when we met. He gave me a fictitious name. When I found out I was pregnant I tried finding him but, of course, the only person I could find named Robert Beckman was a man in prison. Which, I've now found out was his undercover persona. But, I didn't know his real name and had no way to find him. I never gave him my last name, so he didn't know how to find me."
Her mom nodded as she processed all of this.