The Neverending Hangover

Chapter Forty-Six

Rev was going with Tim on a night raid in a little town near the border. Tim had word of a convoy coming through that way sometime during the night. He had a team of six highly trained men, with a devout dedication to what they were doing, tons of combat experience, and a commitment to secrecy. They believed in what they were doing and they needed more weapons support, but not all of them were on board with getting in bed with the government. Thus, Rev was getting the cold shoulder from four of them, and the other two were polite but suspicious. However, they trusted Tim and would follow his guidance. The only reason they were even talking to Rev at all was because he was an independent agent. If he was employed by the government, they would have turned him down right away and he knew it.

Rev needed to prove himself right now but he was having a hard time keeping his mind from wandering toward the tiny little toned body he was running to as soon as he was done here. He closed his eyes to run through fighting techniques in his head, which typically helped, but all he saw was a pair of emerald eyes smiling at him. He shook his head and opened his eyes, finding a guy named Mace staring at him. He wasn't sure if that was a nickname for Mason or something else, and he wasn't going to ask. This guy was similar in appearance to himself. Bald, tall, and heavily muscled, with brown eyes. Mace, however, was clean shaven, friendlier, and less pissed off looking.

"Girl?", Mace guessed, grinning.

Rev didn't volunteer the information but nodded.

"The one you were talking to the other day?", Tim asked with a knowing smile.

Tim was also tall and muscular, with a thick brown mustache, short wavy brown hair, deeply tanned skin, and brown eyes.

"Your wife's sharp", Rev commented, smiling.

"That she is". He smiled affectionately. "Takes a special woman to handle being with men like us. They all think it's hot, who we are, what we do, but the gritty daily stuff and the scary life or death stuff...most women can't handle that".

"Yep", Rev agreed, and he saw another couple guys nodding.

"Your girl like that?", Mace asked him, still smiling.

Rev replied, "She's bloody brilliant. I could actually see her doing missions herself, and she's tiny, half my size. You wouldn't believe me if I told you the stuff she's already been through. She killed a man a few weeks ago. Self defense, but how she did it...and she was completely calm. I am consistently impressed by her".

"That's fantastic", Mace agreed.

"Hell yeah!", Ip said, grinning. He was the youngest of the group, with a clean shaven, kind face, tousled brown hair, tanned skin, light blue eyes, and a faded baseball cap. Rev knew I.P. were his initials, but they called him Ip as one word rather than saying each letter individually.

"She's a natural at shooting", Rev said. "She might be better than me with only a few years of casual practice. She shot a semi for me", he said, grinning at the memory. "Destroyed the head on the target before she let up. Her little shoulder was bruised for weeks", he said chuckling. "She took to knives and stars like a pro".

"That's impressive! How long have you two been together?", Mace asked.

"It's complicated", Rev said, frowning.

Now they were all looking at him. Normally he didn't spill about his personal life but he was trying to gain their trust. He had to give them something.

"I met her five years ago. Her brother hired me to gather evidence to prosecute her ex, who had tried to kill her. The judge let him walk, it pissed me off. I had failed her. After that, I spent four years stalking the guy, collecting evidence, working with the FBI. He was heading a sex trafficking leg up north and the reason the judge let him off was because they were connected through this network".