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  Operation: Beach Angel

  Shepherd Security Book #8

  Margaret Kay

  Sisters Romance

  Copyright © 2020 Sisters Romance

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  This book is dedicated to my wonderful ARC Team: Evelin, Vance, Leslie, Christy, Najda, Michelle, and Mary. I truly appreciate your time and honesty. You are the best!

  Shepherd Security Organizational Chart

  Classified: Top Secret

  Colonel Samuel ‘Big Bear’ Shepherd, Retired US Army

  Alpha Team

  John ‘Coop’ Cooper

  Alexander ‘Doc’ Williams

  Anthony ‘Razor’ Garcia

  Ethan ‘Jax’ Jackson

  Madison ‘Xena’ Miller

  Delta Team

  Landon ‘Lambchop’ Johnson

  Danny ‘Mother’ Trio

  Gary ‘the Undertaker’ Sloan

  Brian ‘the Birdman’ Sherman

  Charlie Team

  Jimmy ‘Taco’ Wilson

  Mike ‘Powder’ Rogers

  Rich ‘Handsome’ Burke

  Carter ‘Moe’ Tessman

  Bravo Team

  Tommy ‘Louisa’ Flores

  Eddie ‘Needles’ Winston

  Kenny ‘Ducky’ Gallup

  Elijah ‘Kegger’ Robinson

  Echo Team

  Brody ‘BT’ Templeton

  Michael ‘Bubbles’ Cooper

  Sebastian ‘Crash’ Roth

  Laura Lee ‘Lah-lee’ Saxton

  Operations Center Analysts

  Yvette ‘Control’ Donaldson

  Anthony ‘Wang’ Miraldi

  Caleb ‘Hound dog’ Smith

  Brad ‘Circles’ Dupont

  Other Agency Staff

  Angel Jackson – Office Manager

  Michaela Karras – TechLab Manager

  Elizabeth Williams – Receptionist (PT)

  Brielle Jarboe – Special Projects Manager

  Requisition Ryan Grant – Supply Chain Manager

  Dr. Joe Lassiter – Team Mental Health Professional

  Defining Moments

  Everyone has that one defining moment that sets the course for the rest of their life.

  For Landon Johnson it was when he was eighteen years old, a senior in high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was Memorial Day weekend. Graduation was in two weeks and it still surprised him; he was going to graduate. After that, he didn’t have a clue what he was going to do. Of course, back then, it didn’t really occur to him that he had to have a plan, that he had to do something.

  His only focus while in high school had been on sports. He played varsity football all four years. He was that good. He also wrestled, was conference champion. But college recruiters didn’t look at kids from his poor inner-city high school, so there were no scholarship opportunities, not that college was anything he was interested in. He very much disliked studying, going to class, and taking tests. His classes were the bare minimum academically. He spent most of his day in the shop classes and in the gym. He was six feet, three inches tall and weighed in at two-hundred pounds of defined muscle from all the time he spent on the weight bench.

  His brother Elias, or E as he called him, a year and a half younger than he was and twice as mouthy, twice as likely to go with the group rather than think for himself, was heading out for a Friday night to hang with the neighborhood guys. They were punks that were destined to spend time in jail or be killed on the streets. Johnson tagged along to try to keep Elias out of trouble.

  The one thing Johnson could say was that he had never been arrested. He had a sixth sense for the cops and usually managed to avoid them, pulling his little brother out of whatever they were into before the law moved in and scooped everyone else up.

  That Friday night of the Memorial Day weekend was no different. They hung out in one of their favorite places, the parking lot behind the old boarded up shoe factory that butted up along the banks of the Allegheny River. It was dark back there and the cops usually didn’t bother them. There were about ten guys and six or seven chicks there that night, local girls who hung with them because they always had booze and pot to share. They didn’t really date or claim anyone as theirs in that group. All the guys had done the girls a few times and back then, it didn’t bother him.

  There was one girl that Johnson liked a lot though, Shereese. She was an ebony beauty with a great ass and perfectly sized, firm tits. She had a pretty smile and a friendly, fun personality. She was always up for some booze or pot followed by sex. There was one problem, though. Elias liked her too and the brothers often went after her at the same time, which meant that one of them was always losing in their pursuit.

  That night, Tommy, a guy from the neighborhood who dealt had something a lot stronger than pot. Tommy had crystal meth, methamphetamine. Johnson smoked pot, but he wasn’t going to smoke that stronger shit. He had heard of too many guys in the neighborhood getting addicted to it after smoking it only one time.

  Shereese didn’t want to hear his warnings and Elias swooped right in and agreed with her, paid for some, and took a hit of the drug right after she did.

  “Son of a bitch, Elias, I can’t believe you did that,” Johnson scolded.

  “Oh, lighten up.” Elias sat back and gazed at the sky. “Wow, that is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Fuck, Landon, do you see the lights?” He pulled himself to his feet and walked along a concrete curb that separated the parking lot from the water. Shereese hopped up there and wobbled as she walked the balance beam behind him.

  Johnson saw the lights in the sky he was talking about. But they weren’t incredible. They were the search lights on a helicopter, a police helicopter. And they were getting closer. “It’s the cops!”

  He grabbed hold of his brother’s arm and Shereese’s and pulled them down from the ledge. He pushed on them, sending them into the line of brush and trees that ran along the perimeter of the old warehouse property. He put distance between them and the parking lot as the sound of the chopper got louder and as two cop cars pulled into the parking lot. But they were far enough away now and were concealed in the wooded area.

  When they broke free from the tree line, they hightailed it to the underpass, their second favorite hangout. Tommy made it there too, as did Fern, another chick in their group, and JD, a guy that Johnson knew had ties to one of the street gangs in the area that the Johnson brothers had avoided getting involved with. JD was trouble, and he was not anyone that Johnson wanted to spend too much time around.

  They laughed about how close it had been, the cops crashing their party. None of their other friends caught up to them. They assumed many had been arrested. Then Elias and Shereese got busy around the corner of that underpass. Johnson’s blood boiled. Neither seemed to care they could be heard. Johnson just wanted to get the fuck out of there. He was done with this crap tonight.

  “You got anything on you?” Fern asked, wrapping her arms around him. “I’d rather party with you tonight than either of those dicks.” She nodded at Tommy and JD.

  Fern wasn’t nearly as attractive as Shereese, but she’d get as friendly as you wanted her to after a few puffs of weed.

  “You gotta try some of this meth shit, Fern. My treat. The high is fucking unbelievable,” Tommy said. “It’s better than coke.” He took anoth
er packet of the shit from his pocket. “The high doesn’t last long enough though, that’s the only problem with it.”

  Fern drifted over near Tommy.

  “Don’t do it Fern, that shit is really addictive. It’s not like pot,” Johnson warned her.

  Tommy took a hit and then blew it into Fern’s mouth while kissing her. In the meantime, Elias came back around the corner, while zippering his jeans. “Yo, you got more of that crystal, Tommy?”

  Johnson took his brother by the arm and shook him. “Don’t be a dumb-shit. Stop.” He pulled a joint from his pocket. “Here, have a few drags.” He lit it up and took in a deep inhale before passing it to his little brother.

  Elias took a deep drag. After he’d held it in for several seconds, he pointed back around the corner and let it out as he spoke. “Shereese is still over there, if you want a turn, man. She had no desire to pull her pants back up, said she’d wait for you, wants a double-brother-fuck tonight.” He laughed like what he’d said was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

  Johnson wanted to pound his brother. No, Elias wasn’t funny. “No man, just no.”

  “I’ll do her,” JD spoke up.

  Turning to face him, Johnson saw Fern bent over. Tommy was slamming her from behind. “No, you won’t,” Johnson told JD. He pushed him against the concrete wall. Then he stalked around the corner. Shereese laid on the ground, stripped naked as the day she was born. She stared at the sky. “Come on, Shereese, get dressed and let’s get you out of here,” he said, squatting down beside her.

  “You are no fun,” she teased, grabbing his groin, and rubbing her hand over his cock, which instantly got hard in his pants. “Bring it out to play. I want to feel both your dicks tonight to carefully evaluate for myself which of the brothers has the biggest dick.” She laughed while still massaging him. “Though it’s not the size but what you can do to me with it. Come on, Landon, fuck me.”

  “Shereese, this is that shit talking. You’re no whore. You’ve never fucked us both in one night.” He heard a laugh from behind him. He spun around and there was JD.

  “Pussy,” JD charged. He approached Johnson fast and cuffed him upside his head, sending Johnson down to the ground.

  When Johnson shook it off and pulled himself to his feet, JD was on Shereese with his jeans down around his knees. Johnson dove at him, pulling him off Shereese. He punched him wherever he could land a blow, his face, head, chest, back. It didn’t matter. Shereese hadn’t given him consent, was in no shape to give consent to have sex. In Johnson’s mind, it was the equivalent of rape.

  “You fucking bastard!” He yelled as he landed the blow that disabled JD and left him sprawled out on the pavement.

  He helped Shereese to dress, and by this time she was on the crashed side of the high. She was zoned out and energy-less with eyes that were fixed ahead and unseeing. He guided her around the wall in time to see his brother and Tommy engaged in a three-some with Fern. She didn’t have much life in her eyes either, was their poking doll, Tommy banging her from the back and his little brother feeding her his dick.

  “Fucking assholes,” he cursed. He helped Shereese to sit down against the wall, and then he went over and tore his brother away from her and threw him against the wall. “You don’t fuck a chick when she’s nearly passed out. Look at her,” he said as he squeezed his brother’s face and made him look at Fern. “She doesn’t know what the hell’s going on.”

  “Aren’t you the fucking virtuous one,” Tommy sneered. “I paid for her smoke, so I paid for this. I’ll fuck her any which way I want and share her with anyone I fucking want to.”

  “You’re an asshole,” Johnson told Tommy. He grabbed Elias by the neck of his shirt, and he dragged him off the wall. “Help me get her on her feet.” They helped Shereese to stand. “Let’s take her someplace to sober up before we bring her home. She can’t go home like this.”

  “I’ll have more crystal tomorrow, right here,” Tommy yelled after them as they walked away.

  Johnson left his brother and Shereese at the corner of the underpass and he stalked back over to Tommy. One punch was all it took to lay him out. He left him there with his dick hanging out of his pants and then he pulled Fern’s jean shorts up and picked her up, cradling her in his arms.

  The Johnson boys took the two girls to the safest place they could think of, their house. Their momma and grandma would be fast asleep by then, and their father was working a double shift and wouldn’t be home till right before the sun came up.

  Saturday Night

  Johnson followed his brother when he snuck out of the house. Elias was sneaking out on him, not their momma. He came around the side of the underpass in time to see his brother give Tommy some cash.

  “Oh, man! What are you fucking doing here?” Elias swore when he saw Johnson barreling towards him.

  “No more smoking that shit, Elias,” Johnson said, ripping the cash from Tommy’s hand. “He’s not buying! Not today, not any day.” He pushed Tommy into the wall and jammed his hands inside Tommy’s pockets. There was nothing there.

  “I don’t got none. I’m sold out,” Tommy said.

  “Where’s the cash then?” Johnson asked.

  “My supplier came and collected,” Tommy said. “Fuck, man, I need more cash if I’m gonna get more.”

  “If you sold it, how come you don’t have any bills to buy more?” Elias asked.

  “It’s what’s known as a marketing strategy,” Tommy said. “You sell it for next to nothing and bet your buyers will want more, then you boost the price up to make some bank on it. I only made what it’s worth and gave a lot of it away, like to Fern and Shereese. I’m still pissed at you, Johnson. I kind of remember what happened last night.”

  Johnson snickered. Kind of? “You don’t remember shit, you worthless motherfucker. You were so stoned you couldn’t even keep it up long enough to fuck Fern. And then you passed out with your dick in her.” He shot his brother a glare, warning him to stay quiet.

  “That’s not exactly how I remember it,” Tommy said. “But I won’t hold it against you, Elias, that your brother is a dick.”

  Johnson grabbed his brother by his neck. “We’re getting out of here and you are not buying any more of his shit, E! It’s poison. It will ruin your fucking life. I will not let you do that to Momma.” He dragged him several blocks away, which wasn’t difficult as Johnson was taller and had more muscle mass on him than his brother. He threw him against the wall of a building and leaned into his face. “E, listen to me. I’m no saint, have probably not been the best role model for you, but there is a point that even I have to say there is a line you don’t cross. And that meth shit is that line just as hard as heroin, oxy, and raping a girl is.”

  “Seriously, Landon, stop saying I raped anyone. You’re really pissing me off. I didn’t rape either of those chicks. Both Shereese and Fern were into it last night.”

  “Neither were with it enough to know what they were consenting to. They were both nearly passed out. You saw them when we got them to our house. There is right and wrong, and damn it, E, what you did last night was wrong and it was that shit you smoked that is clouding your brain on it.”

  “You’re right, you are no saint and you don’t fucking have any right to preach to me about anything. Maybe you should become a preacher. That would make momma and grandma proud and it would keep you busy for a little while, so just maybe you will stay the fuck out of my life.”

  “You’re being a stupid asshole,” Johnson charged. “But you’re my brother and I’m not going to let you get in any trouble. It would break Momma’s heart.”

  Elias pushed back against him and tore his brother’s hands from where they held him at the neckline of his t-shirt. “Fuck you!” He stormed away.

  Johnson let him go to cool off. Then he went back over near the underpass. He crawled through a busted-out window in the rear of an abandoned building across the street from where Tommy was. He watched Tommy through one of the windows t
hat faced his location. It wasn’t long before JD joined him. JD carried a backpack that Johnson was sure had a stash of meth and other drugs inside. JD was trouble. Bad trouble. And he was leading Tommy further into what was real criminal activity. Johnson wasn’t sure what he could do about keeping Elias away from these two.

  He stayed in the shadows of the abandoned warehouse that night and watched for over an hour as customers came and went. He knew most of them, locals who he thought mostly bought weed, but who he soon learned were buying meth and pills too. Then he saw his brother approach.

  “Damn it,” Johnson muttered under his breath. He evaluated his options and was leaning towards contacting a local cop to give up these dealers. He feared his brother would get caught up in the arrest, but that was better than other outcomes he weighed.

  Before he could move to go notify someone, his brother, JD, and Tommy left the shadows. He left his hiding place and rushed to catch up to follow them. He was careful to stay far enough back but remain close enough, so he didn’t lose them. He cut through yards and hopped over fences.

  He crept through an alleyway behind several businesses on a block that was one of the worse in this part of the city. He hid behind dumpsters as he watched his brother and the two guys sell drugs to a dozen strung out junkies. These people were the lowest of the low and here his brother was with two dealers helping these poor fools drop deeper into drug addiction. The police and ambulances frequented this alley as at least one person overdosed and died here every day.