Merciless Protectors Chapter 1
Lita Cooper let out a sigh as she climbed the steps of her baby sister’s house. Today had been a long and disastrous day. The men Alpha Securities were tracking and had put her in charge of tailing had dropped off the radar.
She was angry about it and Alpha Securities would be too. She had been following the scum for months and tonight. Poof. Gone. It should have been impossible. She was the best tail on the team at Alpha Securities, almost the whole agency. Worse part was she had no clue how to explain it back at HQ. She reached for the bell and rung it.
As Lita waited for her little sister to answer the door, the hairs along her arms prickled and almost stood on end. A shiver ran down her spine as she glanced over her shoulder. It was well past midnight, and it was easy to see the street was disserted.
The heavy oak door finally opened, and Lita rushed in, pushing the door shut quickly. Her gaze met the wide green eye gaze staring at her. They were automatically filled with fear. “Hey, Ellen, what’s up?”
“Everything okay, Lita? You look spooked, I’ve never seen you like this before.” Ellen Cooper gazed up at her.
Ellen was four inches shorter than her own five foot nine inches. “No, I’m okay, it’s just been a long day today is all. Got any coffee?”
“Does a bear shit in the woods?” Ellen’s fear disappeared as a smile pasted itself against her freckled, pale skin.
Lita shook her head, never a dull moment with Ellen. Lita was serious enough for the both of them, plus another person or two. “Yeah, I guess so.” That was why she was beating herself up so much over losing the men she was supposed to be tailing.
Ellen rolled her green eyes at Lita and headed to the kitchen, and she followed.
Coffee was probably the last thing she needed, but it had to take the chill out of her bones. Right? Once she left Ellen’s she’d make a call to Donovan Davenport. The butterflies erupted through her stomach but pushed them away. Hopefully they could come up with some kind of plan then.
Ellen pressed the button on her fancy coffee maker and the dark, steamy liquid began to brew into the pot below. “How’d tonight go?” Ellen’s sweet voice broke through Lita’s train of thought.
“Ha, I’ve had better.” Lita scoffed.
“A bust then?”
“You could say that.” Lita let out a sigh as she yanked the baseball cap she was wearing and ran her hand fingers through her long, straight as a whip blonde hair, untangling it from the twist she had put it up in to wear the cap. It almost seemed impossible the two of them were sisters.
Tan, straight blonde hair brown eyes, versus the fiery, curly red hair, green eyes, pale, and freckled.
“What happened?” Ellen asked as she began to pour them each a cup of coffee then came over to sit at the kitchen table.
Lita grabbed the hot mug and slowly sipped the hot liquid. “You know I can’t tell you too much, it just wasn’t good, I failed at my job tonight.”
“I’d ask how, but it being all super secrete and all I know better, I’m sure you didn’t fail though, it’s just a dip in the road that you can just build a bridge over.” Ellen sipped on her own mug.
Lita shot a look to her sister. “How’d you get so wise?”
Ellen tipped her mug at Lita. “I had a great teacher, you know.”
Lita ran her fingers through her hair again. She had been nineteen when Ellen came to live with her for a while at the age of sixteen when they had lost their father. Lita closed her eyes tightly. She had been there the day her father had been sniped down due to the very job she was doing now. Their mother had taken off years before that tired of never knowing if Bruce Cooper was going to come home or have to be buried every night. “Dad was the wise one.”
“You both were, I’d have been lost without you both, he’s proud of you, Lita.” Ellen reached her hand out and gripped hers.
“He’s proud of you too, Elle, he’s proud of you too.” Lita smiled weakly then pulled her hand away. “Are you still taking my car for that oil change, tires and breaks for me tomorrow?”
“Of course.” Ellen grabbed the two mugs and placed them in the sink. She picked up her keys and tossed them to Lita as Lita placed her own keys on the kitchen table.
“Thanks, I owe you big time.”
“Yes, you do, Saturday, you’re telling your job to piss off and you’re going out with me, you haven’t had any time off in years.” Ellen picked the keys up from the table and placed them where her keys normally were.
“It’s full too, when it’s done let me know and I’ll swing by and swap cars with you again.” She informed her sister, ignoring the request she had just made.
“Lita, please, just one night?”
“We’ve been over this before, Elle, no promises, I will try, but I can’t make a promise like that, look, I love you, get some sleep, I’ll see you later, thanks for the coffee.” Lita hugged Ellen tightly after she walked around the table.
Ellen let out a small sigh, hugging Lita back. “I love you, too, just stay safe, whatever it is you’re doing, just stay safe.”
“I’ll give it my best shot.” Lita scooped up the baseball cap and made her way to the door. She wished she could promise her baby sister more. It was just safer this way. “Lock this door behind me, Elle.”
“Yes, big sister.”
Lita closed the door behind her but didn’t descend the steps until she heard the door lock. She felt the same spine numbing shiver. She let out a slow breath and made herself walk down the steps to her sister’s gray Corolla.
She got in and headed to her house. As she drove, she managed to dial Donovan. She didn’t like where the conversation could go.
“Lita, everything okay?” the deep voice of her fellow agent caused goosebumps along her whole body. He was the only one who called her Lita, everyone else called Agent Cooper. She loved it, but he sounded so tired.
“You were sleeping, I can let you go, I didn’t know if you’d pick up and if you did I figured it would be because you were awake.”
“No, no I’m up, what’s going on?” Donny’s voice seemed to get a little clearer as he continued to talk.
“We have a problem, Donovan, I messed up, the men I was tailing gave me the slip, I lost them, and I couldn’t find them again.” She knew he could hear her voice crack as she fought the tears.
“Lita, no, no, no, it’s fine, look we’ll get them again.”
“Donny, this is five months of work down the drain, we were so close to bringing the scum in.” Lita tried so hard to fight the tears.