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“I knew there were other Lisa’s out there, and I wanted to help them.”
“You have been operating alone, committing borderline illegal acts,” he began.
“Sir,” she interrupted. Shepherd held a hand up to her, and she said no more.
“But even so, the work you’ve been doing has been to protect people. There is no doubt in my mind that you’ve saved countless lives over the years. If you had gotten to Amanda Elsworth faster and had been working with a team, you could have gotten her out and saved her life.”
Briana nodded. Yes, if only.
“You cannot continue on as you’ve been,” he stated plainly.
Briana’s stomach dropped. He was going to shut her down. Shit!
“You need a team on the ground with you. You need better tools to vet your clients and to look deeper into the threats against them, so you’re better prepared. And you need to be able to move faster once you’ve identified a client.”
She just stared at him, not understanding where he was going with his statements. “In a perfect world,” she said when he paused.
“I have that perfect world for you,” Shepherd said. “Shepherd Security has the resources and the connections to make your self-appointed mission operate at peak performance. There are a few rules you’ll have to follow if you join my team, especially when minors are involved, and you will no longer be operating alone, but rather under the umbrella of Shepherd Security. You’ll report to me and could be assigned to other missions, both foreign and domestic, as well.”
Briana was shocked. Shepherd continued to talk, and she didn’t want to interrupt him, so she remained quiet and listened.
“We’ll provide you with full Operator Training, and you’ll also complete coursework to earn your FBI credentials in the next twelve months to give you domestic authority while you are employed by Shepherd Security. You leave the agency, and those credentials are void. You’ll officially be a member of our Digital Team, so you’ll work other cases as well in that capacity.”
Shepherd finally paused, but Briana hadn’t processed all he’d said yet. The one thing that was clear was that he was offering her a job, a job that would allow her to continue to rescue women in need from bad domestic situations or stalkers. A smile pulled at her lips with the realization. “Yes, sir,” she said.
“Is that your answer to the offer?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. She didn’t know the terms of employment, salary, or any other particulars. She assumed it would be close to what active-duty service provided or what would have been offered had she worked for the CIA. Her brother entered her thoughts. She wasn’t sure how she’d tell him, but she thought he may be relieved. She knew he was very worried about her when she was on jobs. He was also worried about them getting caught again. Even though he did agree with her mission, he didn’t want to go to jail because he helped her.
“You will need to re-take the oath. We’re not quite a regular active-duty unit, not quite a civilian agency. We’re more of a hybrid model. But we do operate under the DoD as well as within the framework of Homeland Security and the alphabet agencies.”
She wasn’t sure what all that meant, and she wasn’t going to question it. She was sure Sebastian would cue her in on the designation of their unit. She still suspected it was some sort of Black Ops team. “I have no problem retaking the oath.”
Shepherd lifted his phone from the top of the table. He tapped out a message to Cooper. Then he opened the file folder in front of her and pulled out the top sheet of paper with the job offer. “Good. I just invited the necessary people into the room.” He handed the paper across the table to her. “The offer for you to review.” He tapped the folder. “You’ll complete the rest with Cooper. He’s the number two in charge at the agency.”
Briana glanced at the official job offer. The text filled the entire page. “I would like to read it completely before I sign,” she said.
“I would expect that to be the case. You can sign it after you’ve read it, after you re-take the oath.”
There was a knock at the door, and then it swung open. Sebastian, Cooper, Madison, and Garcia came into the room, closing the door behind themselves. Sebastian took the seat beside her. The others sat across the table near Shepherd.
“Miss Woods has accepted our job offer,” Shepherd said.
Roth had been told by Cooper when he met with them in Garcia’s office that the offer would be extended to her by Shepherd. He was thrilled. Cooper also told him that he’d be assigned to the new team to support her work of rescuing women in dangerous domestic situations fifty percent of the time. He was excited he would get to operate with her that much. He assumed the other fifty percent would be on the PGP Team. He also learned that they would put in a full day at HQ. His plans for naked time with her would have to wait until later.
“Welcome aboard,” Cooper said.
“The Digital Team is happy to have you,” Garcia said.
She returned their smiles as they congratulated her. Well, technically, she hadn’t accepted it yet because she hadn’t read the entire offer, but she couldn’t imagine there’d be any deal breakers in it.
“Coop, she has the offer letter to read and sign. Once she does, you’ll work with her on the remainder of the paperwork and online onboarding. Woods, Miller will be your supervisory and training officer. The probationary period is six months. She’s your main contact, but both Cooper and my doors are always open to you.”
Briana nodded. She smiled at Madison. Madison didn’t look surprised by Shepherd’s appointing her as the STO, so she had to have known Shepherd would be offering her the job.
“Garcia leads the Digital Team as well as being third in line with Jackson at the agency. You’ll have a dotted line in the reporting structure to him,” Shepherd said.
Briana made eye contact with Garcia and nodded. Great, the scary as fuck dude would be one of her bosses.
