DEVILISH SMILE

Len's POV:

After leaving the club and sitting in my truck for a while; Ivy was heavily on my mind. I was replaying all that had happened between her and I, in that private room.

All I know is...is that I want her, but, how? She doesn't remember me. I not only want her, I know she is my wife, even though she doesn't know this yet.

It's my eyes they weren't like this back then. But would she remember me even if they weren't like this?

But that could be a good thing for now...hopefully.

Right, this could give me an advantage because, she would have no preconceived notions or thoughts about me. I could try to win her over without having to fight too much of my past.

I need to find her before she leaves Miami. She may have some information that I currently need about Antonio and his brother.

If I don't do this right, I could lose her and everything that I've worked for. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Its sucks because I'm going to have to use her in order to get the information that I need.

I already took the liberty in looking up her information. The beauty about this is that, all of the information that I needed is public knowledge and so it wasn't hard to look her up. Given what she -told me, I knew that she still had to live in Compton or close by.

This way, when I see her around Compton, she won't think that I am trying to stalk her or something like that. A half devilish smile came over my face, as I was agreeing with my own thoughts.

Remembering that I have a pressing engagement at hand, I started my truck and headed over to the new warehouse that we were using.

Over the last year, we gained a lot more territory because of the spike in business. I had to upgrade our warehouse to accommodate the growth. It's less conspicuous than a trap house and away from prying eyes. The best thing of all, it's on private property.

I graduated from high school at the top of my class and went into the Army Reserves; before the beginning of the fall session.

That summer I completed Basic Training and AIT. My initial contract was for 3 years but due to special circumstances I was extended another 4 years.

I went into the Army Reserves so that the military would pay for my college. While in college, I was in ROTC until I got my degree. After I graduated, I went active duty; as an Officer.

Because I was a quadruple major, Business, Psychology, Political Science and Bio-Chemical Engineering; with a Masters in Economics, I was able to fly through the ranks. I decided to go Special Forces and became Black Ops.

The Black Ops Unit, which I was chosen for was far more secretive. To the point where it wasn't called Black Ops, but it was called Midnight Ops. We operated outside and beyond the usual Black Ops Units. We were a mixture of all branches of the military including the Coast Guard. We were totally off the grid, no fingerprints, no body hair, IQ's off the charts and we are all handsome as hell; if I may say so myself. This is where I underwent the operation on my eyes.

What the military did was give us night vision and distance capabilities. Those of us who went through this transformation could see within a 2-5 mile radius, day or night. To protect our eyes, we all wore specialized polarized sunglasses during the day and sometimes at night depending on location.

We all had a several sets of contacts when we needed to blend in with our environment and not draw attention to ourselves. For example, the lights on the Vegas Strip, might require some of us to wear our sunglasses or contacts at night; of course, it was at our discretion.

Each of us had non-military jobs during the day. Some of us were small business owners, Private Pilots, CEO's of large and small corporations, Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, Day Trader Analyst, IT Specialist, Gamers, Chess Champion, Reporter, Cross Country Skier, Doctors, Lawyers, Shipping Tycoons and Playboys. All of us were in or made way for others to be strategically planted to obtain recon without raising suspicion.

We could obtain information that not even our own government could get. Eventually, they would obtain the information, but we supplied it most of the time. All of that we did, legal or illegal, if caught would always be denied by the government. It was plausible deniability, because only a handful knew that we even existed.

This off the grid, Midnight Ops unit is where I met "Top Manny". Colonel Lee Min Emmanuel, U.S Marine Corps and he commanded this 30-man Black Ops unit.

Top Manny was the type of Colonel who was in the trenches with his men and the men respected him for it. Our unit consisted of all Officers and the least ranking member was a Major. Me? I was a Lieutenant Colonel - Army.

Top Manny was the type of Officer who observed all military traditions to a fault. You did not dare embarrass him or draw attention to yourself. If you wanted to live, you didn't dare step a toe out of line, especially since we were all Officers.

We trained every day, beginning at 8 p.m. until Midnight and every weekend from 6 pm until midnight. We flew to different destination within minutes on a Private Jet that was 10 times faster than the Concorde.

Those of us who had families, had no idea what we were doing every night and weekend, they just assumed that we were working overtime or hanging out with our boys. Therefore, the hours of training were within respectable family hours; as not to raise suspicion.

We always respected family time, so if someone had to attend a school function for their kid, we all took the night off. Babies being born, if possible, we took the night off or operated without that member.

Since there were 30 of us, covering was no problem, because we all overlapped each other's specialty; and we all were linguist and fluent in 6 different languages; 2 of which had to be remote languages. There were no weak links in our chain.

Due to the nature of our jobs, I had seen a lot of shit when I was over there in the Middle East on a mission. That shit haunts you forever. I killed over two hundred people; and never lost a soldier.

The unfortunate thing is, because of the job you did not stay in the position long because it was easy to suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). You could transition into other departments or agencies, but because of the knowledge that you have, it is difficult.

Because of my efficiency and unmatched skills in hand-to-hand combat, explosives knowledge, highly ranked sniper and language skills; I decided to leave active duty after 15 years and went back to the Reserves in a non-active status; on paper that is. This was so that I could obtain my full retirement in another 5 years.

I became a Mercenary. Merc, as we are casually known. After all these years of military service, I decided to opt-in for early retirement. With all the money that I've made throughout my military career; I invested it into several multi-million dollar companies via the stock market and a few CD's.