Cody jumped, startled when his phone chirped in his pockets.

He swabbed at his sweaty brows with the sleeve of his discarded shirt and raised guilty eyes at his boss, praying he didn't hear him. He wondered who was calling him but couldn't risk bringing the phone from his pocket. If he did, the sound would become louder.

His boss paid him no heed because he was preoccupied, his gaze intent as he watched two men operate on CCTV cameras that had been placed in front of Bull's house. The CCTV had been discovered and had been shot down. Luckily their spy who had placed the cameras there hadn't been compromised.

Yet.

The boss wanted to know if he could get audio and if he could secure the other cameras. Going in blind was not an option.

Sighing in relief when his phone stopped ringing, Cody continued to concentrate on filling their .50 browning M2 machine gun with bullets, being painstakingly careful. He placed the open single-loop end of the ammunition belt over the cartridge filler piece and filled the spindle, approximately to the height of the upper half of the chest, so that the belt stop engages and holds the belt.

He looked around at the secret warehouse where they had arrived that morning and watched the men busy with a task or two, some cleaning out their Kevlar-made bulletproof vest and combat helmet, their body armor, and other weapons, while the others focused on practicing. He looked ahead at the small boxing ring where about ten of their men were practicing some fighting moves.

Truth be told, he didn't know how he felt about the invasion. All he knew was that he wanted to be loyal to his boss and he wanted to see him win at all costs, even if it meant his death. What was he living for anyway? No wife or children. No family. The only one he had, Bob, was going in with them. He sighed. His life was meaningless so it was best he used it for something good.

He looked around. Where was Bob anyway? He'd gone out for a toilet break and that had been over an hour ago. What was taking him so long?

His phone chirped again and this time his boss heard and directed a dangerous scowl at him.

"What did I say about phones?" He asked in anger.

"I-I'm sorry," He carefully placed the 50 Cal down and removed the phone from his pockets, and was about to switch it off when he saw the caller ID. He froze but his ice statue was shattered when sir Devlin stood from where was hunched and came over to Cody. Cody shifted back in fear.

"Hand it over."

"S-sir, it's a family emergency."

"What rules did I give before we got here? Seems you have forgotten, Cody." His scowl was dark and his voice was low.

"No sir it's very urgent. It has to do with my fam -"

"Don't you think I also have a family to get back to?"

Cody was taken aback at that. "Sir?"

Sir Devlin sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. He was bare-chested and smeared with grease due to his work on their automobile bulletproof truck which was very crucial to their plans. It had begun acting up after they arrived here this morning and he had thrown a tantrum, going on about how everything must go according to plan.

"Do you think I like the fact that I was married for less than forty-eight hours before I had to hurl myself down here? Do you think I like being away from my wife?"

Cody shook his head. "No sir."

Sir Devlin gave him a pained look. "Go get the call. I give you five minutes. And remember to stay hidden." he turned on his heels and went back to what he was doing.

Cody nodded and depressed the answer button on the still ringing phone. "Susan?"

"It's Bob. And I'm with Susan. Come out, now."

Without hesitation and without waiting for the beep of an ended call to even go off, Bob hurried out the iron door and out to the foyer. Two men were standing guard. He nodded at him and showed them his gun. They had all been warned to be prepared at all times and to always carry their guns. He spotted a truck parked in the bushes and he walked toward it. As expected, Bob and Susan were seated in the car. He got in at the back.

He shut the door. "Susan. It's been a while."

She gave him a baleful look. "Yeah, it's been forever."

Her sarcasm didn't faze him. She was probably mad that he hadn't called or asked of her. Turned out he was right because she voiced the same thing.

"I've been busy." Was his reply.

"Of course. Everyone seems to be nowadays." She was looking straight through the windshield.

He sighed impatiently. "Can you please go straight to the point? I'm busy inside."

"Yes, busy digging your graves."

Angry, Cody held the inner handle of the car and depressed it, in a move to exit the car. He had had enough of the hogwash.

"Cody." Bob turned in his seat and gave his brother a pleading look. "Please. We have something important to discuss."

"Well time is of the essence," He snapped, pleased that he was sounding just like his boss. "And if I recall correctly, Sir Devlin gave you a task to clean the guns."

"Don't speak to him like that." She flipped her black hair from her forehead.

"Stay out of this Susan."

"And why should I? You're being an asshole!"

"Shut up," he said through gritted teeth.

"Make me!" She shouted, her eyes meeting his through the rearview mirror.

"Susan is pregnant!" Bob interrupted before Cody could work up a reply for Susan, his eyes down on his fingers that were nervously entwined. He looked as nervous as a baby in a tittie bar. "The baby's mine."

As if doused with freezing water on a winder day, Cody turned cold still in shock. He looked up at the mirror and caught her eyes and she met and held his gaze without flinching. At that moment, he saw her for the first time, saw that she looked like she had put on weight and that she seemed rounder and rosier. He shut his eyes briefly to take in the gravity of it all. He had a lot of questions that he wanted to voice, a lot of how's and when's and - and especially why's but his vocal cords didn't permit him so he let his eyes do the talking.

"I'm seven weeks along," she said rubbing her middle. His eyes flickered towards it and though her stomach wasn't showing through her linen top, the fact that he had the knowledge that an embryo was growing inside her was a lot to take in.

Seven weeks along. That would have been around May. He looked sideways through the heavily tinted windows, trying not to scoff. May was the same month the tart had broken up with him.

"I am telling you this," She said turning from the driver's side to regard him coolly. "because I don't want Bob to go through with this - " She made a circular motion with her hands to describe the invasion. "Madness that the boss has planned. Trust me, it cannot end well, and I don't want my son to grow up without a father."

"It's a boy," Cody said, his throat tight. He looked straight into her eyes and wondered how she didn't flinch from his penetrating gaze. Except she was lying about something. He sighed. He was too old to play this game, and so was she. But he had to admit that for a woman months shy of turning forty, she was very attractive and very, very coy.

"Yes. I'm sure of it." She said. "And this being my first issue, my gynecologist said it might be a difficult birth and so I need all the help I can get especially with my baby's daddy," She took Bob's hand and squeezed it. "He also said I must be on bed rest by my third trimester and suggested water birth." She grinned. She seemed excited.

Bob also grinned and drew her closer for a kiss. The kiss sounded with a smack that irritated the dickens out of Cody.

"Oh my love, this has been the happiest news in my life." Bob looked like he would start weeping. "Thank you for this gift."

Cody cleared his throat and pushed open the door, having had the display of affection up to his neck. "Congratulations," he said, shutting the car door with more force than he intended. He stood by the car window where Bob sat at the passenger side, his hand still entwined in Susan's.

He needed to stop being petty and be the grown-up that he was. It wasn't a crime that his brother had fallen in love with the woman he had dumped, which had been stupid of him, now that he thought about it. He had been following his boss's footsteps, using women just for the release, and because of safety measures and not wanting to use broads outside his drug world, he'd turned to Susan one hectic night after their delivery truck had been intercepted and ten thousand grams of 100% pure stash had been seized by the DEA. There had been an exchange of fire between the agents and him and the other boys who had followed the truck in a separate car but they had managed to escape, though he'd been slightly grazed in the wrist with a bullet.

Sir Devlin had flown off the handle when they'd come back to tell him that he'd lost one million worth of cocaine and that had made the day worse. It was Susan who had made him tea and had stayed with him after the doctor had left. She had just been doing her job, she had said to him that day but there had been an exchange of sexual desire that night and many other nights when they were both free.

The sex had been good, purely for the release with no strings attached, or so he'd thought, so when Susan had started to make demands that she was almost forty but luckily she hadn't attained menopause yet and she wanted a baby, Cody had taken the coward's way out and had dumped her.

He had no idea she would still go ahead with her plans. And much less with his brother.

Sure, he'd seen them both together immediately after their break up, late at night, laughing at an inside joke or two. Sure, he'd seen the affectionate display, but he never thought that Bob would fall for her. He never thought Bob would be stupid to have unprotected sex at his age and he certainly never thought that they would be having a child.

He had his reasons for not wanting to sire a child, which was nothing other than the fact that children were weaknesses, and considering the drug world he was in, drug rivals could exploit his weakness. Imagine being faced with a choice of surrendering 300,000 grams of cocaine or letting his child go, he would choose his child, but that would be very bad for business. His rivals could present a worse ultimatum and he didn't want to be stuck between the hammer and the anvil, not when he could prevent it. Clearly, Bob was none the wiser on this.

"About changing your mind to help the boss, that's your decision to make, but I hope you make the right one, little brother." Having said that, he turned on his heels and started walking back to the warehouse.

He pushed open the corrugated metal gate and stepped in. When he was back into the scene of men working out and training and fixing weapons for their upcoming battle, he started to feel something he had never felt before; he started to feel that perhaps the invasion was cursed and would lead to their deaths.

He started to feel that perhaps he had someone to live for after all.

~

Author's Note:

Thank you all so much for reading it means the world to me. Please vote, comment on what you think about the chapter, add to your reading lists, and share. Thank you :)