Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 142: Secret Operation

Chapter 142: Secret Operation

Mr. Ed got in through the back door and entered the kitchen. He couldn’t see who got hurt since everyone was on the other side of the counter, but the smell of fresh blood was overwhelming. His heart stopped as he heard Sally speak.

"Did she bleed out? Is there a pulse? Hey... Wake up! Oh.. The ambulance is here... " Sally got up to open the front door as she could hear the wailing siren from the ambulance outside their home.

"Your Highness!" Mr. Ed ran towards the end of the counter and supporting himself with his hands, peeked from above the counter.

"Sir Robert, you’re here!"

Talia who was crouching beside Stacy now in a pool of blood stood up and her face twisted seeing the blood on her pants. Seeing Talia perfectly safe other than the blood of Stacy on her, Mr. Ed was relieved. He needs to investigate what happened to the guards he stationed along with Amy to guard the home.

How did this Stacy get inside the home? They had a bounty on her head. Someone protected her and brought her to this town? Who might that be?

"Do we want her alive?" Gulping the inconvenience she felt by her pants wet with blood around her knee and legs, Talia asked Mr.Ed who himself looked relieved.

"No need, we know who she is," Mr. Ed said looking at Stacy lying on the floor in a pool of her blood, seemingly not breathing.

"Well! That’s settled then. Sir Robert, I’ll be expecting a rundown of the events this evening after I clean myself up. And..." Talia darted a glance at Stacy, "She took my place today. Give her a proper burial," saying this Talia walked out of the kitchen and went up the stairs.

She met with Rebecca’s father and mother on the stairs and felt guilty for involving them in her mess. She decided to apologise to them later. For now she just wanted to change her clothes soaked with blood.

"Yes, Your Highness!" Mr. Ed acknowledged her orders. The Princess doesn’t want her alive!

Clint who silently watched Talia giving out orders subtly, was impressed. He also agreed with the fact that this woman cannot be allowed to be saved. She had the guts to threaten his family!

He gave a meaningful glance at Mr. Ed who looked closely at her wound. The bullet seemed to have hit a major blood vessel in her liver. She had already lost a lot of blood and it would be impossible to save her.

The EMT personnel came in as the cops cleared out the place.

" Ah, Officer Winchester! Man, It’s been a while since we hung out! We should do it this weekend, " Clint blocked the way of the EMTs. " Wow! This is terrible... I saw my brother-in-law on my way here with my son and she was with him. He said she was his former employee and so I brought her home. But suddenly she pulled out a gun on us..."

Although there was no need to explain, Clint chatted with the officer blocking the EMT. "I saw SWAT members all around... "

The EMT personnel had to push through and when they got to Stacy, she was already dead. She was pronounced dead and soon the EMT rushed to help the others who were injured in the fight from before.

Mr. Ed chatted with Amy who was choked to faint and she explained how someone in SWAT uniform guided the guards around the house saying he saw a group of mercenaries at the South and only she adamantly stayed. But soon there was this other guy who walked up to the door and when he saw her,he aborted his effort to open the door and walked towards her and put her on a choke hold that made her faint.

Mr. Ed could only report all of this to his superior who was in contact with the Lockhart family from Esteria. They had found out that a local drug smuggling group who had roots nationally and also international contacts, have been commissioned to kill the Princess by a well known underground organisation. Along with drug smuggling and occasional sex-trafficking, they also took mercenary gigs.

The Federal Investigators of A-Country and the interpol were following that underground organisation who terrorised the waters around A-country and had a wide networking in the land, referred as the ’Ruby Panthers’ for years and now that they had a chance, they wanted to act using the Princess as a bait.

King Louis knew the Dowager Queen won’t permit this operation and so he had to give the permission for ’Operation Panther Hunt’ on the condition that nothing should go wrong and not even a hair on the Princess’ head should be damaged.

Mr. Ed was surprised that King Louis decided to put the Princess in danger even a bit. But he could understand his point of view. Unless they remove the roots of the organisation coming against the Princess, they will not stop putting hits on the Princess.

President Carter who was mocked by the Queen Dowager for letting her great granddaughter get hurt by the mercenaries running amok in his country in a phone call, authorised the hunt too. And Lockhart family who had a lot of details collected about the organisation was joined in this operation too.

It was an elaborate operation and the first step was to bring the Princess to a secluded and well-protected town where they could have a home field advantage luring out the bounty hunters.

The next step was to show the Princess very vulnerable and open for attack on the town to make sure the enemies gain confidence to step foot inside a town known to have weapons beneath every grass blade.

They had been bringing in marines disguised as locals retuning for the winter festival and made them stay in the town folk’s houses so not to garner any suspicion.

This entire townsfolk who are patriotic and wanted the drug dealers who ruin the lives of their youngsters off their lands, gave their full support to the operation too.

Along with the Princess as a bait, the combined intelligence of three countries, lured the drug dealers with a lucrative deal that didn’t let the leader of Ruby Panthers stay hidden as he always did.

To not alert him, they made sure the deal went as he expected and as he celebrated his rule in this country, he got joyous and wanted to take out the Princess too. Of course he was made to believe he was on a lucky streak by a couple of undercover operatives of A Country who had infiltrated the Ruby Panthers for years and now in a closer, advisory relationship with the leader - Jared Cooper.

In the evening, Jared Cooper sent his men to surround the house the Princess was staying to kill her.

Marines dressed in SWAT uniforms laid in wait for the mercenaries to appear and once they did, they took them all down and at the same time Jared Cooper was taken under custody.

Everything went according to the plan except for the small hiccup they faced as they didn’t notice the sniper lurking afar. Well, that sniper and this mystery man who stole the uniform of the SWAT team and successfully lured the trained marines away from their duty.

Also he could have brought Stacy to finish the job? But why was she with Joe? Was she planning to kidnap Joe and ask the Princess to meet her in exchange for Joe?

Who might that be? Could he be one of those... Oh, no! Of that’s the case, even the intelligence agencies of ten countries cannot protect our Princess.

God save the Princess!

Mr. Ed prayed in his heart. He really didn’t want someone from that secret cabal to have an eye on their Princess. Even their Dowager is afraid of that cabal.

And what explanation should I give the Princess? Surely I was forbidden to speak the truth to the a princess by His Majesty. Sigh!

Mr. Ed checked the footage from the cameras they installed around the house and was surprised that person clearly avoided showing his face in any of the cameras.

"The woman - Stacy or whatever... When I saw her at the side of the road with Joe, she was about to hit the back of his head and once I engaged with Joe, turned into a bunny. I didn’t know what she was planning and brought her home to keep her from escaping or doing something worse to our family... When I offered to bring her to my wife’s home, she was more than pleased and hopped in my car. Did she try to use Joe to get Talia? Did I stop her plans?" Clint asked Mr. Ed.

" With all due respect Mr. Singer, you are a moron to bring home a woman with an evil intent to your home. Did you realise that sitting in the car, she could have attacked or even hurt your son?,"Mr. Ed asked in an accusatory tone.

It seems like this Stacy was planning to use Joe, whom she met accidentally to get to Talia and in the end got a ride from this guy who doesn’t value the safety of his son?

Clint didn’t say anything. Mr. Ed is right. He risked his son’s life in the car on the way here. But if the situation repeats, he’d still do what he did today once again.

Keep your enemies closer! Plus he had two weapons on him and he was actively engaging with her to keep an eye on her. He knew what he was doing and it worked. So that is all that matters.

---

Talia walked up the stairs and knocked at Rebecca’s room. There were some rumbling noise coming from inside and Talia wondered if those two are doing the horizontal tango, now that they meet each other after a long time.

"Get the f*ck off, Joe!"

Talia heard Rebecca’s shout clearly and sighed. Guess they are still fighting.

The door opened and Rebecca hugged Talia. "Oh Tallie... I’m glad you’re fine... Wait... That blood... You’re not hurt, are you?" Rebecca felt Talia’s leg and Talia stopped her from bending too low.

"I’m fine. It’s not my blood."

This woman forgets she is pregnant all the time!

"What were you doing with Stacy?" Talia turned her glance towards Joe. Talia had already told that Stacy was the one who informed about her visit to the Levitt Centre on the day of the riots and she is a wanted criminal now and not to keep contact with her even if she approached. Surely she would have passed the message to her husband.

Joe still looked a bit disturbed. It seemed like he didn’t like the sight of blood.

What a pampered brat! Who gets scared of a little blood? Talia knitted her brows.

"Stacy? She was the one who got shot?" Rebecca asked with her hand over her mouth as she was surprised.

Seeing Talia nodding, Rebecca’s expression gradually turned to that of anger.

"You bastard!" he pushed Joe suddenly and Joe ended up hitting the dresser, and ended up hurting his shoulder. "I told you Stacy was involved with that riot and -"

"Whoa Becky? When did you tell me? How was she involved? I thought she left the job because she wanted a different career path-" he paused seeing Rebecca gritting her teeth.

Rebecca remembered clearly she told Joe about Stacy during lunch at the office, the same day Talia spoke about her. But he was staring at his phone as if he was expecting a call and then he ended up sending texts to someone and left the table quickly finishing the lunch and without even clearing the plates as he used to do, went to the balcony and made a call and even left the office soon.

Rebecca learnt later that it was Rachel who was texting and calling Joe and her heart broke. And now she learns that he doesn’t even listen to her when she talks as his mind was filled with Rachel?

Huh!

"Joe, get out! Why are you even here? Please get out. My house has no place for you."

Rebecca said softly and even Talia was surprised by the tone Rebecca used. At that time Sally entered the room and she stood by Rebecca’s side and Rebecca started crying hugging Sally.

Sally nodded at Talia and Talia got herself a change of clothes and clean towel and got to the bathroom. She didn’t know what happened and she wondered what she said might have caused another misunderstanding between Joe and Rebecca.

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