by SM Olivier
Remy stood up and glared at Senator Bowen. “The charges against me were because I did do anything to protect someone I loved, and Will didn’t wave money to make it go away. He made sure I got the justice I deserved.”
I placed a reassuring hand on his arm, then spoke. “I don’t like the fact that you obviously did some snooping on us, but I know what its like to want to protect the ones you love, so if Will and Paul are okay with Victoria being here, then I have no issues.” I took Remy’s hand and led him away.
“It’s not Thanksgiving without football.” Jaxson was bouncing up and down on his heels. “Are you coming? We cleared out training room and it’s ready.”
“I’ll come to watch.” I laughed at his excitement.
I was still outrageously full and glad we had a clean up crew that came through to clean the kitchen and dining room. I was all about trying to experience the whole Thanksgiving experience minus the cleaning. After being on my feet for hours, then gorging myself on my first real Thanksgiving meal, I was more than ready to relax.
“Come on,” Jaxson grabbed my hand and started to lead me up from the table.
“Can I come?” Kade asked hesitantly as he stood up with his tray.
“Of course,” Jaxson said immediately. “Do you play?”
Kade nodded, and for the first time since I met him, he seemed to be genuinely interested in something. “I’m a tight end. I’ve been playing since I was seven.”
“Sweet, then come on. I’ll pick you for my team.” Jaxson paused.
“You would want to play football when we’re all disgustingly full,” Remy grumbled before standing up.
“Let’s all go,” Jace said. “I’ll go get changed first.”
“Me, too,” Remy stated.
“Do we have to go?” Ella asked plaintively.
Yes was said in unison around the table.
“Can I go get Victoria?” Patrick asked Beth. His ears were slightly red around the ears, and I wondered if he was harboring a little crush on the girl. She was a cute girl under all that black clothing and black make up.
“Go ahead. I think us oldies are going to sit and enjoy our coffee, if its okay with you young folk.” Beth indicated Will, Megan, and herself. Cora still refused to leave the room.
“That’s fine with us,” I chimed in. “Come on, little ducks,” I joked.
“We’re not ducks,” Ella said in exasperation. “Can Nadia and I at least get our book and drawing pad?”
“Come on, girls,” Jace said. “Remy and I have to go back to the room, you can grab your stuff.”
“Can I bring my video game?” Alex asked hopefully.
“No,” Jaxson said before lifting the boy and putting him on his shoulders. “No electronics allowed. You can be our mascot.”
Alex tried to act disgruntled, but you could tell he was enjoying the ride. “I’m just suppose to sit there and watch you guys play football?” He sighed loudly with an eye roll.
“Come on, Al, you’ll like it,” Kade reassured his younger brother.
“If you say so,” Alex said not convinced yet.
We all made our way to the training area, and sure enough, there were several people already waiting there. They must have spread the word because even the bleachers were fully extended, and people were already waiting to watch. The training area was large and easily the size of two football fields, even with the bleachers extended.
“You guys are crazy.” I sighed as I rubbed my belly. “How can you play football on a full stomach?”
“Easy.” Jaxson smiled at me with a wink. “Football and Thanksgiving goes hand and hand, and I haven’t played in forever.”
“Well I did like watching you play before.” I smiled suggestively at him.
“Want us to play shirts and skins? I can be on the skins team.” Jaxson leaned into me. His mouth mere inches from mine.
“Don’t make me hurl,” Troy joked as he pulled me into his side.
“Don’t be jealous,” Jaxson quipped back.
“Don’t think I don’t notice you training shirtless lately,” I teased Troy. “Trying to impress the ladies here?”
Troy stopped me and pulled me around with force. He jerked me to his body, and I was surprised by his sudden onslaught of his lips. He didn’t ask for entrance into my mouth. He took it. His movements sure and demanding. I felt myself weaken against him and felt my desire rise. I wound my arms around the back of his head and moved my body closer.
He pulled away just as suddenly as he started. He lowered his mouth to my ear. His breathing was just as ragged as my own. “After this morning, I didn’t think you would ever have to doubt you’re the only girl for me.”
I reached up and cupped his cheeks. “I know. I just noticed how the woman ogle you. Especially when you’re half naked.” I ran my hand down his chest. “I’m lucky to call you mine.”
He gave me a crooked smile and another swift kiss.
“Come on, you two,” Noah groaned aloud.
I looked up and was somewhat satisfied to see Adams glaring at me as we headed towards the training gym. She had been very close to being kicked out of the program due to her behavior during the camping exercise. I was pretty certain she knew people because they didn’t hesitate to kick out the other team lead.
He had shown his true colors, and we couldn’t trust people with his integrity. Especially in the field.
Sitting in the stands with Noah at my feet, and Drake and Troy on either side of me, I almost forgot that we were living in a facility housed in the middle of a mountain. This had to be the best Thanksgiving I ever had. Normally, the holidays left me feeling dread and joyless. I tried to make the best of all holidays for Ella, but Heidi had made it difficult.
I never got to watch the Macy’s Day Parade, eat traditional Thanksgiving meals, and my dad wasn’t into football like he was into baseball. Watching Jace, Remy, and Jaxson play football was captivating. I knew in that moment I was attracted to athletically inclined men. I liked watching their athleticism and watching them sweat.
Because some of the high school boys were playing with the men, they had decided to play two-hand touch, but it still was an intense game. Most of the teens and men were playing like they had money on the line.
I was happy to see Kade finally relaxed. He came alive on the field and was naturally talented. He even became one of Jaxson’s go to ‘men.’
“Do you think I can learn how to play?” Alex asked from beside Troy.
“Sure, buddy,” Troy said. “I’m sure we can get you a smaller ball to start practicing on, but I suggest you ask Jaxson, Remy, or Jace to teach you,” Troy joked.
“Maybe I want to do Kung Fu,” Alex said as he leaned into Troy’s arm.
“Then I’m the man for that,” Troy laughed. “If you want to swim, Drake is the man. If you want to dance, Noah, is well, he’s the person.”
“Dancing is for girls,” Alex scrunched up his nose.
Drake and Troy burst out with laughter, and I couldn’t hide my grin. Noah turned with a mock look of outrage. “Hey, I’ll have you know men dance, too! Learn to dance my man and you’ll never be without a date.”
Alex screwed up his face some more. “Eww, no. I think Micah and Patrick like-like Victoria, but girls are…annoying.”
“Not all of them are,” Noah said smoothly as he gave me a wink. “Blake isn’t. One day you’ll meet a girl, and you’re going to want to learn how to dance to impress her.”
“No way!” Alex insisted. “So, when can you guys teach me?”
Troy chuckled. “I can start teaching you tomorrow, and we’ll ask the other guys about football.”
“Okay,” Alex said excitedly.
I smiled at Troy before kissing his cheek. “Thanks,” I murmured.
“For what?” he asked with a smile before looking over at me.
“For being you,” I stated. It warmed my heart to see how good they were with my siblings. It took a special man to ‘father’
a child that wasn’t their own.
He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “Anytime, sweetheart.”
“Go, Kade!” Noah sat up on his seat and yelled loudly.
Kade was weaving in and out of the men towards the end zone. I started yelling with the rest of the group. Ella and Nadia even paused from their coloring and drawing to start yelling for him. When he ran it into the end zone we all went crazy.
Kade pushed one lock of dark hair out of his face and gave us a warm smile. I thought for a split second I saw a look of sadness cross his face, but it was quickly replaced by a look of triumph.
Chapter 19
A loud knocking on the bedroom door woke me from the deep slumber I was in. I sat up and blinked, disoriented as Remy turned on the light and Jace sat up beside me. We saw Will and Paul looking grave on the other side of the door.
“What’s up?” Remy asked Will, his voice still heavy with sleep.
“We have to activate you guys along with a few of the others tonight. We have gathered intel from a reliable source saying that in three hours at shift change, Horatio is sending in a team of gifted to a lab at a government facility. We don’t know what he’s after but it’s nothing good if he’s going there,” Will explained.
“We need you to gather the team and choose ten other Nons to go with you. The pilots are already doing their flight checks,” Paul added. “Wheels go up in one hour. The mission brief will be in fifteen minutes.”
“We’re going to gather the rest of the operatives. See you in fifteen,” Will stated as he closed the bedroom door behind them.
Any tiredness I may have felt, quickly faded as I sat up and stood. I went to the hall closet, grabbed all of my gear, and quickly slid it on.
“Who do we want to go with us?” I asked Jace as he came out into the hall and kissed the back of my neck.
“Ford, Yaris, and Spencer are on the top of my list,” Remy proclaimed as he came out of the room pulling on his black thermal top.
Troy and Drake were the next ones to come out of their room. “Do we have time for coffee?” Troy yawned as he looked at his watch. “Holy crap, we just fell asleep three hours ago.”
“Whatever, you didn’t play football for hours,” Jaxson grumbled as he stumbled out to the room rubbing his chin. “I don’t even have time to shave.”
“Relax, Princess, none of us do,” Troy stated as he rubbed his own stubble. I rarely got to see him with facial hair, and I have to admit, the stubble looked good on him. “Coffee is a necessity and no one forced you to play for hours. Training camp’s going to be harder and longer, so suck it up, buttercup.”
Jaxson attempted to punch him but stumbled in his fatigue. Troy and Remy chuckled.
“Let’s go,” Drake urged. “Knowing Pops and Paul, they’ll have something for us to eat and drink in the tactical room.”
“How are we expected to function with so little sleep?” Noah grumbled as he drudged over to the door and opened it.
“Why did Horatio have to strike the day after Thanksgiving?” Jaxson added in a disgruntled voice as he followed Noah out the door.
I found myself watching my feet as I followed after them. I wanted to do my own complaining but didn’t even have the energy to do that. We followed the dim corridors until we made our way to the tactical room.
I paused as we entered the room and was surprised to see Adams in the room already.
“She’s not going,” Remy stated as he came into the room and pointed towards her. “I would also like to add Ford, Yaris, and Spencer.”
“What?!” Adams cried in outrage. “I’m already up. I’m ready. There’s no use getting them up.”
“I don’t care,” Remy said brutally. “For our first real mission out, we’re not taking someone we can’t trust.”
Paul looked at Adams apologetically. “As one of the team leads, Remy has a say with his team. Can you get Ford, Yaris, and Spencer?” Then he turned to Jace and Remy. “Who else?”
Jace, Remy, and Troy threw out more names with the approval of Terrance as he joined us. More of the gifted came trickling into the room as bagels, fruit, coffee, hot water, and tea was brought in.
I pulled up my shirt in front of my face and burrowed into it. I was contemplating a nap as we waited. Adrenaline laced with fear was coursing through my body, followed closely by exhaustion.
I must have dozed off, because moments later, I was gently shaken and the room was nearly full. Troy handed me cup of coffee and a bagel smothered in cream cheese as he stood behind me. It was the most people I had ever seen go on any of our missions. The lights were dim but an image of a building surrounded by trees was now projected onto the screen.
I blinked tiredly around the room, seeing the Illinois team was there. This would be interesting. We had just began training with them at the beginning of the week, but I still didn’t have a read on them. They definitely had some natural talent on their team, but they weren’t nearly as organized or experienced as we were. They had been a community whose mission hadn’t been the same as ours. They were made up of farmers, butchers, and other blue-collar workers. They hadn’t seen or done much fighting before joining us. Today, they would be tested by fire.
I could see the trepidation and uncertainty on their faces. They had only seen Horatio in action on a television screen. They never had to face an adversity that we had seen. They were here to fight for our way of life. They liked living in near anonymity. With people like Horatio bringing them into the limelight, eventually they would suffer as well. They knew it was wise to join us now or possibly suffer later.
“Thanks for your help,” Jace stated as he gave a pointed look at Adams. She was standing on one of the walls trying to blend in with the rest of the operatives for the mission. “You can go back to your quarters.”
“You may need me!” she insisted.
“When we think you’re ready, we’ll allow you to accompany them,” Will said bluntly. He waited for her to storm off before he continued. “Here is the lab in question,” Will stated. “These are the four areas most likely for Horatio to breach. We need to be waiting for him before he breaches the labs. There are too many sensitive experiments being conducted in that building, and anything Horatio may be after cannot be good.
Troy, you’re heading up team Alpha. Terrance, you’re heading up team Bravo. Remy, you’re team Charlie. Jace, you’re the team lead for Delta. Delta, I need you here,” he pointed to a spot on the map. “Bravo, you are here,” he pointed to the opposite side. “Charlie, we need you in the basement of the facility. Alpha, you’re going to be guarding the labs. Hopefully none of them make it that, far but if they do, then I you need to be ready.”
Yaris raised his hand. “Who is assigned to which teams?”
I hadn’t noticed Paul had been writing until he pulled out his notebook. He began to rattle of the names of each team. My heart sunk when I found out I was separated from Jaxson, Noah, Remy, and Jace. I was on Team Alpha with Troy and Drake. I remembered the last time we had been separated, and I really didn’t like the idea of it, but at least we were going to the same location.
I didn’t have that uneasy feeling in my gut like I did before. I wasn’t going to make any waves. My personal desires would have to be pushed to the back burner for the success of the mission. They separated us so the teams could be balanced.
“This is the drop zone,” Paul continued. “Once the helicopters drop you off, they will be taking right back off. I need you to use your comms to let HQ know when you are ready for pick up.”
The door opened, and I recognized four of the techies come into the room.
“These will be the voices in your head and the eyes in the sky,” Will explained. “They will be tapping into the surveillance and letting you know when or where they spot Horatio’s infiltrators.”
The Knights didn’t have the technology or the computer savviness that Paul’s team had. I was glad to add their knowledge and expertise to this mission.
We just had to hope that no one on Horatio’s team had the expertise that Jemmy had so that we weren’t flying blind.
“The director of the labs is aware of your arrival and will further debrief you and help you with the mission on the other side. Good luck,” Paul added as he opened the safe-like door behind him.
We were going in with body armor, tasers and guns. I was glad I had been trained on them but I doubted I needed them. We all filed into the large room and started to put on our gear.
“We’re supposed to go Black Friday shopping today,” Jemmy pouted. “Horatio’s such a Summer’s Eve bottle. Couldn’t he let us enjoy our holidays?”
“Summer’s Eve bottle?” Dawn asked in confusion.
Rachel giggled. “What does Summer’s Eves bottles do?”
“They douche− oh, oh I got you,” Dawn snorted out in laughter. “He’s totally that! We should be able to enjoy our down time!”
“That’s why he chose tonight,” Jace explained patiently. “He knows the labs are running on a ghost shift because of the holidays.”
“So, we should expect another attack or infiltration on Christmas too,” Jemmy whined.
“Don’t jinx us,” Sierra frowned as she pulled on her Kevlar.
“Wheels up in five,” Paul came into the room to remind us.
We all were quiet and deep in thought as we marched up the metal stairs. Our boots rang out in the silence of the stairwell. The sounds of the helicopters met us as we reached the top landing.
“Radio check,” Troy’s voice sounded in my ear from the earpiece.
“Lima Charlie,” a male voice responded.
“Radio check,” Terrance’s deep timber was next.
“Lima Charlie,” a female’s voice resounded.
“Radio check,” Remy said next.
“Lima Charlie,” yet another male voice replied.
“Radio check,” Jace depressed the button in his ear.