Without a word, we all turned and headed down the stairs. Will was waiting outside, and I could see a look cross his eyes before he hugged or shook hands with everyone apart from Remy and Jaxson. They were going with him.
I hugged everyone as well before turning to climb in my own vehicle. I had never gone on a mission without most of my guys, and I knew I might be overreacting, but something within me was telling me otherwise.
Drake handed me his iPod before I entered my vehicle. Jaxson pulled me in close. “I love you,” he stated simply, in my ear, before squeezing me tight. “Please be safe.”
I was dumbstruck for a moment. Some of the guys had hinted at having stronger feelings for me, but no one had outright said they loved me until that moment. He never even gave me a chance to respond before I was ushered into the truck.
I slid into my seat on the helicopter and saw Troy turn from the pilot’s seat. I tried to give him a reassuring smile and thumbs up, but I know it looked forced. He was worried about me, but I didn’t know what to say or do to ease his concern. I couldn’t dispel this feeling.
The feeling in the helicopter was off. There wasn’t the easy camaraderie I had for Terrance’s team or our team. Troy was pensive, his jovial flirting self was nowhere to be found. Rachel was trying to pull me from my thoughts, but all her attempts were falling short. Steven seemed to have noticed my withdrawal, because he had taken Micah under his wing and offered him the jump seat beside him and Troy. Michael wouldn’t shut up when he wasn’t playing on his phone. He went on for about fifteen minutes about this new dating app he found, until Rachel told him to be quiet, but in a less friendly way.
The quads seemed to be regarding me with a mixture of wariness and awe. I didn’t remember their names. I was ashamed of myself. I remember how it felt to be invisible. I tried to make it a point to include everyone I encountered.. Unfortunately, I had been too beyond stressed to be completely present to anything.
It had been confirmed that Rose hadn’t been working alone with nearly killing me. The empath was cleared of any involvement, but Ms. Bullock and Rose had been involved. Neither one of them would give us any other names. Rose helped her out of spite for me, but Ms. Bullock wouldn’t tell us who she was working for or why. We didn’t want to rule out Horatio. All this time he seemed to want to capture me, and not kill me; so his change of modus operandi was confusing.
I had a lot of projects, exams, and work to complete in school. I had received my first “C” this past week, and that had made me upset at my loss of focus on school. I was an overachiever, what could I say?
We helped Chip and his mother find an apartment near the school. Will had even given Amy a secretarial position in their offices. Unfortunately, Chip still needed a firm male hand, so one of the guys had been over there daily. Amy and Chip needed our help, but part of me wished that Amy would have accepted Will’s offer to stay with us for a little while longer.
I understood her need for independence. However, she was also inadvertently taking time away from us. I had needed them more so than ever this past week. I wanted to be reassured by their presence, and I knew I wasn’t alone in these feelings. The guys had been with me as much as possible as well.
I pulled out Drake’s iPod, hoping it would lighten my mood and when I powered it on, I smiled. His sweetness knew no bounds. He had created me a new playlist.
We were being sent to a location in Detroit, Michigan. Apparently, Horatio had purchased an old abandoned building in the seedier part of the city. We were running this mission differently. We were told there was a total of ten females, but only three guards.
Our intel was that Horatio was giving them the basic care, and he had gotten slightly arrogant and complacent. He assumed that since we had Dr. Neil and we hadn’t taken his previous bate, we had given up on the women.
The extraction was supposed to be a fairly simple one. Quad 1 was going to continue to drive around, while Quad 2, our healer, would drive the other van. Micah would walk with us to the facility, transport into the camera room with Steven, and remove all the threats. Once we were given the all clear, Micah was to return to the van. Troy, Michael, Rachel, Quad 3 and 4, and I were directed to diffuse further threats and secure the women. When the women were safe from all threats, we would call Quad 1 and 2 to pick us all up.
We walked up to the building, and I couldn’t believe the condition the it was in. We tried to pace ourselves, waiting for Steven and Micah to tell us we had the all clear.
“All clear,” Steven stated as we came closer to the building. “One guard down.”
“I’ll be right back,” Michael stated as he walked into the door. Seconds later we heard the click of the lock before Michael opened it with a smile.
He beckoned us in with a wave. We followed him down the dark narrow hallway. Dim, lights emitting a soft yellow glow were mounted on the moldy, water-stained walls. The smell of rat urine assaulted our noses. If I looked closely, I swore I could see a few rats the size of cats, scamper across; their little beady eyes glaring at us.
I shuddered, and Troy squeezed my hand reassuringly. I tried to smile at him, but the smell was overwhelming. I pulled a bandanna out of my back pocket and tied it across my face.
“I smell females up there,” Quad 3 stated. His gift was that of a tracker. He was the blood hound of the gifted race. He could sniff out any gifted person.
We quietly advanced forward. Quad 3 pointed towards a door at the end of the hallways. Michael popped in and nodded. “I don’t see any guards in here,” he whispered urgently. “I’ll go look for them,” he volunteered.
“I’ll go with you,” Quad 3 said as he turned down the hall to the right.
“Better them than me,” Quad 4 muttered. He was highly uncomfortable with the rats and creeped out.
I had to stifle my inappropriate giggle. I hated rats, but it was funny seeing the muscle-bound man almost squeamish.
We opened the door and I cringed when it squealed loudly in the silence. I saw 10 females laid up in beds. It reminded me of the films I watched of children in the orphanages, how they slept in rows on cots. They looked like they were sleeping. Some of them were obviously pregnant as well.
“Let’s get out of here,” I muttered. My uneasiness had only increased, even though everything seemed to be going off without a hitch.
Quad 4 ambled over to the first girl and ran his hands above them, hovering over them. “I don’t feel anything,” he said in confusion. He had the ability to detect foreign objects or disease in any living mammal.
Troy and I exchanged glances.
“Maybe he’s found a way to just inject them into submission, without installing those balls,” Rachel said hesitantly.
“Can you finish checking them and we’ll start carrying them out?” Troy looked over at Quad 4.