Chapter 13 #3
“They cloaked us in darkness. We couldn't see and strangely enough we couldn’t even hear anything either.” Drake ruefully stated, running a hand through his hair.
“Why are you bleeding?” Remy gathered me up in his arms, his eyes anxiously skimming over me.
“Noah, heal her!” Jaxson insisted.
“I’m okay,” I reassured them still in a state of shock. “He’s almost done healing Bentley. He was injured more.”
Pops skidded to a halt and looked at the twitching bodies of our enemies. “One of the guys we captured can cloak people like Miranda. He was able to hide the additional people. What happened here?”
“One minute we were nearly being killed, and the next Blake starts glowing blue and floating in the air. All the bolts of lightning stopped midair and turned back around to strike them,” Mercedes blew out a shaky breath.
Remy made a grunt of displeasure and Mercedes shot me a look of apology. She knew how protective my guys were. She also knew I had a time clock on my head. In her fear she hadn’t monitored her words.
Greg’s awed voice startled me as he stopped in front of me. His hand hovering above my belly hesitantly. “Your grandson.” He looked at Pops before looking at Remy, Drake, Noah, and I. “Your son. He can absorb gifts and send them back.”
“He already has a gift?” Jaxson proudly smiled, placing his hand on my belly.
Noah finished with healing Bentley before putting his hands on my wound.
I nearly sighed in relief feeling the warmth of his healing touch.
One second the stinging pain was there and the next it wasn’t.
If I didn’t see my skin stitch back together I would believe it was all a figment of my imagination.
“How is that possible?” Bentley asked in shock. “I didn’t think children could manifest until they were hitting puberty.”
“Blake revealed as a toddler. Alex and Ella manifested around seven and eight,” Pops seemed just as awed as he went to reach for my belly. He seemed to realize his blunder because he withdrew it.
I knew he wanted to touch my belly, so I directed his hand back to it.
My mind was still attempting to wrap around the idea that my son had protected us.
He must have sensed my distress. That was probably him death rolling in me earlier.
Just when I believed I couldn’t be more stunned by the gifted world it showed me it wasn’t done revealing more of its secrets.
One of the babies shifted, reaching out to their Grandpop. Pop’s eyes filled with tears. “Hey grandbaby,” He cooed. “I’m your grandfather.”
Jaxson’s eyes danced with amusement, and I knew whatever he said next would be pushing his dad’s buttons. “You can call him grandpappy.”
Pops opened his mouth to respond when I heard our ear pieces going off. Jace’s voice filled my ears, his voice filled with worry. “What’s everyone status?”
“Everyone’s present and accounted for,” Remy stated.
Bentley depressed his button next. “We’ll start the transfers.”
“We got Tracey,” Lincoln triumphantly announced.
My eyes met Drakes, and I wasn’t surprised to see the torment and relief in his gaze.
η
Tracey crossed her legs, placed her hands on her knees, and sneered. “Jemmy’s eighteen. She’s an adult. I’m not her keeper. She wanted to leave so I let her leave.”
Pops, Greg, Miranda, Rachel, and Alex were sitting in the interrogation room while my guys, Gavin, Sierra, Mercedes, Bentley, and I sat in the adjacent room behind a two-way mirror.
Little did Tracey know Miranda, Rachel, and Alex had entered before she had.
Miranda was cloaking Alex and Rachel while Pops cross-examined her.
Rachel would be able to detect her lies and Alex would hopefully gain the truth while he read her mind.
“I see Jemmy leaving the apartment with three men. She doesn’t look happy, but she’s not fighting them,” Alex silently informed me.
My shoulders sagged in defeat as I relayed the information to everyone else in the room.
“It doesn’t make sense why she’s been radio silent,” Drake maintained.
I wanted to comfort him but it was clear he needed to work things out on his own.
“Why were you at that apartment tonight?” Greg asked.
Tracey disdainfully rolled her eyes. It was evident that she had no fear, and she really believed we would just allow her to walk. “You unlawfully detained me. When I get out of here, I’m suing your asses.”
“She was hiding,” Alex stated. “She thought she was safe from us there.”
Pops and Greg exchanged a look. They obviously went in there with a game plan, but honestly, I was getting tired of the games she kept playing.
I knew Pops and Greg wanted me to rest because of the unexplained occurrence tonight, but truthfully, I felt fine.
If anything, I felt invigorated. I wanted to go in there and force her to tell us the entire truth.
“She didn’t think we could or would find her.” I paraphrased.
Troy kissed the top of my head I leaned into his body while Remy had my feet in his lap, rubbing them.
Noah, Drake, and I had already explained what had occurred on the roof top at least four times tonight.
Some of the others seemed to be in shock by our new discovery.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t stressed or freaked out about it in the least. For the fiftieth time I wondered if something was mentally wrong with me.
Shouldn’t I be even more apprehensive by it all?
Noah, Lincoln, and Jaxson seemed to be taking it with the same nonchalance as I was while the other four seemed to have been shaken by the discovery.
I knew it only made them more anxious about our safety.
If Horatio were to discovery my son’s rare gift, he would be all the more determined to get his hands on my babies.
Luckily, the only people aware of what had occurred tonight were the people I trusted the most. They wouldn’t say a word to anyone.
“I’m going to get a cup of coffee. Does anyone else want anything else?” Bentley asked.
I knew he really didn’t want to be here and was exhausted, but I admired him. He was here in support of Mercedes and Gavin. It made me happy to know Gavin was gaining a larger family through his connections.
We all placed our orders and Mercedes volunteered to go with him.
Our attention was brought back to the interrogation room when Pops asked the next question. “If you were on a vacation and Jemmy chose to ‘run away’ why would you have both left your cell phones at your apartment?”
“She didn’t want the phones to lead us to them.” Alex filled us in further.
Tracey leaned forward, clearly getting more irritated by them ignoring all her rebuttals. “Lawyer.”
Greg wrote on his notepad, as if he was writing down her responses, but we all knew he wasn’t.
He just wanted to continue lulling her into a false sense of confidence.
She could refuse all she wanted little did she knew as each question was asked, her mind was transmitting the truth while her lips continued her lies.
“Your job said you were on a leave of absence. Yet, you were gunning for a promotion a few short months ago. What changed?”
Alex explained. “She got more money from Horatio. She didn’t have to work as hard.”
We had suspected it, but I had hoped it wasn’t true. I hated to voice our fears aloud. “She’s definitely with Horatio.”
Drake sighed before slumping down further in his seat.
Tracey leaned back looking up at the ceiling tiles before responding in a bored tone. “Lawyer.”
“We took a peek at your expenses. Are the funds in your account from Horatio?” Pops asked.
Tracey lost her cool once more. “I don’t know why you continue asking me questions. You guys kidnapped me, and I don’t have to tell you shit.”
Alex made a sound of distress. “She’s doing grown up things with Horatio.”
I cursed softly. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that. “She’s sleeping with Horatio. I think we got enough. I’m fine and I’m going to make her spill the rest of her secrets. Let’s break this up. Time for Alex to go to bed.”
I heard the curses echoing around the room before Troy helped me stand and we walked over to the other room. I opened the door without preamble. Pops and Greg looked up startled while Tracey’s cold eyes narrowed on me.
“Oh, look it’s my son’s little whore,” she sneered.
I gave her a saccharine sweet smile before saying. “She’s sleeping with Horatio. Miranda you can drop your cover and it’s time we took Alex to bed.”
The look of pure horror on Tracey’s face brought me great satisfaction. It was evident she knew exactly what one of my best friends and little brother could do. I’m sure Horatio had filled her in on all our dynamics.
Tracey’s face was drained of color, but soon she had tears filling her eyes as she looked at a point behind me. It didn’t take long for me to discover why she had begun to act like the victim when moments ago she was viscous toward me.
“Drake! Baby! These people kidnapped me. Are you here to help your mother?”
Drake placed a protective arm around me, his hand resting on my bump. “After you disparaged my woman and had my sister taken. Plus, I have no mother. You stopped being my mother after you killed my father.”
Just like that her tears dried up and she looked frightened.
Her fear didn’t last long and pure fury crossed her features.
I knew she was going to spill viscous vitriol toward him, but I stopped her before she could.
I compelled her aloud. “Tracey, you will tell us the truth and nothing but the truth. We already know you have a gift and killed Damon. You need to tell us where Jemmy is first. Then you’ll tell us where you hid Damon’s laptop. ”
She clearly struggled against my command for a second. It didn’t take her long to realize she could fight it and soon she began to spill all her secrets.