Chapter 15
“Can we put the music back on, or maybe watch a movie?” Tamara jokingly grumbled. “This book is boring AF.”
In an effort to get all my schoolwork done, I decided my laptop and book would be accompanying me nearly everywhere.
Tamara, Ben, Micah, Kade, Victoria, and Taylor also brought their laptops so they could get ahead in their classwork.
Micah was still behind in some of his classes, but at the rate he was going, he would be ahead of his peers by the beginning of the next school year.
I gave my guys a pointed look. “Tell me about it. Honestly, I’m good for now. I’m ready for a break.”
Jace and Troy gave me disgruntled looks.
Not because they thought I was throwing in the towel too early, but because they were really getting into the story.
Ironically, Jace and Troy seemed to find some enjoyment in the book.
They couldn’t understand why I found it so dry and hard to get into.
I was pretty sure Lincoln had told the guys about my struggles, because they began reading the book to me.
Admittedly, I found it easier to follow the storyline with them reading it to me.
It also gave me the chance to start some of the exercises while they read aloud.
Some of the activities I had to complete weren’t as intensive as I had first thought, and I was so grateful for their help, even if I still couldn’t stand the book.
For tonight’s mission, we nearly had all of our top teams. My guys and I were in the cramped apartment with Tamara, Herman, Ben, Victoria, Kade, Micah, Taylor, and Shiloh.
I was surprised that Shiloh’s cousins and brother didn’t even blink when they allowed her to join us.
Apparently, they were a “military-like” community.
They began training their children from a very young age.
Even though very few of them ever came into their gifts, the leaders of the community thought it was important to learn specific skills, like self-defense, wilderness survival, and so on.
“You think all books are boring unless it’s an article in a magazine about the current fashion trends,” Herman teased Tamara.
Over the last few weeks, Herman and Tamara had built a strong friendship.
They became best friends overnight and co-parented like rock stars.
I never thought they would ever become romantically involved, but there was no denying that little Erin had two parents who loved her dearly and always put her first. Tamara had also offered to help him with his other daughter, who would be born in a few weeks.
Unlike Tamara, the woman in question had no plans to stick around once the child was born. Even with therapy, she wasn’t improving. She resented the baby, and the only reason she was staying was because Pops and some other donors had offered her a scholarship to attend college in the fall.
They also provided her with excellent health care, which she could never have received anywhere else.
When Horatio recruited her into the program, she had been living on the streets.
She admitted not knowing who her father was, and her mother kicked her out when her stepdad showed more interest in her.
She had been a promising student and didn’t want children.
She had already been looking at potential adoptive parents before Herman discovered he was the baby’s father.
Admittedly, she didn’t like the idea of giving the baby to a single father, but Tamara had spoken up on his behalf.
She reassured the mother that she would be there to assist him if he needed it.
She told the mother that after seeing his sacrifices and his involvement with Erin, she knew he would be an amazing father to her baby as well.
“I can’t believe they expect you to do a book report at the end of the year,” Ben scoffed, pausing his guitar lessons with Victoria.
We were doing a stakeout of sorts in Chinatown.
Apparently, Horatio was using several Asian-owned shops as a front to traffic gifted people from various Asian countries.
The port they arrived at was too large and well-guarded for us to intercept them.
We had to wait patiently for them to arrive there.
Through Kirk’s connections, we found someone willing to loan their space, or apartment to us, at a steep price.
I used the term “apartment” loosely for the location we were in.
The room couldn’t have been more than two hundred square feet.
The kitchenette, bedroom, and living room all occupied the same space.
There was a small closet near the door that could fit a few coats at best. The only other door in the apartment concealed the bathroom.
The bathroom was so minuscule that your knees touched the shower stall when you sat down on the toilet.
When I say “you,” I meant me. I couldn’t even imagine how any of my men could comfortably sit if, or when, they had to go number two.
Once I found out how much the tenant paid in rent every month, I was gobsmacked. At first, I thought the person was getting ripped off paying over two grand a month for the space, but I soon discovered that was the going rate. It just showed me how expensive big-city living could be.
Jaxson was lying on his back on the floor, tossing a football into the air and teasing, “No one told her to take college classes in high school.”
I stuck my tongue out at Jaxson before responding to Ben’s comment. “I understand the course load should be more difficult, but I didn’t realize until afterward that my professor is one of the toughest, especially considering she schedules the finals the same week the papers are due.”
I stood up to stretch and refill my water bottle. I grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and poured it over the ice in my tumbler. Thankfully, I had a quality cup that kept ice for a long time. I liked my water ice-cold. I sipped as I wandered over to the windows.
The only real draw of the apartment, as far as I could see, was the floor-to-ceiling windows that covered nearly every inch of the west-facing wall. When the sun set, it was a sight to behold, even among the other tall buildings and skyscrapers. It also offered a good vantage point in general.
The sun had been down for the last hour or so, but the streets were still bustling with customers, people hawking illegal items like purses, and various employees from the surrounding shops.
Once again, I wished we could do some exploring, but time wasn’t on our side.
Places like this were fun to visit, but I could never imagine living here permanently.
I saw movement to my left and sighed in disappointment when I realized it was just Dawn and Rachel in an apartment above one of the restaurants.
It was a little harder to convince the Asian couple, with their aging parents and three children, to leave the two-bedroom apartment they were occupying.
We had to give them money, a hotel suite, and gift cards to restaurants near their hotel.
We had four teams split across four different locations.
Dawn, Rachel, Terrance, Marcel, Gavin, Sierra, Mercedes, and Bentley were in the apartment across from us.
The restaurant beneath them had high Yelp reviews, and since we’d been here, I’d seen a constant flow of people in and out.
The restaurant was also directly beside the massage parlor we were casing.
It took me a few seconds to realize Dawn and Rachel were trying to get my attention.
For a split second, I got excited, thinking they knew something we didn’t, until I realized they were just goofing around.
They were waving and grinning maniacally, holding up something.
It took me a moment to realize they were holding cartons of Chinese food, and suddenly, I was starving.
“Why didn’t you bring any schoolwork?” Jace asked Jaxson, exasperated.
“Because I didn’t have any work, Dad. Thanks for asking, though.” Jaxson rolled his eyes.
I knew I had to interrupt them before they started arguing.
Lately, Jace and Pops seemed to be getting on Jaxson more and more.
He wasn’t slacking, necessarily, but he definitely had senioritis.
It was as if, once he discovered he got into his school of choice, he was doing the bare minimum to pass and not excel as he once had.
I could understand their frustration with him, but on the other hand, they also had to remember that he would apply himself when he needed to. He did have a bad habit of procrastinating every now and then, but for the most part, he was a smart man and delivered when necessary.
I knew they feared he would be the most immature when it came to raising our kids, but I also knew most of the time he goofed off and played around because his dad and Jace were so hard on him.
It was like he always had to prove himself to them, and it wasn’t fair.
He wasn’t irresponsible or unreliable; he just had a different way of approaching things than his dad and brother.
It wasn’t fair, and I wished I could intervene on his behalf, but I knew he wouldn’t appreciate it, and it would hurt his ego.
Rachel placed what looked like a wonton up to her mouth and exaggeratedly held it there before popping it in.
Dawn used a pair of chopsticks to stick an obscene amount of Lo Mein noodles into her mouth.
Even from the fifty or so feet away, I could see her cheeks puffed out, much like a chipmunk.
My stomach growled in protest, and I rubbed it.
“Rachel and Dawn have Chinese food,” I playfully pouted.
“What?” Micah scrambled up from the floor, where he had been working and showing Shiloh how to navigate our school portals. “For real?”