Chapter 28
I wiped my face with a towel and sighed in pleasure.
My serotonin levels were high after an amazing work out.
It felt so good to have a satisfying sweat and feel another little piece of myself returned.
Even though the twins seemed to be cluster feeding last night and my butt was dragging this morning, I still felt reinvigorated.
“Fifteen, twenty-two, not bad.” Troy grinned holding his stopwatch.
I had just completed a timed two-mile run. I wasn’t the slowest, but I wasn’t back to my former run times. I wasn’t disappointed per say but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until I was back to my average running time. I needed to shave off at least a minute to be back to where I had been.
“Not bad, but not my best time either.” I shrugged.
Troy leaned down to brush his lips with mine. He smiled. “Let’s get in the shower and pick the babies up from Remy and Noah.”
“Sounds good to me.” I nodded grabbing my duffel bag.
I wasn’t surprised at the least when Troy took it from me after slinging his over his shoulder.
The training gym had mostly emptied out because it was lunch time.
We decided to go back to the apartment and avoid the cafeteria as a conscious effort to spend more time together.
With the missions ramping up we were rarely in the same room anymore.
We knew how important it is to carve a little time for each other every day, so Troy and I decided to spend lunch together. With no outside distractions.
Once we reached the locker rooms, I took my bag back and slipped into the room. We couldn’t use the showers in our apartment because the plumbing seemed to have gone out on our entire floor. We woke up with no water and quickly discovered we weren’t the only ones with that issue.
I pulled out my hygiene products and tried to take a really quick shower.
I skipped shaving deciding I was good for another couple of days.
After my shower I put some products in my hair not bothering to dry it any further.
I came out of the locker room looking for Troy, fully expecting him to be waiting on me. He wasn’t.
I walked toward the men’s locker room while trying to mentally reach out to him. “Hey, my Italian Stallion. Are you almost finished?”
I received no answer but didn’t worry too much about it until one of the operatives came out of the locker room. He seemed startled to see me standing there. I laughed after he jumped before asking. “Did you see Troy in there?”
At his blank expression I good-naturedly rolled my eyes, knowing he probably only knew him by his last name. “Ricci?”
“Oh.” He chuckled at himself, before he sobered slightly. “He’s not in there. I was the last one.”
“Hmm, okay. Thanks.”
I tried to think where he may have gone, before I figured he might have assumed I went to get the twins without him. Then I thought he might have gone to get them. I left the gym and headed toward the war room where Jaxson and Noah were.
I was almost to the central area of the floor when Micah popped up in front of me. I was seconds away from scolding him for scaring me when I realized he looked panicked.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We’re under attack.” He grasped my arm seconds before I heard a loud whooshing sound in my ears and my surroundings disappeared before my eyes.
My stomach pitched and I felt like I was thrown into a dryer. The feeling only lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough to massively disorient me. The room seemed to finally come to focus, and I realized then Micah had transported us.
It took me a moment to realize we were in the unused portion of the mountain bunker once again.
I noticed Paul, Greg, Lincoln, Drake, and a spattering of operatives first. I wildly looked around and with every second that passed that I didn’t see my babies or the rest of my guys I began to panic further.
Lincoln and Drake immediately came over to me and embraced me between them. They began to whisper reassurances to me. I barely registered what they were saying to me and tried to grasp the situation.
I began to struggle against Lincoln and Drake. “Did Troy ever go into the locker room. He was right behind me entering the men’s locker room. But when I tried to reach out to him, he didn’t seem to hear me.”
A thought suddenly struck me, and I silently yelled to the others. “Jace! Jaxson! Remy! Noah! Troy!”
“Is someone blocking me? Why can’t they hear me? Where are the twins? We need to get the twins!”
Lincoln kissed my forehead while Drake tried to soothe me. “Remy and Jaxson are safely still in the war room with the twins. No one can get in when it’s on lockdown, gifted or not gifted. The room was designed to be impenetrable.
“Our gifts don’t seem to be blocked but suppressed somehow.”
Drake held up his hands as if he was attempting to demonstrate his words. His forcefield barely reached waist high. My stomach sunk. What in the halibut was going on?
“Jemmy believes they’ve managed to install a halo of sorts and is busily working on dismantling it.”
It was then I noticed Jemmy was sitting in the corner of the room in simple sweats and a crop top. She had a Twizzler hanging from her mouth while she clutched a coffee mug in her hands like it was the holy grail.
I took a deep breath in and attempted to have a little bit of faith.
I felt somewhat reassured; however, I still was anxious not to have my babies with me.
I didn’t doubt that Remy and Jaxson could and would protect them with their lives.
My apprehension stemmed from not having control of the situation.
“Micah is trying to locate Mercedes and Bentley so they can assist him in securing our friends, family, and colleagues.” Lincoln added.
“I don’t get it. What happened? And why doesn’t it seem to effect Micah?” I leaned my head onto Drake’s chest hoping to absorb some of his unwavering strength.
“It doesn’t seem like whatever they have suppressing us, effects all of us.
For instance, my gift doesn’t seem to be effected at all either.
As far as what’s happening, we’re trying to discover the finer details.
I rushed back here when I discovered an attack was imminent but unfortunately it was too little too late. ”
It finally sunk in that Greg was here. He had been gone so long and kept in minimal contact. I knew it had been wearing on Miranda. I was happy he had returned and hoped he could help us with the victory.
Paul spoke up next. “Our last team left at dawn, and we’ve already determined that Greg was the last one admitted in the bunker.
The deliveries were received this morning without any incident and Drake confirmed that him and Andrè double verified the shipment.
All the delivery drivers were supervised the entire time they were here.
The entrances and exits had been sealed since then. We don’t know how the breach occurred.”
“How are we certain that we’re under attack then?”
“Someone triggered the silent alarms. Terrance, Marcel, and Dawn are trying to organize what they can in the training area.”
The training area over on this side was where our simulations were typically held.
I wondered how many people were secured and how many more people were in danger.
The majority of our operatives were out in the field, which was good considering that they were safe from the danger we were facing.
On the other hand, we probably needed them here to help us out of the sticky situation we found ourselves in.
As if Drake could read my thoughts he said. “They seemed to have jammed our phones as well as our cell phones, but Jemmy was able to send an SOS text to all the team leads. While we don’t think all of them can make it back to assist us, a few teams should be able to safely abort their missions.”
A low humming noise filled the room seconds before a large circular light of magenta, purple, and black appeared.
Gavin rushed through the portal first guiding Sierra.
Ben was next ushering Victoria and Kade in front of him.
I leaned forward to see who else may be coming next.
Through the portal I could see the long hallway of the school wing.
The elementary room door was thrown open and Pops, Megan, Rachel, Tamara, Herman, Lexus, Alex, Ella, Shiloh, Anna, and Hailey started filing out.
Suddenly, there was a great commotion at the end of the hallway.
A group of people I didn’t recognize came running toward the opening.
“We have twenty-eight more people behind us.” Pops jumped back out of the hole and began to attempt to pull artwork from the walls.
Unfortunately, because of whatever was muting our gifts he was only able to cause a mild distraction.
I stepped forward and to the side attempting to get close enough to the opening while staying out of the way of the people they were endeavoring to get to safety. I didn’t even bother attempting to silence my command as I screamed at our enemies. “Stop!”
A few of them stopped immediately while a little under half of them continued toward us.
I cursed under my breath, realizing the ones continuing their advancement had to be strong.
I scrambled to think about my next course of action.
I imagined warmth coursing through my veins.
I visualized fireballs. Immediately, I knew they were going to do little to know damage as fireballs the size of marbles soared through the air versus the larger ones I could typically launch.
“How much longer on finding the Halo, Jem?” Drake asked as he attempted to send forcefield walls their way.
“Almost there!” She called back in a confident tone.