Chapter 30 #3
“We are.” I grinned at him despite the tightening in my stomach.
“I’ll cloak you from here.” Miranda reassured us.
We had to make a few changes to our original plan.
Jaxson and I were tasked with luring the Rewinder away.
Through a deep dive Darren had discovered the Rewinder loved cats like on the obsession level.
Through his social media Darren had found out that not only did he rescue and foster cats, but half of his house was renovated with his cats in mind.
The entire upstairs of his home was dedicated to them.
He had rooms of cat towers and shelves so they could perch up high.
He had an entire room dedicated to their dining “experiences.” He had custom made counter spaces and bowls that dispensed their food on a rigid schedule and fountains that constantly ran for the cats that liked “running” water.
He had invested thousands and thousands of dollars in them.
So needless to say, Jaxson would provide the abandoned kittens the Rewinder would discover in his quest to find a restroom.
He would exit the rear delivery door only to discover the kittens in their “poor” state.
He would be so distracted it wouldn’t tax us in the least to keep him under the illusion and compulsion.
I emptied my mind of any fear and worries and focused on the image I had in my head of the Rewinder. I felt it when my mind “connected” with his. “You need to use the bathroom.” I silently compelled him. “You really really need to pee. There’s a restroom in the kitchen by the loading dock doors.”
I was helpless to stop the restless energy that seemed to course through me while we waited.
It manifested in my limbs as I raised up on my tiptoes and back down.
I occasionally shook my hands out hoping to shake my nerves.
It had been too long since I was part of a mission, and I don’t recall ever being this anxious before.
I’m sure I had been, but it felt like a distant memory that had never occurred.
I knew most of my trepidation stemmed from the fact I was a mother now.
There were new fears unlocked that I hadn’t known existed until that moment.
The kitchen doors swung open, and the Rewinder came strolling in. He seemed puzzled for a moment as he looked around. I had to direct him to the rear door.
“Turn the next right.” I commanded him. “The bathroom is down the hall and to your left.”
It wasn’t. The restroom was on the right while the staff elevator to the docks were to the left.
Darren made sure to remove the alarms that typically accompanied the opening of the elevator.
Outside of deliveries times the alarms were activated on the elevators.
We knew we had to keep him occupied for roughly ten minutes.
Once those ten minutes had past, he couldn’t be able to rewind back to the moment he decided to enter the elevator.
We would be able to lock him out once he reached the top.
I looked over at Miranda, letting her know she could drop the cloak on us before we ran to the elevator.
“You can’t see us.” I compelled him next.
We barely made it into the lift before the gate was lowered down on us.
I closed my eyes to center myself. I didn’t want to leave the direction of where things would kick off soon, but we had to ensure the Rewinder was away from it.
Jaxson squeezed my hand in reassurance before draping his arm over my shoulders.
I leaned into him, hoping that this wouldn’t take too long.
The elevator shuddered to a stop and we all exited.
I knew Jaxson was busy creating his illusion.
I looked around at the loading dock. It was nothing more than a concrete slab that jutted out about ten feet or so.
On delivery days it was common to see two or three semis backed up against it.
It was designed for ease of access to unload any goods we needed.
Off to the left of the loading docks, we had four dumpsters for our normal trash and three for our recyclables.
The kitchen and some of the other staff were meticulous in ensuring that we recycled as many things as possible.
With our numbers growing they had realized we were producing a lot more waste.
I commended their efforts not to fill our landfills with unnecessary trash.
The Rewinder looked around, confused by the absence of a bathroom. He spun in a small circle, frowning. After a few steps he turned to reenter the lift when the distinct sound of kittens meowling reached our ears. He paused and looked around.
It didn’t take him long to start searching for the source of the crying. Jaxson had a wicked grin curving his lips when the Rewinder opened the lid of one of the dumpsters. He peered into it and made a sound of consternation.
“Oh my! How did you cutie patooties end up in there? Where is your mama?” He looked around as if the mother cat would magically appear.
Unsurprisingly she didn’t. Jaxson took my hand and led me back into the lift and at the same time another set of cries reached my ears. I raised a brow at Jaxson, knowing he had gone off script once again.
Jaxson silently informed me. “I just realized that the stack of skids over there would be a great place to set some more cutie patooties. He will need to unstack and set aside that entire row in order to reach them.”
I quickly slapped my hand over my mouth to refrain from snorting out with laughter.
Once again, the Rewinder seemed to be a complete contradiction.
He loved cats and called them cutie patooties but had no qualms harming human beings.
Understandably I understood animals could be better than most humans, but his misdeeds included children.
In my opinion they were just as innocent as animals.
Once the doors closed, I depressed my earpiece as I looked up at the camera up in the corner. “You can lock the surface door, Darren, thanks.”
“Copy that!” Darren responded.
The ride back down seemed to the kitchen seemed to be the longest and I felt my anxiety rise with every passing second. “Wanna make out?” Jaxson wagged his eyebrows up and down.
I laughed and shook my head. “As tempting as that sounds I think we need to focus on the issue at hand.”
“We have time.” Jaxson looped his arms over my shoulders and began peppering my face with tiny kisses.
“Knock it off.” I laughed trying to turn evade his lips.
“That doesn’t sound like any fun. I was thinking after we move into our home, we should start practicing on giving Addison and Andy a baby brother or sister.”
“Are you nuts!” I scoffed. “I already have a set of twins there’s no way I want to add Irish twins to that list of oddities—or would that be considered triplets. Plus, you’re going to be a big brother soon!”
His eyes widened before a bemused grin curved his lips. “I know! Isn’t that wild! I wonder how that happened.”
“Well when a mommy and daddy really like each other—” I began before he scoffed.
“You know what I mean.”
I smiled. “Grandma Hazel started hypothesizing about the birth rates changing for the gifted since her experiments. Maybe something beyond anything we could fathom is occurring right before our eyes. I’m just happy Megan gets to know what it’s like to be a mother.
I mean I know she always saw you and Jace as her children when you were younger and she’s treated my siblings like her own but—”
Jaxson seemed to understand what I was trying to say without making Megan seem like she thought of them as less than.
“I don’t think she would love us less after she has a baby.
She missed a lot of Jace and my milestones.
I know she loves Alex, Kade, Ella, and Micah as her own as well, but again she missed milestones with them too.
I realize things will be different with her baby and I don’t see anything wrong with it. ”
The lift came to a shuddering halt, and I realized Jaxson had successfully distracted me. I looked up at him and with the smile on his face I grasped that it had been his intentions.
η
The sounds of the skirmish reached our ears the moment we stepped off the elevators. “Game time.” Jaxson almost seemed giddy as he took off running.
Instantly, an uneasiness settled at the pit of my stomach, but it wasn’t my nerves.
I knew that without a shadow of a doubt.
My instincts or maybe even my gifts were warning me of something.
It wasn’t until Jaxson’s hand touched the door ready to burst through it that I felt like I was going to get physically sick.
“Stop!” I silently screamed at him.
Surprisingly enough he listened to me and turned to me with questions in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
I wildly looked around as if I needed to find a solution to the uneasiness that settled in my gut. “I don’t know. I just know we shouldn’t just rush in there.”
Jaxson looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he slowly nodded. “What do you think we should do?”
The whole time he had been talking telepathically to me my eyes landed on the counter that was used to stage the pans for the buffet tables. The counter was roughly twelve feet long and separated the kitchen from the dining area.
It was an addition Drake insisted on when he realized going in and out of the swinging doors wasn’t conducive when loading up the steam tables. With the help of Terrance and a few of the other gifted he was able to rearrange the area. Now items could easily pass through the renovated space.