Chapter 31
“Hey, beautiful.” Troy groggily husked as he blinked at me.
Tears of relief filled my eyes as I cradled his face.
Though the bruising still remained the swelling in his left eye was no longer present.
Noah and a handful of our other healers had quickly gotten to work to heal our captured coworkers, friends, and family.
We had successfully managed to capture a majority of the invaders that had infiltrated our base.
Unfortunately, Horatio, Tiff, and at least fifteen others were still at large.
Darren, Greg, Paul, and Pops were attempting to locate them while we cared for our injured and dead.
Noah had healed Troy with ease since it was all physical.
Unfortunately, it seemed Jace had been injected with some kind of toxin.
Yaris had to be called over to him and as I cared for Troy, I prayed Jace would pull through as well.
“Hey there, my Italian stallion.” I carefully brushed my lips against his.
Troy struggled to get up, and I attempted to help him.
I saw a myriad of emotions cross his features when he realized he sat in the midst of pure carnage.
We had teams still helping or removing our injured and dead which was the most jarring discovery.
Knowing that we had people severely injured and lost a few people was something I was willing myself not to focus on yet.
The mission wasn’t complete. I didn’t have the luxury to breakdown yet.
In addition to having to face their losses as well as ours, the DFAC had been practically destroyed.
A lot of the tables and chairs that had occupied the space were upside down, toppled over, or left in shambles.
There was an entire wall that had a tar-like substance dripping down it leaving a menacing puddle that spread approximately four feet from the wall.
The area where we once dropped off our trays was nothing but melted steel and scorch marks.
Destruction done in seconds appeared as if it had been hours’ worth of fire damage.
One of the entrances coming into the DFAC was obstructed by a grayish spherical structure made of what appeared to be thin paper-like material.
In truth it was a giant wasp nest that one of our enemies had constructed.
Luckily, only two giant wasps had exited it before our smoke blower had prevented them from exiting and causing additional damage.
Those were only a few of the things I allowed myself to examine.
The mummified bodies of a few of our operatives had been enough for me to stop scanning our surroundings.
Much like the ostrich I was sticking my head in the sand.
Yes, I realized that was a myth, but I still chose to adopt the myth in the current circumstances.
I had enough fuel for my nightmares for years to come.
“What happened? Is this real? Where is everyone else? How are the babies?” He leaned his head against my shoulder.
I ran my hand over his head before kissing his temple. “Yes, this is real, we were attacked. Horatio and a few of his minions are still at large. As far as we know they haven’t found a way to escape yet.
“The twins are in a safe spot. Jace was captured with you, and Yaris is working on him now. Noah is in the hospital wing healing some of our injuries. Lincoln, Drake, Remy, and Jaxson are trying to help with the cleanup.
“In regard to you, I don’t know what exactly happened to you. What was the last thing that you remember?”
He continued to look around, and I witnessed him recoil a few times, but for my own peace I chose not to see what had disturbed him the most. Eventually he told me.
“We were getting some additional training in. Then we started to head toward the locker rooms. I watched you go in and as I headed toward the men’s locker room—nothing. ”
I nodded thankful that whatever beaten he had taken didn’t seem to mess with his memory too much.
With the amount of bruising, we found on him and his cracked ribs I had worried he had gone through it.
We healed as much as we could, but we knew some of it would take time before he was one hundred percent better.
“Okay, let’s get going to join the others. I think I’ve been laying around long enough.” Troy wryly grinned.
He hopped up first, wincing slightly before he helped me get up as well. I slid my arms around his waist. We had just exited the cafeteria when Lincoln, Jaxson, Drake, Remy, Noah, and Jace came around the corner. I let out a happy sound before I ran toward Jace.
He was paler than normal, and I could see the strain around his eyes, but I was so happy to see him up and moving around. Hopefully, he was fine enough to have left the clinic. Knowing his stubborn butt though they had probably advised him to rest longer.
He smiled before picking me up and kissing me. When we finally parted, he kissed my nose. “How are you?”
I dryly laughed. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking that? Should you even be up and about?”
“No.” Noah snorted with a fond eye roll. “We already suggested he take a day to rest. We tried to tell him we had this mostly handled.
He gave me a lopsided grin. “I’m fine. I can rest when we finally get Horatio.”
I hummed skeptically at him wondering if there was any way I could talk him into resting for a while longer.
I just got him back and I wanted him to recuperate so he was on top form.
I was deciding the best way to relay my concern to him when there was a crackle over my headset. I jumped forgetting I even had it in.
I thought maybe someone had accidentally depressed the button until I heard Gavin’s voice in my head.
“Blake! Comms were just knocked out but, Horatio is headed your way. Jemmy hacked into the cameras and heard that they are going to try to retreat through the service entry. Try to hold them off or hide until we can reach you!”
“We have to hide!” I told the guys before turning on my heels and running toward the kitchen. “Horatio and friends are headed this way.”
I was thankful that they hadn’t questioned me and simply followed. “We have back up coming so we need to prevent them from leaving or hiding and hoping that they can’t figure out a way to get out.”
“Blake, guys, over here!” Micah popped out from the kitchens Victoria, Ben, Kade, Shiloh, and Miranda right behind him.
“I’m going to cloak us and hope no one senses us until back up arrives.” Miranda told us as we drew closer.
We slid in an alcove near some upturned tables.
It was away from the beaten path so hopefully no one accidentally stumbled upon us.
Miranda cloaked us just in time as Horatio, Tiff, and more of his minions then we believed came striding in the room.
There was pure fury on his face as he looked around the room.
“How the hell did this happen? I thought you said the base was nearly a ghost town since several teams were sent out this morning.”
It took me a moment to realize it was Mike who he was directing his ire at.
I wasn’t the only one to hiss with anger at this presence by Horatio’s side.
I should have known the bastard had jumped ship.
It was evident that he hadn’t liked the punishments Pops had doled out.
He was still narcissistic enough to believe he shouldn’t be held accountable for leading the enemy to the recording studio.
He was fully convinced since it was an “accident” and my twins were fine he should no longer have to meet out the rest of his penances.
Mike pushed back his greasy hair. The detoxing Pops was enforced on him was evident in the dark circles under his eyes and the slight tremors in his hand.
“They were!” Mike barked back before fear entered his eyes.
It was as if he remembered who he was aiming his anger at.
He visibly swallowed before saying in a more subdued tone.
“I checked the board this morning. They deployed over half of their teams. It was the best day to do anything. Otherwise, we would have to wait for another week or two.”
With a quickness that seemed to surprise even Mike, Horatio’s hand whipped out and backhanded him across the face.
It was hard enough and startled Mike so badly that he stumbled over his own feet, falling on the floor in an ungraceful heap.
“And where are the twins? You promised me that you would help secure them for me.”
I wasn’t the only one to stiffen. “That son of a bitch.” Jaxson hissed. “I was the first one to befriend him when he came to Knightstown. Jace was the one to take us to football, when Dad was too busy. I did so much for that bastard.”
“He stayed with my family, and we took him with us on vacations every year since we turned twelve.” Ben dejectedly commiserated. “The twins are going to be my nephew and niece by association how could he do that. I don’t even recognize him anymore.”
If my heart wasn’t filled with so much fury I would have been touched by Ben’s sentiment.
True he had bought them little gifts, cute band tees, and brought no less than five cases of diapers since their birth but I never considered in a roundabout way he was going to be family.
With his connection to Victoria and Victoria’s connection with Kade in a weird way he was family.
Mike wiped the back of his hand across his split lip. “That wasn’t all me. I told Tiff the plan. I had everything set up and I even had great diversions set up, but when I checked to make sure if the stroller with the decoys were ready, she was too busy hooking up with one of her fuck boys.”