Gifted Connections 3

“So much for keeping a lid on our gifts,” Jaxson smirked.

“Maybe it’s about time we stopped hiding,” Jemmy bit out. “They continually treat us like we’re below them when we’re here to help them. If they want to take a fight to Horatio, they wouldn’t last long without us.”

“Well, the winner is Thomas,” Henderson stated with a confused expression.

Tell your fans thank you, and bow, I compelled Adams.

Adams stopped in the middle of the form and started waving at everyone and bowing. “Thank you! Thank you!” she enthused.

I giggled, maybe that would teach her not to mess with me.

When training was complete, we went into the locker room to grab our duffel bags.

“What did you do to me?” I heard the high-pitched voice before I felt the harsh grip on my shoulders.

Dawn, Jemmy, and Rachel had grabbed her off me before I could even turn to glare at her. Her friends weren’t even trying to intervene. They just stood back with their arms folded across their chest.

I composed my face of all residual anger before turning around. “You know what our main mission is right? I’m sure you’ve had to watch some training videos and see what Horatio’s capable of. Maybe you should be asking yourself why a-” I looked down at my watch and noticed I was turning eighteen in a week. “-18-year-old was recruited into this program. How many times did you apply to get in here? Maybe you should think about that before you continually mess me. I’m sorry you have the hots for Troy, but even if he were available, he wouldn’t be interested in you.”

Her eyes narrowed on me. “Are you trying to tell me you’re one of those freaks?”

“Like your Aunt?” Sierra asked casually. “Or your dad?” she turned to the other girls behind her. “Your sister? Your mom? Your cousin? Your best friend? Your sister in law? Shall I continue?”

I looked at Sierra impressed. It shouldn’t surprise me that our techie girl had done her research and got to know who we were supposed to be working with.

“Think again before you call people freaks,” Dawn said coldly. “There’s a reason we were recruited in to help you, and before you think you can just harass and mess with the smallest girl in our bunch, maybe you should think about our missions and who will have your six.”

We picked up our bags, and the group stepped aside as we made our way past them. I could see that some of them now feared us. Unless they knew gifted people they had no clue what we were capable of, yet.

Chapter 3

There was a different vibe in the DFAC for dinner that night. We had the children with us and the rest of our little

group. From the furtive looks we kept on getting, I assumed that Adams had let everyone know that she suspected that we were gifted. Some people made a wide berth around us, while others made a point of stopping at our table to say hello.

“We should go to town tonight,” Rachel stated as she speared an overcooked green bean. “I miss Drake’s cooking. Where is Drake?”

I looked up and looked around. I had been so preoccupied in my thoughts, I hadn’t even noticed he was gone.

“Oh yeah,” Jaxson said sheepishly. “I was supposed to tell Blake that he had to fly back home. Just in case she didn’t read her text messages. Apparently, Rose decided to change the latest doctor’s appointment to this evening instead of next week. Beth went with him since he couldn’t find you girls.”

Rose was Drake’s ex-girlfriend. She was claiming that she was pregnant with Drake’s child. However, we knew she had been sleeping with another man at the same time. Ella, my precog sister, had predicted this occurrence. The time of conception was in the three-week period Drake had been away on a mission. He was an honorable man and didn’t want to abandon the child that may be his (even with the evidence stacked against her). If by a miracle it was his, he didn’t want her claiming he hadn’t been there for the child’s prenatal care. He would never abandon a child of his, like his mom had abandoned him and Jemmy.

I groaned. Since we moved here, I had been bad about keeping my phone on me. Reception was nonexistent the deeper you got into the mountains. It made no sense to carry it constantly because we were with each other so much. Other than my short four hours I spent in class, I was with all of them.

We were now in a mostly underground facility in the mountains. All our basic needs were here. Our apartments—or dorms—were kept in the North wing. The dining facility, a small shoppette (a military version of a convenient store), laundry rooms, and day room was in the center of the facility. Classrooms, offices, and board rooms were kept in the South wing. Our training rooms and gym was in the West wing. The East wing was where the head honchos worked, along with all the detaining rooms where I was first brought. Our gifts could not work in that wing.

Will had tried to explain to me the mechanics and science that went into that, but it had all gone over my head. I knew he had a facility like this, somewhere. He housed dangerous gifted personnel there. Paul had created that wing in event that he was able to recruit people such as us. He wanted to make sure we were on board before letting us into general populations.

“I left my phone in the room this morning,” I stated with a frown. I made a mental note to text Drake the moment I got back to the room. “I’m doing laundry tonight,” I said regretfully, although the idea of sleeping in new bedding sounded amazing right now.

“Why did she move the doctor’s appointment up?” Jemmy rolled her eyes.

“Control,” Troy said with a barely concealed sneer. “She has all the control right now, and when the baby is born she loses it all. She can no longer deny Drake his DNA test. He won’t sign the birth certificate without it. She knows the kid isn’t his. She’s painted herself in a corner, and she hopes Drake will forgive her eventually.”

“I don’t understand how that works,” Sierra said slowly. “If she knows Blake is Drake’s connected, why is she trying so hard to separate them? Aren’t connections important?”

Sierra’s grandmother had been gifted, and she had educated her granddaughter, but she had never been involved in a community. Connections were still a new concept to her.