I shrugged as I continued to walk. My body was experiencing a rapid cool down and my sweat was drying cold on my overheated skin—at least that’s what it felt like. I shivered and longed for a hot shower immediately. I walked past what used to be a driveway and vaguely computed the tire tracks in the snow. I paused, finding that odd as I reflected on it. The tire tracks continued to lead to…nowhere.
I cocked my head to the side and shrugged, then started to walk once more. Something in my gut told me I was missing something. Something was off here. I stopped once more and laughed at myself. I was losing it, but I dropped my empath barriers, closed my eyes and tried to reach out to any emotions nearby. I gasped as I felt the fear, panic, desolation, determination, and desperation.
I found my feet following the path of the tire tracks. I was midway down the driveway when I heard my name being called. I turned and saw Troy standing near the end of the driveway. I smiled and ran towards to him. I don’t know who I surprised more, him or myself as I hurled myself into his arms.
He chuckled as he embraced me close. I inhaled his fresh scent mixed with his cologne.
“Take me back please,” I murmured as he lifted me up.
He carried me back to the large black SUV, and I saw varying degrees of censorship on all of my connection’s faces. I didn’t know if they were angry at me for running off or if they wanted to protect me from my own emotions.
“Did we get approval for satellite imaging and got the records for the homes around here?” I asked wanting to avoid any discussions about ‘how I was feeling.’
“We did,” Jace answered.
“Can we look up 2151?” I asked trusting my gut that I had found the woman who gave birth to me.
“There is supposed to be a house there,” Darren said in confusion as one of his screens confirmed a house at 2151 Sugarstick Rd. His other screen of satellite images showed no house existed.
“We need someone to watch these satellite images twenty-four seven,” Jace commanded.
“We’ll also have to find out a way to discreetly post someone near the location. We know Miranda will have to drop the cloak eventually, but we may have less than fifteen minutes to get there to get Hazel,” Troy added quietly.
“We should still keep our lookouts in town,” Gavin stated as he leaned back in his chair. “We don’t know if she able to keep the cloak up while she goes into town, protecting whoever’s left in the house.”
“I don’t understand why she’s doing all the
errands if her…husband is with her. Why wouldn’t he do it? She has to know that people are looking for her,” I stated as I sat down heavily in one of the chairs.
Troy handed me a cup of coffee and I smiled up at him in appreciation. I hadn’t bothered jumping in the shower yet and I was still chilled to the bone.
“Maybe that’s something we should ask her when we see her,” Remy stated as he rubbed the back of my shoulders. “But first, you need to jump into the shower and get into something warm.”
“We’re making you guys dinner for all your hard work,” Drake told the techies who looked at him surprise. I imagined they didn’t get much rewards in their line of work.
“I’m allergic to dairy products and nuts,” one of the techies said in embarrassment.
Drake smiled gently. “How does chicken and dumplings sound?”
“Homemade dumplings?” one of the other techies asked hopefully.
Noah laughed. “Is there any other?”
“Let’s go, Baby girl,” Remy said gently as he grabbed my hand.
“Who’s on the schedule for look out?” I asked before I let him lead me away.
“I’ll make the schedule now and have some of the teams sleep while we come up with a scheduled rotation.” Jace still hadn’t smiled or acted soft towards me since my return. I wondered if he was upset at me.
I nodded before I turned to leave. I shivered as the cold air hit me once again. “Is Jemmy, Rachel, Sam, Sierra, Dawn, Ford, and Marcel boarding again?” I asked as Drake, Noah, Jaxson, and Remy followed me out of the house.
“How’d you guess?” Noah said dryly. “They are taken advantage of any free time they may have.”
“So, they didn’t know about my melt down?” I asked wryly as we walked towards our cabin.
Jaxson and Noah started laughing, and I couldn’t help but notice the faint grin on Drake and Remy’s faces. “Your melt down was epic!” Noah exclaimed. “Jemmy would have been so jealous of the theatrics. None of her melt downs have come close.”
“Even if you outed me to Dad,” Jaxson said with feigned annoyance. “He was pretty upset that we didn’t tell him about the magnitude of the growth in our gifts.”