“I wish I was there with you guys.”
“Soon, I’m gonna ask daddy to bring you here.” We signed off, and I once again led Lily Anna into the elevator with me. “We have one more thing to do.”
“Smile!” I whispered before swinging our arms between us once we were inside the elevator. “Wanna go play on the beach?” She nodded her head, playing along. It’s one of the things I like about her and Nia. The three of us never have to explain things to each other.
“I’ll have to ask my mom and dad first, though.”
“I think all the moms are together, let’s go find them.” When the elevator came to a stop, we got off and ran to the room where all the women were sitting around talking. Good, they were all here. Now for the hard part!
“Aunty Cierra, who’s the senator?”
“What? What do you know about him?” I shrugged my shoulders.
“Are you talking about my dad?” I turned to aunty Illyana. “I don’t know; I just know he’s coming here soon.”
“Wait, where did you hear this? There was nothing about that on the recording you gave me.”
“I guess I just heard uncle Hank and daddy talking about it with the others.”
No, I read it on my computer that Nia taught me how to hook up to the device I have under uncle Hank’s desk. I kept my fingers crossed behind my back because I’m not supposed to lie. Everyone started talking at once, and Lily Anna and I slipped back out of the room and ran back to the media room. I was hoping that no one was watching us through the monitors that uncle Hank no doubt, have set up here.
Back in the media room, I set up everything to go, making sure the surround sound was set to encompass the whole house; that Caleb had taught me at home a long time ago. We headed back to the lab where the device under the desk was working once again, but I couldn’t trust that. I have to get a look at it and, if need be, plant another one. Nia had only sent me four, though, so I have to be careful.
I heard the men talking about nothing in particular when the sound came through the speakers. It was like someone had turned a switch, and they all stopped talking at once. “Wait, what is that?” That was uncle Justice.
“Can’t be! Did the season start, and no one told us?” There was the sound of rushing feet as they all fled the office and headed to the media room.
“Let’s go; we’ll only have a little bit of time.”
“But wouldn’t they notice that there’s no football game? That it’s only the theme song?”
“Yes, that’s why I told aunty Illyana about her dad; the moms and aunts are gonna corner them, which will give us more time.”
“You’re so smart, Catalina.”
“We both are! Now let’s go.”
LYON
“Dafuq!” I’ve never seen grown men so close to crying.
“Is this a joke?” Was heard from more than one corner while on the screen, some asshole had made a loop of the NFL theme song and put it up on YouTube.
“Did our wives do this?” Quinn asked, looking close to tears. “What infraction have we committed this time to warrant this?”
“That’s just pure evil.” Devon looked like he was in shock. “They’ve been acting up a lot lately, you notice?”
I kept my eyes on Mancini because he seemed to be the only one not surprised. I knew he was onto something when he started looking around the room as if searching for something. He walked to the TV and ran his fingers over a cord, which he then followed from behind the TV to a place behind the curtain.
“Oh shit, that’s just genius.” He did one of those fake shivers that teenage girls do, and I rolled my eyes.
“What is it?” He lifted a very familiar-looking laptop, and my guts started to hurt.
“But doesn’t the TV play YouTube videos? It’s a smart TV after all, why do you need a computer.” Jason asked.
“Yes, but she made a recording of the video to eliminate chances of interruption and to make it longer, put it on the computer, and then ran it back through the TV.”
“Wait, is that Marie Curie on that laptop skin? Which of the wives is into scientific research?”
Connor stepped forward to get a closer look, and I just wanted to crawl out of my skin. Of all the shit my little girl has done to me in the last few weeks, making me believe that NFL season had restarted has got to be the most diabolical. Fucking kid! I'ma sell that damn dog. Just then, he came moseying into the room with his spying ass.
“Hey, Bunny, go fu… go somewhere, go find your owner.” Damn dog looked me dead in the eye like he understands what I’m saying but don’t have any fucks left to give. Before I could go in on his ass, the room filled up with women, seemingly pissed off women. “Oh shit!”