The Lyon's Cub Caitlin (Lyon The Next Generation 1)

“I own the building.” Well damn!

I know for a fact that when this place was going up a four bedroom unit was going for twenty-five million. No one else seemed phased in the least by the luxurious surroundings and I wasn’t about to show my small town ass so I kept my questions to myself.

“Guys he’s here. Todd, this is Track, Shane, Alec and Jared, my brother in law.” I shook their hands all the while sizing them up the way they were doing me. It was only as I stood there in the massive space that I wondered just what the hell I was doing there.

Didn’t this whole thing start with Catalina thinking I needed to know how to fight to protect Caitlin? Where exactly was Mancini going with this?

“I know you’ve never done anything like this before, we’re relatively new to it as well but you should know, once we show you what we’re about to, there’s no turning back. Mancini didn’t share too much about you, only that we can trust you but I’ll tell you upfront, the jury’s still out on that one.”

“These guys are my family, my wife you’ve already met. You do anything to harm any one of them now or in the future and they’ll never find your body. Track he’s all yours I need to go see my wife for a minute.”

“Did Red come in yet? I didn’t hear from her.” His brother in law asked.

“Her car’s in the garage, all of them are home, don’t know why they haven’t called, probably planning some shit to get us out of here tonight.”

He turned and left leaving me with the other four. Track, the only black man in the group beckoned for me to follow him to one of the five desks and a computer that didn’t come out of any store I’ve ever been to and I know my computers.

“Mancini wanted you to start with this!” He opened a folder on the screen and I didn’t know what the hell I was looking at until I started reading. Every hair on my body stood up as every molecule of my being went ice cold.

“What the hell is this?” He didn’t answer and I didn’t expect him to since the question was rhetorical. It was very obvious what I was looking at. I felt in turns sick to my stomach and pissed way the fuck off.

I didn’t quite get why Mancini would want me to get involved with something like this, what any of it had to do with Caitie and I, but it didn’t seem to matter. What I was looking at wasn’t exactly something you could just turn away from.

I got sucked in that quick and spent the next few hours pouring over the shit on the screen. People came and went, some of them female, I think I even heard babies, but I never took my focus off the screen.

Track tapped me on the shoulder some time later and that’s when I shook myself out of my fugue state. “Time to go, you’ve been sitting here for five hours.” That long? Shit, I’ve got just enough time to do my homework before it’s time to call Caitlin.

I stood and worked the kinks out of my legs, which seemed to have gone to sleep a while ago without me noticing. “I don’t have to tell you not to discuss what you saw with anyone.” Jace came over with the others. I was still finding it hard to believe that these guys were a good year younger than me.

They all seemed so well put together, mature, and years beyond their peers. I don’t remember being that stoic when I was their age, but then again, I wasn’t dealing with the sort of stuff they do then either.

“Sure, no problem, but I don’t see…” I was about to say I didn’t see what any of this had to do with me getting Caitie to come to school with me a year early but Jace held up his hand.

“Mancini will tell you everything you need to know in his own time. I don’t know shit. He just told me to find you and bring you in.”

“Does he do that a lot?” He shook his head before he turned to walk away.

“Nope, you’re the first. I would tell you that he’s not the kind of guy to do things lightly. I’ll come get you tomorrow but right now Alec’s gonna take you back to campus.” He said all this while walking away.

That was the first of many such meetings and by the end of week three I was in deep. I still wasn’t allowed around the women but I got it, they still didn’t know me and from what I’d learned so far, they weren’t the most trusting bunch.