Page 89

The Twins 10 Years Old

Jolie

Boston walks into the office where I have been going over paperwork for the last hour. He has Zadom by the collar of his shirt and lets him loose once he is in the room. Zadom’s dark eyes look up at me, a smirk playing on his lips. Whatever he has done now, he isn’t sorry.

“What did you do?” I ask, putting my pen down.

“Nothing, I swear.”

“Don’t fucking lie to your mother,” Boston snaps.

“You have to put five dollars in the swear jar, Daddy,” Zhavia says, crawling through Boston’s legs and into the room. She lifts her big blue princess dress as she stands, revealing her damn boots underneath.

“Zadom didn’t do it,” Zhavia says sweetly, batting her eyelashes at her father.

“Did what?” I ask.

“Made their handlers quit,” Boston replies. “Someone gave John laxatives in his coffee this morning, so much he is now in hospital.”

Zadom snickers, and Zhavia shoots him a glare, shutting him up instantly.

“Zhavia?” I question.

“Fine, it was me, but he deserved it. He was mean to Zadom, and I didn’t like it.”

“And what about the others?” I ask, afraid of what Boston is about to say.

“Samuel is blue, like Smurf blue. The water guns they sprayed him with were full of dye. No one wants to work alongside them anymore, and they are not old enough to be alone.”

“Then we need a team that isn’t afraid to give as good as they get,” I reply. “I have just the team, but they’re not ready for missions quite yet. After a small mishap, they need to prove themselves.”

“What team?” Boston asks, raising an inquisitive brow.

“The Swift Six.”

Zadom laughs. “What sort of shit name is that?”

“Are you sure you trust them with our kids? Chester won’t be happy,” Boston adds, shaking his head.

“They want in on a mission and will do whatever it takes to prove themselves. Leave Chester to me.”

“Can we go now, Mum? Lynx thinks he can beat me in an arm wrestle and keeps telling me I’m not stronger than any of the boys.”

“Can you both promise me not to play pranks on your new handlers?”

“Yes, Mummy,” Zhavia answers, batting her eyelashes at me.

“Sure,” Zadom says with a shrug.

“I can see you both crossing your fingers,” Boston says with a laugh. “Get out of here.”

“Thanks, Daddy. You’re the best.” Zhavia throws herself at Boston, and he catches her, spinning her around in the air.

“Who is Daddy’s favourite girl?”

“Mummy. I’m your kick-ass princess.”

She leans in and gives Boston a kiss, and he gently puts her down. She adjusts her princess dress, then she and her brother both run from the room. At this rate, we will never be able to keep handlers around.

Creed and I have been wandering the halls of the Olympia primary school for fifteen minutes, looking for our children. Well, not just them—their entire team is missing. It’s been a week since we hired Team Swift Six, and even they are not answering their immediate alerts.

Marlow has tracked all their mobile phones to the swimming pool. It is just like our children to convince their handlers to go for a swim before lunch. Which probably means our children have dirt on their team already and are blackmailing them. But that also means they have hacked into our system again—damn kids keep outsmarting all our technology. Brilliant idea, Mr Z, let’s breed kids with all their fathers’ abilities along with mine and have sneaky little masterminds on our hands.

We enter the building where the indoor pools are located, the humidity instantly making me sweat. They better be here.

“Not so funny now, are we?” someone says from the pool area. Both Creed and I pick up our speed, not liking the tone of his voice and our children somehow being a part of it. The scene before us has Creed stepping forward, and a growl vibrating through his chest.

“Hold on a second,” I tell him. “Let’s see what they do.”

Zhavia, Zadom, and the rest of their team are hog-tied. Zhavia is standing at the edge of a diving board, while the rest are standing closer to the wall. No one has seen us yet, and Creed and I move into the shadows, watching.

“If they hurt my princess, I will rip their throats out.”

I shush him. “They won’t, but maybe this is what they need to realise their handlers won’t take their shit.”

“If you hurt her, I will slit your throat and piss down your neck!” Zadom spits.

Creed snorts from beside me.

“It’s not funny—he is ten. He shouldn’t be saying shit like that.”

“Have you heard the shit Chester says? It’s no wonder he has picked up on that talk.”

“And I will light you on fire,” Hayes, Summer’s son, yells out.

“Yeah, and I will slap you in the face with my dick,” Kyro, Colt’s son, says with an evil laugh.

I watch Cruze, Jimmie’s son and Lynx, Blayne’s son, move closer to each other. And I smile—they are distracting them so one can get to Zhavia.

“You won’t do shit. If you move, we push her into the pool. How long do you think princesses can hold their breath for?”

“Almost two minutes,” Kyro beams proudly.

“Just long enough for me to do this,” Lynx says, pulling a small Swiss army knife from behind his back and stabbing the guy closest to him in the leg. The teenager yells out, and Zhavia jumps from the board. I gasp, my heart beating a million miles a minute. Watching these bloody kids will give me a heart attack. Cruze jumps into the pool and pulls Zhavia to the surface. Creed and I take that as our cue and step out, and Creed claps.

“All of you to the facility... now ,” Creed booms.

“Don’t you think they’re too young?” I argue.

“No, I will make it age appropriate.”

“Thanks, boss man,” one of the teenagers says, clapping Creed on the shoulder. Creed grabs the kid’s hand, twists, and has the kid screaming. The rest of his team members step forward but think twice about interfering.

“You’re all going, now move.”

Creed releases the kid, and everyone moves from the room. The facility is now our equivalent to the crap Mr Z put everyone through when they fucked up. Ours pushes our students mentally and physically, but not to the point we would ever hurt them. Punishment is more military bootcamp style.

“Call Chester and ask him to meet me there. I think some of these kids need to be pushed a tad harder than the rest.”