Project Trouble X Three

Dedicated to oddball, PenumbraMINE and N.Y.O.B. You make me want to laugh and cheer at your comments. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I cut in, “Yeah, I made sure to let them know Sophia was worse than me, considering they saw me as a sniffling coward, afraid of any jaguars.” I started chuckling, even more, my family joining me.

“Very good job, Cat,” my mom praised. “You are just like me when I was close to your age. I was afraid you would give yourself away. I know how your eyes flash when you’re pissed.”

“I made sure to look down on the ground when they would order me to do something, so I hid my fire,” I told her. “But, you need to let Madrid speak to Martim. It’s important, Mom and Dad.”

“I’m here, Cat Good job, you’ve impressed me, but I should have known you could handle yourself. Now, give your earwig to Martim, I need to speak to him in private for a few minutes, okay” Madrid asked me softly, but I could hear a growl laced under his words.

“Okay.” I handed the earwig to Martim. “But, don’t you dare give him the talk about treating me right. He’s been a gentleman since I met him.” I knew he would say something back but I didn’t have an earwig to listen to his words.

I walked back over to the kitchen, so I wouldn’t be tempted to hear Martim’s words to Madrid. I looked in the cooler and found some pork to cook for our dinner, lunch, or is it dinner? It didn’t matter. I checked in the other containers, finding a blade and a Glock 9. I wanted to laugh because I knew my dad made sure I had my weapons. I found some spices in another container. I looked around for another container. I knew there would be one with cooking oil and some kind of side.

I searched the room with my eyes first, not finding a damn container. Well, I guess it was time to search another way. I decided I needed to think as if I was my dad. I ran my hands over the walls, pushing as I went across the walls. I heard a click, the wall opening with a flourish. The eye scanner popped up first. After I looked into the security device another one popped up. Okay, security was tight for this particular cut out.

When the wall opened I felt my breath whoosh out of my lungs. I was looking at weapons, a bunch of weapons. Handguns, long-range rifles, protection suits, dynamite, claymores, a bow and arrows with some sort of sight on them, and a ballistic missile. "Who the hell keeps this many weapons in their walls?"

“I do,” Martim answered my unasked question from behind me.

I jumped a mile and a half, clutching my chest hard. Damn it, I never heard him approach me. “Damn it!” I gasped in a huge breath. “You need to wear a bell. And, I never asked you a question.”

“Sorry. You asked your question out loud,” he told me as I flushed bright red. My ears were burning and I was sure I looked like a bright juicy tomato.

“Uh, okay.” I shook my head at my stupidity. “So, why do you have this many weapons in the wall?”

“Your dad told me what he needed and we slowly brought it here. We had to change our appearance and look as if we were big-game hunters along with crates with false bottoms. It also didn’t hurt that we knew the cat who was inspecting our crates. His mate had been taken and abused. He wanted to help do his part to end this madness.”

“I think we need to bomb the whole compound. It would keep the cartel out for a while if they didn’t have a place to live. It might deter them from their kidnapping of the woman.”

“And we will. It was a plan your dad came up with. He-”

“-His plan?” I chuckled at the thought. “It was me who came up with the plan. I’m going to get him for stealing my idea. I asked him a year ago why we didn’t bomb the place.”

I watched Martim’s expression change as his eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Oh, you need to get him alright. I can’t believe he took credit for the plan, well, not credit but it was implied. Sneaky bastard.”

I smirked, nodding my head yes.”Where is the container with oil and sides? I’ve looked for it everywhere.” Martim walked to a wall, one I hadn’t checked yet. “How long were you watching me go around the walls?”

“Not long.” He pulled at the collar of the shirt, one he had changed into since we got here.

“Yeah, right,” I sarcastically commented as I went to the wall and pressed on it, scanning everything. The wall opened up without a sound. I opened the tote and looked to see what he had, finding the oil, some spices,, and deserts. I pulled what I needed and shut the tote, closing the wall. I headed to the kitchen and unloaded my arms.

“I’m sorry the kitchen is so small. We didn’t have time to fix anything elaborate,” my shadow, aka Martim, said.

“No problem. I can cook anywhere, even a campfire. I can start a campfire easier than those bumbling idiots did,” I answered as I started chopping the onion and bell peppers.

“Damn, Cat, are you proficient with blades too?” I nodded my head, still chopping the onions and peppers. “Uh, I knew you could start a campfire. I thought you were about to tell the leader you could do it better, but then your face went back to your scared face.”

“Yeah, because I came close to telling him he was doing it wrong. Thank God I caught myself before my mouth could sell me out. It killed me to act as if I was my sister. She’s afraid of everything. And, the title of princess goes to her,” I told him as I moved around the kitchen heating up a skillet and dropping some oil, the onion, and bell peppers in it. I lightly browned the pork chops and transferred them into a dutch oven, adding water, more onions, and bell peppers, setting the lid on it.

I turned around to my mate and almost slid to the ground. A vision so sharp hit me and knocked me side-ways. I could see a lot more of my previous life than I did before. I watched as we went against the twins. There was blood, death, carnage. I almost puked when I saw myself laying in Martim’s arms. I was dead, a river of blood coming from my chest. I watched everything rewind, hearing Martim’s voice say, ‘remember’. I watched the whole scene to the very end, noticing a few things we could have done differently.

I came out of the vision and was shaking at the intensity of it. I was laying in Martim’s arms, feeling as if I belonged there. He was rubbing my back and murmuring his love in my ear. I took a huge breath and blew it out before sitting up. “I’m okay. Sorry, the vision was very strong but I took notes on everything we did wrong. I need to write them down as quickly as possible, okay?”

Martim smiled and set me on the bed, pulling a tote from under the bed. He brought out a pad of paper and a pen to me and sat down beside me. I gulped at my amazing mate’s body and quickly looked down to hide my blush, using the reason of writing down my notes. I had a lot of notes by the time I was finished. I didn’t remember seeing all the things I had written down but I had always been able to take a glance at any situation and see more than I thought, it was what made me a good fighter.

I could see the battle in the back of my mind, attempting to look at my dead self. But, I realized I needed my focus to be on me if I was to figure out how to combat my death as well as others. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but nothing in life was easy. I closed my eyes and focused on myself, not blinking once. I knew I was panting at the pain on Martim’s face but I got what I needed.

I sat up, not realizing I had laid down, and gasped. Martim was leaning over me, his open palm held up as if he was going to slap me. I knew he was only trying to get me to snap out of the vision but I still glared at him.

Martim put his hand down, a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry, Cat, I was worried you were lost. You’ve been out for forty-minutes. You were twitching as if you were fighting or lining up moves. I was scared I was going to lose you again.”

I put my hand on his jaw. “You did pull me out of the vision by your words. I was following along with the vision by moving to each person and copying their moves, including the twins.”

“What?” He asked, his eyes wide on mine as I nodded my head. “You’re awesome, Cat. I didn’t think to go through the moves everyone made that day.”

I chuckled, the sound cutting off when I heard the monkey’s go bat-shit crazy.