Project Trouble X Three

Dedicated to oddball, PenumbraMINE, and N.Y.O.B. You guys rock. Love all your comments.

Recap

“Four more what?” I asked, making the men jump as if they were scalded cats. I had snuck up on them, shocking the hell out of them.

“Damn it! You need to wear bells around your feet,” Digger scolded me as I laughed at his words. I could still walk quiet and he knew it.

“Four more what? I looked at the monitors and nodded as I shrugged my shoulders and walked back over to the island.

“It doesn’t bother you that he’s killing the cartel?” Digger asked me.

I shook my head. “Nope. Well, as long as he saves me the three shits who cat-napped me.” The guys started laughing as I gave them a cheeky wink.

“He had his chance to kill them but he let them go after giving us a cheeky wink, too,” Dragon informed me.

“Cool” I turned to get the hamburger meat out of the microwave when I felt air coming from somewhere.

Cats POV

“Cool” I turned to get the hamburger meat out of the microwave when I felt air coming from somewhere. I crouched down and grabbed the knife I was cutting the food with. I grabbed my other blade from my shit-kickers and twirled them in my hand. I looked at the guys and noticed they hadn’t moved and rolled my eyes.

“Get down,” I whispered in their earwigs. They turned to look at me when two blades were thrown at them. I knew I couldn’t throw the only weapons I had. I could only pray the guys moved quickly. I looked to where the blades were thrown and back at the guys. The guys had blades in their shirt sleeves. I decided I better roll before I’m hit with one myself.

I rolled and came up in a crouch. “Very good, Cat.. You were the only one who knew we had come in. You took action quickly and quietly,” my dad told me as I huffed and stood up.

I crossed my arms over my chest, my blades still in my hands. “Really? A lesson?”

“You betcha, Cat,” Madrid said as he walked into the room.

“And, mom must have been the one who threw the blades, right, Mom,” I said, an eyebrow cocked when she stepped out, my brother and sister following her.

“How did you know it was me?” She asked as I laughed.

“You taught me to throw, remember? I know how very good you are with blades,” I sassed as I laughed even harder. “How did you get in here?”

“Uh, through some more tunnels. We have tunnels everywhere,” my dad answered as he gave me a kiss on the forehead.

I shook my head and walked back over to the kitchen, pulling the hamburger meat out of the microwave. I grabbed a huge post and added a little bit of oil into it, adding the hamburger meat, the onions, the bell peppers, and the garlic. I stirred it around with a wooden spoon and grabbed five cans of spaghetti sauce out of the pantry. I grabbed four cans of diced tomatoes and set them on the counter by the meat. I grabbed another huge pot and filled it with water and set it on the burner, turning it on

“Are you okay, Cat?” Sophia asked me quietly. What? Did she think I was scared and raped?

I turned to her and saw she was only worried about me, so I cut off my sarcastic reply. “I’m fine. I didn’t let those bastards touch me, but I did touch them with food poisoning. You will get to meet them later when I kill them.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t want to kill anyone or see any of my family kill anyone,” she told me.

I whipped around quickly and huffed. “Then what in the hell are you doing here? Do you not want to stop these cartels? I, for one, want them to leave us alone.”

“Mom made me come. She said I could stay here until the battle was over,” I heard her say but couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I knew there was shock written all over my face.

“Why? Didn’t you get the same training as I didn?” I asked as I looked her in the eye.

“No. I trained with dad but not with mom or the guys. I don’t want to kill unless I need to protect myself,” she said as she crossed her arms and stomped her foot.

“Yep, definitely the princess,” I muttered as I turned away from her and stirred the meat in the pan. I couldn’t believe I had pegged her perfectly when I had to act. Shit, I was so good they bought everything, even the boat captain wasn’t sure at first.

“Don’t turn your back on me and call me a princess, princess,” Sophia hissed, causing everyone to turn towards us. “You don’t get to act all high and mighty.”

“I’m no princess. I can’t believe I acted like you the whole time the guys had me. I had to cry, look down to hide the fire in my eyes, acted as if I couldn’t do a damn thing. It was degrading, hard as hell and stupid. I could have slit their throats where they stood but I needed information.” I took a huge breath. “I had to channel you, Princess!” I yelled and walked off to get my head on straight. I was mad as hell.

I stomped into the training room and into the blade training area. I threw blades one after another. I stopped when I ran out of blades. I sank down on the floor, deflating as if I was a balloon. My anger was gone and now I felt remorse. I didn’t mean to tell Sophia I had acted as her. I was so angry at her for not wanting to help her family when I should have understood. She didn’t want to kill. There was nothing wrong with her way of thinking and I wondered if my brother felt the same.

“I don’t feel the same way, Cat,” Cruz answered my unspoken question. We were all connected and could feel each other’s emotions, Cruz and me were closer than Sophia and me.

I nodded my head. “I know. I shouldn’t have gotten mad at her, but when she hissed at me it was as if I was a lit fuse.”

“True, but she could have handled it better too. She went crying to dad. Mom wasn’t happy at her attitude or her crying, but you know how mom is about crying women-”

“-Be strong. Never let them see you cry Women aren’t sissys,” I said, the litany that had learned my whole life.

Cruz nodded. “Come on, Cat, you don’t want dad or Sophia to finish dinner, do you?”

I stood up quickly as I shook my head. “Come on, Cruz, Sophia’s liable to burn down the kitchen.” I moved quickly to the stove, noticing my mom stirring everything together. I sighed and thank the heavens she had finished it.

“What do you take me for, an idiot? I know what would have happened if Sophia would have tried to finish the food,” my mom quietly whispered as I wiped the, imaginary, sweat off my face, causing my mom to let out a bark of laughter.

My mom and I finished the food and set up the big table with silverware, hotpads, and paper plates, Yeah, paper plates. We didn’t want to do dishes for all of us. I hadn’t noticed the other twenty Shadow Cat’s until I saw them come out of the hallway from their barracks. I knew everyone. Hell, I had trained with all of them and I knew what was coming.

“Aw, there’s our little Cat,” Phoenix said as he came towards me. I ducked down and waited for my moment. I knew they were going to try something, they always did, but I could get out of anything and they knew it, well, unless they had picked up new moves.

I pulled my top shirt off and used my blade to hold it up a little. “Gotcha!” Phoenix yelled as he grabbed the scrap of my shirt. I let him grab and jumped up, flipping over the counter and landing quietly behind him.

I put my blade across his throat. “Nope, I think I’ve got you, loser,” I whispered, my family and the Shadow Cats laughed.

“Because she’s good. Very good, but if you go easy on her again I will ship you back to the states, understand?” Madrid asked in a low tone of voice, one with which we could hear.

“Yes, sir,” Phoenix answered as he saluted Madrid.

I shook my head at their antics and finished helping my mom set the food on the table, watching the Shadow Cat’s out of the corner of my eye. I had to make sure they didn’t do something to catch me off guard. It was a hard lesson to learn, the one where I had to be aware of surroundings constantly. I knew Cruz was okay with it but they expected me to be above my siblings training - which didn’t sound right to me. Maybe they knew how hard I trained my body.

We all sat down to eat, Priest sitting next to be with Dragon on the other side. Digger and my dad made a plate and sat down on the stools in front of the monitors. I knew they were watching out for my mate. I was also positive my dad was checking to see how my mate interacted with others. He wanted to know if my mate could fight and protect me. I had to roll my eyes at him and Digger.

“Whatcha rolling your eyes, Cat?” Dragon asked as he turned to me and cocked an eyebrow.

“Dad.” I sighed. “He’s making sure my mate can protect me. It’s ludicrous that he thinks I need protection. Who does he think I am, Sophia?” I whispered the last part, not wanting to hurt Sophia’s feelings even more.

Dragon chuckled. “Your dad is checking to see if he can handle you. He knows you can take care of yourself, but he needs to know Martim won’t get mad at you and hit you.”

“He would never hit me!” I hissed as Dragon held up his hands.

“I know that but dads are good about harassing their daughter’s mates. It’s nothing against you, it’s just him being a dad. It’s in the dad genes,” Dragon quickly whispered.

Dad genes?

I took a huge breath and nodded my head.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” My dad hissed as he looked at the screen. I ran over to the monitors with Dragon and looked at what he saw.