Project Trouble X Three

Dedicated to all of you. Thank you, oddball, Jo Jo Sprout, PenumbraMINE, and N.Y.O.B. You are the BEST.

Recap

Eagle shook his head and set up his harness. He took a few deep breaths and hit the button on the harness. He started quickly spinning, but it was taking him longer to get settled. “Look straight ahead, Eagle,” I told him through our mic. He looked straight ahead and fired. He completely missed the target. He settled back on the ground and started puking his guts up.

“Well, that was fun, not,” he sarcastically said as he looked up at me.

“Sorry, I didn’t think it would bother you so bad.”

“I hate spinning, Cat, didn’t you know that?” I shook my no. “Oh, sorry. So, time to train.”

I knew he changed the subject. I wasn’t going to have anyone say anything about me winning. It was a competition but it was also to show Cruz that he didn’t know everything.

“I can do it,” I heard Cruz stupidly say.

Cats POV

I turned back towards him and didn’t say a word when I handed him my harness. If he wanted to be laughed at I wasn’t going to say anything, plus this would teach him a lesson in humility.

Maybe

I looked over at Sophia and caught her rolling her eyes at Cruz. She knew he would fail, hell, he couldn’t hit the target standing straight up. I decided to walk over to her and watch. “So, twenty bucks says he pukes in the air,” I whispered to her.

“Ha! Sure I would take a bet on that, not. We both know he will.” I nodded my head. “And, we both know he’s going to make a fool out of himself and get mad.”

“Yep.” I looked at her. “You’re doing a great job, by the way.”

“Thanks, Cat.” She looked down. “I’m sorry for treating you the way I have. You were right about me acting as if I was a princess. I’m sorry.”

I turned my body towards her and raised her head. “It’s enough for me that you are taking this all seriously. But, thank you for apologizing. I’ve said some hateful things myself out of frustration, so let’s agree to forgive each other, okay?” She nodded her head and smiled.

We both heard Cruz give his consent to go. Eagle slammed his hand on the button and everyone moved back even further. Sophia and I snickered and watched Cruz start spinning quickly. It wasn’t a second later that he was spraying puke everywhere.

“Let him down, Eagle, please,” I said through the mic as I held my nose. Eagle hit the stop button and lowered Cruz to the ground.

In his own puke

Our mom and dad walked into the training room and looked at Cruz. “I suggest you clean this up before training starts again in two hours,” our mom said in a tone that meant business.

“What? Cat should have to clean this up! It was her fault I puked!” He yelled as he angrily looked at me. I raised a brow at him, letting him know he was an idiot.

“How is this Cat’s fault?” Our father asked Cruz, his arms crossed over his chest.

“She made it spin faster for me, and only me.”

“Say what? The button only has one speed,” I stated, a frown on my face at his words.

“You lie!” Cruz yelled at me.

Hell to the no

I quickly walked over to Cruz as he backed away from me. I backed him into a wall, my jaguar looking at him through my eyes. “I. Don’t. Lie. Ever. You got that?” I stepped back and watched him. His breath was heavy and his face was still a little green. But, the longer he stood there the angrier he got.

I stepped back again as he shifted into his jaguar and came at me. He jumped in the air and I slammed him into the ground with one hand. I grabbed his jaws with my other hands and looked him in the eyes. “That was stupid,” I gritted out.

“Change back, now!” My dad yelled as he walked over. “I said now!”

I slowly backed away and stood next to Sophia again. I couldn’t believe he was dumb enough to come at me. What was wrong with him? He was doing what Sophia did from before.

“Did I look as stupid as he does?” Sophia whispered, her eyes wide. I nodded my head. “Oh. I don’t want to look like him ever again, so don’t let me, please.”

“I won’t. You have it in you to do great things, Sophia. I know you don’t want to kill anyone, but if it’s your life or your family’s life you need to learn to let go. If you don’t you could get us or you killed quickly.”

“I understand.”

Cruz had shifted back to his human self, the body suit still on him. Dad had gotten him a bucket and mop, another bucket sitting next to it. I could tell Cruz was still mad and I knew I would have to watch my back, but I always watched my back. I followed our mom and the Shadow Cat’s back to the main cavern.

“Well, that was intense,” Hollywood commented as he sat down. I rolled my eyes, chuckling at his comment.

“I don’t understand why he got so mad when he knew he would fail. He couldn’t shoot any of the targets. Your dad and I were watching everything,” our mom commented as she turned to us. “Oh, and, Sophia, I’m proud of you. You did a great job. You listened to what everyone said around you, plus, you could hit the bullseye.” Sophia started laughing, the rest of us joining her.

I sobered up first and looked at our mom. “She did do great. But, it was as if her and Cruz changed places.” My mom and Sophia nodded. “Can I call him princess now?” I evilly asked as my mom tried hard not to laugh.

“No, please don’t,” Madrid begged as he walked around the corner. I shook my head at his pale face, but I knew I wouldn’t call Cruz anything unless he got much worse.

“I won’t, well, unless he pisses me off to the point of no return.”

Our dad came around the corner with Cruz following him. “Sorry,” Cruz sarcastically said. I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. I knew he wasn’t going to be nice but I didn’t care. I couldn’t understand why he was so pissed at me. He was doing great before. I had to wonder if he was jealous of Sophia or something. It couldn’t have been Sophia considering he woke up with a chip on his shoulder.

I shook my head when I heard a low alarm go off. I looked at my wrist and saw the cartel grunts about five miles out. I looked around with the camera’s, making sure there was no one else around. I popped a small burst of my scent, Sophia's, and Cruz’s scents on the ground. I made sure to set the next three bursts, only using Sophia’s scent, but did a heavier burst at the area around the bunker. I wanted to lead them to the bunker but not look too obvious. I had used Cruz’s and my scent before so it would look as if we were scared but then remembered to hide our scents.

I turned back around to see everyone looking at me. “What?” I asked, noticing I had set up everything on the wall from my watch. “Oh.” I was used to putting the camera up, I had automatically set it up. I shrugged and walked back over to the table, bringing the screen up in front of me.

“How did you know how to do everything?” Tesso asked me as Martim pulled me into his arms

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. It was as if I dreamt it,” I told him as I completely relaxed in Martims arms. My jaguar was purring in contentment. I chuckled at her internally. She was laying on her back and purring.

“Leave me alone, Cat. I want our mate and he wants us.” She sighed. “But, he knows we need to wait until this is over.” I knew she was speaking the truth about what Martim wanted. I could feel his erection against my butt. It was the reason I wasn’t squirming in his lap. And, I wanted him too. I did from the first moment I saw him. He was sexy and he didn’t even know it. I had caught Sophia looking at him a few times, lust in her eyes. I was ready to scratch her eyes out and teach her not to look at my man, but I held myself back, trusting Martim to diffuse the situation.

Mom and Sophia were making dinner, our mom watching her closely - which I was very thankful for. Sophia didn’t know how to cook, hell, she burnt the kitchen counter by making toast. Cruz wasn’t much better at cooking himself. The last time he boiled water he left the pan on the stove until the water was gone and the pan started stinking. He had burnt water and our mom never let him help in the kitchen again.

I heard the alarm go off again, but knew we were okay. “What the hell?” Madrid yelled out.

I quickly looked at the screen and then looked at Tesso. What the hell indeed. “Tesso, is there something you would like to share with the class?” I asked as I turned my head to him.

“Uh, I have a twin brother in the cartel. It was the reason I joined the military. I wanted to put an end to the cartels, thinking he would stop standing with them,” Tesso quickly said, a sad look in his eyes.

I heard, “What the fuck?” My head whipped around as Tesso’s brother was hitting the correct symbols, effectively stopping the security to the bunker.

“Tesso?”

A/N: So, is Tesso dirty or what? How did Tesso's brother get the codes?