Project Trouble X Three

A/N: To all of you who are reading my book, thank you. You’re a rock star. A very warm thank you to oddball, N.Y..O.B., PenumbraMINE, and Jo Jo Sprout.

Y’all ROCK!

Recap

“Let’s get you into…” he trailed off when he noticed my uncovered sex, gulping loudly soon after. He looked up at me and shook his head. He leaned up and lifted my butt off the seat I was on, placing the bottoms to my swimsuit under me. He pulled the ties up on the left side and quickly tied them, doing the same on the right side.

I raised one eyebrow and smiled at him. “What?” I asked innocently. I was kinda wet and I knew he had smelt it. I was trying not to blush by teasing him.

He shook his head and picked me up, pecking my forehead. “Naughty girl.” I laughed as he walked out of the curtained area to the jacuzzi tub. I noticed Sophia was already in her tub and looked as if she was in bliss.

Martim sat me in the tub and I sighed. Sophia had a reason to look blissful. The jacuzzi was heaven as it took away the hell I had been in. I could feel my muscles repairing themselves. I was so happy that I had a huge grin on my face, but it faded when I saw who was in the room.

“I’m sorry,” my mom said.

Cats POV

Martim’s head snapped over to my mom but he didn’t say a word, he glared though. I knew he was upset, but this was my battle. A sorry was not going to fix things with us. If Sophia wanted to accept her apology then okay, but I wasn’t.

“You mean for almost killing Sophia and I?” I said, my tone flat and my face emotionless.

I could tell she wanted to yell at me for being disrespectful, but I had had enough and I wasn’t going to let her get by with her actions. I wasn’t a little girl anymore - I hadn’t been a little girl in a long time, “I said I was sorry, what more do you want me to do?”

“Y-you expected me to accept your apology and everything would go back to normal, you would be wrong. Do you not understand that you could have killed us?” She opened her mouth to speak but I held up my hand. “No! You have put us back several weeks. It will take us that long to get our strength back. But, no, you thought you knew better than Doc did. You thought you knew better than my mate. You need to leave before I start telling what I really think, because I can guarantee you like what I have to say.”

She thought wrong

I turned my back on my mother and heard her sigh as she stood up. “I really am sorry and I hope you can forgive me one day. But, you are right, I should have listened to everyone. They kept telling me to stop, but I didn’t want you to die.” I waited for her footsteps to fade before I turned back around and met my mates eyes.

“Relax. We will sort everything out later. I know you don’t hate your mom, you only hate what she did,” Martim told me. He was right. I didn’t hate her, but I strongly disliked her.

Very strongly disliked her

“I want to get back to fighting form,” I sadly said.

I saw Martim nod and I relaxed my body even more. I couldn’t figure out my mom. Why in the hell did she try to hurt us? Was she trained the same kind of way we were? I knew she wanted us to be tough, that she wanted us to work off each. I was so confused with her actions. She made me feel as if I was inferior, as if I was a stupid kid.

I shook my head at my thoughts. I wasn’t going to let her make me feel bad. I was tough and strong, well, I was. I don’t ever remember being this weak. When I reached the age of ten I knew how to fight, and I had a powerful punch.

I hated it. I hated feeling as if I was a newborn kitten. I wanted, no, I needed to get back to full strength. We had a battle to get through, then I was going to have my dad call the cartel leaders so we can have a meeting. We needed to let them know, in no uncertain terms, that we did not want to be a leader in the cartels, that we didn’t want anything to do with the cartels. And, if it was a war they wanted, then a war they would get.

“Uh-oh, what has a sly grin on your face?” Martim asked, causing me to jump.

“I was thinking we needed to have a talk with the cartels and let them know for certain we don’t want to be cartel leaders. We would need to wait until after our battle with the twins.”

“What?” Martim asked as he gaped at me.

I laughed at him. “Hey, it might be a good idea to let them know to leave us alone.”

“No, they would try to kill us and each other. The cartel leaders hate each other, so getting them all to sit down and talk will be out of the question,” my mate explained.

I smiled a bright smile. “Not if we kidnap each of them.”

I could tell Martim was thinking about what I said. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at me. “It might work, but it might also get us killed.”

“Oh come on. The cartel leaders don’t think about having security teams around them. They think they are invincible and no one can get them. Yes, they have high tech security, but not enough to keep me out.”

“We will talk about it after the battle, okay?” I nodded my head, but I was already distracted about how I could kidnap them, how we could get information on each one without the cartel leaders knowing. I could hack into their computers, but if they are anything like me their computers would let them know right away. I could hack their stuff and mirror their computer to mine. It would make their computer putty in my own hands - which I could get excited about.

“Come on before you turn into a prune. I want you and Sophia to eat, okay?” Martim asked as he pulled me out of the water and wrapped a towel around me. I saw Doc pick up Sophia and wrap her in a towel before we left to go back to? We didn’t go back the way we went but towards our bedrooms, well, what I assumed was our bedrooms.

Martim walked into the room and made a bee-line to the bed, Doc and Sophia following. Doc left the room and came back with two I.V. poles and hooked us back up to our drips. He fiddled around with the controls as Martim walked back over with big t-shirts for us.

“We are going to put the t-shirts over your heads and then we take off your swimsuits from under your shirts, okay?’ Martim asked as I nodded and yawned. I looked over at Sophia to see her nodding too.

Flame came in and helped Sophia put her shirt on. Martim sat down on the edge of my bed and put the t-shirt over my head. He reached under my shirt and untied my top. I shivered when he touched my boob on accident. He untied the strings from around my neck and pulled my swimsuit top off. He threw the top over a chair and reached down and pulled my swimsuit bottoms off, throwing them on the chair too. I watched him walk, to what I assumed, was the bathroom, coming out a minute later.

“Get some sleep, Cat, I’m going to see what I can make you two to eat, so rest,” Martim gently said. I smiled and tried to pull the covers over me, but my damned arms wouldn’t let me pick up the sheet. Martim walked back over to me and covered me up, kissing my forehead as he did. I relaxed and closed my eyes. I was asleep in minutes.

My stomach woke me up. It was rumbling and growling all at the same time. I felt as if I was starving and hadn’t eaten in ages. I looked around the room and saw Martim asleep on a cot next to me. I noticed I was back in the Med room.

I ran my hands through Martim’s hair. He instantly woke up and pounced on me, kissing me all over.

“You act like you haven’t seen me in ages, Martim,” I whispered, my throat dry.

Martim handed me a cup of water. “You’ve been out a week, Cat. We were worried about you not waking up again.”

My eyes widened. “No wonder I feel well rested.” I ran my hands down my face. Wait! I ran my hands down my face. I moved my legs to see if they were working too. “I can move my arms and legs, Martim,” I excitedly said.

“I’ve been doing exercises on your arms and legs. Doc showed me how to keep your arms and legs from atrophying. Do you think you can stand up?”

I moved to slide my legs on the floor and slowly got up. I didn’t want to get a head rush and fall down on my face. I was weak but I was better. “Where’s Sophia?”

“She’s in the training room working out. She woke up three days ago. Come on, I know some people who will be glad to see you back up on your feet. But, you need to work up your strength.” He looked me in my eyes. “But, you need to take baby steps to get your strength back.”

I nodded my head and we slowly walked out of my room, Martim helping me a lot. We walked down the hallway and I was already huffing and puffing. Martim didn’t say anything about my shape and kept walking towards the main cavern.

We walked into the cavern and all conversation stopped. It was as if they sensed me and as one they all turned towards me. “That wasn’t creepy at all, guys.” Of course, we all laughed as Martim walked me over to the table. “So, what’s up?”

“You!” They all shouted. I rolled my eyes at the guys just as my stomach growled, sounding as if Madrid’s tiger was running loose.

“I’m going to go fix you a plate of chicken and dumplings, then you are going to eat some fruit,” Martim kind of ordered. I nodded my head and listened to all the conversation around me. I could tell my mom wanted to talk to me, but she held off. My dad came over and carefully hugged me.

“Glad to see you back, kiddo.” He kissed my hair. “I was afraid I was going to lose you.”

I hugged him back. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. Don’t you know I’m a tough bitch,” I said as he snorted at me words.

“I know,” he said. He kissed my head again and walked back over to my mom. I could see the tears in my moms eyes and I knew I would have to talk to her eventually. I nodded at her and she practically jumped over the table.

“I’m sorry. I really am. I was trained to be tough, but I never thought it might actually kill you. I won’t do it again. Please forgive me,” my mom cried.

Forgive or not?