Project Trouble X Three

Thank you, thank you, for all the reads. Thank you to oddball, PenumbraMINE, N.Y.O.B., and Jo Jo Sprout. Y'all rock!

Recap

“Is something wrong with Cat?” I heard someone whisper.

I heard Dragon say, “Nah, she’s happy and not how to express it, so her face looks as if she is grimacing instead of smiling.

“Ha! Ha!” I glared at Dragon. “I’m happy, so fucking deal with it.” All the guys started laughing at my words, well, I hoped it was because of my words.

It was quiet, too quiet. I looked at my mom and dad. They were staring at each, their faces lit up from the computer screen. “Kiss her already, Dad!” I yelled, making them jump apart. My dad got the last laugh. He pulled my mom to him and dipped her backwards, kissing her as if life depended on it.

“Okay, kids, break it up. We need to still make a plan. We don’t know how much information Cruz has to give up.” Madrid paused. “And, you know he will give up anything else.”

“Can we use the tunnel to set up charges?” I asked, seeing my mom already shaking her no.

“No one’s been able to pick the lock on the cell door,” my mom told me as my heart sank.

Someone cleared their throat, making me snap my head to look at ...

Cats POV

Someone cleared their throat, making my head snap to look at Sophia.“What kind of lock is it?” Sophia asked.

“It’s the same kind we have here,” my mom absently said.

I looked over to Sophia and saw her eyes twinkling. She had a plan and I was going to like it. I would be her guinea pig. I nodded my head and walked towards her. “If anyone else wants to see Sophia break me out of the same kind of jail cell, then I suggest you move your asses.” Everyone jumped up and ran towards us.

“Uh, Mom, I don’t know where the cells are,” Sophia confessed, a look of shame on her face.

“I don’t either,” I told my mom and her, making sure Sophia knew there wasn’t any shame in asking a question. We had never used this bunker before, so we didn't know where anything was.

“This way.” Our mom took us to the training room and pushed on the wall. She scanned her retina and pushed codes into the computer. The wall slid soundlessly to the side. The cells were right in front of me. I didn’t even think about it, I walked into the cell and closed the door. My mom locked me in and pocketed the key. She stepped back and I leaned on the wall.

The guys stepped back and watched. “Sophia?” I called. “Relax. You’ve got this.” Sophia nodded her head and took a breath in and blew it out quietly. She pulled something out of her boots and I noticed they were two lock pics. I was about to tell her they wouldn’t work when I heard the lock click open.

I ran over to Sophia and picked her up, spinning her around. “You did it! I knew you could. I don’t even want to know how you learned to pick locks, do I?”

She laughed. “Well, I picked the lock of shit heads house and stole the pictures he had of me. I got better at picking locks when I opened his locker and stuffed it with cut outs of him with his best friend’s girlfriend.”

“You go, girl. You still need to practice. You may be rushed to open the lock and I need to be able to open in a few seconds, okay?” I asked and praised her. She nodded her head and smiled.

It didn’t take our mom but a minute to run over to her and hug Sophia tightly. “I’m so proud of you, Sophia.” I could tell Sophia wanted to cry but I knew she wouldn’t. She wanted to stay strong.

“Guys, go make plans, but harass Sophia a few times. She needs to learn to be quicker,” I told them. Sophia nodded her head enthusiastically. I knew she was excited to prove to all of us she could do it.

Sophias POV

I was excited to show everyone I could open the cell door. When I showed them I could tell everyone was happy and proud of me. But, now, I had to do it quicker with someone harassing me. I did understand why Cat wanted me to do it this way. I understood she wanted me to be ready in case I had to quickly get the cell door open. But, I was scared because I was going to be going into the lion’s den. The twins scared the shit out of me, but I had to have faith in myself or I would be too chicken to fight or unlock the cell door. I needed to be ready for anything and everything. I couldn’t wait to see the drug cartel’s place be blown to smithereens.

“Ready, Sophia?” Cat asked me. I nodded my head as Cat looked at her screen on her wrist. “You have ten seconds to get me out of here.” I took a huge breath and slowly let it out, keeping a running count down in my head. I twisted my pics and opened the cell door quicker than I did before.

I watched Flirt come around the corner. Cat was smirking at him as I held the cell door open. “She beat your timing.” Flirt smiled at me and left. I locked the cell door again and Sophia kept giving me times to beat. I messed up on the third time, but every other time I just beat their time.

“Alright, Sophia, you are doing a great job. Take a deep breath and let it out because you are only getting two seconds this time.” I nodded my head and started picking the lock as soon as Cat said go. I got the cell door in the nick of time and grinned at Madrid.

“Well, shit.” Madrid eyes widened. “Girl, you did great.” Madrid walked over to me and picked me up, spinning me around and around. “Time to get back to training with other things, okay?” I nodded, Cat following my example.

We walked into the training room and headed to the blade throwing area. I watched the guys practice until they noticed us. The guys moved to the walls and stood against them. I guess Cat and I were going to be throwing blades. I hoped I didn’t make a fool out of myself.

“Sophia, you go first, but remember to jaguar up, okay?” Cat asked me. I nodded my head and walked to the table. Cat helped me put on the harness for my blades and stepped back.

“Are you ready, Skillz?” I asked my jaguar.

“Let’s show these folks what we can when we work together!” Skillz yelled, making me laugh out loud.

I picked up the first blade and threw it into the heart of the furthest dummy. The next one went into the dummies head, and the next two went into the dummies crotch and heart.

“Woah, you just threw two blades, Sophia, good job. Can you throw three accurately?” Cat asked, much to my confusion. She wanted me to throw three blades at the same time? “Here, I’ll show you how to do it. Watch what I do. I know you can do this.”

I watched everything she did when you threw the three blades. She went over the steps three more times and motioned for me to try. I steadied myself by taking a deep breath in and slowly pushing it out. I had three blades up and out of my holster before I thought about it. All three blades hit their target areas - head, heart, and crotch.

“Great job, daughter!” My mom yelled and jumped up to run over to me. I rolled my eyes and waited for her to run me over, but she acted cool and calm as she walked over. At the last second she pounced on me and tightly squeezed me.

“Can’t.” I wheezed. “Breathe.” My mom let go of me for dad to do the same thing, all the other guys were next. I was happy when Cat only patted me on the back. I was proud of myself for picking things up quickly and couldn’t wait to show them more of what I could do.

“Who wants to shoot?” Eagle asked, a gleam in his eye. I knew my parents had never seen me shoot before.

I stupidly raised my hand. “I do.” I pulled my hand back down to my side, embarrassed I was putting it up in the first place. This wasn’t school. It was even close to being school, unless you called the school of hard knocks.

I heard the alarms go off on Cat’s wrist. Everyone halted in their tracks and turned towards Cat. Cat didn’t say anything, she put up what was happening on the screen. We all gasped. I was looking at a train wreck waiting to happen. I shuddered in my boots at the look on everyone’s faces. I knew we were in a race now. I could hear my mom weep for a second. When I looked back over at her, not wanting to see what was showing one the screen, she had a murderous look on her face. I knew then and there the twins were in for a party. And, it wasn’t one without presents of a deadly kind.

Cat turned up the sound. I knew this wasn’t easy on her, but she would do what was needed of her. I made a vow to myself, no one was going down on our side. I would do anything to protect all of us - even if it meant me dying. I didn’t want to die but I would if I had to.

I didn’t want to hear what was happening, but I knew I had to. I turned back to the screen on the wall and almost puked. I could hear the grunts and curses, but they weren’t on camera. We heard a gunshot and a scream. I had to cover my ears and hardened my heart.

I asked the one question everyone else was wondering. “Do you think this a ploy of Cruz’s and the cartel? Everything was off camera. We couldn’t tell if he faked it or not.”