Chapter Ten

Rafe

I point at him and then look at the others, “See proof that she doesn’t understand us.”

Peter scoffs, “She is a cat. She most likely understood you and decided to do it anyway.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, that’s more likely what happened.”

“I don’t know what’s going on right now, and quite frankly, I don’t feel like I’m going to care until I have coffee in me,” Cash says.

That makes all of us laugh. Cash is as grumpy as Ever in the morning without his coffee. None of us bother to explain what we were talking about to him since he’s not lying, and he really doesn’t care.

Pete and I work in companionable silence and when it comes time to take everything and start putting it on the table, Trick and Cash get up to help without me having to ask them to. The smells of breakfast must be doing the trick and waking them up because everyone is awake and sitting around the table by the time the table is fully set and all the food laid on it.

Smiling to myself I take my seat; it’s like magic how everyone appears. No one is dressed, everyone is in comfy clothes or pyjamas and we definitely all needed the late start today.

“Shadow is up in my room,” Ever says to Peter once she has started her second cup of coffee.

“I figured she would be she loves you,” Pete replies.

“She pushed me off the bed,” Cash grumbles.

There is a beat of silence before everyone bursts out laughing.

Ever lifts her mug so that it’s obscuring her smile and shrugs, “She wanted cuddles.”

“I wanted cuddles,” Cash retorts, with a twinkle in his eyes and an over-exaggerated pout on his lips.

Ever loses it and starts giggling, her laughter is infectious, and soon has everyone, including Cash laughing along with her.

"Dude, you're lucky she didn't kick you out when you came in this morning,” Trick replies with a laugh.

After that, everyone quickly turns their attention to eating, and the conversation pretty much stops for a while, as it always does when we first start eating. Around halfway through the meal, Cash turns to Trick.

“So, we’re all going through footage today?”

Trick nods and finishes his mouthful of food before he answers, “Yeah. We will go through as much as possible. I was thinking that we should check it a couple of hours before we arrived when HQ noticed that the cameras went down and thought it was us, and maybe even the days leading up to when we were there to see if there were any glitches on the cameras to indicate that someone was looking for things in the house before then.”

Riot nods in agreement as he says, “That is a really good idea. There is a chance that they have been going through the house for days trying to find the location of that file.”

“Exactly,” Trick nods.

“I’ve split the footage up equally and sent email links to all of you over the secure network.” Peter explains and then adds, “If you give me an hour, I can go back and split the data three days before as well to see if anyone came back.”

“Wow, thanks, Pete, that would be great,” Trick replies.

“No problem. I couldn’t sleep so thought I may as well do something productive with my extra time awake instead of watching TV, I still watched TV, but I worked too,” Pete replies with a chuckle.

“Everything okay?” I ask him concerned, although I am pretty sure I know why he couldn’t sleep.

“Yeah, I’m just missing Eli. The limited contact that we have when we go on jobs doesn’t help. I haven’t spoken to him for a few days.” Peter explains.

“He should be checking in today or tomorrow. I will make sure he gives you a call afterward.” Trick replies, and then adds, “Hopefully, it will be safe enough if he’s managed to call in an update.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Peter replies. He stands up from the table and grabs his plate, “I will go and get on with the footage, while you guys finish up. As I said, it hopefully won’t take me too long, and then we can all get started.”

“Thanks man,” Cash replies this time. Once Pete’s left the room he adds, “I was thinking that it might be a good idea to put a request in with Mr R to talk to the guy that we sent back with those other agents. He was pretty chatty so there is a good chance that he may give us the information that we need.”

Trick nods, “Good idea, and it is certainly worth a shot. I will message him now and put the request in. Obviously, I still want to go through all of the footage; he could lie to us or give us false information. It will all be easier if we have something to corroborate it against.”

“Exactly,” Cash replies. “Although he didn’t seem shy of telling us shit before, I mean, he told us to be careful with the file.”

“Yeah, that could have been a misdirect though,” Rage points out.

Cash’s eyebrows raise slightly as he mulls the idea over, “Yeah, I suppose you could be right.”

“Mr R has just replied,” Trick interrupts the conversation, “he says that it should be fine and to give him a day to let the Cottage know that we are coming so we don’t get shot.”

Ever chuckles, “You know, it’s still really weird to me that he decided to name the new holding center for the prisoners the Cottage.”

Trick grins, “Well, if anyone hears us talk about it, no one would suspect it for what it is, and technically, it does look like a cottage.”

“With a giant expanded basement where they keep the worst of the worst for questioning before they get shipped to their permanent new abodes or buried,” Jensen mutters.

“It makes a lot of sense not to bring prisoners back to headquarters and instead take them to a different location that holds no important information. Especially after the mole and all that shit that happened.” Atlas comments, sipping his coffee.

“Yeah, it does. I have no idea why they didn’t do it any sooner,” Trick replies. “I’m actually wondering if Mr R is going to move Headquarters after we’ve dealt with Hunt and the majority of his people.”

“If he doesn’t, I think we should suggest it,” Ever says, “It’s compromised now. That means it is not safe; there are a lot of people who need it to be safe, agents that call it their home, and information and weapons of all sorts are kept there. It needs to be as secure as possible and it’s not.”

“It will be one hell of a task to move it, but it would make the most sense. You can’t compromise or get sloppy in situations like this. It costs lives,” Luc adds.

“You’re right. The more I think about it, the more surprised I will be if he doesn’t have a plan to move it.” Riot agrees.

Ever stands up and drains her coffee before saying, “I’m going to go and check on Pete; he hates it when Elijah’s gone.”

“Okay, Sweetheart,” Trick replies for all of us.

The rest of us finish up our breakfast and then everyone helps to clear up the table and get everything put away before they all go back to their rooms to shower or get changed if they want to. Personally, I'm going to stay in what I’m wearing. I have no desire to get dressed properly today, especially since I am going to be staring at my laptop screen for goodness knows how long, looking for tiny glitches that may or may not be there.

Everyone else leaves and I glance at my phone, Peter has been gone for only ten minutes if that, I nod, yeah, I have got the time to make some cookies. Ever, in particular, gets snacky when she is having to do anything to do with tech. She is not a fan of anything to do with technology, and to be honest, it doesn’t seem to like her very much either.

I imagine that we are all going to get sucked into it as well, wanting to get it done as quickly as possible so that we can get some answers. Which means we are either going to skip dinner or get to dinner really late so we’re going to need something to keep us going.

Plus, any excuse to make cookies, I’m taking it.

It doesn’t take me long to mix up a batch for all of us. I have made these cookies so many times now that I don’t even need to look at the recipe anymore. When they are in the oven I check my phone again, they’re most likely not going to be cool by the time Pete’s done but I will leave them cooling on the racks and people can help themselves as and when they want them.

Ever

K nocking on Pete’s door, well, the door of the room he is staying in, I yell, “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” he yells back, looking at me weirdly when I walk through the door, “since when do you bother knocking?”

I frown, “Huh, I’m not sure, one second.”

I hear his laughter follow me as I go back out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I then burst back through it with a grin.

“That’s better,” he chuckles.

“I was just coming to check to see if you are, okay?” I ask as I bounce on his bed before sitting my ass down.

“Yeah, I’m good. It’s always hard when he is gone and then I feel really stupid about feeling that way because we are fully grown adults now, and shouldn’t I be okay with my partner going away?”

“Fuck off,” I blurt, and then when he looks at me with his eyebrow raised, I backtrack, “What I'm trying to say is, who says that is the way it has to be? You know full well that I hate to be away from my men; they are not just my partners but my best friends, too. It sucks. I think you handle it a hell of a lot better than I do or would, I am always a mess.”

Peter smiles and leans his head on my shoulder, “Thank you, Ever.”

“Anytime,” I reply, and then grin, “You know I’m not the only one. Lyric would be as bad as me, and Jynx, she likes to pretend she is the toughest out of us, but I reckon she would be the worse one if all of her men left her to her own devices for any length of time.” I shudder, “Can you imagine the carnage.”

Pete’s eyes widen, “Shit, you’re right. Can we get her men to sign something that makes them promise to never leave her all at once?”

“Erm,” I pretend to think about it, “I am sure we could get a lawyer somewhere to write something up. I bet we could even get D on board. It is for everyone’s best interest, really.”

He nods, his face serious for a moment, before we both burst out laughing.

After we have calmed down, he says, “I’ve only got a little more to do, are you staying in here while I do it?”

I nod, “Yeah, if you don’t mind. I would only be sitting somewhere else if I wasn’t sitting here, and you are watching one of my favorite shows.”

“I know,” Pete smirks and then shrugs as he adds, “I can never work in silence, I hate it. I always have to have something on in the background otherwise I somehow end up more distracted. I’m not even sure how that works.”

“I get that. I hate silence,” I agree as my eyes drift toward the TV, and he starts typing. I add, “But then, for the majority of my life, silence was bad; it meant something was about to happen that I wouldn’t like. It meant I wasn’t safe.”

I feel Pete’s eyes on me and turn to face him as I wince, “Shit, I didn’t mean to get all heavy on you then.”

“You know I don’t mind.” Pete says and then sensing I don’t want to elaborate or get into it he adds, “Love you.”

“Love you too,” I reply with a smile, my gaze moving to the TV again. “Now, hurry up and do your thing. I hate technology, and it hates me. I need to get this over and done with as quickly as I possibly can.”

Peter chuckles but doesn’t bother replying and is soon back in the zone, the only sounds in the room are the TV and his tapping on the keyboard, it's strangely soothing.

I quickly become absorbed into the show, and I have no idea how long passes before Peter’s clearing his throat.

“There, all done. That’s everything split up and sent to everyone’s secure emails.” He says with a proud smile.

“You’re amazeballs, you know that?” I say.

“I know,” he smirks. “Are you working in here?”

I shake my head reluctantly, “Nope. If I do it in here, I am going to find every excuse possible in order to distract us both, which isn’t going to help anyone, and only succeeded in making it take twice as long.”

Peter smirks, “You know, I think it’s good that you know yourself so well.”

“Shut up,” I retort, and then sniff the air like a weirdo, “do you smell cookies?”

Peter tilts his head to the side as he looks at me like I’m crazy before his eyes widen and he inhales deeply. He doesn’t confirm or deny whether I am right and instead races past me.

“I get first dibs!” he yells.

“You betrayer!” I yell back as I chase him down the hallway, I dodge several of the guys, who are on their way to the kitchen too, clearly having smelt the cookies as well, and as I pass Jensen, he starts running too, keeping pace with me.

He glances at me and whispers loudly out of the side of his mouth, “Why are we running?”

“If you don’t know why we’re running, why are you running with me?” I say back, laughter in my tone.

He shrugs while running, which is weird as hell, and then replies, “Just in case.”

I skid to halt in the kitchen, my eyes glancing around and land on the cookies in Pete’s hands, taking a step toward him, his eyes widen, and then he quickly points to the side where there are plenty of cookies on cooling racks just waiting to be eaten.

“They’re over there,” Peter adds, slightly panicked. I must look more feral than usual.

But cookies.

I need cookies. Always.

Jensen follows Peter’s pointing and grins, “Right, I’ve got it now. See, I did need to run. I could have missed out on cookies.”

Rafe chuckles, as he walks over, hands me a cookie, and kisses the top of my head, since I have immediately stuffed it in my mouth like the gremlin I am.

He levels Jensen with a look, “There are plenty of cookies for everyone. I made sure that I made enough like I usually do.”

Jensen shakes his head, already on his way to the cookies, “You say that, but I always want more; I never think you make enough.”

“That’s because you’re greedy,” Cash deadpans as he enters the kitchen.

Jensen holds his hands full of cookies up and says, “Whoa, that was a bit harsh.”

“True though,” Riot grins.

Jensen frowns, “What is this? Pick on Jensen day?”

“No, but we should definitely make that a thing,” Luc smirks.

“Right, fuck you all. I'm going to look through hours of boring footage,” Jensen says, a smile playing around the edge of his lips as he dramatically leaves the room.

Atlas looks at Peter, “Have you even finished sorting the footage yet?”

Peter chuckles, “Fortunately for him, I have. Just before Ever smelled the cookies, I sent them to your secure work emails.”

“Great, thanks, man,” Trick says and then adds to the rest of us, “I’m going to assume that we are all going to watch separately; if anyone finds anything, send out a message, and we will come to you to review it. Luc, I have just realized the only way for you to spot the glitches that signify that the footage has been messed with is to watch all of it, and I am not mean enough to make you do that. Is there anything that you can tell us that would help us identify the footage that has been tampered with?”

Luc looks visibly relieved that he doesn’t have to watch the whole thing and nods, “Yeah, it is pretty simple if you know what you are looking for. It’s like a little flicker in the top left corner of the screen. It is milliseconds long, and I have no idea why it only happens there, but that was the only sign that I had messed with the footage. So, unless they updated the system while I was gone and before he went to prison, I don’t think it will be any different. I will let you know if I spot anything different when I go through my footage.”

Trick nods, “Alright, sounds good. I think we can all handle that.”

“It’s not exactly rocket science,” Rage points out. “One of us should probably tell Jensen.”

Trick sighs, but looks amused as he replies, “Well, since you mentioned it, you can tell him.”

“Yeah, fair enough; I like working in the same room as him anyway. I’m going to take more cookies,” Rage warns, as he picks up a few more, sticking one in his mouth as he leaves the room and goes to find Jensen.

The rest of us take that as our cue and all grab more cookies too, I make myself a giant cup of coffee in the biggest travel mug we have as well.