MR. MORENO'S SURROGATE ✔️

43 - Leilah

Reiner walks in while we're sitting in the living room. Me and Eli walk over to the door to greet him and give him hugs when he comes in. Cayson and Karla both greet him as well, and we all go to the living room to sit and talk.

"Looks like a couple's mission tonight." Reiner says.

"Figured we'd get them out of the house and put their skills to the test." Cayson replies.

"On the riskiest mission ever, mind you." says Reiner, raising his eyebrows.

"They'll be fine," Eli interjects. "They're coming to train with us today to prepare for tonight. If they're not cut out, we'll make sure to call you." he says in an annoyed tone. "Don't be so quick to doubt them, they might be capable of more than we think, regarding the mission at hand."

"Hey, I'm not doubting, this is just a first."

"Shouldn't we be going?" I ask.

"We should." Eli says back, looking at me with a grin.

With what happened earlier, I'm still on edge. Just when I thought we were about to rip each other's clothes off, he just... stopped. But I know what game he's trying to play, and I never back down from a challenge. I'll just do it better. I look back at him, making eye contact and looking directly in his eyes. I look at him until he breaks contact, smirking as he clears his throat.

"Let's go. Rein, you're on baby duty." he says, making everyone get up and head out.

"Everything from diapers down to onesies is in his nursery. He has bottles in the fridge when he's hungry and his bassinet is in our bedroom when he's asleep. You can call me if you need anything. Thank you Reiner." I instruct as I walk out the door.

"Sure thing. Quality time with my infant nephew. This might be good for me." Reiner says, waving us goodbye as we get in the car.

We eventually arrive at Eli's headquarters, another place where all his grimy, dirty business goes down I suppose. I know this place means big business because we had to come through a huge built in black gate, similar to a thick wall. It makes a huge creaking sound as it opens, sounding as if it weighs tons. Surprisingly, this is my first time here and it's a little scary if I'm honest. But a little thrilled, just to see what goes on here.

We're walking hand in hand as we approach the front double doors, Cayson and Karla coming up behind us. Elijah fputs his thumb onto a pad and spouts out numbers and letters before the pad beeps and the doors open.

"What was that?" I ask curiously.

"Fingerprint recognition and a code that only I know. I'll have to put yours in the system and give you the code after we're done here." he says back, keeping his eyes forward and scanning the place as we walk in.

He approaches the front desk and mumbles a few words to the receptionist as I look around in awe. The ceilings are skyscraper height and the windows see through to the outside, but from the outside, they're like mirrors. They make up the walls and huge ceiling above us. There are hundreds of people walking around with folders and papers, and a few people just sitting around. Elijah grabs my attention and urges me to continue walking with him.

"Who are all these people?" I ask.

"I can't run this mafia all by myself." he begins. "Some of these people are family friends who are training every day to go on side missions, like warehouse deals or other little things like that. Me and Cayson deal with the bigger ones. Others are just people taking calls from other families or people trying to do business. I have an assistant who they transfer most of those calls to and if she can't get through, she'll send those calls to me."