Scorpion's New EQ

Chapter 20

  "You're distracted."

  "You just gave me a car, are you surprised?"

  "Stay focused, this is important for us," Walter said, never making eye contact with me. His hands were folded neatly in his lap and his breathing was steady. Maybe too steady.

  I narrowed my eyes, "It's important for the family, not so much us," I pointed out, but Walter was back in his trance as Cabe pulled his government SUV up to the estate.

  The house was as normal looking as it could possibly get. At first glance I wouldn't be able to guess that a secret service agent lived there. That is, if I wasn't a genius. Or if I was blind.

  "That car is a tipoff," Happy said, finally voicing what I hadn't had the heart to say. At this point it didn't matter as much, the target was dead.

  Cabe, Walter, Happy, and I got out of the car. Paige drove up shortly after with Toby and Sylvester. She had dropped off Ralph at his school program on the way.

  A woman came out the door to meet us, her eyes were red and she was shaking slightly. Dark bags under her eyes signified a lack of sleep, and her golden hair was messy.

  "Come in, please," she said, her eyes darted around as if she thought she was being watched and couldn't find the source.

  Before anyone could make a move, Cabe said quietly, "That's Katja, she's been having a rough couple of days. Don't do anything she could find suspicious. We need her to trust us."

  Soon, we were all settled in the house's living room. It was quiet, and the house seemed as if it were abandoned. There was a gray tint to everything and dust had settled on much of the surfaces.

  Cabe went through and introduced each of us to Katja before asking, "Where are your kids?" his voice gentle and soothing. It was odd heading him sound like that. Especially after his usual hostile tone he used towards me.

  Katja thought for a moment, probably judging if we were trustworthy before she said, "Upstairs. Q doesn't come out of his room much, same with Zandri and Danny."

  Cabe nodded and asked, "What about the younger one? Where is he?"

  Katja swallowed quickly and her face went pale as she realized that Cabe had seen through her, "Cas is with a sitter. Someone I thought would be safe."

  "I'm not so sure if that was a good idea," Walter put in quickly, "I suggest you give us the name of this sitter of yours so we can run a background check."

  The name didn't matter to the person that bombarded the house with gunfire right then.

  I was the closest to Katja, so when my instincts kicked in, I rolled off of the couch and brought her down with me. I flattened myself against Katja and looked around for the rest of my team.

  The gunfire went off for close to three minutes, and when it stopped the walls and furniture were ridiculed with bullet holes.

  "Is everyone okay?" Paige choked out quietly.

  "I've never gotten on the ground so fast in my life," Sylvester said, breathless. His face was pushed against the carpet.

  Toby and Happy stood up together, uninjured. Walter and Cabe were at the windows, which were now reduced to nothing, looking for the source of the bullets.

  "Mom!" A girl's voice sounded as she came down the stairs, a horrified look on her face. I knew that look, one of Katja's kids was injured.

  I rolled away from Katja and raced up the stairs, Toby close behind me.

  The girl, probably Zandri, led us to one of the bedrooms. When we entered two boys were on the floor. One, the younger one, was sitting beside his brother as bright red blood spilled out of his side.

  Toby looked at me and said, "You need to calm down Zandri and her brother. I'm going to assume the one injured is Q," then he got down by Q to assess the situation.

  I thought quick, both Zandri and Danny were starting to panic. I was happy when both Paige and Happy reached the bedroom.

  "I'll start the car," Happy said, seeing the situation and knowing her place. Paige on the other hand started to comfort Danny, who seemed to be the most shocked.

  Zandri looked on with wide eyes so I began to try to make conversation with her, "How old are you Zandri?" I asked, trying to keep her attention somewhere else.

  "Fifteen. Q is seventeen, Danny is twelve, and Cas is seven," she answered, giving me more information than I had asked for. That was good though, it engaged her mind with other things.

  "So you're going to be a sophomore? That's cool, sophomore year was the best for me," I said, which wasn't actually true, but it got Zandri's full attention.

  "Really? How old are you?" She asked. Awesome, she was asking questions and her breathing had almost evened out. I wasn't too bad at this.

  "I'm seventeen. I just graduated. My birthday is in a few weeks," I said. Whatever other questions there were, we were cut short.

  "Taylor, I need you to help me get Q down to the van. I think I have his wound set well enough that we can move him," Toby said. I was reluctant to leave Zandri, but Paige was here.

  I helped Toby get Q evenly between us. He was still somewhat conscious which helped us. We began making our way down the stairs as quickly as possible without hurting Q more than he already was.

  When we finally reached Cabe's SUV, Cabe had his gun pulled and he was scanning the area slowly. Whoever had shot at us was probably still close by.

  Toby went with Happy to the hospital, and Cabe and I went back into the house to check on everyone.

  Katja was sitting on the shredded couch, her face blank of any emotions. Walter sat across from her with his hands folded and his head down. Sylvester on the other hand, looked like he was going to throw up any second.

  "Q is on his way to the hospital and he's in the presence of one of the best doctors in the great state of California. He'll be okay," I said, reassuring Katja. She just nodded.

  Paige came down the stairs, Zandri and Danny close in tow. As soon as they entered the room, Walter's head snapped up.

  "We need to go get Cas. Nothing is safe right now. Give us the address, Taylor and I will go," Walter said to Katja. She hesitated before rattling off an address. Walter got Paige's keys from her and Walter and I started towards the door.

  Cabe stopped us before we could get out the door, "We need to take them to a safe spot. Paige'll drive you back to the garage and you can take Taylor's car while Paige, Sylvester, and I get Katja and the kids to a Safe spot," he said quickly. Paige heard and was at the door instantly, grabbing the keys from Walter.

  We got into Paige's car and headed back towards the garage. There was something wrong, I could feel it. Hello anxiety, my dear friend.

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Author's Note

Hiiii!!! So it's been a little while, but that's because my birthday was last weekend and so was Halloween and I was in a major paintball war yesterday. And the release date for my sequel is in six days and I have been writing like crazy. But yeah.

This chapter is leading up to something super freaking awesome that I've had planned for a while and I'm finally doing it yay!!

I hope you liked this chapter!! This book just got 6.08k reads and you guys are so awesome!!! Love you awesome nerds!!