Everyone takes turns grabbing a burrito, and each one is about the size of the plates in front of us. We all dive in, but there are no words for a long while, just sighs and moans of pleasure from the feast she created. I look down at my plate, and I haven’t even eaten a quarter of it, but I feel completely stuffed. I glance at the plate next to me to see that Alexie has finished over half of his and shows no sign of slowing down.How?I feel like I’m sweating from eating so much.
“I heard sweet laughter coming from the kitchen,” Alexie exclaims. “Would it be right to assume thatMalyshkaand the grudge holder have made up?” He looks over to Marcela, who is looking right back at him.
“You’ll have to find a new name for me then. Grudge holder doesn’t fit anymore,” she says with a growing smile.
Before Alexie can respond, a beeping sound comes from Conrad’s tech setup on the other end of the dining table. Conrad gets up quickly, with Stryker following behind. Everyone else is on the edge of their seats. We never want to get too comfortable because we know we’re hunting down dangerous people, and we must always be on guard.
Conrad and Stryker bend over, looking at the screens. Stryker stands back up before addressing us, “The deliveries are here.” Conrad and Stryker head out as the rest of us clean up the dining room.
As I go to grab my plate, King reaches over and grabs it from me. “House rules. You two cooked, so we’ll clean up,” he says. I look up at him and realize it’s been far too long since those giant arms were wrapped around me.Soon.
I want to refuse because I am fully capable of cleaning up after myself, but Marcela comes up from behind me and hooks one of her arms through mine. “Let’s go lounge on those obnoxiously bright turquoise sofas, shall we?” That is too good of an offer to pass up because I am shocked I can even move with how full I am.
Marcela and I walk out of the dining room and into the common space. We fall onto the sofas, both of us not moving an inch once we land.When I get Katia back tonight, today will have been perfect.
CRASH!!The sound of breaking glass jolts Marcela and me from our food comas. We both get up pretty slowly, even if it sounded like an entire stack of plates came down, and head to the kitchen. The scene isn’t one we expected; Alexie and King shouting at each other while King is sweeping a pile of glass into a dustpan that Alexie is holding.
“What is going on?” I ask.
“Well,” BJ chimes in, “your two competitive brutes over there,” she says, pointing to Alexie and King, “just had to play ’anything you can do, I can do better’.” She rolls her eyes, throws her hands up in the air, and walks past Marcela and me to leave the kitchen.
“I will leave you to it then,” Marcela pats my back before following BJ down the hall.
I just stand there staring at these super masculine men that were verbally taken down by sweet BJ. Crossing my arms, I lean against the doorframe. “Are you too done with these games yet?” I ask them.
“Malyshka, Prince-y here,” he gestures towards King, “thought he could balance more plates than me.” I roll my eyes. “I do not back down from a challenge, no matter what.”
“Plates? Really?” I ask, rolling my eyes again.They’ll probably be stuck up there after this conversation.
“That’s not what happened,” King interjects. “I had all the plates from the dining room and simply commented that maybe your little Russian lover boy was incapable of carrying anything.” King continues sweeping as though what he said was perfectly normal.
“You two are ridiculous.” I hold up my hand as both of them start to say something else. “If you two can’t stop competing over the stupidest things, then I’ll be forced to take drastic measures.”What are those drastic measures? I’m not sure because I’m bluffing here.
King continues sweeping with a furious look on his face, but Alexie just looks at me with that sly smirk of his. “Oh, butMalyshka, what if we are competing over who can pleasure you the best?”Oh, I like that.
“That is the only approved competition for now,” I respond. I try hard to keep a stern tone and face. When I feel it falter, I move to sit on a barstool on the island. “Now, get this cleaned up before you push BJ over the edge.”
“Whatever you desire,” Alexie responds.
“Then take this trash out too,” I decide to throw in another request because the amount of garbage we piled up while making those burritos is equal to the size of the damn things themselves.
“You want me to take him out?” Alexie asks while pointing his thumb toward King. His face tells me that he’s joking.
King pushes Alexie’s hand away. “Not me, you idiot. Plus, I’m not the one who’s garbage here. You were–”
“Enough!” I shout loudly. “Sweep, garbage, and get along. That is all.” With that, I fold my hands on the countertop and rest my head on top of them.Is it too early for a nap?
Stryker
Nat
WhenStrykerleftthekitchen, he told us to meet in the dining room for another meeting to go over what we’re doing tonight. Conrad and I walk into the dining room and wait for everyone else to arrive.
Once everyone is here and seated, Stryker addresses everyone from his position of standing at the end of the table. “We’re all making it out of there tonight, do you hear me? But I’m not going to mince words. You need to know that this is easily the hairiest situation we’ve found ourselves in,” Stryker starts.
The thought of losing any of them tonight had not crossed my mind. To me, it seemed easy to get Katia and get out, but in reality, he was right. We have to go into the lion’s den that will be heavily armed, and the more I think about it, there was no way I could have done this alone. Having all these people that I love around me, willing to risk their lives, is amazing. We are saving more than just Katia tonight, there will be others, and when we can finally shut this whole fucked up thing down, we’ll have saved countless others.
“Our objective, in all of this, is to bring down the entire operation. That is the result we are working towards, but tonight’s intention is to shut down this auction and get all the victims out. Katia included,” Stryker states as he looks at me.