having girls’ night at your place tonight, so come on. We can’t be there without you.”
The five of us girls headed down the path, bottles of red and sparkly tucked under our arms. Of course, Lexi had sparkling water, but she was a good sport about it all. We took a moment to watch the guys, who had the kids sitting in the snow listening to instructions. Mark, John, Cole, Mike, and Keith all held Nerf guns as if they were heading into battle. Cole’s voice could be heard as he laid down the rules of the game. We had to laugh at how serious they all were. Olivia made sure B sat next to her as she tried to listen. As we watched, one of the twins slowly slid an extra Nerf gun behind him and was reaching for another.
Mia raised her eyebrow at me. “And that’s why I drink.” She raised her bottle of red.
As I sat back and watched my new family around me, I realized I was happy to be here. I was glad I was a part of it all when Savannah got such life-altering news. I noticed Lexi and Catalina had become quite close. It didn’t surprise me, as they had both come from such violent backgrounds and had been living at Dusk together before they moved here. Mia and Savannah seemed to be much more approachable. They both wore their hearts on their sleeves and seemed to adjust easily to whoever they were with.
Later that evening, with the kids all in bed, shouting and cheering from the guys brought us to the window to see was happening.
Catalina flopped back down in her seat. “I guess more good news was shared tonight. Davie and Dell will be taking over Mike’s and Keith’s positions at Dusk.”
“Fine by me. I’m just happy we are all together.” Catalina smiled. “Mike seems a lot happier to be back here, and I know he’s happy to be closer to California.”
“Why does that guy scare me in all the right ways?” Savannah laughed.
“Who?” I questioned, looking around at their pink cheeks. “What?”
“Oh, wait, you haven’t met Trigger.” Savannah fanned herself.
“That’s a damn shame.” Mia snorted, and the other girls hooted with laughter.
“I guess I have some catching up to do!” I leaned forward and cheered the girls’ glasses.
By midnight, Savannah and I were the only ones left standing. The others went to bed, knowing they had to get up early with their little ones. With a glass of water in her hand, Savannah stood and studied my wall of pictures and diagrams of the all the possible scenarios I had sketched and glued everywhere.
She pulled the rookie’s photo down and with her back to me muttered, “He was so young. As much as I respect and understand what Cole and the guys do, it’s not for everyone, and definitely not for someone this young.”
I moved to join her and sat at the conference table. I rubbed my head in frustration. “He may have been young, but his family pulled many strings to get him into North Rock. He had quite the reputation for cheating.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess he had a terrible memory. He failed the first test, and then his family paid off a general to get him back in to write it a second time. Don’t worry,” I held up a hand, “the guys figured out which general it was. He was just some ass with too much power. From what I hear, the rookie probably had a cheat sheet in order to pass the test. His classmates certainly weren’t very fond of him. They all knew he had someone from way up giving him freebies.”
Savannah turned toward me as she pointed to a position on the map. “So, the rookie was killed, stripped of his radio and all his belongings, so how do we know he hadn’t written them down? If he had that bad of a memory, he may have written the codes down too. It would have been pretty stupid, but that could be a possible theory, right?”
It was as if someone had cleared the fog away, I grabbed my laptop and opened it to play the one YouTube video that had always bothered me. I fast forwarded to the part where the leader had the radio, and the small black thing he held in his hand suddenly became clear to me. I watched as the leader listened to something on the radio then looked