AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Aunty Ev,” they say together, their speech coming along even more now, but they still insist on calling me Aunty Ev. It’s adorable, and I hope they never stop.
I only get the chance to say hello back before they’re both telling me all about their Christmas and the presents they got.
They’re still talking away, with Elena looking highly amused in the background as Blade encourages them and prompts them every now and then when they forget something they got or someone they saw.
Luc chuckles quietly as he mutters, “I love how they completely ignore me and just focus on you.”
“I’m their favourite,” I whisper back, still umming and ahhing in what I’m hoping is the right places as their three-year-old speech deteriorates the faster they talk, and they become more challenging to understand.
Eventually, they tire themselves out, and Elena comes back on the phone. We all catch up for a while, talking to each of her men as well, as they tell us how the security system is doing and give us updates on some of the members.
“So, when do you think you guys will be able to come for a visit?” Elena asks.
“We’re actually pretty booked up for a while now, but as soon as we’ve sorted the case that we’re on, then we’ll come out to see you,” Luc replies.
Although they don’t live that far away from us, whenever we visit them, we like to stay for at least a week so that we get to see them all properly and do lots of fun stuff with the girls as well. That means that we need to go when we have a week off rather than if we’re still trying to do a case at the same time.
“Sounds good,” Dom replies in the background.
“Just let us know when you guys think you’ll make it so we don’t plan a run or anything like that,” Inferno adds.
“No problem,” I reply. “Hopefully, it won’t be too far away. I’ve got all of your Christmas gifts here.”
“We’ve got yours as well, but that’s okay; the girls will be super excited to have a second Christmas.” Elena smiles.
After that, we say goodbye, and Elena promises to text me later.
“I always miss them all more when we’ve spoken to them,” Luc says, wrapping an arm around me as we walk back through to the extension.
“Me too,” I agree. “In a perfect world, we would all live closer together, but it shouldn’t be too much longer until we can see them.”
Trick looks up from his laptop with a smile as we walk back in and see that everyone has split up into little groups doing various different things.
“Are Elena and the others all okay?” Trick asks.
“Yeah, they’re all good. The twin's speech is even better than it was.” Luc tells him, smiling proudly.
“We also told them that when we’re finished with this case, we’d go and see them for at least a week and exchange our Christmas gifts as well,” I add.
“Good, it's been far too long, and I miss them,” Trick replies.
“Me too,” I reply, and then, taking a seat next to him, I ask, “What are you up to?”
“I’m just going through some of the cases that we had coming up. Obviously, we aren’t going to be doing them now because all of our focus is going to be on Rylie and finding her. I’m trying to determine if the jobs can be given to Noel’s team and Lyric’s or if I should just give them back to Mr R and tell him that we can’t do them and he needs to reassign them to the other teams.” Trick explains.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I completely forgot we had other jobs we were supposed to be starting.” Luc replies.
“So did I,” I agree, “but then again, there’s been so much going on.”
“True.” Trick replies.
“So, what do you think we’re going to need to do?” Luc asks curiously, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“The Rico job can be given to Lyric’s team. I’ve just asked them, and they’re fine to take that one over; it’s not too far away or complicated and only requires two or three of them to go. Since they’ve all got jobs that they have to do within the town as well, I’ve left it up to them to decide who goes and all of that,” Trick starts to explain, flicking through files on his laptop. “The other two jobs are similar in nature and can be given to Elijah’s team. They aren’t going to need to be done for a while, so they can wait until after they’ve done their current job and had their rest days.”
“Good idea. So, we’re all good to go ahead with Rylie’s case without needing to worry about any of the others, then?” I ask.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if we did need to, but it would take some of our time and resources away from Rylie, which I wouldn’t be happy with. Not to mention that although they both seem to be straightforward cases that should be dealt with fairly quickly, that’s never the case, and experience has taught me that the cases that seem to be the most straightforward never are and end up throwing us the most curveballs. Fortunately, Lyric and Elijah’s teams are more than capable of handling anything that the cases can throw at them, and if they aren’t, they have us to step in.
