Gifted Connections: Book 2(97)

“Easy, Blake,” Jace said soothingly as he grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly. I could feel his warmth engulf me, so I knew he had used his gift on me, but I couldn’t be upset at him.

“Sorry, Blake,” Troy muttered as he hugged me close.

I feigned a smile. “It’s fine. I’m okay,” I tried to lie, knowing they weren’t buying it. I was terrified earlier. I knew in time I would cope with it better.

Troy slid into the very back of the vehicle and pulled me with him. He pulled me in close, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Blake,” his voice was hoarse as he talked softly to me. “I should have gone with you. I knew you were upset. They wouldn’t have gotten the jump on you if I had been there.”

“You don’t know that,” I tried to reassure him. “I didn’t have to take that route. I could have stayed on the property.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been trained, Blake; I would have seen them,” Troy said confidently. “We would have seen them before they even tried to attack us. We could have handled them on our own.”

I linked my hands with his and leaned my head on his broad shoulders. “It’s all water under the bridge. I’m alive. I’ll get over it.”

He sighed deeply in frustration. “I’ve never been more frightened in my life, seeing you like that,” he whispered hoarsely.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just leaned on him and stroked his arm.



We η 7 was located on the outskirts of a town that once housed industrial plants. Remy had a good business head on him and saw the potential and growth trend of the area, so he purchased two properties within a reasonable walking distance of each other. He had re-zoned the smaller of the two warehouses into residential. He had gutted and fixed up the larger of the two for his restaurant and renovated it, while keeping the charm of a warehouse.

The property he had zoned for residential was the place he had renovated into his home. The ground level of his warehouse home was where he kept his gym, a bathroom, bedroom, and where he parked his vehicles. The upper levels held enough bedrooms for each member of the family with room to spare. He had put his bedroom and bathroom on the roof of the building. The roof also had a hot tub and gardens.

When we pulled up onto the street, it was clear that Jemmy and Rachel had clearly gone overboard. Vehicles were parked along the street, and the parking lots were completely full. Jace pulled up near one of the entrances.

“Somehow, I don’t think Remy anticipated this kind of Halloween party,” Jace said dryly. “I’ll park the truck at Remy’s and walk over. You guys can head on in now.”

“I told her she needed to cool it,” Jaxson said with little conviction. It was clear that he was excited to get inside.

“I’m sure you did.” Noah ribbed him as he held his hand out to help me out of the vehicle.

I threw my coat in the vehicle before Jace drove off—I didn’t want to forget it anywhere or carry it around. We walked up to the door and I could hear the music pouring out. We packed turnouts like this when I had been performing in the band. It had helped the restaurant in sales, and we had gained a name for ourselves. People from all over came to watch us sing and perform.

There was a guy I didn’t recognize manning the door. “Five dollars,” he said cheerfully.

“I don’t think so, buddy,” Troy stated with an easy smile. “This is our party.”

The guy looked skeptically down at his clipboard. “Troy, Jace, Jaxson, Noah, and Misty?”

I snorted knowing Jemmy had told him my name was Misty. “That’s us. Flash is right behind us.”

The guy gave me an appreciative look. “You’re probably the third Wonder Woman I saw tonight, but you,” he eyed me up and down. “Fill out the costume the best,” he smiled at me with a wink.

“Look away, my man,” Jaxson said with an easy smile, but steel was in his voice. “She’s taken.”

He quickly held up his hands, clip board and all. “No sweat, dude. Didn’t hurt to try.”

I was ushered inside ahead of the guys and was momentarily taken aback at the transformation inside. There were wall to wall people. I could see several people eating at tables, getting food, and dancing on the makeshift dance floor.

Ben, Taylor, Rick, and Mike were currently playing some upbeat music on the makeshift stage. Remy had built a stage for us originally, but I guess without me influencing his decisions this time around, he hadn’t.

I grabbed the closest hand to me. On stage I didn’t have any issues with the amount of people around me, but among them I had anxiety issues.

Noah squeezed my hand reassuringly. “It looks like Jemmy has a VIP area near the stage. We can head there, there aren’t as many people.”

“I’ll go get us some food,” Jaxson stated. At the mention of food my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten much food today.

“Sounds good,” Troy gave Jaxson a fist pump before he took the spot on the other side of me and started maneuvering us through the crowd.

I tried to keep close to them, letting them buffer me between the crowd. It took us a few minutes to make our way across the room to the VIP section. It was in the corner near one of the bars and roped off. Jemmy, Gavin, Rachel, Terrance, Michael, Sam, Dawn, and Marcel were sitting, eating, drinking, and talking in the large corner booth. There was still room for us to squeeze in the booth and drag additional chairs up to the table.