Winters (Book Five)

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

"What a disaster," Click grumbles frustrated and I strip off the sweat-soaked shirt. My abdomen is covered in bruises already and I groan frustrated. What a disaster is right. I was barely able to get a drop on the guy and I took a beating in the process. Where are Alexander and Hadley when I need them? Their hand-to-hand combat skills have always been phenomenal since they were kids.

"At least your skin turns to metal," I grumble as I drop onto the couch, the pain is instant but I do a few deep breaths and grab the keyboard.

"I miss sparing with Hadley, she never even flinched when she would punch metal, it's like her knuckles are numb," Click says as she starts typing on her laptop.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were, she's completely destroyed her knuckles more than one time," I say. It genuinely wouldn't come as a shock if Hadley was missing partial sensation in the outside of her hands.

"Can you tell me about the time she had and Alexander had to find each other across the city? She kept promising to tell me the story and never did," Click says and a smirk graces my lips. I was in my last year of undergrad and Xander was a senior in high school.

"I'm sure she could tell it better than I ever could," I admit. I remember the day well but I was only watching and listening, not living it.

"Please, she said you were there," Click asks me and she pulls puppy dog eyes and I jokingly shield my face.

"Not the pout!" I exclaim and she laughs.

"Please?"

"Alright, alright," I say as I finish typing up the report.

"Hadley was pretty young; I had just started my undergrad and was home for spring break. Our parents were all upping the stakes and grooming us to take over the team within the next few years," I start the story and I lean back and close my eyes.

"And?"

"Well we were basically taking each other hostage and it was my job to hold Alexander and Hadley had to find him from wherever they dropped her off. My parents were pushing her and they dropped her off in New Jersey," I say with a smirk.

"You're kidding," Click says with a bark of laughter.

"Alexander and I shot the shit for a while because we knew it would take her a while to get back into the area and find us. What nobody ever saw coming was the fact that Hadley had slowly been learning to track Alexander's electrical signals in crowded areas. Avi can attest more to what it feels like to be near him, but his energy is heightened naturally and when he's amped-up, it's very easy to pick up on his unique signal," I say and as I recall both of them talking about it.

"But she had to get near him, right?" Click asks me and I smile.

"Considering we could have been anywhere in New York, yes. But Hades being the devilish genius that she is, knew that we wouldn't in any random location and while on her way back from another state, hacked into our parent's files and found out we had an old property over on the other side of the city," I say and I smile to myself at my sister's savviness. The warehouse was not in the greatest of shape then, and yet Hadley lived there for years with Click.

"The warehouse!" Click says and I feel her bolt upright on the couch.

I can still remember the sound of metal being ripped apart as Hadley busted down the door. The focus in her eyes as she searched the building for us and found us hanging out on the second floor. When she finally spotted us, the massive smirk she had lit up her brown eyes as she eyed us up. She bolted over to Alexander and tackled him into a hug, making him laugh so loudly that it echoed through the worn-down warehouse.