Fateful Hindrance

16. Disney World, Sure...But I Don't Want My Dreams To Come True

***You guys have NO clue how much I laughed at all your comments on the last chapter...and not the "aw, they all love him, too!" kind of laugh...but the "oh, goodness, they're going to hate me" kind of laugh!  >:D  So get ready, you lovely people...***

Chapter 16

Disney World, Sure…But I Don’t Want My Dreams To Come True

 

 

Nothing could have prepared me for seeing him again.  It was so unexpected when Tory pulled me behind a stack of crates that I nearly fell into them before catching myself against the wall, my boots squeaking on the floor.  Jamie was still ducked behind another stack on the other side, her back pressed against the wall. 

“What are they doing here?” she hissed, peering at them through the slits.  “I thought that they were still in London?”

“No clue,” Tory whispered from beside me.  Her arm brushed mine as she pulled her phone from her jacket pocket.  It glowed dimly.  “But can you message the guys and tell them what’s going on?  We need to keep an eye on them, just in case something happens.  I’ll message Juliet also and see if she knows the reason they’re here.”

“On it.”

Their hushed conversation barely even registered to me.  My eyes were only on John.

Even in the dim lighting of the hallway, I could still see him clearly.  I drank in the sight of him, even though he looked a lot different from the last time I saw him…at my funeral.

He’d cut his hair, and recently it looked like, though it was still a little longer on the top like he’d had it before.  He hadn’t shaved either, so the dark stubble was clear on his jawline.  Some women didn’t like the scruffy look, but to me it only made him even more handsome. 

But what didn’t were the dark circles that ringed under his eyes.  Even though he was looking around, alert and focused, that was one sign that I knew showed he’d been losing sleep.  With that lack of sleep, though, he must have been working out, because he seemed even bigger than before, his arms and chest more filled out and his face slightly more angular. 

I pressed myself as close to the crates as I could without flinging myself over and rushing up to him.

“The guys are still in the meeting,” Jamie whispered, shoving her phone back in her pocket.  “They said it was almost over and they’d head down here once the Order members leave.  They don’t want to leave Favero until then in case they’re a little…forceful…since he still refused to take their deal, even if they offered him three times the last price they’d given him before.”

I felt Tory shift beside me.  “Juliet doesn’t have a clue why they’re here.  She’s going to contact Ed, though, and see if he knows anything about this.  I highly doubt it, though, especially since he always tells us when he’s got someone going out.  We’re always there a step ahead just in case something happens.”

Barely managing to take my eyes away from John, I looked at the others with him.  Stella had her gun drawn, surveying the surrounding area and watching their backs.  Ren had his tablet in one hand and wire in the other.  And I was finally able to see the face of the other girl as she turned in our direction.  She and Stella had some of the same facial features, so maybe they were related.

 “Here,” Ren murmured, stopping their group at a doorway just two down from where we were hidden – the doorway where the second emergency light was.  He knelt down to look under the keypad before connecting the wire from his tablet.  “It’s an electronic lock, though, so give me a minute to open it.”