Repairing the Hurt

Chapter 1

"Sang, we need your help."

I perk up at the words. They rarely ask me for help. "What do you need?"

Kota looks extremely uncomfortable and I immediately understand that he doesn't want to ask this of me. "We need one more person for this job. One access point needs to be covered, and everyone else is appointed to another location already. You're just going to be observing."

Sounds straightforward enough.

North tightens his arms around me and I lean back into him, but address Kota, "Sure."

"Sang Baby, we can always use a favor and ask another Academy member," North offers. I can tell he's not thrilled about this either.

"North, I'm already being initiated into the Academy. Kota says it's only observing. I can do that much," I reassure him. I turn back to Kota, "When do we leave?"

He looks sheepish for a moment, "Five minutes," he answers, pushing his glasses higher on his nose.

"Let me get changed."

I crawl off North's lap and brush past Kota on my way to Nathan's room. I change into comfortable pants I can run and climb in, and a dark shirt, completing the look with black running shoes. Gabriel will hate my ensemble.

I smile and head back out to see Kota and North having a tense silent conversation, but they stop and both turn to me.

"Let's go, Sweetie," Kota says, holding his hand out for me to take.

Grasping his hand, I let them escort me out of the house and into Kota's car. North opens the front door and ushers me inside, grumbling as he crawls in the back.

"You know, I would've been fine with sitting in the back," I inform him once the doors are closed and the car starts moving.

He just huffs and leans forward, catching my hand and holding it in his.

We stop at the diner to pick up Nathan, and he grudgingly gets in the car.

I guess he's not too thrilled with my being here either.

"So what's the job?" I ask, eager to know the details.

The sun has begun to set, and I briefly remember not eating dinner. North's going to kill me if he remembers to ask.

"Smuggling ring. Drugs have been entering Charleston like no other lately, and we think we narrowed it down to a single shipping yard. Tonight, we're just staking the place, but it's too big for only nine of us to cover. You'll make sure we're not stretched too thin."

"What are we going to do if we see something?"

"We do nothing. We're setting up cameras to capture anything if something does happen, but we are not engaging." Kota's hands tighten around the steering wheel.

"If it was that dangerous, you wouldn't have asked me to come," I try to reassure him.

"So many things can go wrong, though," Kota admits, pulling onto the highway.

"But it probably won't, because all hands are on deck. I'm not worried," In truth I'm a bit excited. It's rare that I get to go on jobs with them since I haven't received the proper training through the Academy yet.

Kota's hands relax on the steering wheel, "I wish we had as much faith in ourselves as you have in us," he admits.

"Nothing is going to happen," I reassure, then change gears, "When we get back, I think I'm going to make a cake." I was watching the cooking channel right before we left and I always enjoyed trying new things. It's been a minute since I've made a cake. And with the birthdays coming up, I should try out some cake recipes as a trial and error.