It opens and I follow him inside where I am immediately met with the living room. The inside of the house looks a lot like the outside. It gives off cabin vibes with all the staged décor.
"Let me take you to your room and then I'll introduce you to everyone" Cade says as he leads me to a set of stairs. He easily picks me up and carries me up the stairs. When we reach the top, he sets me down and helps me balance while I get my crutches situated. I wonder how many people live here. The house looks like it could fit about ten people comfortably. We walk down a long hall and stop at the second to last door on the right side of the hallway.
"This is your room" Cade says as he opens the door and reveals a big room with a king size bed and a desk. I walk in and get a closer look at everything. I see something on the desk and notice that it's a laptop and phone.
"I had one of my brothers buy you these things so you can finish your school and not get bored here in the house. You can go shopping to get more clothes later" Cade says with a blank expression like always. I nod my head in understanding and look around the rest of the room. I see two doors and open the first one which is a walk-in closet. It's a little bit bigger than the closet I had at home. After I walk out, I then go to the door on the right wall of the room. I open the door and see a smaller bathroom with a door across from the door that leads to my room, but before I can open the door, I hear Cade say my name. I walk back into the room and see Cade slowly walk out of the room mentioning something about going downstairs to meet everyone else. I get the hint and follow him to the stairs. He helps me down the same way he helped me up and led me to the kitchen where there was a boy who looked to be 12 or 13 years old eating a huge bowl of ice-cream.
"This is my brother, Carter, the 12-year-old" Cade says. I smile at him and he smiles back in return. Cade just turn towards the way we came in and starts to walk out. I say a little 'hi' and quickly follow Cade out the door as quickly as I can on crutches.
"So you live with your brothers?" I ask as we walk to God knows where.
"Yes, and a couple others" he responds as we end up in a game room where there were four others. I recognized one of them as the man in the first car from in Kentucky.
"This is Jason, the 20-year-old" Cade says as he points to a boy who looks to be a lot like Cade, but not as old and not as attractive. Jason smiles at me and gives a small wave.
"This is James, he's 24-years-old. He was with us in Kentucky" Cade says confirming my suspicion. He looks nothing like Cade or Jason, and I can obviously tell they're not related. James has blonde hair and blue eyes, while Cade has brown hair and green eyes.
"This is Luke, Jason's twin" Cade continues pointing to a boy who looks identical to Jason.
"And lastly, this is Justin. He's 21-years-old" Cade says pointing at the last boy who had black hair and looked to be older than all the boys but Cade and James. I wave at all of them and introduce myself.
"Hi, I'm Wynter" I say slightly smiling. I get a little awkward around new people, but not as bad as Ari. Speaking of which, where is Ari?
"Where is Ari?" I ask turning towards Cade.
"Oh yeah, she should be in her room with Ryder" he answers. I immediately walk out of the game room as fast as I can on crutches. I go towards the steps and don't have to wait for Cade to catch up, seeing that I was slow enough for him to keep up. He carries me up the stairs and leads the way to her room, which happens to right next to my room. I fling the door open to see Ari sitting on her bed with her back leaning against the wall while playing her phone. I also see who I assume is Ryder sitting at the foot of her bed on his phone. The noise of the door open gets both of their attention and when Ari see me, she jumps out of the bed and runs towards me. She plows me over in a hug and nearly makes me lose my balance.
"Oh, my goodness! Are you ok?" she asks as she pulls away from the hug.
"Yes, I'm fine, I just broke my ankle. It was a minor break though, so it should be fine in a few weeks" I answer. "Are you OK?" I ask, giving her a once over. She's wearing an oversized hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. Neither of which were hers based on how big they were on her. She looks all cleaned up with her hair in a braid and her face completely rid of all the dirt. It's obvious that she has had a shower since she has been here.
"I'm fine, I've been worried about you," she answers looking me over worriedly.
"I'll only be on crutches for a few days and then I have to wear a boot" I say pulling her in for another quick hug. When we release from the hug, my attention brought to the boys who look to be talking to each other. I walk over to them and Ari follows closely behind me. When we reach them, they stop talking and turn to us.
"This is Ryder," Cade says.
"I can introduce myself bro," Ryder says smiling at me. "I'm Ryder," he continues. I smile back at him but say nothing.
"Whatever but come with me. I'll take you to a shower, then the four of us need to talk," Cade says looking at me. I nod my head and follow him out of the room saying a quick goodbye to Ari. He leads me back to my room.
"you and Ari have a shared bathroom that connects both of your rooms. There should be a towel on the counter. When you change out of the clothes in the bathroom, stick them outside the door and while you're in the shower, I'll wash them for you" Cade says standing there awkwardly. I just nod my head and head straight to the bathroom. I quickly strip out of my clothes as best as I can with my ankle and wrap the towel around my body before cracking the door open and setting the pile of clothes down on the floor. I shut the door and when I turn to the shower, I see men's shampoo, conditioner, and body wash out. I realize that that's what Ari probably used since it's already out. I quickly get into the shower being careful of the cast on my ankle, so it doesn't get wet and turn on the water to all of the way hot. The water burns my skin but feels good at the same time. I leave the hot water on since it makes me feel better and more relaxed. I get the washcloth that was set on the rail if the shower and pour a lot of body wash on it. I wash my body and then do it again another time. By then, the dirt seems to be completely off of my body, so I move to my hair. I wash my hair very thoroughly and watch the brown water go down the drain when I am done. I look at my watch and the time is 2:30, which means I was in the shower for about 40 minutes getting all of the dirt off of me and cleaning my hair. I take my time to get out of the shower making sure I didn't trip. Taking a shower on one foot is easier than you would think. I wrap the towel around me and hop to the door, while using the wall for support, to get the clothes that should be clean again. I look out of the door and see no clothes and no Cade. I open the door a little further and step into my room. I look to the bed and the desk from where I was, leaning against the door frame. I don't see the clothes anywhere and I'm confused as to what to do. I hop back to my crutches and use them to go to the door that leads to Ari's room. I open her door enough to stick my head in and see Ryder and Ari on her bed playing their phones.
"Ari" I say loud enough for her to hear. Both of them turn around and look at me. When Ari sees me, she quickly gets up and comes into the bathroom, shutting the door on the way.
"Do you know where my clothes are?" I ask as I lean against the counter. She shakes her head no.
"Let me go look" she says as she walks out the door, closing it. I wait for about a minute and Ari returns to the bathroom with my clothes in her hand. I thank her as she leaves and change into the now dry clothes. I walk into my room and find nobody in there. I go to the desk and look at the stuff given to me. I pick up the phone and notice that it's an iPhone. I turn it on and notice that I need to set it up. I go sit down on the bed and quickly work to set up my phone. Within five minutes I have everything set up and many games downloaded. I slide the phone into the sweatpants pocket and head to Ari's room. I go to her room and see Ryder and Ari in the same position as the last time I was in here.
"Hey Ari" I say as I go next to her on the bed.
"Hi" she answers smiling at me. I completely lay down on the bed next to her as she sets her phone down.
"What did Cade want?" I ask quietly. She shrugs just as Cade walks into the room. I sit up against the wall and watch as Cade sits in the desk chair facing the three of us.
"I just wanted to talk to you guys about staying here and what to do if something happens," Cade says before continuing. "Technically through the organization Ryder is in charge of Ari and I'm in charge of Wynter. If someone breaks into the house, come to my room and meet by the door I showed Wynter".
"OK, but how long do we have to stay here?" I ask.
"I don't know, it could be a short time or a long time. Don't get your hopes up though in case it takes longer" he says. I nod my head and wait for him to continue talking. Even though he has no idea how long we will be here, I doubt it would be more than a few weeks. "And we need to take you guys shopping for new clothes since you don't have any. We can take you guys together if you want".
Ari nods her head and I agree with her. I think we can both agree that we are going to stay with the boys the whole time, to avoid what happened last time we were at the mall.
"When will we go?" I ask.
"We can either go today or tomorrow, which ever you guys want" Ryder joins in.
"I would prefer going today" Ari says quietly. I nod my head in agreement.
"OK" Cade says. "We should leave as soon as possible since then. The mall is about two hours away". I guess that when we are so far out in the country it takes a while to get anywhere.
"OK, I just need some medicine before we go" I say to Cade. He nods his head and tells me to follow him. He goes to the stairs and quickly carries me and my crutches down. He returns my crutches to me before continuing to walk.
"Let's change your splint into the boot quick before we leave also" he says as we head to the kitchen. When we reach the kitchen, he tells me to sit on the counter while he gets all of the things needed. I follow his directions and use my good leg to boost me onto the counter without much of a struggle, letting the crutches fall to the ground. Cade returns shortly with my pills, a glass of water, and the big black boot I am going to be accustomed to. Although, I think this is going to better than the splint, since I will hopefully be without crutches and capable of doing things on my own now.
"This shouldn't hurt" Cade says pulling me out of my thoughts. I slide back on the counter, allowing my knee to bend so I can rest my foot on the counter. He carefully unwraps the splint that was put on early this morning and exposes my swollen ankle. Thankfully, my ankle isn't sweating or smelly since the splint was on for a short time. With the boot, I will be able to take it off to shower now. Cade takes the splint and throws in the trash. When he returns to the counter, he helps me slide my tender ankle into the bulky boot. Once my ankle is secured in the boot, he tightly Velcro's it shut.
"Here, let me help" he says as he lifts me off of the counter. I am gently set down and find it relatively easy to walk on my hurt ankle without any crutches.
"How come I can walk on my ankle now without any pain?" I question.
"The boot provides a lot of support and comfort to minimize the amount of weight put onto your ankle" Cade says. I nod my head and quickly take the pills, using the water to wash them down. I take a few steps without any pain and then continue to bend down and pick up the crutches.
"What do I do with these now?" I ask.
"Here, I'll take them to where we keep all of our medical supplies when we need them" he says.
"Why didn't we just take care of my ankle here?" I question.
"Our medical supplies are very limited. We don't have a doctor, and we can only treat minor injuries and illnesses" Cade says answering me.
"Are there a lot of bases in the organization?"
"There are about fifteen houses with about 140 bodyguards, ranging in age from 16 to 25 years old" Cade answers.
"Really? What happens when someone turns 25?" I ask.
"They either move on to another organization or private security, or they leave and do a completely different job."
"So, does every base have 6 people? And why are you and your brothers all in the same house?" I question.
"Like I said on the way here, this is the main base for the organization. Since my parents created the organization and run it, we have been trained since are tenth birthday. You could say that we are the main bodyguards in the organization with the most training. And most bases have around ten people in it" he says. "Come on, we need to leave for the mall soon, so we make it back at a decent time tonight". I follow him out of the kitchen and as I walk back into the living room, I see James and Carter in the living room playing checkers. I give them a small smile as I continue to follow Cade into the medical room. I stay at the door while Cade goes into the room to put the crutches away. I get a good look around while Cade sets the crutches in the corner of the room. It is a decent sized room with two full sized medical beds. The room also contains cabinets which I assume are filled with medical equipment. The walls are a plain white color just like the rest of the house, other than that there wasn't anything else in the room, which made it kind of boring. Cade returns to where I am standing and leads the way back to the living room where Carter and James are still playing their game.
"James, we're going to the mall, so we should be back late tonight" Cade tells James.
"Who's all going?" James asks.
"Us, Ryder, and Ari" Cade answers. James just nods his head and returns to play checkers with Carter. "Let me tell Ryder were ready to go" Cade says as he pulls out his phone. Cade's fingers dance on the screen as he seems to be texting Ryder. Cade returns his phone to his back pocket and we proceed to wait for Ryder and Ari. I look at the dirty watch on my wrist and realize I should probably just throw it away, since the white band is stained brown even though I wore it in the shower. After removing it from my wrist, I quickly check the time and see that it is 3:10. I see a trash can in the corner of the living room, so I just walk over to the trash can and throw the dirty watch in it. As I'm walking back to Cade, I see Ryder come down the stairs with Ari following a few steps behind. When they reach the bottom of the steps, Cade walks over to the front door as the three of us follow him. Once we reach the bottom of the stairs, I realize that Ari and I are practically dressed the same. We both have the boy's black sweatshirts on with their joggers and our own tennis shoes, but I have a boot on my one foot. The sweatshirts fit both of us the same way. Even though Ari is a few inches shorter than me, Cade's sweatshirt is a little bit bigger since he is taller and older than Ryder. When we open the door, I am immediately met with the cold weather.
"Are we both driving, or are we riding together?" Ryder asks looking at Cade.
"If we drive together then you guys could ride together" Cade says looking at Ari and me. "But there wouldn't be as much room if you wanted to seep on the way back" Cade finishes.
"I say we drive together" I say. Ari just slightly nods her head in agreement. Cade nods his head and puts his handprint into the panel where it scans his hand. Then, he taps a button which I assume locks the front door. Cade leads the way to the car and gets in the driver's seat. Ryder gets in the passenger seat, which leaves the back seats for Ari and me. Once we are all in the car, Cade quickly starts driving.
"When did you get to the house?" I ask Ari.
"Um, about an hour or two before you" she answers quietly. It's obvious that Ari is still overwhelmed with everything, but it is good that she hasn't had a panic attack... at least I don't think she has.
"You haven't had any issues, right?" I ask. I don't directly say panic attack, because I don't think she told the boys and it's not my place to say anything.
"No, everything's been fine" she answers, obviously understanding what I was referring to.
"What did you do on the drive to the house?" I ask.
"I just looked out the window or slept the whole time" Ari responds. I figured that would happen. She hates talking to people she is not familiar with, so she would never have asked to play his phone, eat, or go to the bathroom. Although, I know that Ryder stopped since the drive was over ten hours.
"So you're completely fine?" I question, wanting to make sure she's fine.
"Yes" she says giving me a faint smile. I very rarely see Ari shy like this. Normally, she is a little bit more outgoing. Not that she is really outgoing, but she is more comfortable around people she knows. We don't meet new people a lot, so Ari especially doesn't have many social skills.
"When are we going to finish our school?" I say loud enough for Cade to hear.
"You can start tonight or tomorrow if you want" Cade says while driving.
"It's Sunday, right?" I ask.
"Yes" Ryder says joining in the conversation.
"Have you even talked to Ryder at all?" I ask Ari quietly.
"Um, only when he asked what I wanted to eat" she mumbles confirming my thought that they stopped to eat on the drive to the base. I just nod my head, not wanting to stress her out by suggesting that she open up more. Ari pulls out her phone and silently starts playing a game.
"How long is the drive?" I ask either of the boys.
"A little over two hours" Ryder responds.
I follow Ari's actions and pull out the phone that was kept in the pocket of the joggers I was wearing.
"Can you play some Christmas music?" I ask. Cade rolls his eyes but complies with my request. As Christmas music is playing, I open a game on my phone and start to play it while humming along with the Christmas music. I realize that being with Cade and Ryder is a lot like being with Tyler and Jace. I am not really close with Tyler and Jace, which is similar with Cade and Ryder. Living with my dad, has caused Ari and me to have very sheltered lives.