---Davy's POV---
I was looking back over my shoulder, shooting the blond eye candy a glare before I looked back in front of me, silently fuming. Why was that guy following me all around the house? The huff that escaped my lips blew some of the curls out of my face before I turned the corner and took a shortcut, knowing that the guy who was introduced as Josh wouldn't know his way around the house yet.
Okay, I admit, the guy wasn't bad at all. He just rubbed me the wrong way, especially because I know he's at least interested in me but still kept shooting down every single attempt to flirt with him! I heard a soft chuckle behind me and gritted my teeth before picking up speed.
Making a few twists and turns, I paused when I heard a distant, muttered curse, making me smirk wickedly. Take that, you asshat! I laughed with myself and made my way to my room while depressing thoughts were slowly pushing their way to the front.
Dad....
I sighed and looked at the closed door of my twin's bedroom, where I heard some soft sobs emerging from the room. Shaking my head slightly, I slowly opened the door and closed it behind me before determinedly walking up towards her bed.
"Shhh Laura." I hushed as she started to cry even harder when I pulled her in a hug. She sniveled and whimpered, hiding her face under my chin as she stuttered," I-I j...just can't b-belief he's...gone." Blinking the haziness out of my own eyes, I swallowed the growing lump in my throat down and cleared my throat.
"Hey, none of that. Remember what dad said, he's never truly gone. He promised to look out for us, remember?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly as I tried to remain strong for my sister. I was the carefree one of the family, the jokester but I knew that my antics would give them some sort of reprieve out of their problems in their lives.
Laura sniveled and gave a sobbing laugh, "Yeah, he forced you to stick on my ass." I smirked and remarked, "Can't miss it." before I had to dodge the smack aimed at my head. I winked teasingly at Laura, who smiled as she understood that I was trying to get her out of her shell.
"Don't you have some flirting to do? With a certain blond-haired and off the record gorgeous male Seal?" Laura teased, laughing when I flushed a bright red. "Does everyone know about me being gay?" I shouted in frustration, throwing my arms up before dropping them again.
Laura giggled and rolled her eyes before giving me a playful push as she dried her tears. "Seriously though, you should go for him. Looks like he's interested as well." Her bright blue's staring at me with a mischievous spark as I grumbled under my breath.
"Yeah, well he has a funny say of showing it because every time I made a move towards him, he ignored it." I looked up when she giggled and shuffled closer. "So basically he's giving you the cold shoulder? Turn the thing on him then."
"Huh?"
Laura rolled her eyes and whipped her hair over her shoulder as she sat Indian style. "He's ignoring you because he finds it amusing when you're trying to get a reaction. So, do the opposite thing; go out or invite someone over and completely ignore him."
The scowl on my face turned in a grin that grew wider and wider until my cheeks were burning. "Laura, you're bloody amazing, you know that? If you weren't my sibling I'd kiss you right now!"
"Eew no. I don't want those lips anywhere near me." She replied, sticking her tongue out towards me before pointing towards her door. "Dhr. Phil time is over, now get out." She ordered, though smirking widely as I huffed and walked to the door.
"Fine, fine. I know, not many people can handle this much temptation in their presence." I waved a hand over my body before strutting out of her room, feeling accomplished at the laughter following me.
The sensation of a warm body close behind me made me tense and slowly turn around, tilting an eyebrow at the yummy male in front of me. "Can't get enough of me, can you?" I drawled sarcastically, making Josh smirk widely as he ignored the sarcasm.
"I'm actually looking for my room. Dust- err, Declan mentioned that we were all going to get our own room?" He quickly corrected himself but I noticed that he had let most of Declan's codename slip. I smiled widely and turned around before striding confidently towards the spare room further down the hall.
"Here you go, get yourself comfortable." I said with a blank face as I opened the door and motioned for him to go in the room before I started walking away. I had to bite the inside of my cheek when I felt his eyes on my ass as I sauntered down the hall to the end, where the stairs were located.
"Where are you going? Isn't it time to get to bed?" Josh asked in a slightly gravely yet confused one, making me smirk as I shrugged. "Yeah, gonna sleep now since I have some plans for tomorrow. Maybe I can call Andre..." I mused to myself while walking up the stairs.
Half of my brain was planning tomorrow while the other half cheered in joy when I noticed Josh' slightly disgruntled expression, as if he was annoyed of my lack of attention for him.
A smile curved my lips upwards before I flicked my tongue over my bottom lip. So he really is interested. Well then, this should be fun....
---Sage's POV---
Before my body completely woke up, my brain seemed to jump into overdrive as every little bit of information if the last hours came rushing back. I sighed while keeping my eyes closed for a moment before opening them to face a new day.
Sitting up and rubbing a hand through my tussled hair, I came up with a plan for today. First of all, I had to quit my medical education so I could support the family. I was an adult and could work from home so there was no way that they were gonna pull me and my siblings away from each other.
As I padded towards the bathroom for my morning rituals, I remembered that Declan gave me dad's note, which was written in code. The code seemed simple enough to crack... The door of my bedroom opening and closing made me turn my head before I rushed with my shower. Wrapping a towel around my hips, I ventured into my room.
One look at the bed made me shake my head. "Morning Davy, is there any reason you're already awake at 6 in the morning?" I drawled, looking at him over my shoulder with a raised eyebrow before I stepped in my closet.
Davy chortled slightly before listing, "All three of us need to go to school but we need to eat as well and I hate to tell it to you, but those Seals are lousy cooks. Well, at least that Richard guy is." I groaned slightly as I pulled a shirt over my head and stepped out of the closet.
"So basically, you just want me to cook for you guys before I have to play driver and drive you guys to school." I stated, earning a nod and snort from Davy as he walked out of the room. "Uh, let's see.... yep, that's pretty much it. You know that love goes through man's stomach?"
I chuckled and walked beside him to the kitchen. "Then it surprises me that you aren't cooking up a storm for your lover boy." I laughed out loud when Davy froze in his tracks before he scowled and stomped inside.
The kitchen looked like a battlefield as Richard was trying his best to cook what should be pancakes but... The black bundles soaking in a weird brown sauce didn't look like pancakes to me.
Richard was making a new attempt with Ellie curiously watching at the sidelines. Her brown hair curled wildly and a bit of flour covered her nose before it twitched. "Excuse me, sir? I don't think that u should put salt in a pancake...that's icky."
He cursed before throwing his hands up in the air, soaking himself in pancake batter in the process. Davy tried his best not to laugh but eventually he cracked when Richard turned around, revealing his face completely covered in batter and flour.
"Dude," Davy roared in laughter, slapping his knees in glee, as he couldn't keep his eyes, of the total mess in the kitchen. "I know you're used to a battlefield but come on... Our kitchen?"
Richard flushed a bright red before he started wiping the scraps of food of his face while I walked around the counter with a sigh. I ushered the man out of the kitchen and managed to undo most of the mess so I had some working space to prepare a fast breakfast.
By the time Declan, Josh and Laura had managed to pull themselves out of bed and entered the kitchen, all of them yawning and rubbing their sleepy eyes, I slid the last of the pancakes on the pile before plating up my bacon and eggs.
I rolled my eyes when Laura passed by, grabbing her own plate of scrambled eggs of the counter without as much as a 'morning' or 'thank you'. I knew her long enough to know that you'd better leave her alone until she was awake for an hour or so.
The others quickly helped themselves and I noticed that Josh was giving my brother some intriguing glances, trying to be as inconspicuously as possible. My lips shivered slightly, suppressing the smile before I made short work of my breakfast, since I had to drive them all around.
"Come on guys, you've got 25 minutes to get ready or I'm leaving without you. And those left at home will need to help me with the librar-" I chuckled when both Davy and Laura rushed up the stairs like the devil was on their heels. My gaze turned to the three soldiers, frowning slightly.
"Well...make yourselves at home, I guess. I'll be back at about twelve pm, so have a look around or whatever you guys want to do. Oh," I added while reaching in my back pocket. "Here's a spare key for in case you guys want to get out."
Declan smiled warmly, though a certain intensity slipped into his gaze. He nodded his head in gratitude before weaving his hands together. "We'd like access to your computers and cell phones later in the day. Just a precaution, don't worry."
I nodded slowly, noticing the glances both Richard and Josh shot towards their teammate and the glance Richard shot towards my laptop lying on the bookcase. One eyebrow slowly rose up as I looked at them but I didn't say anything else, just nodded again before I left.
Good luck trying to break into our data files guys.
---Declan's POV---
I waited until Sage had safely placed little Ellie in her seat before he drove off their driveway towards school before I sent back to the guys. My mind had been swirling all night long until I had finally made a decision. Richard was already typing away on his own laptop, courtesy to the army for the fast delivery.
"How are we going Echo, uh, Richard?" He looked up with a slight scowl before rolling his eyes. "Can we please just stick to our real names, unless there's something up?" He asked whilst typing away before smiling. "Line secured in three, two, one...and we're good."
Josh smirked behind him and patted Richard on the shoulder before looking at the screen. "Let's see what we can dig up about the kids first." I snorted at the wide grin on his face, knowing he was doing this for more selfish reasons but then again, we needed to have more info of the people we needed to protect.
"Wow...didn't expect that..." Josh whistled behind Richard as a picture of Sage appeared on the screen, along with a long list of information that peaked my curiosity. I sat next to them as Richard made a few more clicks before placing several more screens so the information was spread out over four screens.
"Graduated semi cum-laude, Valedictorian, has gotten several invitations for the most renowned and respected schools in the land...whoa!" Richard leaned closer before zooming in on a bit of information.
Josh coughed awkwardly as I stared at three simple numbers, which clarified why Sage was so annoyed with me calling him a child.
" IQ level of 169!" I choked out, staring at the others before Richard stood up to retrieve Sage's laptop. I was still in shock, I mean, the man was a genius and he seemed so.... modest. Josh kept reading, flicking from page to page as he said some stuff out loud.
"Whoa, he made a few mistakes on his exam so he wouldn't be accused of cheating... Graduated with 99.9 percentage! The kid's unreal!" He stated, looking up at us with wide eyes as I let the information sink in.
"Ashton knew this... He referred to it in the letter." I whispered before face palming myself. "The letter... He obviously can decode it too." I stated, seeing the others nod their heads before they looked back at the screens.
"Hmm, hello." Josh purred as the picture of Davy popped up, making me smirk slightly before I sighed. "If you want to go after him, then do so but don't play around with the kid Josh." He rolled his eyes, responding sarcastically, "yes, dad."
Richard stepped away from his laptop and started fumbling around on Sage's while we absorbed as much Intel on the family as we could. Smirking, I pointed at Davy's record. "Seems like your guy is a smart one too; IQ of 140, never sits a whole day or doesn't listen to the teachers but gets excellent results. Same for Laura, though she has a normal IQ."
A curse made us both look up at Richard, who was burning a hole through the laptop screen with his eyes. "Damn, I can't get into his files. Pictures and common knowledge, no problem but the rest is safely secured."
Josh and I shared a look before I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "It seems we'll have to wait for their files until Sage is back home." I muttered before Josh and Richard started making plans to find out who or what the Black Sun was, and what they wanted to achieve.