Nefertiti

I flop down on a chair with my water. I can’t even take a drink of water without dying because I’m breathing way too heavily. I’m having murderous thoughts about my dad for making me train this hard. I’m actually dying.

“Training is over for today, but your dad called for a meeting in ten minutes so be in the main meeting room in ten,” Michael tells me.

“Okay,” I breathe out. “Sounds good.”

I take my ten minutes and slowly walk towards the house. I feel like throwing up. When I enter the meeting room, it’s packed with lots of people. The meeting room looks like a huge movie theater and it echoes very badly in here. There’s even a stage in the front and a podium where my dad will stand.

Kade walks up to me and looks me up and down. “You look like hell,” he comments.

“Thanks, you’re a real one.” I roll my eyes.

“You’re dad told me to tell you that you’re supposed to go sit up on the stage with Michael and some other officers.”

“Okay, thanks.”

There are four chairs up on the stage; two on either side of the podium. I go up there and take a seat next to Michael.

“What’s this meeting about?”

“Not sure. He wouldn’t tell me.”

That’s weird. Usually my dad tells Michael everything.

“Quiet down everyone,” my dad booms.

The sound of chatter slowly fades away.

“I have called everyone here for an important message.” He pauses before speaking again. “Our rival mafia family, Mors Navis, needs to be taken down. They have taken my daughter and have even sent someone to try and take our information from the tech facility. I’m very annoyed with them right now and I want them gone.”

So we are just going to storm their home and destroy it? That sounds about right.

“I have made a plan,” he continues. “This plan was formulated by myself and I assure you, it will work. Two weeks from today, we are going to raid their home at around seven o’ clock p.m. I will scatter you in groups around the property. Some of you will destroy homes and take care of the men. Some of you will capture women and children as hostages. Some of you will be in charge of assassinating their leader and his son.”

My heart skips a beat. They are going to kill Zane.

“After all that is done, I want the whole property on fire.” He looks around the room. Some people are ready for this and excited, while others are scared, and worried. Some even have an emotionless face plastered on. “This is the basic outline of my plan. I will go over details in further meetings, but I wanted you all to know this. Prepare yourselves. You have two weeks.”

I look over at Michael and he has one of those emotionless faces.

“You are all dismissed,” my dad announces.

Everyone gets up to leave in an orderly manner, and the chatter fills the air once more. My dad turns around and walks over to Michael and me.

“Do you both understand my plan?”

“Yes sir,” we both reply in unison.

“Good.” He looks at Michael. “You can leave us now.”

Michael gets up and walks away while my dad takes a seat in the chair Michael just left behind.

“So, Beatrix. You do realize that you can’t freeze up again right?”

“Yes, dad.” I hang my head.

“I just don’t want you getting hurt.” He softly lifts my head up, pushing my chin. “I know I was hard on you, but you’ve truly made me proud of the woman you’ve become. I don’t want you to freeze up or hesitate and then get killed. Do you understand me?”

I nod my head.

“Good.” He kisses my forehead. His lips are cold, and it sends shivers down my whole body. He gets up and starts walking towards the door.

I look out into the empty seats and see Kade and Talen. I smile.

“What are you guys still doing here?” I ask. They get up and start walking towards the stage.

“We wanted to see you, duh,” Talen replies.

“What do you think of your dad’s plan?” Kade asks.

“Well, I think it sounds good, but will it actually work since he formed it by myself?”

Talen shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m just happy I get to come.”

“Me too,” Kade agrees.

“Eh, I don’t know. It’s not that fun.” I sit down on the stage and dangle my feet off the edge.

“Stop lying,” Kade says. “You couldn’t stop talking about your hunt for the intruder, and how you tortured him until he told you all of his secrets. Wasn’t that fun?”

I giggle. “Yeah, I guess it was.”

I love my boys. They always know how to make my day better. We sit there and talk for another hour before we head to supper together. All the while, I thought about Zane, and what they would do to him if they found out he was here talking to me.