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As curious as I am, unless Zemi specifically talks to me about it, it’s none of my business. I don’t want to push.
“It’s a bit ridiculous,” Zemi says, although she obviously isn’t too concerned about how ridiculous it sounds because she just carries on explaining without waiting for us to say anything. “We don’t get invited to places. You know how everyone at the organization feels about us, and all our family and friends live far too far away to visit very regularly. I cried because it was nice that you invited us to your place.”
“You cried and made us panic because Ever was nice?” Raid asks, his eyebrows hitting his hairline.
It doesn’t escape my notice that he included himself in the whole panicking thing.
Zemi shrugs, “Yep.”
I grin, “I get that. I still don’t understand why everyone at the organization are such dicks to you. It’s ridiculous.”
“They are to you too,” Wilder points out.
“Yeah, fair point. I don’t understand that either. I think all of us, you guys even more so, have more than proved that we’re capable and good agents, and yet they’re still assholes,” I reply, going on a little bit of a rant, because it really is something that pisses me the fuck off.
Zemi shrugs, “They’re just stuck in their ways. I think it’s more habit now. At least they aren’t as much of dicks as they used to be. It doesn’t actually bother us. It's nice to have people that want to spend time with you and hang out with you because they actually like your company. You know? It makes you feel not as alone.”
Cash nods, “Yeah, we had no idea that you guys were so close to where we are, or we would have tried to do something sooner. It really shouldn’t have taken this long. You’re more than welcome to come up to our place. We’re only an hour or so away from you.”
“Awesome,” Saint grins, bouncing in his seat. “We can set something up after the Hunt thing?”
Rafe nods. “Yeah, we were actually thinking about inviting you guys up for a BBQ. It will still be pretty chilly even if this Hunt thing isn’t sorted for two or three weeks, but I quite like a winter BBQ. We have the huge, covered porch out back, and the fire pit. What do you guys think?”
“I am definitely up for that,” I grin. “Snuggled up with hot chocolate and blankets? With food too! Absolutely. Plus, if it’s really miserable, we can just eat inside and do the BBQ another time. It’s no big deal.”
“That sounds great. We would be up for that,” Zemi says with a huge smile, answering for all of them as they nod in agreement.
“Great,” Trick grins.
Saint looks at Cash and Luc. “Do you guys still want a tour of the grounds before you go?”
“Yeah,” Luc says with a smile as Cash nods.
“I’ll come too,” Zee adds. “Anyone else?”
“We’re good. I promised Atlas that I’d show him some of the guns, and Jensen wants to see the knives we’ve got,” Raid grins.
“Oh, I want in on that,” I say immediately. I’ll never pass up an opportunity to see some weapons.
By the end of it, Rafe, Riot, and Rage end up going with Wilder to see a new version of some sort of game that he’s working on, and the rest of us go with Raid to look at pointy things while Cash, Luc, Zee, and Saint go out to explore outside.
Cash
“This place is amazing,” Luc says, and he’s not just being polite, it really is fantastic.
The guys have led us all around the house, which is somehow even bigger from the outside than it looks from the inside, but then again we didn’t get a full house tour because quite a few of the rooms aren’t even worth looking at, according to the guys.
Still, it’s crazy how big this place is.
Apparently the grounds are even more impressive, and they do have a lake, which Jensen will be thrilled to hear about.
“So how many hectares have you got here?” I ask curiously.
Saint frowns slightly. “A couple thousand, I think. I’d have to double-check.”
“Holy shit, that’s a lot,” I reply, unable to keep my shock from my voice. That’s an insane amount of land. “We’ve got a couple of hundred, and that’s more than enough for us.”
“Yeah, it’s a lot of work, but we’ve got help to look after it, especially since we aren’t here all the time, so it works out quite well,” Zee says with a smile. “Obviously we aren’t going to show you the whole place now.”
