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Ignoring how freaked out that made me feel, I told Rain over my shoulder, "No, I did not know that Uncle Quint offered you a place to stay in our house. I don't mind, though." That was a lie because I kind of did mind, I thought we should have had a vote about it or something. "And I know the other guys won't mind you living there either." Now this last part, I wasn't sure if it was a lie or not but I didn't feel bad about telling it if it was.
"I turned him down," he told me as I heard the door close behind him.
I found the switch for the shitty lights and flipped them on.
"Why?" I asked curiously as I turned and crossed my arms over my chest.
"Because my sister is buried in the basement," he told me bluntly.
My eyes widened in shock and I fought the urge to take a step back away from him. He didn't seem upset but he was a volatile man, he'd already fried me once with his magic, I wasn't looking for another go around with it. He was unpredictable and slightly unstable, it would seem. I knew there was no love lost between him and his sister, but death did strange things to people, it made you care when you wouldn't have before.
"Who told you that?" I whispered. No one should have shared that little secret with anyone. It was something we were taking to our own damn graves.
He arched an arrogant eyebrow and mimicked my arms crossed over my chest. "No one told me, boy. Now that I know she's dead, it made tracking her ass down way easier and I used magic to find her body. Why's she down there?"
Why, indeed.
"Fertilizer," I said dryly. "Julian claims the life force comes up outta the ground and goes into the plants he's got cooking down there."
"You got any other dead bodies buried down there?" He asked seriously.
That was none of his damn business, and he knew it. I gave that question the lack of a reply that it deserved.
He shrugged and chuckled before gesturing around the room and asking, "Do you mind?"
"By all means," I muttered ungraciously.
He wandered around touching things gingerly and without asking questions. Before I knew it we were upstairs in the apartment. I stayed by the door and let him wander around at his leisure. When he was done he gestured towards the door and we went back downstairs. I unlocked the offices and let us in. I'd saved the basement room for last.
"This'll do nicely," he told me.
I cocked my head to the side and asked, "Nicely for what?" I wasn't following.
"For where I'm going to live," he stated simply.
That wasn't exactly the plan. I had thought he'd want to live upstairs after it was remodeled. This space was cold and not homey in the slightest. Then again, it wasn't like Rain was a warm and cuddly guy.
"What are you going to do with that shit hole upstairs?" He asked.
"Gut it," I answered immediately. "I already hired a team to come in and do it. Then everything will be nice and new up there. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a nice and new apartment than this space?"
"This space is clean," he told me. "And the right size for me. I don't have a lot of stuff and what I do have is safely locked up in storage. I'll hire a company to get out some furniture and some of my other shit and have it brought here. I-"
"We actually have a storage facility," I shared helpfully. "Uncle Quint rents some of the units out but most of it he keeps freed up for the rest of us. I have a unit I use to keep a lot of my parents’ things in and I know the twins have some things stored in a unit, too. We've got lots of furniture if you need anything and I'm sure Uncle Quint would let you have a unit for yourself seeing as your family now and all."
He studied me curiously and I was really getting sick of him doing that. It's like he took in everything and wasn't impressed by anything.
"Appreciate it," he grunted. "I'll talk to Quint. Do you have a spare set of keys for me?"
I did and told him so. I had spares made for Ariel and Quinton as well. The rest of them could ask first and I'd have a set made up for them. I didn't think it wise to tell Rain I'd given a set of keys to his new apartment to my Uncle. That was a gross invasion of privacy on a whole new level that he was better off not knowing.
"When's Ariel coming?" He changed the subject by asking me.
"Was she supposed to be coming?" I asked back. I hadn't told her anything about the place yet, I had been avoiding her like a little weak, bitch since the day after that douche bag Chuck died. I didn't like the way she'd looked at me with something not right in her eyes. Not accusation, exactly, but more like she had no idea who I was anymore. And I was fucking terrified she'd be afraid of me now, or not like me anymore. I couldn't handle something like that so I'd been avoiding her in order to not have to face the possibilities.
Rain glared at me. "You got a problem with my daughter?" He snarled at me, all signs of friendly long gone. We were in hostile territory and I needed to tread carefully here or he'd fry my ass again. It was a trick I needed him to teach me, for protection purposes, of course.
"No," I told him honestly. "I'm worried she's going to have a problem with me."
