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NINE
Decima
I didn’t knowwhat I found odder—the guys who showed us the house or the house itself.
The house had a… unique security feature, as it had been built into the side of a rocky hill on the outskirts of town—going as far as to use the rock as a structural feature. The back half of the house was embedded in stone and not accessible by intruders, so we only needed to worry about the front.
I ran my fingers down the rocky face on the inside, finding it cool to the touch but polished pleasantly smooth. I wondered how they kept spiders and other insects out of the house when half of the building was built using nature as its guide. Hopefully they’d put a little thought into that. I could handle bugs, but I’d rather not have them crawling on me in my sleep, thank you very much.
The brothers who showed us the place gave off a similarly weird vibe, a mix of warm exuberance that reminded me of Blaze in his typical state and cool competitiveness that came out at unexpected moments.
“We built this place from scratch,” the taller, seemingly older brother said, patting the slightly shorter of the two on the back.
His brother scoffed, poking an elbow into his brother’s abdomen. “James andI built this place from scratch. You supervised when you felt like it.”
There were actually three brothers. We’d met James briefly when we’d gone to see about calling in Julius’s favor after patching up the guys’ injuries from the fight. Warmth had definitely not been in his vocabulary. The youngest of the three siblings had simply glowered at us before slouching away.
Now, the older of the two apparently non-identical twins shrugged. “If you’d come out of Mom first, maybe you’d have been given the role of supervisor.”
“I’m happy I didn’t come out first. I’d probably be as fat as you.”
Garrison’s snort sent me over the edge where I’d been balancing, and I covered my mouth to silence my laugh. Neither of these men was fat by any means, but the “second” twin was certainly the fittest with lean muscles covered in dark ink down both arms and across his chest.
The younger twin dodged the older one’s attempted slap, raising his hands in a feigned defensive maneuver. Was this the kind of relationship I might one day have with Carter? It was difficult to picture.
“Anyway,” the older twin said to the rest of us, ruffling his brother’s hair in a way that looked more affectionate than hostile, though still aggressive, “you can have the run of the place while you’re in town. I think that should make us square, don’t you?”
Julius inclined his head. “It’ll do very well. We appreciate the hospitality.”
“We’ll leave you to it then.”
As they ambled out the front door, Blaze let out a dramatic sigh and flopped onto the leather sofa. He didn’t waste a moment before digging out his laptop.
“Comfortable?” Garrison asked with an amused smirk.
“I’ll be more comfortable when I’m sure we’re not going to find ourselves under siege again,” the hacker muttered. His usual jovial air had dampened quite a bit since the attack. Noticing that sent an uncomfortable pang through me that I didn’t know what to do with.
I distracted myself by exploring the rest of the house. I’d want to know all the entry and exit points in case it did come to another battle, after all.
With the wooden walls that expanded out from the stone face at the back, the building looked like a rustic mountain cabin, even though the low hill it was built into was the highest peak around this area. A fireplace stood across from the sofa in the center of the room, constructed of decorative stone that rose all the way to the high, wood-beamed ceiling. A bearskin rug covered the floor.
For all the cabin-like décor, it was all clearly top of the line. To rent this place on the open market I’d guess would have cost at least triple what we’d paid for that already upscale hotel. I was guessing Julius hadn’t mentioned the possibility of violent invasion when he’d called in this favor.
Or maybe people in our line of work simply took it for granted as a risk.
“Is trading favors a typical thing in this industry?” I asked. “They’re happy to just give us this place for as long as we need it because you helped them somehow in the past?”
“Yep,” Garrison said, poking around in the kitchen. “The most successful of us in the underworld have more than enough money, so cash payments are actually less appealing than goods or services we might be able to provide. We’ve all got different skills, after all.” He stepped away from the counter toward the front door. “Speaking of which, I’m going to go and see if I can pick up any word on the street about who might be targeting us locally.”
Blaze shot up, wincing slightly at either the old bullet wound that had nearly healed entirely or the bruising he’d gotten from the most recent fight. “Can I get a ride? Some of my equipment was damaged in the fight, and I need to replace it. Plus there are a few new security measures I’d like to put in place, mountainside or no mountainside.”
Garrison sighed, but there wasn’t much animosity in it. “I suppose I can put up with your company a little longer. Anyone else wanting to hitch a ride? Going once… twice…”
“I’ll reach out to the local supplier and stock up on more ammo,” Talon said, striding over. “If things keep up like this, we’ll need it.”
Those words and the sight of the three of them about to step out of view made my pulse stutter. What if our enemies came at them again? Who knew what they might face out there?
It was ridiculous. The Chaos Crew had gone off on all kinds of errands and missions since I’d met them and before then too. They could obviously look after themselves. But in that moment, all I could think of was how close they’d all come to taking a bullet in the brain just a few hours ago.
