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“I’ll ask Queenie. Are there any issues I need to know about?”
“None. The food is great and there’s plenty of it, and there’s a dance studio off the flock’s quarters,” Ashley said.
“And every gaming console known to man in the main living area for the flock, with all the best games available,” Arnold added.
“There’s also a shooting range, and weapons available to shoot,” Nick told them. “When I wake up this afternoon, I plan to take each of you to the range and work on weapons familiarity, muscle memory, and accuracy. Handguns, shotguns, rifles. Being housed in safe quarters comes with the responsibility of defending said quarters if they’re attacked.”
Ashley’s phone made a noise, and she said, “That’s Lauren’s tone. I should check it.”
Nick nodded permission, she pulled her phone from her pocket, and read the text. “She’s called for a meeting of everyone involved in my production at six this evening in the dance studio. Can you work my time in the range around that?”
Nick nodded. “If any of you have something planned later in the day, text me the details and I’ll try to work around it.”
He made his way back to Lauren’s room, talking to people as he encountered them. Most knew Lauren was back and safe, but all wanted to talk to him about why she’d been taken. It took him twenty minutes longer than it should’ve to make it across the mansion and up the steps, and when he finally used his palmprint to enter, Lauren was in bed and asleep. He quietly disrobed, took a quick shower, and then crawled into bed naked. She snuggled into him in her sleep, and he drifted off not long after his head hit the pillow.
Chapter 32
Lauren had managed to hold it together while at Homewood, and when Mordecai finally flashed them back to the coterie house, she made it into her room before she fell apart, but it was a close call.
She pumped the music up, turned the shower on, and dissolved into tears before she managed to get her clothes off. She’d stripped her outer shirt off and was standing in her undershirt when Mordecai popped into the room and pulled her into his arms.
“Ahh, Little Bit. It’s the first time you’ve been home since we lost him.”
She’d forgotten her grief might bring Mordecai, but she wasn’t sorry it had. The water turned off without him touching a thing, and then she was in his lap in the huge reading chair in her room. She curled into him and let her tears fall, trusting him to make sure no one outside her room could hear.
She let her grief out in huge, uncontrollable sobs. She’d gone home and Smokey hadn’t been there, and he never would be again.
“He was my best friend for so long,” she eventually told Mordecai, her voice watery despite the fact she’d cried until there were no more tears. “And now he’s justgone. I moved off and left him — what must he have thought?”
“He got to see where you went. He understood, and he always knew how much you loved him. Never think otherwise, dear Lauren.”
She’d start crying again if they kept talking about Smokey, so she changed the subject. “Why do you have my emotions on a trigger to get your attention? I know why you do for mom, but why me?”
“Three reasons immediately come to mind. I adore you, Lauren. I have many children, and I’m closer to you than I am to most of them, which I suppose gives you daughter status. Also, the woman I love would never be the same if something happened to you. I fear she’d slaughter an entire continent if it meant saving you, and then she’d battle with that decision for eternity, regretting the lives lost but knowing she’d do it again to save her child.”
Lauren could see her mom doing exactly that, and she smiled at the thought. The little girl who’d spent her first years unloved wouldnevertake her mother’s love for granted. “And the third reason?”
He chuckled. “If your mom knew I could’ve saved you and didn’t take the steps to ensure I did, I’d never be able to sleep around her again.”
“You’re afraid of my mom?”
“Let’s call it a healthy respect.”
“But you’re immortal.”
“Torture still hurts, and being immortal means torture can be so much worse than most people fathom.”
She sat up, but he pulled her back to him, and she let him.
“She wouldn’t torture you.” Probably. “I’m glad you and mom and Nathan have each other.”
He kissed the top of her head. “If things work out with Gavin and Nick, it won’t be the same kind of dynamic.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nathan and I live a good portion of our lives in your mother’s house. She occasionally spends time at our homes when we’re one-on-one with her, but most of the time we come to Homewood when it’s the three of us. We have closets there, it isn’t like we have to pack — it’s one of our homes, but not our only home.”
And Lauren didn’t have her own place. Would she spend some of her time at Nick’s and the rest in the coterie house? Could Nick move into the coterie house and live separate from his pride, as Nathan did?
