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Giggling, I turn back, see that Greg has found the office. Walking in, my jaw drops. I can see our very own library here instead of an office. There is an entire wall of windows, and the ceilings are tall. This house is insane.
“Holy shit,” I whisper.
“How are you liking the house?” Greg asks, smirking as he walks to one of the yellow and blue chairs. I think he added things to my shopping carts, because I definitely didn’t order those, even if I do love them. They’re bright, cheery, and perfect for this room.
“Yeah, you could say I do,” I mutter, sitting across from him. “I haven’t even explored it all, outside of knowing it’s way too much space for us.”
“Lennon, it’s really not. There’s five of you, and once you add kids and shit, it’s a lot less room than you’d think. There’s eight bedrooms, a sun room, living room, formal dining room, kitchen, office, basement, and the back porch. The basement is finished, but it’s huge and you can do whatever you want with it. We converted part of ours into a game room, another part into a home theater with a projector, and a gym. The options are endless.” Greg tells me with a shrug. “You’ve been on the road for years, and deserve to have somewhere to call home. No matter where you want to go from here. Have you thought about that at all?”
I blow out a breath, because it’s still too soon to think about this. “Music is all I know… I’m usually good with words and I can draw a bit, but I can’t really make a living at that, right? I feel as if I can’t move on so I can think about the future until I know I’m safe, so until then, I’m stuck in a weird limbo place,” I explain.
Greg’s face darkens as he thinks about my reality.
“Think about it,” I continue. “I can’t really go anywhere without worrying about being kidnapped, I still carry the scars of what happened to me, and my mom’s still out there. I can’t even buy anything for myself.”
I’m aware I’m dangerously nearing full blown pouting, but I’m having a rough day. I want to do so much, yet can’t due to fear or safety.
“Okay, I can see you’re feeling stifled. I was hoping the house would help, but it's not because there’s too much still up in the air. So let’s get into why I came over. We’ve been able to find your grandparents, and they are alive,” Greg explains.
I perk up at this. It’s sweet that he wanted to distract me with this house as a gift, and I’m insanely appreciative. Instead, it’s showing me how far I have to go before I can move on with my life.
“However, they’re both pretending they don’t know where she is. They live in a fenced in property that makes it difficult to snoop, though not impossible. Today my team is going to run surveillance with drones. Yesterday, we played nice. Now we just don’t give two shits about their privacy,” Greg says with an evil grin.
Blowing out a breath, I shrug. “I was hoping I would have more family members that weren’t assholes, so that’s unfortunate. I hope she is there, though, so we can get closer to catching her. What else do you have for me?” I ask. I don’t want to cry today, and I’m crushed that my grandparents aren’t good people.
“Drew, Orion’s dad, left Kentucky just after Thanksgiving. It appears that he didn’t bother changing his name, just up and left. He’s not in the news stories that were run, so the arrogant son of a bitch probably thought that moving would be enough to allow him to start over,” Greg says, rolling his eyes. “I want to pick him up and just off him, but I wanted to ask you. Should we drop him into a dark hole and forget he exists so he’ll suffer indefinitely, or kill him?”
I think about how I don’t know him at all, and while he didn’t directly hurt me, he went along with all of Grant’s plans. “Dark hole,” I tell him. “He may not have hurt me, but he blindly followed Grant because he wanted the power of backing him. I feel like this is just as bad.”
“Fantastic, I’ll fuck up his Christmas and have him picked up today,” Greg murmurs, making a note in his phone. “Grant is next up, and I have an update for—”
There’s a knock at the door, and he smiles. “Come in, Derek,” he calls and the door opens.
“Hey, I hear you needed me,” Derek murmurs, walking inside. “Damn, I haven’t been in here yet. It’s gorgeous with all of this natural light.”
“Can’t you see a library or something in here?” I ask him with a smile.
Derek walks behind my chair and leans down to hug me from behind. “Yeah, baby girl, I definitely can see a library in this room. It would be perfect. We aren’t really stuffy office people,” he chuckles.
“Fuck off, Derek,” Greg says, smirking. “My office serves a purpose, even if it’s just to steal Tori away for an hour to fuck her by pretending I need her for something. Anyway,” he coughs, to cover up his chuckle, “I wanted to update you on how things are going in the search for your dad. We have face recognition going through all the security and traffic cameras in Portland, but so far nothing has popped up. We may need you to try calling his phone to see if I can trace him if he answers. We started looking after we got the information from Prescott about where your dad would go next, so it’s still early on in our search. I am just really pushing to tie up as many loose ends as possible.”
I know Greg is working his ass off with his team, and the last thing I want is for him to think I’m not grateful. “Thank you for everything,” I tell him. “I really appreciate it, in case I haven’t told you.”
He gives me a measured stare. “You don’t have to thank me for anything. Honestly, I almost feel as if I’m being a little selfish because of how badly I want to kill Xav. There’s a trail of lives that he’s destroyed, and I refuse for yours to be yet another. One more question before I leave: If there was one thing, anything you could have in this house, what would it be?” he asks.
I blink, trying to process what he means. The house is pretty damn perfect, but…
“Don’t think too hard!” Greg barks at me and I jump before laughing in surprise.
“A screened in porch is the very first thing I can think of,” I giggle. “I love the idea of being able to sit out there year-round. It’s already almost too cold right now, and I’ve heard the mosquitoes are ridiculous here in the summer.”
“Derek, want to help the guys and I make that happen? Link, Griffin, and I want to give Lennon a Christmas present,” Greg says with a smirk.
“A Christmas… Greg! You’ve already done so much,” I gasp.
Derek kisses my temple before straightening up. “Yeah, if you tell me what to do, I can do it,” he says with a shrug.
Greg ignores my freaking out as I look at both of them in shock as he stands. “You and Tori have a lot in common,” he tells me. “When she was pregnant with our first kid, all she wanted was to sit outside. Griffin screened in the porch for her then, so we’ll be able to do this before Christmas.”
