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“I’m sorry, sir. I know you have a lot to process right now, but now that your father has finally disappeared, there is something that you really need to see,” Thomas says, the urgency in his tone rising a lot.
“One second,” Rip interrupts as he runs back to the SUV to turn it off before we forget.
Once he comes back, Rome nods, “Alright, lead the way. Would you care to explain what is going on?”
Thomas turns around and hurries toward the house, the rest of us following quickly after him as he replies, “It’s too difficult to explain. It really would be better if you saw for yourselves.”
“Very well,” Rome replies, striding through the front door, his shoulders tensing even more as he crosses the threshold.
I try really hard to keep my reaction to the inside of Rome’s family home to myself, but when Rome looks over at me and immediately starts chuckling, which prompts the others to look at me and do the same, I know I’ve failed.
Deciding that since I’ve already got their attention, I may as well ask, I say, “It’s certainly an interesting choice of décor. Did your parents have a royalty fetish? And an fucking bad one at that; it’s like how a kid would choose to decorate. There’s no taste whatsoever. It’s so over the top and gaudy and cheap.”
Thomas chokes on a laugh at my words and then momentarily looks panicked before the guys burst out in loud laughter, and he relaxes.
“You nailed the description in one, he thought he was some sort of lost royalty and decorated accordingly, but the tapestries, gold, purple, and all that shit is something that, as you said, he’s pulled directly from the pages of a kid's book. He was so proud of it that it always made me cringe with embarrassment.” Rome explains, still sounding amused as we continue to follow Thomas through the house.
“It could be a museum, like one of those fun house ones, that’s a museum of past fuck ups,” I suggest, unable to stop looking at everything around me. There are even fucking crowns, “It’s weirdly fascinating. Oh, please tell me that there’s a painting somewhere of him dressed like a king?”
I meant it as a joke, but when Rome winces, my eyes widen dramatically, and Rip asks before I can, “No fucking way, he has a portrait of himself dressed as a fucking king? Like with the cape thing and the crown?”
“And a scepter, yeah,” Rome replies, sounding amused, “It’s fucking ridiculous, and I’m going to look forward to watching that burn.”
“Oh, let me blow it up?” Ace asks excitedly.
Surprisingly for us all Rome shrugs and replies, “You know what? Go ahead. It would be amusing to see it blown into tiny pieces. He spent tens of thousands of dollars on the stupid fucking thing.”
“What!” I exclaim, and then add, “Is it bad that I kind of want to see it now?”
“No, I want to see it too,” Mason replies with a chuckle.
Rome glances back at us and raises his eyebrow, “If we get the chance after we’ve seen whatever it is that we need to see, then I will take you to see it.”
“Yes!” Ace exclaims excitedly.
“Thomas,” Rome asks, gaining his attention once again, “could you please let all the staff know that they are on paid vacation until further notice but for at least two weeks? It’s not safe for you all here at the moment, and I don’t want any of you to get caught in the crosshairs.”
Just like Rebecca, Thomas’s eyes widen slightly, but unlike Rebecca he smiles, a proud glint entering his eyes as he replies, “Absolutely, sir, I will let them know as soon as we’re done.”
“Thank you,” Rome replies and then adds with a frown, “this hallway leads to a dead end. Are you sure this is the right way?”
His words and the fact that he puts his hand on his weapon just in case makes us all do the same, the joking air from earlier disappearing.
“It doesn’t lead to a dead end, even though it appears that way,” Thomas replies as we get to the end of the hallway, and he presses against the wall, which pops open, revealing a solid steel door with a keypad off to the side. It looks state of the art, and judging from the look on Rome’s face, he had absolutely no idea that it existed.
“What the fuck?” He questions as he looks at Thomas.
Thomas quickly types in the passcode and then pulls open the heavy steel door, “I will go first because, understandably, you are wary that this may be a trap of some sort. I can assure you it’s not.”
As soon as he steps foot in the dark hallway, a light flicks on the low sound of buzzing filling the corridor that appears to lead to some steps going down. Thomas walks down with confidence, and we all share a look before my curiosity overtakes me entirely, and I shrug, drawing my weapon and heading down the corridor after Thomas. Of course, my departure has all of the others following after me.
“Jynx! For fuck sake,” Rip growls quietly from behind me, clearly stressing out because I’ve gone rogue.
Rome grips my spare hand tightly, making me pause just before I start to walk down the steps, “I need you to be behind me, okay? I need you to be safe.”
Usually, I’d give him a hard time, reminding him that actually, I’m perfectly capable of defending myself, but Rome’s eyes are practically pleading with me, and I know this is more than just his protective instincts coming out, so I nod, stepping to the side and letting him move past me.
When we get to the bottom of the steps, we find Thomas waiting for us by another steel door, and I frown. What the hell is Rome’s father keeping down here that would mean it’s important or dangerous enough to need to be kept behind two steel doors?
