Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 64571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“The fuck am I going to do with that?”
“You wanted a phone.”
“That doesn’t even work.” A house phone has to like plug into a wall. I think. “Where is the other cord thing for the wall?”
“What year do you think it is? It’s wireless.” She picks up the phone and hands it to me.
“There’s a dial tone,” I say in shock.
It takes me a few times to finally get the right number.
“Hello?” Sasha answers, sugary sweet. I make a gagging motion.
“Hello, Sa-sha,” I snip into the phone.
“You,” she hisses. “What have you done to Tristan, you little fucking psycho?”
“Whoa, calm down,” I tell her. “I’ll tell you exactly what I did to him.” I keep my voice even, or I try to.
“Tell me, or I swear to—”
“I fucked him.” It pops right out. Teddy falls backwards laughing.
“He stalked her down, and she popped his cherry,” Teddy shouts in the background. “Come get your sloppy seconds, jerkface.”
I burst into uncontrollable laughter. At some point, we must end the call.
“She’s going to tell him,” Teddy gasps.
“Good.” I wipe my eyes. That man stalks me. I can tell his fan club to fuck off.
A knock sounds at the vault door. We freeze. Teddy shoves the champagne behind a crown.
“Don’t answer it,” I whisper.
She’s already punched the code. The door swings open.
Roland stands there in full butler regalia, straightening his jacket. “Good evening, ladies. I trust Reginald has been hospitable?”
“Roland.” Teddy waves. “We’re traumatized.”
“Clearly.” He nods at the peacock like they’re old friends.
“You’re done with the cleanup thing?” Teddy asks.
Roland adjusts his cuffs. “How long do you think such a simple task would take?”
“Yeah, same, me too,” I say.
“Yep, we can clean up bodies like this.” She snaps or tries to; no sound comes. “My fingers are broken.”
“What would you ladies prefer for dinner?”
“Where are the men?” I thought they were helping Roland.
“The gentlemen will be... occupied for some time.”
“Wait.” I sit up too fast. “What are they doing? Are they having a night out on the town?”
Roland smiles politely. “Gardening, miss. They’ll be along shortly.” He turns, pausing at the door. “Do let me know about dinner.” He closes the vault door behind him. We listen to his footsteps fade.
“Gardening?” Teddy repeats.
“Gardening,” I confirm.
We look at each other. At the empty champagne. At Reginald’s glassy eyes.
“They left us,” I say. “We have trauma. Actual trauma. And they’re... gardening.”
“Yeah! They could be trauma bonding with us,” Teddy adds.
“That’s what the kids call it these days?” I ask, reaching for the cheese puff balls. They’re gone too.
“Rude,” we say together.
Then we laugh, because what else is there to do?
I wipe cheese dust from my lips with the back of my hand and look at Teddy. “We should go see about this ‘gardening.’” I make air quotes.
Teddy blinks, then grins, adorably evil and reckless. “Grab a crown. We’re going in disguised.”
“What about the gold bar and those weird antique handcuffs?” I ask, standing. The vault sways, but I adjust. Nothing is going to stop me from going on this mission.
“Those aren’t my handcuffs.” She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Don’t frame Grams or Reginald for your kinks. Be open about them, Teddy. We live in a new, open sexual world nowadays.”
“Shh.” She covers Reginald’s ears. “You have to say ‘earmuffs’ so he knows not to listen.”
“Right, silly me.”
“Now, yes to the cuffs that aren’t mine.” I nod dramatically. “Reginald, you hold down the fort.”
I give him a mock salute, and we’re off on our next adventure.
Chapter Twenty-Three
TRISTAN
“I’ve been thinking,” I say. “What about a virtual geofence?” I’ve been bouncing that idea around in my head. The girls aren’t going to let the dome thing fly, so we have to be resourceful, and I have lots of resources.
Killian twists the pliers. The man on the table screams, high and thin, until he finally runs out of air.
“Virtual what?” Killian asks, not bothering to look up.
“It would be a dome but invisible to the human eye.” Killian finally glances up at me. “Think of it as an invisible, electronic upside-down bowl made out of invisible radio waves or light beams instead of glass or metal. A 3D Airspace Perimeter. Radar Drone Detection.”
Killian releases the pressure and considers this. “Shit, it even goes up?”
“Complete coverage. No one in or out without tripping sensors, whether on the ground or in the sky.”
The man on the table whimpers. Killian pats his cheek absently.
“How soon can we get this geofence? Those two are getting harder to contain.” Lily I can handle alone, but the two of them together are an entirely different story. It’s like they’re constantly playing a game of who can think of the craziest idea to put them in danger.
“You see my Lily hit this dumbass with the two-by-four?” I smirk. I hate that she had to do that. She should have been back here tucked in the library. I would have built a whole ice cream store for her right here. But I respect the hell out of the fact she wasn’t going down without a fight. She gets that from her father, whether they are genetically related or not. “She’s a little bloodthirsty.”