Cole rolls his eyes at Thad. “Not going to happen, jackass.”
Thad shrugs, throwing me a wink. “Can’t blame me for trying.”
“We stick together as much as possible from here on out. Who the fuck knows what they have planned.”
All of their eyes have landed on me, and I can sense their worry, their fear, and their need to protect. My eyes narrow, an itchy feeling crawling across my skin at the looks on their faces. I recognize those looks and have zero patience to deal with them right now.
“Don’t you even think about going all cavemen on me. I’m just as powerful as any of you, arguably more so, and I won’t sit back and twiddle my thumbs while you all play babysitter to the poor little ghost girl. I agree, we need to stick together, but I’m not the only one that needs to be careful. We’ve all got targets on our back.”
“She’s right,” Levi says, looking around at the guys before his eyes meet mine. “We’ve all seen what she can do, and we need to trust her.”
“Aww...thanks, babe.” I go up on my tiptoes and give him a quick peck on the cheek.
“Kiss ass,” Knox mutters.
“I’d kiss her ass any day,” Thad quips.
“It is a nice ass,” Levi adds.
“For fuck’s sake,” Cole grumbles, rubbing a hand across his brow.
Mack and Knox share a look, the latter nodding slightly before Mack clears his throat. “We...uh...might also know where to find the book.”
Internally, I panic. Externally, I’m as cool as a cucumber. They can’t collect the book considering the location they think they know is wrong. I suppose they could get lucky, but I’m freaking out that they’ll discover the secret I’m keeping. They won’t care if I have my reasons for hiding it from them. Knox side-eyes me, picking up on my panic and guilt, no doubt, so I start thinking about unicorns and donuts and anything else that makes me happy to try to throw him off my guilt trail. He raises one eyebrow before turning away. Whether he legitimately believes my sudden shift in emotions or he’s giving me a hint of privacy to have some thoughts and feelings that I don’t immediately need to explain, I can’t be sure. Nor do I care, so long as he focuses on something else.
“Might know?” Cole growls, crossing his arms over his chest.
“We may have put it somewhere in Tennessee for safe keeping roughly fifty years ago and haven’t checked on it since.” The sentence is said so rapidly, I find myself slightly impressed that he didn’t gasp for air at the end.
“You mean you two have known the location the whole time and didn’t share it?” Levi asks, incredulous.
“No! We only just realized it when Destiny described the book. It matches the description of the small journal I found in my pocket when I woke up in New York.”
“And you’re just now connecting the dots. Mr. I Know It All?” Thad snarks.
“I know, I know. I really should have figured it out sooner. It just didn’t click. The way they talk about the book, I expected some sort of large ancient tome.”
“It’s been fifty years. We forgot. We’re sorry.” Knox throws a dirty look in Thad’s direction.
“Mack. Knox. You need to retrieve that book, and we need to find a secure location for it.”
“We’ll make a plan to get that done before we make the final move to the Gateway.”
“Now that that’s settled, Thad, Levi, I want you on the perimeter. Make sure everything is locked up and do regular sweeps to ensure no one is on the grounds.”
“You got it. C’mon, bro,” Levi says, placing a hand on Thad’s shoulder and leading him away while Thad’s eyes find mine.
“Don’t forget, woman. Sexathon. Coming your way soon.”
“Will it include the shadow schlong or the peen puppets?”
“What’s a shadow schlong?” sweet, innocent Macklin asks.
Knox puts his hand on Mack’s shoulder. “You probably don’t want to know if the twins are involved, mate.”
Cole rolls his eyes, but I don’t miss the hint of amusement in his tone. “Mack, start packing up all of the equipment. I want to be out of here as soon as possible.”
“I could use some help with all of the cameras.”
“Knox, help Mack but keep your senses open for any threats.”
“Will do.”
Knox and Mack start whispering about #PeenPuppets and what that could possibly mean. I chuckle.
Wonder if they’d be willing to show me their #PeenPuppets? Bet Quetzi really would look like an anaconda.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask, turning to Cole.
“Stay out of trouble.”
My hands land on my hips, and my eyes narrow.
“Cole, don’t piss me off.”
“I mean it, Fate. Our enemies know our location. Likely know that we don’t have all of our memories. Until we can get somewhere safe, I don’t want you alone, and I don’t want you doing anything stupid.”
My eyes are locked onto his, feeling his fear like a living breathing thing, but that doesn’t mean he gets to lock me away in a tower. In fact, he can fuck right off with that line of thinking. Mack and Knox have gone silent, watching the exchange like they’re watching a ping pong match.
“So much for that promise to trust me, huh?” I force myself to hold his stare, fighting to not let the hurt show. He’s not willing to give an inch, but neither am I. His arms are crossed over his chest, trademark scowl firmly in place.
“Little ghost, you know we-”
I cut Knox off, aiming a sharp glare in his direction. “You too? I expected it from him, but not from you, Knox. What about you, Mack?”
My sexy nerd visibly cringes but doesn’t say a word. A tiny bit of hurt snakes its way into my heart. They may have let me into their merry little boy band, but they still look at me as lesser-than. Fuck them and fuck that.
Turning, I walk away before my power sparks and does something I can’t take back. I can feel it just under the surface, begging to be released on the lot of overprotective assholes. “Fate…” Cole starts.
I throw up my middle finger as I trudge up the stairs, letting them all think I’m being a good little ghost girl and listening to orders. As if my power wanted to add its own two cents into the mix, Lily Allen’s “Fuck You” begins to blare throughout the house. Yeah, fuck you all very, very much. If they think I’m going to just sit back and let the men folk handle it, they don't know me at all.
We all watch as Fate heads upstairs, her middle finger held high until she turns the corner and escapes down the hall. It doesn’t take an empath to know that she’s livid. If she were a cartoon, smoke would be coming out of her ears.
“Fuck!” Cole snaps as he begins to pace the foyer with both hands on his head. “It’s like one step forward and two steps back with that woman.”
“Except this isn’t a Paula Abdul song,” Knox chuckles.
Cole just glares his way before he stops and says softly, “I just want her safe.”
“That’s what we all want, mate. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about that when dealing with our little ghost. You just chose the wrong way.”