Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
They stepped off, their assistants falling into step at their sides.
Gage tilted his head.
It was quiet. Too quiet—no rushed footsteps, muffled conversations, automatic doors sliding open and close, or the humming of countless technical devices.
“Where is everyone?”
“Jo’s off-site for the week,” Mina answered. “A lot of staff took time off.”
“Where are the guys?” Scar asked.
“Browns’ quarters.”
Scar stopped short. “Oh shit. Is Grace cooking?”
“Yep. Cooking up a storm.”
Scar grabbed Gage’s hand and tugged. “Oh, I wonder if he’s making that bread pudding with the apples and cranberries—”
His hand was forcibly pulled from Scar’s grip.
“You’ll have to meet him up there,” Rose said firmly. “He has to get his labs drawn with Dr. Rockwell. No more stalling.”
“Oh, come on,” Scar argued. “It can wait one more day.”
“Actually, it can’t.” She tugged harder. “Scar, get a hold of yourself. You’ll survive without him for twenty minutes.”
Gage smiled as he was guided in the opposite direction.
Joshua leaned into his side. “Oh my gosh, Saint. He’s just standing there like a sad puppy, watching you walk away. What did you do to him?”
Gage could only smile wider.
He tapped his cane twice on his doctor’s office door and walked inside.
He stopped short at the slapping sound of skin meeting skin before he heard scrambling and hushed curses.
“Dammit, G,” Roz snapped. “Can’t you knock?”
“I did,” Gage chuckled. “Perhaps you didn’t hear it over—"
“Then you wait to be told to come in!”
“Ohhh, scandalous.” Gage teased. “Dr. Rockwell this not General Hospital, my goodness.”
Gage heard metal screeching over the floor and a drawer slamming.
“…and on the desk…you naughty girl.”
“Gage shut the fuck up!” Roz barked, while zipping his pants and fumbling with his belt.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I told you not in my office, Mateo,” Dr. Rockwell whispered frantically.
“I can still hear you.” Gage singed.
“Aliyah it’s okay. Gage can keep a secret. Right Gage?”
“Of course,” he exaggerated. “Trust me. I won’t tell anyone—”
“Please don’t,” she begged, sounding mortified.
“Umph, you didn’t let me finish. I’m not gonna’ tell anyone…unless they work in this building.”
He darted out of the door as Roz swore up a storm. Gage could still hear him yelling threats after he’d cleared the medical wing.
He reached the Browns’ floor and was quickly granted access. The elevator opened, and Mirage was there to meet him.
His brother laughed the moment he stepped off.
“What?”
“If you were a woman, I’d swear you were already pregnant, that’s what,” Mirage said. “You’re fuckin’ glowing, man.”
Gage knocked Mirage in his shin with his cane.
“So, how was it?”
Gage exhaled blissfully. “You’re asking me to describe the feeling of a prayer answered bigger than my faith dared to imagine. There are no words created to do that.”
Mirage snorted. “How poetic. You’re such a saint.”
Gage elbowed him in his side.
The doors opened and his senses were hit hard.
Grace and Mirage’s theater-screen television was blasting a baseball game and the sharp scent of gun oil came from someone cleaning their weapon.
Thuds repeatedly struck a corkboard. Knives were being thrown instead of darts. And laughter, curses, and arguments layered over it all.
Grace’s cooking drifted through the air, making his stomach rumble. Garlic, browning butter, roasted herbs, caramelized fruit, something sweet simmering.
A glass shattered.
“Ex, get the hell outta’ my kitchen,” Grace rumbled.
“I wanna help,” Ex damn near whined. “Just let me stir this right here.”
“No. Out.”
More laughter.
“We’re about to be a Raven short if someone doesn’t remove this incompetent from my kitchen.”
“Okay, okay,” Ex said. “I’ll just cut these up for you.”
A bowl clattered, and a bunch of hollow taps rolled across a hardwood floor.
“Goddammit, Ex. Do you know how rare and expensive those Roman grapes are? The ones that are now all over my floor?”
“Oh shit, my bad,” Ex mumbled. “I’ll wash’em.”
“Meridian,” Grace said flatly. “You can forget about the grape wine sauce for your chicken.”
A chair scraped and hard steps crossed the room before Gage heard Meridian dragging Ex away.
Everyone had their ways of unwinding between missions.
Zorion and Valor often went boating, camping, or to their cabin in a rural part of Virginia.
Mirage liked going to the local casinos or to magic shows.
Ex and Meridian had a getaway in the Aydos Forest near a small village in Istanbul, where the locals treated them like gods.
Grace cooked, and because he excelled at everything, the food he made was Michelin-star worthy.
He and Scar were going to have to figure out what they liked to do during downtime. Maybe try out some bigger amusement parks, like Universal Studios, or Six Flags.
“I think I better go calm my partner down before the vein in his neck explodes,” Mirage muttered, leaving his side.
The atmosphere settled him in a good way.
He’d grown up an only child. He never thought he’d know what it felt like to have brothers or a big family.
Now he did.
He tilted his head, pressing into the huge condo, letting it speak…searching it.