I nod my understanding but huff at the fact that he wants me to pay attention to Penelope. “Knowing her, she will take great pleasure in dressing me in the wrong clothes.”
“Not if Dad asks her not to,” Gio points out.
“Yeah, somehow I don’t think that’s going to matter to her.”
We pass a couple of closed doors, but Gio stops before we go much farther. “Back there is a lounge and a library. The next floor up contains the entertainment rooms. The theater, game room, gym, indoor pool, bar, and bowling alley are on the next floor and can only be accessed through the elevator. Downstairs are the kitchen, conference rooms, ballroom, and a couple of living and dining areas. The rest of this floor is all suites with en suite bathrooms. There is a safe room on each floor and in both wings. Each of them have escape shoots to the same tunnel that leads from the escape room in the underground. Penelope doesn’t know about those, so unless we need to use them, she doesn’t need to know,” he warns.
“Okay,” I agree.
“Familiarize yourself with the layout of the place and all the safe rooms, and I’ll show you the secret conference room as well when we go back downstairs. The likelihood that we will be invaded is slim, but you need to know where to go in case of an emergency. Most of the living areas all have weapon caches too, and I will show you how to access them as well. But first, pick a room. This is me, and that’s Sage.” He points to a room farther down the hall.
“Are the rooms soundproof like they are at home?” I ask, and he shakes his head.
“No, that’s why I picked one away from Sage. He likes to play his music loud,” he cautions, and I grunt.
“I’ll take his loud music over the moans of pleasure or knocking beds coming from yours.” I move farther down the hall and open the door across from Sage’s room. There are four bedrooms between his and Gio’s, so that’s probably far enough away.
Pushing open the door, I step into a large, beautifully decorated room. It’s all in deep greens and copper with dark, sumptuous carpeting and window coverings. There’s a big wooden bed with a curtain on a raised platform. The curtains are pulled back, and the pillows are piled high.
“Oh my God. This is freaking beautiful!” I squeal as I run across the room and up the steps to the bed, throwing myself across it. “Are they all like this?” I ask Gio, who is standing in the doorway looking amused.
“They are all beautiful. Some are similar, but mine and Sage’s are more modern than this. How did I know you were going to pick this one? I can’t believe it was the first door you opened.”
I roll around on the bed that I swear could fit five people and giggle. “It’s like someone found my Pinterest page and designed it exactly for me.”
Gio isn’t quick enough to hide his smirk, and I sit up straight.
“Did you do this?” I ask him, and he shrugs.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Come on, I’ll show you how to access the safe room in this wing.”
I jump off the bed and quickly stick my head through my bathroom door, doing a little dance when I discover it has a huge shower with side jets and a tub built into the floor. It’s decorated in green, silver, and black. I can’t wait to test them both out.
Sighing, I leave my gorgeous room behind and throw my arm around my wonderful brother, smacking a kiss on his cheek.
“Has anyone told you how awesome you are today?” I ask him, and his chest puffs up with pride. “Come on, lead the way. Show me how to avoid being captured in our house, then I need to see the rest of everything.”
ChapterSixteen
The safe room is off the library and a little bit cliché. You have to pull a book to access it.The Godfatheris a little obvious, if you ask me, but hey, at least it’s easy to remember. It’s a self-contained room with a bed, couch, and TV, with a little kitchenette that has a microwave and fridge. There’s also a bathroom through a door in the back. It’s not much, but it will keep someone safe until whoever is threatening them can be taken care of.
Once done, he leads me back downstairs. He shows me a large conference room that could easily sit twenty people at the huge, wooden table, but he then goes over to a wall and presses a finger into a marble bust. I think it might be a philosopher, but seeing his eye disappear gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I don’t pay close attention to it. The wall next to it slides away.
“Holy shit. I couldn’t even tell this was here,” I tell him, waving my hand in the now empty space. There are a few steps leading down, and they are lit by LED lights in the steps.
He starts to descend. “This space sits between this floor and the garage below the house, and it’s soundproof. It’s where Dad holds his meetings. No weapons or any outside electronic devices are allowed into these meetings, and each family head can only bring one guard with them. There is a field to interrupt electronics too, so that no listening devices can be brought in.”
I follow him down, and we have a quick look around. There’s a large conference table with sixteen black leather chairs surrounding it, with a larger one at the head of the table. I guess that’s Dad’s spot. Off to the side is a little area that looks to contain glasses and bottles of whiskey and scotch. Apart from that, there’s not much to see. I guess it’s what gets talked about that is the exciting part.
Next, he shows me the safe room on this floor and all the caches of weapons. There are guns hidden in walls, drawers, and special cabinets built into furniture. There’s even one in the floor where if you hit it with your heel just right, it slides away, revealing a terrorist’s delight.
He then shows me all the things on the top floor, and I can’t wait to use the swimming pool. The damn thing is designed to look like Hugh Hefner’s grotto at the Playboy Mansion and has a cave with hot tub jets inside and seating areas. It’s also long enough to get in a decent lap before having to turn again. In an alcove nearby, there’s a glassed off sauna and another hot tub.
The bowling alley just about blows my mind. It’s set up 50s style, and there’s a snack bar, a jukebox, and a beverage bar. Flashing neon lights and pulsing music all start with a press of the button. Four lanes means that we could almost have a mafia league. Gio laughs when I point that out to him.
“I’ll suggest it to Dad.”
We are finally done looking around the house, and Dad and Mickey meet us at the elevator to go down to the parking garage.
