I bop my forehead on my arms, cursing quietly.
This shop had better exist. I’ll do a search while we make toast and coffee.
Funny how when we’re at the counter on the stools and I’m tapping out that search onDuck-Duck, he leans in, catches sight of my search and goes still.
“No?” I pause. “I thought you wanted this, and there it is.” I spin the phone. “The Love Realm. Sex Toys R Us. And on Main Street.”
“It’s good.” He nods. “Perfect.”
“I’ll get the dragon one that’s bigger than a T-rex then?” Absentmindedly, I grab another triangle of buttered toast, though I’m still wondering why he seemed worried about the search.
24
TEA AND TREACHERY
They have invited us into their home, and there are no guns in sight, only her walking cane, the aid she seems to set aside when it suits her. Perhaps she isn’t always in pain?
“Come in. Come in.” Her smile is welcoming, though Ron only appears once we are inside. Was he ready to snipe Kail if he proved to be not what I said he was—safe?
Only a day ago they helped me run Kail off.
Now, sitting in their dining room with the omnipresent tea plus some cookies, I truly realize how odd this is. How potentially scary and weird it should seem to anyone…normal.
Apart from that conspiracy theory view of the Large Hadron Collider’s effects, Molly and Ron seem normal. Maybe that alone explains it, if their hobby is investigating strange phenomena.
I gesture toward Kail where he’s dwarfing their chair, with a steaming mug of Earl Grey tea before him that Molly just poured. He bites off another piece of cookie and crunches into it.
He takes another bite, resulting in more crunches.
Molly tinkles a teaspoon in her tea.
This feels like the lull before a storm. I’ve been lurching from violence and death to absurdity, serene banality, and amazing sex with Mr. Picasso, and I have a serious case of whiplash. Any minute now, Godzilla will tear off the roof.
Instead, Molly and Ron’s red tabby arrives, threads through the chair and table legs, and brushes around my ankles, before moving on to Kail. He stoops to pet her.
“So.” Molly stirs her tea, “What’s the gossip? We’ve seen men above in the mountains—they appear to be searching for something—and Ron and I are wondering if we missed something.”
Apart from us two now being an item? Or does she mean that too?
Kail only flicks a glance at me. I have not prepared for this. Same as my not-a-plan revenge. The epiphany hit me as I climbed their steps…how does one tell the elderly neighbors that you participated in a murder or two the previous night and hooked up with this darling monster?
“Ummm.” I sip my tea to give myself time. I frown at the ripples. Just do it. “Oh, fuck it. I don’t know how to say this. Sorry! Sorry! That was rude.” Everyone has zeroed in on me. Kail looks amused, with a half-smile breaking out.
“Take your time, dear.” Molly nods sagely, kindness in her eyes. “I have heard the word fuck before. So has Ron.”
I’m trying to think through how much to tell them that isn’t going to horrify them, while they’re looking at me. It’s not easy. I wet my lips, take another sip of tea.
“Okay, the gossip? The gossip is that two men attacked me last night and Kail… He fended them off me and saved me. Which is why I trust him now. He’suhhhstaying with me, protecting me.”
And because of his other, sexier features.
“Ron?” Molly elbows him. “Tell her about the search.”
“Oh! What?” Ron’s deer-in-the-headlights expression says he is possibly thinking something he doesn’t want us to know.
“About. The. Search,” she says.
“Ahhh.I counted twenty men going uphill. Seems to be a pattern to it. That’s a big expenditure, a big task. No aerial aid, so possibly they are trying to stay low key.”
