“Omen, I want you and TumTum to head over to Jason’s. Flack, you’re back up.”
“Aye aye, Prez,” Flack says with a grin.
“Justice, how long will it take you to go through the Eden’s Keep tunnels? Just a preliminary sweep to begin with, make sure we don’t have anyone still lurking.”
“There are three tunnels. They all converge into the same exit tunnel. With only two of us it’ll take at least three hours.” Justice says, hands balled into fists. The kid is taking losing Goodson hard, but I think it’s the best outcome. The state Justice is in now I’m sure he’d react poorly to having his man monster in front of him. Justice may think he wants to make Goodson pay, but deep down the kid isn’t a cold blooded killer. Justice is kind and gentle to his core and letting him go to work on Goodson would eat at him in the aftermath.
“We’ll come,” Saint says, stepping forward and eyeballing me and Omen.
I open my mouth to argue but Loyal squeezes my hand. “We’ll be OK. We have Sniper and Dex here to keep us safe.”
“I can use a gun,” Nell says, hand in the air like she’s at school.
“I’m pretty handy with a knife. And a frying pan,” Joe calls through the kitchen hatch.
“No!” Loyal yells back, ignoring Joe’s eyeroll.
“Then it’s settled. Landrys, Justice and Chef you head down and check that it’s clear. Is there anyway to shut them down to keep fuckers from getting in again?” Prez asks.
“Yeah, I have an idea,” Omen grins and it makes me shudder. Seriously, I think he spent way too much time with Chewy.
“Let’s do this.” I say, pressing a quick kiss to Loyal’s lush lips. “I’ll be back soon. Protect our girls.”
“Always,” Loyal says, blue eyes searching mine.
I pat her ass and follow my brothers into the kitchen. “How do we wanna split this?”
“Justice and Omen, you take one. Vex and Chef can take another, and I’m happy to do the pantry one on my own.” Saint says, booted feet shoulder width apart as he moves to cross his arms over his chest. As the youngest brother he’s always bracing for a fight when he shares his ideas, even now that we’re fully fucking grown.
“Good idea, baby brother.” Omen says, slapping him on the back and heading out the door. I just know that Omen’s easy acceptance is going to mess with Saint’s head.
“We’ll take the tunnel in my house and then meet you in the middle,” I say, tipping my chin at Chef to follow me.
We head out to one of the SUVs and I drive to the little house where Loyal, the twins and I live. I would call it the prophet’s house, but it’s not been his since Blanche shot him in the head and Damian and Justice replaced everything. As with the rest of the Eden’s Keep buildings, we’re breathing new life into the place.
“You live in the prophet’s old house, right?” Chef asks from his position in the passenger side. The shithead doesn’t have his seatbelt on so the SUV keeps beeping incessantly.
“Yup,” I reply, kicking up dust as I drive like a bat outta hell across the Keep. I mean, we could have walked, but I need to get this done and then get back to my girls.
“Is that weird? Living in the place your father was murdered?”
I glance at Chef. “He wasn’t really a father. Not like when I was young. When Eden’s Keep first started out it was a nice place. My dad was still my dad. He taught me how to pitch abaseball and all that. But that shit didn’t last long. He changed. Started to believe his own hype. Then my mom died and whatever sanity he was clinging onto left with her. So, no. It’s not weird living in his house because by the time he lived there with his young wives he was a man I didn’t recognize. To me the Prophet was a stranger. And now he’s a dead stranger.” I pull up in front of the house and ignore Chef’s pitying look. He can think whatever he wants. He’ll never understand what Eden’s Keep was like or the family politics because Chef was raised right by good people.
He follows me into the house, through the kitchen that Loyal loves and into the sunroom. I kick the rug out of the way and hook my finger into the ring pull that sits recessed into one of the floorboards. Yanking it up the door creaks and the tunnel light flickers to life.
“Whoa,” Chef breathes and I grin from my position halfway in the hatch.
“I know. Eden’s Keep may have been an evil piece of shit, but the tunnels are pretty cool.”
“I can see why you kids would have fucking loved playing down here,” Chef says as I jump down off the last ladder rung, his legs dangling in the hole waiting for me to get out of the way.
I blink a couple of times, letting my eyes adjust to the lighting down here. As with everything Eden’s Keep, the tunnel is fucking bright white, looking like the pathway to heaven or something.
“Roomy,” Chef says, appreciating the six and a half foot ceiling height.
“Let’s get moving,” I say, breaking into a quick stride as I look for any scuff marks or clues or fucking something that will tell me if anyone has been here recently.
“What’s that?” Chef asks, looking up.
