Eventually, Lazarus finished the last of the cooking and took a plate with him into the other room when he heard some of the other guys head outside.
Gracie’s shoulders relaxed when we were alone again. I liked that she felt at ease around me more than was probably normal.
She exhaled hard and shot round eyes at me.
“Did that feel awkward or was it just me?”
“It’s just us. For obvious reasons. They didn’t suspect anything.”
“Good,” she said, poking at her eggs.
“Eggs no good either?”
“Eggs are fine. They actually get the eggs from Kit and Ria now. And I know how well those sweet girls live, so there are no guilty feelings there. I’m just not super hungry.”
I felt like I could eat one of those cases of eggs. I’d burned some calories the night before.
She took her piece of toast with jelly then gestured toward her eggs. “Help yourself.”
“How’d you sleep?” I asked, forking some of the scrambled eggs off her plate.
“Not for a long time, but then pretty deeply. I never get up this late. But without the sun shining on me, it was hard to know it was time to get up.”
We made small talk as the guys drifted in and out, dropping their plates in the dishwasher then heading out to do whatever their task was for the day.
“Did anyone get in touch with Layna last night?” Gracie asked when a few of her cousins hung around to get fresh coffee after it brewed.
“Yeah,” Fallon said. “You were right. Her stubborn ass won’t come back. But we have no reason to think she’s at risk in Vegas, so we’re not worried about it. Just told her she has to check in three times a day. If she misses one, someone is on a plane.”
“Okay. Good. Now, whose shower is the cleanest?” Gracie asked.
“What’s wrong with the one in the basement?” Fallon asked.
“You can’t be serious,” Gracie said, shaking her head. “I can’t even raise my arms enough to shampoo my hair in that thing. Clearly, it was designed by a dude.”
No one had anything to say to that. It had been.
“Didn’t I see Spike with the cleaning cart?” Brooks asked.
“Yeah, he came out of Nave’s old room, so that one is probably the cleanest.”
And Nave had moved on from living at the club, so the room was unoccupied until someone else was assigned to it.
“Why am I staying in the basement if there is an empty room?” Gracie asked, narrowing her eyes at her cousin.
“Added layer of safety,” Fallon said with a shrug.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, shaking her head as she stood. “Well, I’m going to take a shower then.”
With that, she cleaned her place and went downstairs to get her things.
“What’s my job today?” I asked when she was gone.
“Keeping your ass inside and away from windows,” Fallon said.
“I could—”
“Think my instructions were pretty clear,” he said, nodding at Brooks, then the two men made their way out of the room.
