El’s lips twitched, and she felt the two men on either side of her repress their laughter too.
“Damn straight,” came the proud retort, Shawn’s sarcasm apparently flying overhead—probably for the best.The last thing they needed, after all, was to piss off the Pantera.
“You can drive on through,” the guard was saying as he flashed a light into the cab.The five of them squinted against the beam and glowered at him, but he just shrugged.“Only doing my job.”
The gates opened with a rough creak and Shawn set the SUV into motion.
With their arrival, spotlights appeared in the courtyard, displaying the grimness of the Pantera compound.
If this was their idea of a welcome mat, she was damn glad she’d been raised with her dad and not her mom.
Okay, that was totally bitchy, but hell, this place looked like some kind of refugee camp.In fact, she’d visited pleasanter ones on the Turkey-Syria border.They’d had supermarkets and play areas and everything.
This place looked like tumbleweed was a design feature.
The sparsity of the land around her made her realize how beautiful the Pride compound was, and how much ‘pride’ they had in it.
Every aspect of the Pride’s land was tended to and cared for.The buildings were well maintained and beautiful—made to please the eye as well as to provide a sense of just how affluent the collective was.
This was just depressing.
A flurry of old farm buildings were the major edifices within the courtyard.They all needed painting.
On the Pride compound, only the leaders lived there full time at the lodge.Some of Pride House was partitioned off to guests who stayed, and there were a few people who lived on site like Adam… and she really hoped that was the same here, because otherwise, it was even more depressing.
There was nowhere fancy to indicate where even the Pantera leader lived.Never mind everyday Joes.
“Shithole.They never did give a crap about aesthetics,” Trip grumbled.
“Do they live here?”
“Yeah.A lot do,” Shawn murmured, surprising her.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve done my research, babe.No way in shit I was letting you walk in here without knowing the score.Eighty permanent residents on the compound.”
“About two thousand who live all over this side of the coast.”
“They run here like the Pride does?”
“Yeah.No choice.They’ve no other land.The Pride has a few plots where people can go shift, but the Pantera are too poor.”
“That’s kinda sad.”
“Yeah, but it’s their own fault.They have the same longevity we do.That’s why we’re all successful.We all have a long time to get shit done.Humans have barely any time to make stuff happen.”
She smirked.“My family would disagree with that.”
“Your family is a beast,” Marc retorted with a laugh as he opened the door.“No way you can compare railroad barons to the everyday populace.”
“True.”
“You’ve collected all your wealth—makes you smart as shit.”
She snorted at Trip’s dubious compliment.“Thanks, babe.And my family wouldn’t agree—the collection isn’t something they’re happy about.Not when it’s managed by one person.”
Trip shrugged.“Only because you’re the one in charge—nobody has to like the leader.Bet nobody liked your granddaddy either.”
