"Of course you do," Hunter said dryly, setting a glass on the mahogany bar top.
And I had a plan for him as well. Penny's Halloween talk had the nebulous beginnings of a plot in my brain. Soon I would be able to drive and talk on the phone and drink my coffee out of a plastic straw the way God intended.
"I feel like the bum was a bit much. You could have just had me take it off him," Greg said in disapproval.
"Garrett just did that to be mean, I bet," Tristan said, taking a long swig of his scotch.
"That is eight-thousand-dollar scotch," Hunter said, smacking him lightly on the shoulder and taking the glass away. "If you can't appreciate it, you aren't allowed to drink it."
"We'll bring you a juice box," Archer said, sitting across from me. I glared at his feet. He scooted over on the couch.
Mace came into the room. "The kids are all watching Netflix." He looked at me oddly. "Also, they said that Penny is coming to cook dinner tomorrow night?"
"Oh hell no!" Archer exclaimed. "You give me so much shit about having Hazel cook on my nights."
"You are pretty judgmental, Garrett," Mace added.
"I don't have to explain my reasoning to you," I snapped. "Penny will be here tomorrow. If you don't want to eat what she's cooking, I'm sure Remy can kill a squirrel and boil it for you. You can all eat it in the bunker."
19
Penny
"Going to make dinner for the boss?" Morticia and Lilith asked from my doorway. I jumped and stifled a scream. The twins were quieter than Salem. They just seemed toappear.
"He's not my boss. I'm a temp, basically a contractor," I said irritably.
"She has feelings for him," Lilith said.
"No I don't."Just run-of-the-mill sexual attraction.
"He's a good-looking male specimen," Morticia said.
"You sound like you're about to dissect him in the mortuary in the basement like onThe Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," I told her.
"Aunt Zelda is my kindred spirit," Morticia said with a sigh.
"She's going over to Garrett’s house to 'bake his cake,'" Lilith said with a smirk.
"Do not use cake as a sexual innuendo. Don't ruin that for me; cake is all I have left. Also, I already baked the cake, so there. I'm going over to make fish pasta and snoop around for my article that I have to write so I can pay off the student loans I took out to get a useless journalism degree."
* * *
"I can do this!"I said, trying to pump myself up as I walked up the steps to the Svenssons' front door a short while later. It swung open before I could even knock. I hastily put away my phone. Trisha had texted me a barrage of messages wanting all the dirty details about the Svenssons and their escape from the cult.
Miniature versions of Garrett peered at me around the heavy wooden door.
"I don’t understand why you all can’t act like normal people. Every single time someone comes to the door," I heard Garrett bark, "you stampede over."
They scattered and Garrett appeared, looming large in the doorway.
"I brought cake," I said, holding up the large cake carrier. "I only ate a couple of slices."
Garrett ushered me inside. Several kids crowded around me. They were wearing various superhero costumes.
"There was some sort of Halloween event at their school. Apparently it’s going to be an all-month thing," Garrett explained dryly. He led me through the massive dining room with the four crystal chandeliers and into a kitchen that was bigger than every single apartment I had ever lived in in New York City combined.
I set the cake down on the counter and looked around. On the island were metal pans of raw seafood laid out on ice, all organized by color.
