He darted out of the door as Roz swore up a storm. Gage could still hear him yelling threats after he’d cleared the medical wing.
He reached the Browns’ floor and was quickly granted access. The elevator opened, and Mirage was there to meet him.
His brother laughed the moment he stepped off.
“What?”
“If you were a woman, I’d swear you were already pregnant, that’s what,” Mirage said. “You’re fuckin’ glowing, man.”
Gage knocked Mirage in his shin with his cane.
“So, how was it?”
Gage exhaled blissfully. “You’re asking me to describe the feeling of a prayer answered bigger than my faith dared to imagine. There are no words created to do that.”
Mirage snorted. “How poetic. You’re such a saint.”
Gage elbowed him in his side.
The doors opened and his senses were hit hard.
Grace and Mirage’s theater-screen television was blasting a baseball game and the sharp scent of gun oil came from someone cleaning their weapon.
Thuds repeatedly struck a corkboard. Knives were being thrown instead of darts. And laughter, curses, and arguments layered over it all.
Grace’s cooking drifted through the air, making his stomach rumble. Garlic, browning butter, roasted herbs, caramelized fruit, something sweet simmering.
A glass shattered.
“Ex, get the hell outta’ my kitchen,” Grace rumbled.
“I wanna help,” Ex damn near whined. “Just let me stir this right here.”
“No. Out.”
More laughter.
“We’re about to be a Raven short if someone doesn’t remove this incompetent from my kitchen.”
“Okay, okay,” Ex said. “I’ll just cut these up for you.”
A bowl clattered, and a bunch of hollow taps rolled across a hardwood floor.
“Goddammit, Ex. Do you know how rare and expensive those Roman grapes are? The ones that are now all over my floor?”
“Oh shit, my bad,” Ex mumbled. “I’ll wash’em.”
“Meridian,” Grace said flatly. “You can forget about the grape wine sauce for your chicken.”
A chair scraped and hard steps crossed the room before Gage heard Meridian dragging Ex away.
Everyone had their ways of unwinding between missions.
Zorion and Valor often went boating, camping, or to their cabin in a rural part of Virginia.
Mirage liked going to the local casinos or to magic shows.
Ex and Meridian had a getaway in the Aydos Forest near a small village in Istanbul, where the locals treated them like gods.
