Page 137 of More Tricks

The night seemed to take on this surreal quality that made me almost believe there was nothing wrong in the world. I had my men, my best friend, and the guys who were clearly over the moon about her. Everyone laughed, ate, drank, and just enjoyed hearing stories about our adventures apart.

“You really asked him to pee on your leg?” I laughed. “Girl, don’t you know that’s just some made-up bullshit?”

“Now I do,” Harper said with a pout. “How was I supposed to know that Friends would do me dirty?”

I laughed so hard my face hurt, and I was about to cry. “Damn, that is the best story I’ve ever heard.”

As our laughter died, Magnus pulled out his phone and frowned. “Looks like we have visitors, but they won’t get far unless I let them.”

He flipped the screen around so I could see what he was talking about. There was Tommaso and François talking as they stood in the elevator. “How the fuck do they know where we went or where you live?”

“François is a tricky bastard. He always seems to appear in the oddest places,” Ghost muttered. “Why would he be with Tommaso? I thought the only one who was in on this was his sister?”

“That’s what we were led to believe,” Eagle grumbled. “Seems he didn’t like that we left without giving our answer.”

“What are our options here?” I asked. “Can you make them arrive on any floor?”

Magnus nodded. “Yeah, I can send their asses right back to the main floor too if I wanted.”

“You said there was another apartment that we’d be using? I want to see what they have to say, but I don’t want them in your home,” I explained. “Something tells me I really want to hear what they have to say. Tommaso looks just as upset as I feel. Not the face of a man who’s come along on this trip willingly.”

“We can do one better,” Jaxson said. “We own both apartments on the lower floor, the second one is empty and we just use it for storage. That way, they have no idea where any of us are staying. Mag can also change the number on the display, so they don’t have the right floor if they try to come back.”

“Smart,” Cam agreed.

Wes leaned over and looked at the phone. “You’re gonna need to tell me how you did that and connected it to an app on your phone.”

“Oh, the great Weston needs me to teach him something?” Magnus teased. “Yeah, I can show you what we did.”

“We should probably head down unless you want to leave them waiting in there,” Harper pointed out.

Magnus glared over his phone at her. “You’re sure as hell not coming with us. I don’t want you in the same room as François if I can help it. He looks at you like he’s trying to steal you from us.”

Standing, she walked over and draped her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek. “Lucky for you, I’d never let that happen. He’s far too old for me, and besides, you already proposed twice. If I were going to cut and run, I wouldn’t have said yes twice.”

“When the lady is right, she’s right,” Ghost commented, smiling at them.

With large amounts of grumbling and reluctance, we all took the stairs down a level. Jaxson let us into the space and it was just full of random boxes here and there. When I opened a lid, I found grenades just chilling in packing peanuts.

“What the actual fuck, you guys? This is what you store in the spare apartment?” I asked, raising one to show everyone. “Someone could just break in here and blow the whole building up.”

“That’s where I left those,” Jaxson blurted. “I’ve been looking for those at each house we stop at. I knew we had more somewhere.”

“Well, if you look on the bright side, if they have an army of Italians downstairs, we can totally take them,” Cognac reasoned.

Yup, it's official. All of us were batshit crazy. I actually felt like that was a totally logical point to make.

Magnus smacked Void in the chest with his hand, motioning for him to follow. “Let's go get the fuckers and see what the hell they want.”

Void followed as I placed the grenade back and glanced at the other boxes just to see if there were any more explosives we should keep an eye on. Everything else looked like it was gear they needed for various jobs but weren’t commonly used so they were stored here. Really with the things in this room, we could get out of this building seventeen different ways, from repelling to paragliding.

We all went for our weapons when the door opened again as Harper moved behind Ghost. Void entered first, then held the door open for Tommaso and François, who were being prodded along by Magnus.

“This wasn’t quite the reception I assumed I would be getting, but I understand. No one likes people to drop in unannounced when they shouldn’t even know where you live,” François said, his hand up showing he had no weapons. “Oh, Miss Peirson, it’s so good to see you again. Are you happy to be back in the States?”

“Enough,” Magnus snapped. “Tell us why you’re here, François.”

“Yes, yes, we shall get right down to business if you so choose.” He sighed. “Tommaso, why don’t you fill them in since this is your doing?”