Page 59 of More Tricks

Jaxson, Cognac, Ghost, and Cam left to deal with starting the grill. “Take a fire extinguisher out with you,” I hollered after them.

“Such a mother hen, today, spitfire,” Picasso said, pulling me to his side. “What happened to the woman who was more than happy to bust our balls at any given chance on the ride up here?”

I glared up at him. “Look, each of you spread the crazy around between all seven of you. Some have more. Some have less. Those three, yeah, they got my level of cray jam-packed into each of them.”

“She’s not wrong,” Harper announced. “They are batshit crazy for sure, but in some strange way, I find it incredibly sexy.”

Magnus moved over to wrap her up in his arms, kissing her forehead. “Is that so, doll?”

“I might be screaming and swearing at you while it’s all happening, but you always have a plan,” Harper answered with a shrug as she entwined her arms around him. “Can we just make sure we don’t burn the house down? I just got it how I wanted it.”

Magnus tipped her chin up and kissed her deeply before letting her go. “I’ll go keep an eye on them.”

“Might as well come with you, not that Cam will listen to anyone but Dax,” Eagle muttered. “Like a damn dog, that one, but he’s ours, so I’ll try and keep him alive.”

Grinning, I leaned more into Picasso, loving how everyone was interacting, even if I feared something idiotic would happen. With Harper practically being my sister, I really wanted the guys to get along because I’d hoped we’d be spending a lot of time together once this was all behind us.

“Why don’t we take drinks and hang out on the patio? It’s lovely out, and that way, we can talk about what's going on while they cook?” Harper suggested.

Wes walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. “Damn, it’s good to have you back, Harper, but it’s really strange to have you involved in this part of things. We’ve spent so long keeping you in the dark it’s hard to remember we can just be open and honest about it all. You’ve got as much skin in this game as we do now.”

“I hope you mean that figuratively and not literally because having someone’s ick all over me once is more than enough,” Harper explained, shivering in disgust.

“What?” Wes asked, looking at me in confusion.

“Oh, ah yeah,” I started with a little laugh. “Remember that guy we met who knew Harper? So his son tried to make a move on Harper and Magnus shot him point blank in the head while he was still holding onto her.”

“Damn,” Sprocket commented. “That absolutely would have been messy. I don’t blame you for not wanting to go through that again.”

“Anyways, let’s grab drinks and bring out a cooler for the others, and we’ll make a party out of this night yet,” Harper decided, putting us all to work.

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.”