Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
By the time I get to the dining room, it is a chaotic, noisy affair.
Everyone is there, including Suzy and Ben.
Sage sees me and stands up, gesturing to the chair between him and Xavier.
“Tori, I saved you a seat,” he tells me, and I send him a grateful look before moving toward it, but I get waylaid by Gio on my way.
He pulls me into a big hug, and I stiffen. My bath may have relaxed my body, but I am still so fucking angry with my brother and how he has constantly been letting me down.
“Tori, I missed you,” he tells me, pulling away and looking into my eyes. I don’t hide how I’m feeling, glaring at him, and he has the decency to wince, but he doesn’t say anything. “How was Cancun?”
“We didn’t go to Cancun. We did some business up north and then headed south to check on some of our holdings,” I murmur before pulling away and continuing to my seat, exchanging pleasantries with the others I haven’t already run into.
His eyes narrow, and I can see questions rolling around inside his brain.
I move quickly away, hoping he won’t bring anything up in front of our guests.
Sage squeezes my knee when I sit down, and Suzy starts to serve the delicious smelling casserole. Bread rolls and butter are also passed around, and I murmur my thanks to Xavier when he puts one on my plate.
“It’s good to see you back,” he says quietly, “and thank you for letting us stay. I know you weren’t consulted, but the girls feel safer here than they do at a hotel.”
“It’s fine. I probably won’t be around much anyway,” I reply, spreading some butter on my roll and taking a bite before moaning. I love hot, fresh bread with butter, and I really am hungry.
“That would be a pity,” he replies, surprising me, and I lift my head to find him looking at my lips with undisguised heat.
I struggle to swallow my bread before grabbing the glass of wine Ben poured me and taking a sip to wash it down. Holy fuck, he can be intense. Sage doesn’t miss a thing and gives my knee another excited squeeze, all while carrying on a conversation with Tristan on his other side.
“So, Tori, how was your trip? Is everything okay with our holdings elsewhere?” Gio asks, and I can’t stop my scowl as I look at him. I can’t believe he wants to discuss things in front of our guests.
“I thought you went to Cancun.” Casey frowns, looking at the others for confirmation.
“I guess Gio made a mistake,” I say firmly, not inviting any questions. “Everything is fine. I dealt with a few problems, but nothing I couldn’t handle,” I answer evasively, not wanting to go into any details.
“I’m sure glad to be back in my own bed though.” Sage changes the subject smoothly. “I think I have a permanent kink in my neck from sleeping on some pretty rough beds.”
Gio frowns. “Our hotels don’t have comfortable beds? I seem to remember them being pretty fucking comfortable when I stayed in them in other states.”
I roll my eyes and stifle a sigh. “We didn’t stay at any of our holdings. We were doing incognito spot checks. It would have been counterproductive to let them know we were observing,” I reply vaguely.
“Oh, were you doing an undercover boss type thing?” Vienna asks, her eyes bright with excitement.
“Ah, yes, you could say that,” I confirm. I mean, she’s not wrong. We just weren’t at our hotels.
Sage laughs. “We had disguises and everything. Nobody knows that Tori Russo was in town, keeping an eye on her establishments.”
“And did you bust anyone doing anything wrong?” Casey catches on to Vienna’s excitement and looks at me with wide eyes.
I shrug. “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Gio nods. “Good, let’s get together tomorrow and go over your findings. I have classes in the morning, but my afternoon is free.”
I stare at my brother with confusion. What the fuck? Is he actually showing some interest in the family business again? My heart starts to pick up with excitement.
“Oh, we have that pottery class tomorrow afternoon.” Casey puts her hand on my brother’s arm, giving it a squeeze, and he grimaces before looking at me, and my heart sinks again. Of course he’s going to let me down. I don’t know why I dared to hope he was changing.
“Sorry. What about tomorrow night?”
“I’ll have to check my schedule, and I’ll get back to you,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Easy tiger, your killer is showing,” Sage whispers in my ear. “We don’t need him. Take a breath and put down the knife.”
I look down at the bread knife in my hand that I clench in a tight fist and slowly relax my fingers, placing it back on the table.
“How about we all watch a movie tonight?” Vienna says brightly, trying to ease the very noticeable tension.
“Sounds good,” Gio agrees as Ben and Suzy beg off, claiming they want an early night.
“What about you, Tori?” Colton asks, and when I look at him across the table, his pretty blue eyes study me carefully, looking between me and the knife I placed on the table with something that looks like desperation.
“I’m going to pass. I want to go down to the shooting range and blow off some steam.
I have entirely too much pent-up aggression and need to release some of it,” I reply, wondering if it would be bad form to whisk him away to my secret room and do some damage to his pretty skin.
I can’t go back to the Black Rose now, but I also have a live-in sub, which I hadn’t added to the plus column of them living with us.
First, though, I need to kill some targets so I don’t do too much damage to him.
“You have a range?” Tristan’s eyes light up with excitement, looking around like it might appear. “I haven’t seen it.”
Although the range is in the basement below ground, there is a way to access it from the house that won’t give away all the other facilities down there.
“Yeah, it’s off the parking garage. You just need to put in an access code on the door.
You’re welcome to use it. There are a range of weapons down there to choose from and a few different target options.
You should see Tori throw knives. It’s kind of scary.
” Gio looks at me proudly, oblivious to the tension flowing through my body.
Sage groans next to me as I reach for the knife again. Fucking Gio and his big mouth. Now, instead of being alone, it looks like I’m going to have some company.
“I’d love to watch you shoot, I bet it’s sexy as fuck,” Tristan teases me lightly, and I can’t come up with a reason to deny him.
“Maybe Tori wants to go on her own, Tris,” Colton suggests gently, but the way Tristan’s joy fades from his eyes has me feeling guilty, so I shake my head.
“No, it’s fine. You’re welcome to join me as long as you don’t get pissy when I kick your butt.
” I try for lighthearted, and Sage mutters, “Good girl,” under his breath.
The praise has me shivering slightly, and Xavier moves ever so slightly.
His leg brushing against mine causes goosebumps to rise on my skin.
“You all better watch out. Tori could shoot the dick off a sparrow,” Ben says, holding up his glass of wine in a toast, and all the tension, sexual or otherwise, seems to drain out of the room.
The rest of dinner is more pleasant than I thought it would be.
The others carry the conversation, allowing me to relax and enjoy having company around.
I’m able to get out of my head for a little while, and I hadn’t realized how much I needed that.
Our guests try to insist on cleaning up after dinner, but Ben and Suzy shoo them away.
Casey and Gio have already disappeared when we all sort of drift into one of the living areas with large windows that overlook the landscaped pool and backyard.
It’s the one Sage and I use most. It has a large, comfortable sectional and Sage’s gaming system, which is connected to the hundred inch TV.
The windows are currently covered by bulletproof shutters, which automatically lower when the sun sets.
We can manually override this, but I haven’t felt the need to since living here.
If I want to swim at night, I use the indoor pool.
Vienna eyes the shutters warily but doesn’t say anything as she sinks down onto the couch next to Colton. Sage bounds over to the gaming system and lifts up two controllers, tossing one into Colton’s lap. “How are you at GTA?” he asks, sitting down and powering the system up.
“Fairly decent,” he replies, picking up the controller as Vienna rolls her eyes.
“Fairly decent is a lie. He’s extremely proficient,” she tells Sage, whose eyes sparkle.
“Awesome, this will be fun.”
“Isn’t GTA a little too close to your real life to be enjoyable?” Tristan stands behind the couch, and his hands go down to Sage’s shoulders, giving them a little squeeze. Sage moans and leans into the pressure.
“Oh yeah, right there,” he mutters.
“I’m a legitimate businesswoman with legitimate businesses, thank you very much,” I say primly, and all of them look at me with disbelief in their eyes.
I scoff and whirl around, leaving the room and heading toward the elevator. It’s true, some of them are legit. I hear footsteps behind me, and when I glance over my shoulder, I find both Tristan and Xavier are following me.
“Coming to kill some things?” I ask bluntly, but neither of them flinch at the suggestion. In fact, Tristan gets a manic look in his eyes that reveals his excitement.
I push the button, and all three of us step into the elevator when it opens.
I press the button for the garage, knowing I can’t use the entrance from the bunker, and the car descends, a comfortable silence surrounding us.
It barely takes moments before the doors open again, and I lead them over to a door in the side of the wall.
I press the code into the keypad. It swings open and a light switches on, and the low hum of the ventilation system kicks in.
“Holy shit!” Tristan’s voice echoes through the large area as he scopes out the setup.
We have a couple of lanes, but an entire section is designed as a tactical obstacle course similar to what the military or special forces use to train their teams. All of it is soundproof and designed to catch any stray bullets.
Off to the side is the gun locker, and I key in another code and gesture for the guys to help themselves, while pulling my own gun from the waistband of my lounge pants.
“You were carrying that the whole time at dinner?” Xavier asks, studying me carefully while Tristan mutters excitedly about the array of guns.
I shrug, pulling the slide back to chamber the first round. I don’t tend to keep one in there when I’m at home. “I’m usually armed no matter where I am.” I reach into my top and pull a small knife out of the bra I put on after my bath. “You can never be too careful, you know.”
Tristan groans, and I find him looking at me with a whole heap of lust in his eyes. “That’s so fucking sexy.”
Xavier purses his lips. “Would you have had those if we hadn’t been living in the house?”
“On me?” I clarify, and he nods. I shake my head. “No, probably not. I have weapons in easy reach all around the house, and I mostly don’t feel the need to carry one with me while I am in my own home.”
Tristan’s desire bleeds away, and the two of them look at me with what feels like pity.
“We’re really sorry we’re invading your safe space. You shouldn’t feel like you have to protect yourself in your own home, especially because it’s a fortress,” Xavier says gruffly, and I wave him off.
“It is what it is. Gio invited you, and I can’t very well uninvite you. He wants you here, and what he wants goes.” For now. I don’t bother adding that last bit out loud though.
“I promise the four of us and Casey have no ulterior motives, and as soon as the dorms are rebuilt, we will leave. If at any stage you get sick of us, we will move into the Lucky Diamond like you said, no arguments,” Xavier promises as Tristan chimes in, looking uncomfortable.
“But it might be at least a couple of months. The whole dorm was relocated because the top two levels have structural problems, and until they are fixed, they won’t let anyone live there.”
“It’s fine, I promise, and if you start to piss me off, I’ll just get rid of you.” I smile, but the threat is very clear, and I can tell they understand when they exchange a glance.
“Well, in that case, we better do everything we can to stay on your good side.” Tristan becomes all flirty again and winks at me.
“Now why don’t you show us what you can do with that thing?
” He nods at the Glock in my hand and passes a similar one and a magazine to Xavier, who slams it home and pulls the slide back.
“Care to make this interesting?” he asks me as the three of us move toward one of the lanes.