Chapter 25 Roderick #2
Zander’s going to be pissed.
I don’t even bother trying to hide my smile as I watch her or the idea of Zander's reaction. Usually, I don't like people to know what I’m feeling or thinking, but judging by the look on her face. I’m the last thing she’s paying attention to right now.
I pull the car around the far side of the drive, farthest from the house, so that she can see the fountain out front. She finally looks my way, her eyes swimming with excitement and unspoken questions. It's so real that I can’t do anything but nod toward the door, encouraging her to get out.
She unbuckles and is out of the car so fast that I have to rush to catch her before she disappears. When I get out, I half expect her to be at the house already, but one look around and I find her at the fountain instead.
I should have known she would start there.
The house is huge and expensive, but that's not what Jade cares about. She doesn’t care about the price tag on any of this.
Hell, she hardly understands most price tags.
She only wants to see what interests her, what she likes.
She might have been impressed with the size of Jake and Amanda's house, but this reaction isn’t quite the same.
Our house seems to have her in a sense of wonder.
Like a child who’s shown unicorns are real, whereas, with their house, she was more in shock by the size and the people.
I can’t pretend that doesn’t stroke my ego a little bit.
She reaches over the fountain's edge, dipping her hand in the water before pulling it back to examine it. Her face scrunches in confusion, and I shake my head, biting back a chuckle.
The center of the fountain is a beautiful copper statue of a female demon.
She wears a long dress that flows down to her feet, with large horns and bat wings, a snake wrapped around her waist, and up her arm with skulls littering her feet.
The water in the fountain has been tinted red and falls from the tips of her wings and rolls down from her eyes.
The plaque at her feet reads Lilith. It’s a darker piece, but Zander insisted on it, and it really fits well with the old dark Victorian house.
“Zander insisted that the water needed to be red when we had it put in,” I explain once I finally caught up to her.
“It’s beautiful.” Her voice is low, hardly more than a breath, but I hear the emotion. She sits staring up at it as if trying to memorize every detail. I watch her for a moment before making my way toward the house, letting her stay there while I shut down the alarms and unlock the front door.
“Jade,” I call back to her once I have it open. She still hasn’t moved, but her head snaps in my direction at the sound of my voice. As if waking from a trance, she gets up slowly before coming to meet me at the door.
“So, is this Zander’s house then or…” She lets her question trail off as she reaches me at the door—her head on a swivel as she tries to take in everything around her as she goes. I highly doubt she can see it all, but she’ll have plenty of time for that later.
“No,” I say, closing the door behind us and turning on the lights.
“This is our house, Jade. Mine, Zander's, and Spencer’s.” The moment the lights are on, Jade’s eyes go wide as she mutters something under her breath.
She turns to look at me, and I can't stop the laugh that forces its way out of me at her reaction. She’s no longer paying attention to me, though, as she turns to take in the foyer, “Oh my god,” she whispers just loud enough for me to hear.
If she’s this impressed by the foyer, I can only imagine how she'll feel about the rest of the house.
That’s not to say the foyer isn’t impressive in itself.
When we bought this house, many things had to be remodeled, but one thing we all agreed had to stay was the curved dual grand staircase that sits before us.
Unfortunately, none of the original wood could be saved, but we had it redone with dark iron to match the original chandelier that still hangs above it.
The entire house is done in tones of whites, grays, and blacks, giving it a modern feel, even though we kept as much of the original aesthetic as possible when renovating.
I move to walk past her, but I don’t make it more than a few steps before she reaches out and stops me. Her small hand wraps around my bicep with strength that still surprises me, even knowing what she's capable of. I look down at her hand and back at her before she lets it drop.
“This,” Her eyes dart around the room, “is your house?”
“Yes, Jade,” I tell her with a nod of my head, “And while you are under our care, this is where you will stay as well.” I turn away again, continuing toward the kitchen, trying and failing to push away the feelings those words just brought to the surface.
After a moment, I hear her quiet footsteps on the hardwood, following behind me, albeit much slower.
I reach the kitchen, turning on all the lights as I go.
It’s been a while since we were here last. One of us will need to go shopping before the weekend ends, though I know it will probably be me.
Spencer is too focused on figuring out Jade, and when Zander shops, we mostly end up with mac and cheese, junk food, and other simple things, not a real meal in sight.
I grab two bottles of water from the fridge, setting hers down for when she finally makes her way here before I crack mine open and take a large sip.
It doesn’t take long before she comes around the corner. Stopping dead once again as her eyes roam the room, a smile tugs her lips as her eyes find me.
“This kitchen seems to fit you much better,” she says, and this time, I actually choke. The water in my mouth goes down the wrong pipe, and I have to cough a few times to clear my airway.
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask her when I finally get my shit together.
There’s a mischievous sparkle in her eyes as she walks over, grabs her water bottle, uncapping it, and takes a sip before she answers me, taking her sweet time.
“Zander said that you were the chef of the group,” she says as she sits down on one of the bar stools at the island.
“I could see that after you taught me how to cook an egg, but for some reason, I couldn’t see it at your parent's house.” She gives a one-arm shrug as she wipes at the condensation on her bottle without looking at me. “I can see it here.”
I don’t know what to say to that, though I have the urge to strangle Zander for giving her that tidbit of information.
I let out a sigh as I set my water bottle down.
“Yes, well, considering I designed this kitchen, I guess that would make sense.” I have to resist the urge to ask her what I really want to know.
I’m not sure how you ask if someone has imagined you cooking without sounding like a crazy person.
I decide it’s best to change the subject instead.
“Let me show you to your room.”
I don’t care to talk about myself, and whether she realizes that or just has nothing else to say, I’m grateful when she lets the topic drop.
We make our way out of the kitchen and through the living room back to the foyer. There’s another set of stairs at the rear of the house; they aren't as big and flashy, and I usually prefer them myself. But I figure she would prefer these.
“So, why were you at your parent's house if you guys have a house?” she asks as we make our way upstairs. I look back at her, where she walks just a few steps behind me, but her attention is too busy jumping around the room at anything and everything.
As if she can feel me looking at her, she looks back at me, and once again, I pull my gaze away. I don’t know why I keep finding myself looking at her, but I need to stop.
I should have just let Zander show her around, but something in me wanted to do it.
Stupid.
“I mean, I understand that you guys were watching me for the last two weeks, but the night your mom brought me back to the house, you guys were all there. That was before you were told to keep an eye on me,” she explains when I don’t answer her. “I just assumed that you all lived there.”
I can see why she would think that, but the idea that we operate so high up in Vengeance and live at home is ridiculous.
When I say as much, she just shrugs again.
“Not to me, it’s not. I don’t really understand your position with Vengeance, and I understand money even less, though I'm starting to grasp that you guys have a lot of it.” We turn the corner down the hall with all of our rooms, and I find myself matching her pace instead of staying ahead so we can talk easier.
“I’m not stupid. I know this place is expensive, but I could never put a dollar amount to it.
For all I know, Vengeance could be small time,” she says, and I can see her point.
Jade's never had a dollar to her name. She wasn’t just poor; she literally had nothing.
So, it makes sense that she doesn’t understand it.
For most of her life, she was the damn currency.
The thought makes my pulse jump, and I clench my jaw at the rush of anger that fills me.
I give her a nod, “Well, our parents have always been well off. Their money has only grown over the years as they climbed higher in their careers. Zander, Spencer, and I always wanted to be separate from them, though. I just wanted to prove I could, but the guys have their own reasons. So we put our sights on joining Sin when we were younger,” I tell her with a shake of my head at what a dumb idea that was.
“Thankfully, Vengeance made us joining them impossible when they took over because knowing what I do now, we would have never been okay with how Sin ran anything.”
We stop walking now that we’ve reached her room, but we don’t go in, instead standing outside the door to continue talking.
“What do you mean?”