Page 9

9

I Think I’m a Facilities Ho

A fter Don sped away with Fanny in tow, heading back in the direction of the campus buildings, and I finally found myself alone with the only people in the entire world I truly trusted, the events of the past few days settled across my shoulders like a thousand-pound barbell. No longer panicked about the immediate fate of my crew, I allowed myself to feel some of the terror and loss, and then the whirlwind of relief, that began with Brady’s original death. As I did, absolutely every single part of my body turned leaden. I thought I’d sink to the floor and join Brady in sleeping next to Bonnie just so I wouldn’t have to move for at least the next twelve hours. I had nothing left to give, and now that I paused, I recognized I was still woozy from whatever drugs they’d pumped through my system.

But when my similarly grim-faced friends headed off to check out the rest of the place, my curiosity pushed me to trudge upstairs after them, even though there was no way that whatever Chase had provided with the rest of the house would do anything to buoy my spirits.

Oh, how wrong I was. Turned out maybe I couldn’t be outright bought, but I could most definitely be … encouraged.

A koi pond—yep, a fucking koi pond , filled with beautiful swimming fish—occupied a large basin at the bottom of a staircase that spiraled up and around it. A wall that led from the garage to the main floor—and then continued up to a second-story loft—streamed with a continual sheet of water that fed the basin. The trickling flow of water instantly soothed some of my ragged edges.

Beyond it was a large terrace with stunning views of the surrounding mountains and forest. To the other side, descending several steps, were a recessed indoor swimming pool, a hot tub, and a surrounding lounge area.

When I made it into what I guessed might be a living room—a large open area that reached all the way up to the second story—and found a large fireplace with a huge seating area around it, and a kitchen with gleaming stainless steel and marble everywhere past it, I halted right where I stood.

“Guys,” I said. “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but I think I’m a facilities ho.”

From the other side of a wall I hadn’t yet explored, Layla’s voice trailed out. “If you’re a facilities ho, then so am I. I could live here for the rest of my life and not mind one fucking bit. This bedroom’s beyond gorgeous.”

From somewhere else I couldn’t see, Brady whooped, and I heard Hunt respond, though I couldn’t make out what they were celebrating. Griffin walked on, exploring the place, never leaving my side for long.

By the time every space was accounted for, we’d discovered a bedroom for every one of us—each with an ensuite bathroom that included a deep-soaking tub, a view, and a walk-in closet already loaded with clothes and shoes—a theater and gaming room on the other side of the garage, and an art and music studio that occupied most of the loft area. The billionaire had spared no expense.

We pulled out a veritable smorgasbord of gourmet food from the fridge and pantry and spread it out on a wooden dining table that retained the slab’s organic edges. Though we were still underage as far as the local drinking laws went, the fridge was stocked with some of our favorite local microbrews.

I loaded my plate with hummus, baba ghanoush, olives, cheeses, and fresh bread, shoved some into my mouth, sighed in relief, and leaned back in my chair with a beer in my hand. I took a long sip and studied my friends, who were stuffing their faces as eagerly as I was.

“So, what do we think about everything?”

Brady looked up from his plate while shoveling in a chip heaped with chunky homemade salsa. Shit, that looked good. I reached to add some to my plate.

“I think we’re super fucked,” he said around a mouthful.

As one, we all nodded. Then Griffin added, “So fucked. This is bad, guys. So fucking bad.”

“It’s bad,” Brady said, “but still somehow so good.” He groaned around a bite of what looked like an Italian sub. “So fucking good. I could eat a horse.”

“Think they’re listening to what we say?” I asked.

“Definitely,” Hunt said, his eyes on me while he drank his beer. “I looked for cameras but didn’t see any. Though”—he glanced at the blatantly obvious sophistication all around us—“I doubt we’d spot them if they didn’t want us to. This place is … well, it’s something.”

“It’s something, all right,” Layla said happily, munching on some Greek pasta salad. Damn, that looked good too. I reached for that bowl as well.

“They can probably hear us through the keypad panels,” Griffin said, scooping some salsa onto a pita chip, “if nothing else.”

I narrowed my eyes at the nearest one, recessed into the wall beside the refrigerator. “For sure. So we have to keep that in mind.” I laughed bitterly. “But hey, at least that part won’t be that different from ‘living at home with our parents .’” I hooked air quotes on that mega charade before licking some hummus off a finger.

Hunt leaned back in his chair too. “I know we saw ‘Mitzi’ with our own eyes, and my brain gets that she’s a woman named Tracy and not actually Griff’s mom, but still … ” He shook his head. “It’s like it just won’t compute. I keep thinking of my mom—Alexis or whatever—as, well, my mom. It’s messing with my head.”

“Yeah, bro,” Brady said around yet another mouthful. Knowing the guy, he’d likely eat for an hour straight before he’d have his fill. “I feel the same way. I’m kinda freaked about learning all their real names ’cause I already know it’s gonna feel weird as fuck.”

“Better to know than not,” Layla said, snagging a slice of the Italian sub. “I can’t even with them. They’re lucky they’re not here right now ’cause I legit might murder the both of them.” She shook her head. “Celia with all her little obligatory family dinners. What a fucking shitshow. I keep thinking about it, and I still can’t believe they lied to all of us. It’s just…” She shook her head some more until she finally gave up on trying to summarize the mess that was our lives and bit savagely into her sub.

“My dad never even existed,” Hunt added with a flick to the turquoise stone dangling from a silver hoop in his earlobe, the earring he so often wore. Supposedly, it had belonged to his deceased father. “Like, who the hell did this belong to, then?”

Layla snorted and popped a pita chip into her mouth. “Alexis probably bought it at a random stand on the rez.”

“You give her too much credit,” Griffin said. “She probably ordered it online.”

“True,” Brady said. “They even order the TP online. Everything gets shipped. Alexis for sure didn’t get it from anyplace special at all.”

Hunt sighed, drank from his beer before setting down the bottle, then unclasped the earring and tossed it onto the table. It slid to rest beside the bowl of olives. “To think that was one of my prized possessions.”

I harrumphed. “To think we were carried by surrogates.”

“At this point I’m glad,” Griffin said, and I looked over at him. He sat in the chair beside me. “I half expected one of them to tell us we were test tube babies, developed in some sort of incubator till we reached viability.”

I swallowed my bite of sharp cheddar cheese and it stuck a bit on the way down. “Well, I don’t think the disclosures are over, not by a long shot.”

“Agreed,” Hunt said. “But whatever Magnum’s told us so far, I think it’s been the truth.”

“Funny,” I said, “I’ve been thinking of him as ‘Chase.’ Didn’t want to give in to him by calling him what he wants.”

Hunt shrugged. “Pretty sure the guy’s got us by the balls regardless.”

My shoulders slumped and I bent over my food. “Yeah. He’s definitely trying to buy the shit out of us.” Even so, I couldn’t help but gaze admiringly at the living room beyond the dining room, each space more beautiful than the next.

“He’s succeeding,” Brady said, spearing a noodle from Layla’s plate. She growled at him and dragged her plate closer. “I’d practically give my left nut to live in a place like this. Did you see the garage?”

“Yeah, Brade,” Layla said, “we all saw it.”

I laughed. “Never thought I’d see the day when Brady Rafferty swooned .”

Unconcerned, Brady just reached for more tortilla chips and salsa. “I’m not ashamed to say it. I’ve found my price.” He looked around pointedly. “ This , this is my price. Shit, he even got Lay and Hunt their own cars. And Mustangs too! Man’s a fucking manipulative boss. Sure, he’s a murderous asshole of the utmost degree, but he’s still a boss when it comes to knowing what to give us to keep us happy.” Munching on a bite, he grinned. “Now I get Bonnie all to myself. No more sharing with the stinky sister. Bonnie’s fucking thrilled.”

“Hey,” Layla protested. “She likes me too.”

“’Course she does. But she loves me.”

I rolled my eyes, scarcely believing Brady and Layla were already back to going at it. “Guys, not that long ago, all of us but Griff were dead.”

My statement hung in the air like a smell too pungent to ignore.

Brady sobered instantly. “Yeah. I’ve died twice now. Never thought I’d be saying that shit, that’s for damn sure.”

“I never, and I do mean never ,” Griffin said so vehemently that we all stared at him, “want to go through that again. Seeing them kill you all, not sure if you were gonna come back or not, it was the very worst moment of my life. Next to Brady dying the first time, the worst. Never …”

“Well, it’s not like we were fans either, Griff,” Layla said.

He shook his head once, sharply. “I would rather die a hundred times than have to stand by and watch and be able to do nothing to stop it from happening. You guys …” He grimaced. “I just … I can’t do that again.”

Layla reached across the table to squeeze his hand. But I just stared at him, remembering what it had felt like to hear Clyde’s tires sliding off the cliff, knowing Griffin was likely still inside the car.

“You won’t have to,” Layla assured him. “You won’t ever have to go through that again.”

“You can’t know that.”

It took me a long moment to realize the words came from me. But they were true. “Magnum is going overboard buttering us up. And we’ve already seen he’s got no qualms whatsoever about doing whatever he wants to us, whenever he wants. Who’s to say part of us being at this school of his doesn’t mean he thinks he’ll get to kill us again and again just to see what happens? I mean, he hasn’t exactly hidden his intentions. All he cares about is getting immortality for himself. This place is probably one big lab experiment to him.”

“It definitely is,” Hunt said. “No doubt about it. He all but admitted it already.”

Brady, all serious now, pushed away his plate. “At least we know that though. He keeps telling us he’s the devil we know. Well, he is. Better than our lying scum parents, whom I can’t get myself to stop calling ‘parents’ and it’s pissing me right the fuck off.”

“I know. Me too,” Layla groaned. “We have no homes to go back to. No way am I going back to Celia and Porter, whatever their names actually are. Are you guys willing to go ‘home’?”

“No,” Griffin, Hunt, Brady, and I replied at once.

“Exactly,” Layla continued. “Yeah, we could head out into the world and make our own way. I know we could do it. Together, we totally could. We’d all have to work, but we could cover our expenses easily with the five of us working. But then how would we find out about us? Now that I know some of what we’re capable of, I need to fucking know everything .”

“I need to know too,” Brady said.

“Ditto,” Hunt added.

“I’d like to meet some of these other students, too,” I admitted. “Are there really more people out there like us? And what are they like?”

“The campus isn’t huge,” Griffin said, “but it’s big enough. Magnum’s definitely expecting at least a few dozen students by the end of it.”

Brady’s eyes gleamed. “That’s gonna be cool as shit. A school of fucking immortals .” He whistled and let the impact of that notion settle around us all. “Plus, did you guys see the training center? I got a semi just looking at the place.”

“Ew, Brade,” Layla complained, but I chuckled and pointed at myself.

“Like I said, facilities ho , right here. Talk about some ninja training. I’ll bet Magnum’ll even have some sweet instructors lined up for us.”

“And if he doesn’t,” Brady said, growing more enthusiastic by the second, “we can ask for them.”

“That’ll be cool,” Griffin conceded begrudgingly.

Brady pulled his plate back toward him, a grin tugging at his lips. “The way I see it, we’re already fucked as fucked gets. You heard the guy, he’s already not gonna let us leave the easy way. Our options already suck. Add in that our parents aren’t really our parents, that we have no allies beyond us, and things get even more dire.”

His smile fell. “We can fight like hell now, he sets his goons on us, we die all over again, and this whole process starts over. Or, we just go with it, for now. We learn everything we possibly can about ourselves, our powers, immortality, whatever, everything about everyone else like us, what it all means, and then we can always leave later if we want.”

“I doubt leaving anytime soon is on Magnum’s agenda,” I said.

Brady shrugged, but the flippant attitude was gone. “It’ll be as much an option then as it is now. And by then, we’ll know more about what we can do.”

“That part’s true,” Layla agreed. “We’ll prob be more powerful then too, or whatever. I mean, it can’t get much worse than it is now, right? The more we know, the better.” She scowled and gnawed on a chunk of cheese. “I hope, anyhow.”

“At least we’ll live like royalty in the meantime,” Brady said. “Not great, of course not. But at least better. He could’ve locked us up in cells like true lab rats, the miserable fuckers. From what we’ve seen, he’d totally do it, too. So I say we do as Fanny suggested. We play nice for now so he does too.”

He glanced around at the rest of us. We had no better plan to offer.

“In that case,” Griffin said, “I’ll be taking the bedroom next to Joss.” He swiveled in his seat to fully face me. “Now that I know how you feel about me, I’m not leaving your side. No one’s gonna take you away from me again.”

A sudden surge of warmth spread throughout my body to tingle in my extremities. No matter how many times I’d allowed myself to imagine what it might be like to actually openly love Griffin, and to have him love me as more than just friends in return, I found myself with nothing ready to say.

Layla chuckled. “Oh man. This is gonna be a blast. Flustered Joss is my new fave.”

“Shut up, Lay,” I grumbled, but the others laughed.

Everyone but Griffin.

His eyes warmed to a bright hazel as they took in mine.

How would I ever sleep with him in the room next to mine? Talk about some wet dream potential.

My gaze fell to his full lips. I didn’t even realize I’d done it until those lips tipped into a smile that was the sexiest I’d ever seen.

My stare flicked up to his, and his grin spread.

Then, he winked at me.

That warmth heated by several degrees.

Man, oh man.

I was fucked in so many ways.