Page 49 of Take You Home (Redwater Demons #3)
C hester is still pouting as he and Obie stride down the well-worn path towards Redwater. “Remind me again why you couldn’t just rift us to the Courtyard? You know, like normal people?”
Obie resists the urge to bang his head against the nearest tree. “Because you like to leave a paper trail if you’re going to be away from the Sanctum for more than an hour or so, Locke. Plausible deniability if someone comes looking for you, remember?”
“But I wanted to finish reading,” Chester complains.
The petulant whine in his voice is perfectly calculated to straddle the fine line between endearing and irritating, and accordingly, Obie is entertaining dual fantasies of either kissing him or smacking him to shut him up.
“Why do we have to be in the Courtyard at exactly five forty-five, anyway? All of our other meetups with your friends have been super casual.”
“Our friends,” Obie says emphatically, snapping his fingers once they round the turn that puts them out of sight of the Sanctum.
His invisibility and soundproofing spells disappear in a flash, and in the next moment, Chester’s usual glamour and blocking spells weave into place over him.
“And it’s a surprise, moron. It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. ”
Chester scoffs, rolling his eyes. Obie ignores him, leading the way down the trail.
It’s officially September 22 at five twenty-seven p.m., and Obie just barely managed to drag Chester away from his Sanctum-toppling research to make sure they arrive in the Courtyard on time.
As it is, they’re cutting it close?—only eighteen minutes until five forty-five, the gang’s designated meeting time.
Thirty-three minutes until Cass asks JJ to marry him.
Not that Obie is going to tell Chester that, of course. “What was so interesting about that file, anyway? You probably would’ve stayed up all night reading if I hadn’t pulled you away.”
Chester straightens as he walks, instantly dropping the theatric pout.
Obie fights back a smile. “They’re the newest documents I asked Bryant to print out for me.
Besides all the usual weirdness with strike teams being reassigned to transport jobs, it looks like our people are basically covering Kingsborough’s entire jurisdiction now. ”
Obie squints at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that our external operatives aren’t just taking jobs within Redwater’s borders anymore,” Chester says.
“Usually, strike teams strictly handle missions within their own jurisdictions and only go into other towns for mutual aid or emergencies. But it looks like our strike teams are being called to respond first to any jobs in Kingsborough?—like Kingsborough’s hunters aren’t being activated at all. ”
“Implying that Kingsborough’s strike teams have also been reassigned,” Obie says slowly, the pieces clicking into place. “And that they’re too busy with those reassignments to handle their usual operations.”
“Exactly.”
A pleased smile creeps onto Obie’s face.
He was starting to think they’d exhausted all of the useful documents Chester could steal without arousing suspicion, but it looks like there might be a few more gems hidden in the garbage.
“Nice catch, puppy. I’m sure the Conspiracy Fam will be thrilled to have another lead.
I guess I could’ve brought it for them tonight, but… ”
Chester looks startled. “The Conspiracy Fam is going to be there?”
Obie’s grin widens. “Yep. Maggie might show up, too?—Cass said he’d probably invite her, but she’ll most likely be disguised at a distance so she can’t be accused of consorting with fugitives.”
“But why?—??” Chester looks lost. “Why is everyone here?”
“You’ll see,” Obie says loftily, smirking when Chester’s petulant expression comes back full force. “Patience, Locke. All will be revealed soon.”
“It better be,” Chester grumbles, and he falls quiet as they head down the sidewalk towards the center of town.
Obie lets the silence linger, his thoughts drifting back to Chester’s discovery about Kingsborough. It doesn’t seem to be related to the Sanctum–Chain link, but it’s definitely strange enough to warrant putting the Conspiracy Fam on the case.
Because why would Kingsborough’s external operatives have been reassigned?
He distantly remembers Bryant mentioning that Strike Team Zeta has been picking up more missions along the Redwater–Kingsborough border?—and that they’ve been assigned to quite a few short-haul transport jobs from there, too?—but it doesn’t make sense in the context of everything else they’ve discovered.
If Redwater is at the center of all this, then why are they expending so many resources on their neighboring jurisdiction?
Obie shakes his head to clear it as he and Chester emerge into the Courtyard, the delicious scent of international cuisine urging them forward.
As expected, a glamoured Cass, JJ, Ez, and Roma already claimed a picnic table right next to the tiered fountain in the center?—although Obie thinks that Desi is doing most of the actual claiming, since she’s currently standing on top of the table in question.
Her eyes light up when she sees them. “Uncle Obie! Uncle Kyle!” she cheers, bounding off the table at top speed to race towards them.
Smiling, Obie catches her as she jumps into his arms, lifting her up and spinning her around. She laughs, wriggling delightedly. “Hel lo, pumpkin! How are you?”
“Great! I’m great!” Desi says, grabbing Obie’s cheeks in her obligatory face smush. “We’re gonna have tacos and pavlova! Uncle Obie, do you like pavlova?”
“I love pavlova,” Obie assures her, and he grins at Chester. “And so does Uncle Kyle. Right, Kyle?”
“I do,” Chester confirms. His smile looks softer than usual as he watches Desi squirm around in Obie’s arms, and all at once, Obie’s chest tightens.
Right. Chester knows about Obie’s past now, knows that his earliest memories of humankind were of helping a teenage mother raise her newborn son, knows that he felt a special kind of pride and delight in watching over his tribe’s children.
Chester knows how much this means to him.
The thought makes Obie feel unexpectedly vulnerable. Clearing his throat, he dumps Desi into Chester’s waiting arms. “Here. Say hi to your Uncle Kyle, too.”
“Hi, Uncle Kyle!” she chirps, immediately climbing to her rightful spot on Chester’s shoulders. He stands as still as possible until she’s safely reached her perch, and the twinge in Obie’s chest sinks even deeper.
Chester is always so good with her. If circumstances were different, he would’ve been a hell of a big brother.
Maybe even a hell of a father, too .
Desi, bless her heart, doesn’t notice Obie’s inner turmoil. “Let’s go get pavlova, Uncle Kyle!”
“Lead the way,” Chester says, waiting for her to point enthusiastically towards the picnic table before walking over.
Gregorio, Micah, Sawyer, and Naomi are seated at the neighboring table, and Obie sees Chester stiffen when he notices them.
Sawyer and Naomi clearly chose to use their human-magic glamour spells, making them easily recognizable to someone who knows them as well as Chester does, but even with Micah’s and Gregorio’s more effective demon-magic glamours, there’s no disguising Gregorio’s perpetual scowl.
As casually as possible, Obie puts a hand on the small of Chester’s back. Remember, Kyle doesn’t know them, he pushes through the telepathic connection. You can just ignore them for now.
Chester’s shoulders relax minutely. Thanks, he sends back, and his smile only looks a little forced as he approaches the table with his friends. “Hey, guys! Nice to??—?”
“Oh, good, you’re here,” Ez says without preamble, tenting her fingers together and resting her chin on top of them. “We need a tiebreaker.”
Chester stares at her, nonplussed. “A… tiebreaker?”
“Yeah,” Ez says, pointing at a table across the Courtyard?—a table where, Obie notes with some amusement, Mina from Bibimbap House is sitting with Javier from Gimme Tortilla and Viktor from Currywurst To Go flanking her on either side.
“Are you Team Javier or Team Viktor? Choose your answer carefully.”
Obie snorts. Chester’s eyebrows pull together. “Um. What?”
“Viktor and Javier are both attempting to woo Mina from Bibimbap House,” Cass explains. “So, like the good sports we are, we decided to make her life easier and choose a suitable romantic partner for her. ”
“Cass and I agree that she should end up with Viktor,” Roma adds. “But Ez and JJ, barbarians that they are, think she should choose Javier. Thoughts?”
Chester looks bewildered. “Well, who does Mina like?”
“That’s the thing,” JJ says seriously. “No one knows. She’s playing her cards very close to the vest.”
Obie snorts. “No, she’s not. She’s just hilariously oblivious. Apparently, she knows all the gossip in Redwater except for the love triangle that she’s literally involved in.”
“So?” Ez says, raising her eyebrows expectantly at Chester. “What’s your decision?”
“Well, uh…” Chester peers up at Desi. “Desi, what do you think?”
“I think that Mina makes great bibimbap!” Desi says brightly.
“You’re so right. She does make great bibimbap,” Chester says solemnly, taking the seat that Cass gestures him towards?—a seat, Obie notices with a swell of gratitude, that leaves JJ and Roma as a buffer between Chester and the Conspiracy Fam.
Looks like his friends are trying to protect Obie’s boyfriend from the inevitable tension with their fugitive hunters’ former mentors. “So I guess I agree with Desi, then.”
Obie’s heart melts a little. Ez sputters indignantly. “That’s not an answer!”
“It’s an answer to a question,” Chester argues. “It counts.”