Page 55 of The Vampire and the Tattooist (The Vampire and Series Book 4)
Hunter, AJ, Taha, and Owen were hard at work fixing Hunter’s room, while Gavin had stayed behind to help with computery things.
Just before they left the house, Owen walked out, saying he was coming as a bodyguard for the three of them. Taha snorted and said if he was coming, he was the muscle and could carry everything heavy.
They were happily working away when they heard the front doorbell jingle.
“Hey, honeys, are you decent?” Luke called out.
“Never,” Taha called back with a laugh.
Luke and Shelby walked into Hunter’s room.
“AJ, how lovely to see you,” Shelby said, walking over to him.
AJ laughed, stood up, pulling first Shelby and then Luke into hugs.
“Hunter called you, then,” Luke said, pulling back.
AJ shook his head. “No, Charlotte and I turned up to see Hunter yesterday, and I offered my help.”
“And you roped Owen in to help with the heavy lifting, nice,” Shelby said, looking at Owen. “Morning,”
“Morning, Shelby. Just to let you know, AJ and Charlotte know about us and what happened in here,” Owen said.
“How amazing is all this?” Shell asked. “Did you meet Gavin? Isn’t he just divine?”
“I did and he is,” AJ agreed.
“I need to thank you, Shell. Gavin’s new clothes are amazing. I know Gabriel was going to see if you’d go shopping with him sometime,” Hunter told him.
Shelby grinned. “Gabriel is the witch, right? Tell him I will be happy to help because what is it with everyone wearing black? Just because you all belong to the paranormal world doesn’t mean the only colours available are black and white.”
Everyone laughed as Owen grumbled, “But we like black.”
“By the way, Owen, nice shoes,” Luke said, looking at Owen’s footwear.
The shoes were Brogue Oxfords in black and purple.
Owen smiled. “Thanks, I had them specially made. I have them in grey and purple, as well. I’m debating black and red at the moment.”
“Do you get them in specialised shoe shops?” AJ asked.
Hunter and Taha laughed.
“Owen has his shoes handmade,” Taha replied.
“Nice. That’s a secret dream of mine, having some shoes made especially for me. Are they expensive?” Luke asked.
“A little bit, yes,” Owen replied as Taha and Hunter laughed.
“Just how expensive are they?” AJ asked, looking at the shoes.
“Very. They are handmade in Italy,” Owen told them.
“And you wore them here? What if they get scuffed while we’re fixing the room up?” AJ enquired.
Owen shrugged. “I’ll just get them fixed. I have lots of other shoes I can wear. Mind you, I seem to be missing one.”
Taha and Hunter looked at each other and grinned.
“Did you misplace it?” Shell asked him.
“I must have done, but I’ve no idea where. I’m sure it will turn up,” Owen said.
“I’m sure it will. Now, I have to get on. I have a full day of clients,” Luke told them.
“Me, too. Have fun boys,” Shell said as they both walked out.
AJ looked at Owen. “I looked at getting some shoes handmade once. They ran into the thousands.”
Owen nodded. “They can do, yes, but I love shoes. We had a cobbler in the village where I grew up. He made everyone’s shoes. I can remember buying a standard shop pair once, but they were uncomfortable, so I went back to having them handmade. Living as long as we do, decent footwear is a must.”
“I can imagine,” AJ said, getting back to work.
“Hunt, have you decided if you’re moving in with Gavin?” Taha asked.
“I am. Gav and I spoke about it yesterday. I was thinking of selling my house, but I might rent it out fully furnished. What about you?”
“The same. I’ll rent it out for a while, as well,” Taha replied.
“Now we just need to get Max and Bert sorted out,” Hunter said.
“That might be tricky with Bert away, but when he’s back, I’m sure we can do something to help them,” Owen said.
* * *
Gavin was hard at work.He was once again sat at Mathis’ desk, working away on his computer. Well, he should have been. His thoughts, like they did at the moment, went to Hunter. Hunter had told him about everything that had been damaged, and he wanted to buy something special for him. Gavin had looked online, but there was so much that he didn’t know what to buy. He grabbed his phone and sent a message to Owen, asking if he could get Taha’s help with what he could get. If anyone could help him, it would be Taha. Well, he could possibly have asked Luke or Shelby, but he didn’t have their numbers, either. He put his phone down and carried on his research.
“Yes!” Olly suddenly exclaimed. “I’m now in Quintus’s computer. Now let’s see what this bad boy can tell us.”
“You’re slacking, Olly. How long did that take you?” Ivan asked with a laugh.
“Least I managed to hack it. How are you getting on locating the Master’s owners?” Olly shot back.
“You’d probably find that information faster than me. Chances are, it’s all on that machine.”
“We can hope,” Olly said. He looked at Gavin. “How are you getting on with tracking those listening devices, Gavin?”
Gavin looked up and grimaced.
“That bad?” Ivan asked.
Gavin nodded and signed.
“You think I might find the recordings on this computer?” Olly said.
Gavin nodded and signed again.
Olly frowned.
“You think all the answers will be on there?” Ivan guessed.
Gavin nodded.
“You’re probably right. I’ll let you know what I find.”
* * *
Owen was washinga wall down when his phone pinged. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw a message from Gavin, asking for help from Taha for what he could buy for Hunter to help with the restock.
Owen smiled and showed the message to Taha. Taha forwarded the message to his phone where he had lots of links bookmarked. He then sent through links for different equipment he knew Hunter needed, all with different prices so Gavin had a choice.
“What are you smiling about?” Hunter asked him.
“Maybe I’m just happy,” Taha replied with a smile.
“Or maybe you’re up to something,” Hunter countered.
“You’ll never know,” Taha said, grinning at him.
“It’s something good, though,” Owen added.
“Now you have to tell me,” Hunter griped.
“No, we don’t,” Owen replied for Taha. “By the way, you’ve missed a bit,” he said, pointing at the part of the wall Hunter was washing down.
“Fine, be like that, then. See if I buy you two any lunch today.”
“You’ll buy them lunch,” AJ said, grinning at Taha and Owen. “I taught you better than that.”
Taha and Owen laughed, and Hunter tried to scowl at his father but ended up laughing, as well.
“I might give Shell some money and ask him to go and buy lunch for us,” Hunter replied.