Page 47 of Upon Blooded Lips (Vengeance #1)

TESSA

N ate wasn’t joking about starting early. He woke us up at the ass crack of dawn and started barking orders like a general.

I swipe a hand over my forehead, dashing the sweat away.

My bedroom looks barren despite the furniture still being in place.

Gone are the books and Kindle that sat by the bedside table, along with the cozy fleece blanket I’ve decided I can’t live without.

My closet is still mostly full, because we each get only two suitcases, and there’s no way I can fit it all in.

I sigh and get to my feet, running my gaze over the room I’ve come to love. The kiss mark on the mirror, the bed where Eric and I had our pillow fight, the chair where I read at night before bed. A lump forms in my throat, but I swallow it down and blink away the tears stinging my eyes.

It’s just bricks and mortar. Eric and Nate are my home, and one day, we’ll make another.

I grab the handles and drag the suitcases backward to the door and close it behind me. As I pass Nate’s room, I pause, my brows furrowing. Are those? I shake my head. I don’t need to know.

“Leave your suitcases here, and I’ll take them downstairs for you,” he says, glancing over his shoulder at me.

I offer him a smile and leave him to it, poking my head into Eric’s room one last time before heading downstairs. I find him in his office, packing up the rest of his things. He glances up from bundling cables and gives me a grin.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Do you need any help?”

He shakes his head and drops the cords into a box before scooping up an empty backpack and holding it out to me.

“What’s this for?”

“Fill it with your favorite books.”

My hand trembles as I take it from him. “But Nate said two suitcases only.”

He pulls me into a hug, and I wrap my arms around his waist, breathing him in. My Eric.

“It’ll be a shame to lose all of them,” he murmurs into my hair. “I’ll deal with Mr. Grumpy Pants if he complains.”

I lean up and press my lips to his in a brief kiss before tearing myself away and dashing to the library before anyone changes their minds or tries to stop me. This time, I can’t stop the tears from flowing. I can’t believe I’ll never see this room again. All these books…

After brushing the tears away, I blow out a breath and head over to the section containing some of my childhood favorites.

Beauty and the Beast. The Blue Sword. The Harper Hall of Pern series.

A Wrinkle In Time. Then I move on to more recent loves.

The Fever series. The Highlander series. Outlander.

I place each one with care in the backpack so as not to ruin the covers.

After adding a couple of dark romances, I can barely get the bag closed.

The zipper might split under the pressure, but it’s not like we can’t afford a new one.

I swing it over my back and head into the hallway, where I catch Nate coming down with my suitcases.

He raises a brow at the bag I try to hide but says nothing, hauling the cases out the front door and to the waiting SUV.

Eric parks a van beside us, the back laden with weapons, computer gear, and two motorcycles.

Nate slots the suitcases in the back of the SUV with the skills of a Tetris player before we get in.

I sit up front on my knees, arms wrapped around the back of the seat, watching our home get smaller until it’s no longer in view.

After parking the vehicles in the warehouse and unloading them, we make what feels like a hundred trips in the elevator, carrying everything down to the kill room.

“Don’t you have a trolley or something to help with all this?

” I ask, my voice strained. It’s not easy juggling a box, my backpack, and a suitcase all at once.

“Nate’s using it for the weapons.” No one with dirt streaked across their face and damp curls plastered to their foreheads should look as hot as he does leaning against the side of the elevator with two boxes of his own.

I play around with what’s been bugging me before voicing it. “What’s worrying me is what we’re going to do about David. How are we going to kill him if the FBI is investigating him? And do you think they found the hidden room when they searched his house?”

The doors open, and we haul our things through the hall and into the kill room. I’ve only been here once, but I already feel a part of it, like it will become an integral part of my story.

“If they have, they haven’t logged it in their system yet,” Eric replies, setting the boxes down in the corner beside the small studio apartment at the back of the room.

It’s where we’re making our home for now, since it’s the most secure location Nate could think of.

“But they’re pretty thorough, so it’s likely.

And don’t worry about David—I was able to locate him.

He’s living in an apartment in Skokie that your parents are paying for after the FBI froze his accounts. I bet Presley just loves that.”

I snicker but ultimately agree with him. Presley’s greed is no joke. “That’s good. At least we know where he is when the time comes. And Robert? Are we all set?”

Nate comes through the doors, pushing the trolley laden with more weapons than I realized we had stored back at the house. “We are,” he replies over his shoulder, stopping in front of the storage cupboards. “But with the FBI and The Unseen hanging around, we’re going to have to speed up our plans.”

My face falls. What I wanted to do with Presley would take months. I want to destroy her, piece by piece, not end her and run off to, well, wherever we’re going when we’re done here.

Nate saunters up to me and lifts my chin with a finger. “Hey. I don’t mean we don’t do your plan, but we need to get started. Instead of spending six months playing with her, we’re going to have to do it over one. It’s just unfortunate the FBI is here.”

“Can’t we get rid of them?” I ask, leaning forward so he has no choice but to hold me. “I mean, we have a digital savant here, right? Couldn’t we, I don’t know, like make a spoofed video of him at an airport, and create a fake ID? Make it look like he went to Canada or Mexico or something?”

Eric blinks at me. “I can absolutely do that.”

I grin back at him. “As for The Unseen, well, we don’t know that it wasn’t Mr. Wille, right? Maybe he’s already dead.”

It wasn’t him.

What do you mean?

Come on. That guy was in his forties and wasn’t exactly in shape.

Yeah, he was a fucking creep and followed you around like the sick little pedo he was, but can you picture him torturing the boys or even riding a motorcycle?

Besides, although they were around the same height, The Unseen is physically bigger than him.

Well, fuck.

“What is it?” Nate asks.

“Mirror Girl doesn’t think The Unseen is Mr. Wille. She could be wrong, though.”

Fuck you.

“No, she’s probably right,” he says. He huffs a laugh when I peer up at him in surprise. “He was a timid little bitch. Didn’t even put up a fight. Plus, besides an ancient-looking laptop, there wasn’t any sign of him being a hacker.”

I let out a sigh, and Nate tugs on my ponytail before setting me to the side. “Okay, so what are we going to do about him?”

“One thing at a time, angel,” Eric says, putting his hand on my lower back and leading me into the apartment. “Let’s get situated here, order some Mexican food, and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll get rid of your father tomorrow and go from there. Okay?”

“Okay. But you better get me lots of tacos. And chips and salsa. Oh, and a strawberry margarita.”

“You’re too young,” Nate shouts from the main doorway.

I spin around and put my hands on my hips. “If I’m too young for alcohol, then I’m definitely too young for what we did last night.”

Eric chuckles and puts an arm over my shoulder. “Ignore him. We’ll get you as many margaritas as you want.”

“Damn right you will.”