Slider shrugged. “I mean, you’ve got enough room for all of us.”
King put his hands in his pockets and tipped his head back to look at the house. “Though we did leave Easy, Snapper, Greta, and Luna at the clubhouse with the club girls.”
I had forgotten that King was housing all of his employees from Sultry Knights at the clubhouse. “Thank you for not bringing all of them. It might have gotten a little cramped in there.” Easy, Snapper, Greta, and Luna would have been fine to come, but the twenty or so girls from the club would not have been.
“Once Easy and Snapper find out about these digs, I’m sure they’ll be bitching and moaning that they aren’t here.” Slider chuckled and put his arm around my shoulder. “You’ve been holding out on me and your mom,” he laughed. “We could have been living here while you were jet-setting around the world.”
“Well, it’s not entirely mine. It belongs to Uncle Leo and me, in a roundabout way.” With the business that Leo and I did, sometimes things weren’t as straight forward as having our exact names on the paperwork. It was easier that way if things were to ever go south.
“Well, if you ever have a property that you need to put in someone else’s name, I volunteer as tribute,” Slider chuckled.
“Tribute for what?” Mom called. She stood at the bottom of the steps with a casserole dish in her hands and a bag over her shoulder.
“You’ll know when it happens,” he chuckled.
I moved down the steps and grabbed the bag from her. “I tried calling you the past two days. You didn’t answer.”
“You pissed your mother off, Marco. I’d never seen her so mad. That Banachi blood in her came out to play for a little bit.” Slider jogged down the steps and grabbed the casserole dish.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Mom grumbled.
“Come on, Fayth. I thought you were going to rip my head off yesterday when I asked you where the remote was.” Slider quickly stepped to the side when Mom took a swing at his shoulder.
“It was not that bad,” she repeated.
Slider jogged up the stairs by King. “You better make your mother happy, Marco. Buy her a plane or something.”
King and Slider walked into the house.
“So, do you want a new car or a private jet?”
Mom rolled her eyes. “You of all people should know that doesn’t impress me at all.”
“Which is why you’re the best mom in the world.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Now that is the way to my heart, flattery.”
I hitched the duffle bag over my shoulder. “Does that mean you’re done being mad at me and you won’t try to hit Slider when he asks you where something is?”
Mom scoffed. “I can’t promise that last thing because your dad pisses me off every day when he asks where something is and it’s right in front of his face.” She shook her head and moved up the steps. “I love the man with all my heart, but would it really hurt him to try and remember where he puts something? I swear to God, he wouldn’t have clothes on his back if it wasn’t for me finding them for him all of the time.”
If I moved the attention to Slider annoying the hell out of Mom, she would forget she was even mad at me in the first place.
“So, how long have you had this mansion tucked away in the woods of Rockton?” she asked.
I held open the front door and motioned for her to walk in. “Oh, a couple of years.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped inside. “Your coyness does not work on me, Marco. All of the tricks you know, I knew before you were born.”
I closed the door and dropped her bag. “I don’t know. Things have changed since you took Slider’s last name.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “Maybe you could take some time with your dear ol’ mom and tell me just what those things are while you also tell me some other things.”
“Other things?” I asked.
She tipped her head back and eyed me warily. “Yes, other things.”
“We’ll talk before you leave, Mom.”