“Because we’re home,” Roman clarified, even though Wyatt still had a thousand questions written all over his face.
Mustang drove them through an empty parking lot and down a narrow road, wrapping around the back of a few administrative buildings and bringing them into a covered garage. Three other brightly colored sports cars were parked inside, all of them Mustang’s babies. She pulled into the spot between the corvette and the BMW, clapping her hands and saying, “You have arrived,” in a near-exact imitation of the GPS voice.
“You live at the aquarium?” Wyatt asked as he got out of the car.
“Not all the time,” Roman answered, leading the way through a door and into a brightly lit hallway.
“I do,” Phantom said.
“Same,” Mustang echoed. “I think it’s better than paying some scummy landlord or making the bank’s pockets fatter. Here, I don’t have rent, and I can go hang out with the dolphins whenever I want. Pretty fucking sweet.”
“But… how? Where do you guys sleep?”
“We’ve got rooms,” Phantom said. “Thanks to our fearless leader. Right, Roman?”
Wyatt looked to Roman, eyes narrowing, plump lips turning into a pout. Even the harsh fluorescent lighting couldn’t take away from how attractive Wyatt was, reigniting a flame inside Roman’s cobweb-infested chest, flooding him with memories of their time together. Nights he’d never forget, nights he had spent wishing he had it all back.
“The owner owes me a massive favor,” Roman explained. “I convinced him to let us remodel an old sea lion enclosure. He agreed, gave us full access to the aquarium, and told all the employees to look the other way.” He didn’t want to explain to Wyatt exactly why the owner of the aquarium owed him so much since it involved someone getting mauled by a tiger shark and Roman robbing two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of rare jewels. Wyatt already looked like he was three seconds away from bolting, which was the last thing Roman wanted.
“I’m still so confused,” Wyatt said, hand rubbing his face.
Roman stopped at a set of double doors, hips pressing against the bumper. He wore an easy, cocky smirk that appeared to annoy Wyatt, whose eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Don’t worry, I’ll clear everything up tonight. But first, welcome.”
Roman threw open the door, causing Wyatt’s jaw to drop, his eyes no longer narrow slits but instead nearly bulging from his skull.
“Holy shit,” he said, stepping into the domed space, lights twinkling all around the concrete ceiling as if a permanent constellation had been pulled down from the night sky and installed into the space. The dark wood floors, freshly polished, complemented the deep burgundies and dashing blues of the eclectic furniture, the room feeling like it belonged in a designer penthouse somewhere in central London. A massive mural of a blue whale swimming through a rainbow stretched from floor to ceiling, framing a large window that looked into a tank full of tropical fish.
“This is the common room,” Roman said, smiling as he admired the room. They had finished it only last month, but he was happy with how lived-in it already felt. Bang Bang had a collection of sneakers by the door, and Mustang had her favorite beanbag chair close to the flat-screen TV, where a treasure trove of video game consoles was connected. The kitchen was full of Phantom’s favorite aloe vera drinks, and the hall that led to the bedrooms was covered in surreal watercolor landscape art by none other than Rose “Doc” Lee, the crew’s on-call healer and mender.
Roman pointed toward a small kitchen facing out to the big-screen TV. “Usually, Bang Bang cooks us dinner, but sometimes, I like to surprise everyone.”
“Yeah, with a sudden bout of food poisoning,” Mustang said under her breath, earning an eye roll from Roman and an enthusiastic nod from Phantom.
“Roman was always a disaster in the kitchen,” Wyatt quipped. It surprised Roman, the casual link back to their past. It surprised him, and it thrilled him. What else was Wyatt holding on to? Yes, having him here was very much a necessity if he wanted the heist to go off smoothly, but it wasn’t the only reason why Roman was happy to have his saltshaker back in his orbit.
“Come,” Roman said. “Let me show you the bedrooms.”
From somewhere outside, a playful bunch of seals called out into the night. Roman always enjoyed the sounds of the aquarium after hours, when the giggling kids and semi-drunk parents were out of the picture. If he listened closely, he could hear the clicks and chirps from the pilot whales that were nearby.
There were five bedrooms, none of them very large but big enough considering no one paid to live there. Each one had a twin-size bed pushed up against the wall, with a wardrobe and small workstation that was being used as a dirty-laundry collector by Bang Bang. The bathrooms were dorm-style except for the showers, which Roman made sure were as bougie as possible, with rainfall showerheads and massaging jets that came out of the wall.