“I thought I said cheap?”
“Got bedbugs from a cheap room in Abilene one time,” Josiah said.
“Never again,” he and Ephraim vowed at the same time.
“Whatever. Just find a place to hole up and wait for us.”
“Will do,” Josiah said. “Uh, hey Chief?”
I stiffened at his tone. “What?”
“Didn’t seem worth gettin’ everyone worried, but thought you should know that her place had been tossed.”
“Say what?”
“They didn’t break anything, but they weren’t careful, either.”
“Not knowing what was there before made it impossible to tell if they’d taken anything,” Ephraim added. “But we found a small safe tucked up into the box spring under her bed that they must have missed. Hopefully, that’s where she keeps anything important.”
“Shit,” I said, turning to look into the kitchen window.
“She didn’t have a ton of sentimental stuff, but we made sure to wrap anything that could get ruined in transit,” Eph said.
“There’s a reason I hire moving companies when I change domiciles,” Josiah said primly. “Packing sucks.”
“I owe you guys.”
“Nah, she didn’t have much,” Josiah replied. “And since we didn’t move any furniture except the quilting frame, it went pretty fast.”
“The quilting frame was super light, anyway. Didn’t really count as furniture,” Eph pointed out.
“She has a quilting frame?” The idea of my wild Cecilia that could never sit still and was always looking for the next big thing, sitting down in front of a damn quilting frame, made me want to howl with laughter.
“Yeah,” Josiah said, sounding impressed. “It’s actually a pretty decent design, too.”
“Our gran had a wood frame that had been passed down a couple generations—” Eph said.
“But it wasn’t nearly as multi-functional as this one,” Josiah cut in. “Your girl made hers out of PVC pipe, and—”
“Yeah, I bet it’s awesome,” I replied. “We’ve got shit going on here. All good on your end?”
“Roger that. Yep, we’re solid. I’ll let you know if that changes,” Josiah said, once again all business. “I’m not anticipating any problems.”
“Alright. Let one of us know when you get there and where you’re staying.”
“Will do.”
Ephraim’s voice poured into the phone singing On the Road Again, with an exaggerated southern drawl before the sound cut off.
Since I was already outside, I rounded the house and went inside the garage to grab a couple of Cecilia’s bags. I needed a minute of quiet to think. At some point, I was going to need to tell Cec that her shit had been ransacked, but now definitely wasn’t the time. Eventually, though, we’d have to figure out if anything was missing, and she was the only one who could tell us that.
When I got back inside, Cecilia was still sitting, still as a statue in the recliner.
“Hey,” I said, crouching down in front of her. “Why don’t we check out that cut and see if we need to change your bandage?”
She looked over my shoulder at the front door.
“Better to get it done now before she gets here,” I said, pulling her to her feet. “That way you don’t have to put her down later.”
I led her into the bedroom and closed the door behind us.
“It probably doesn’t need checking yet,” I said as I set the bags on the bed and sat down next to them. “But I’m always extra careful. The guys give me shit for it.” I copied Eli’s inflections. “Hey, Chief, better make sure that doesn’t scar your pretty skin.”
Cecilia shot me a brief smile as I pulled her to stand between my knees.
“They’re good guys,” I said as she lifted her shirt, holding it high so I could check out Forrest’s handiwork. “When I got out of the military, I was pretty aimless. Wasn’t sure what I was going to do, you know? Going from the club to the Marines meant I always had my group, always had built-in brothers.” I carefully pulled the tape away from her skin, working my way around the edges of the bandages. “So when the company I’m working for now started headhunting me, offering the same environment but considerably more money, I was pretty stoked about it.”
The cut looked a little angry and red, but nothing I thought we should worry about. I let out a quiet breath of relief. Knife wounds could be gnarly, especially if the knife wasn’t clean. Grabbing a tube of ointment from the bag, I used a piece of gauze to smear it along the wound.
“My first team was alright. Not great, not what I’d been hoping for, but okay. They just didn’t mesh well, too many cooks in the kitchen, if you know what I mean. Forrest was with me on that team, and Eph and Siah for a while. But then a few years back, some shit got switched up and we ended up with a new group—the one we have now.”
Cecilia wasn’t responding, but one of her hands had come to slide gently through my hair.