The living room had a stone floor and a huge fireplace that reminded me of Robin Hood for some reason. The furniture was a large brown leather sectional with huge cream cushions on them. They were fabulous and as comfy as they looked.
In the kitchen, there were cream shaker style cabinets with a huge island in the center of the room. The tops of the counters were a gray stone, and I couldn’t figure out if it was thick slate or concrete, but it looked awesome. It all suited him perfectly, a man’s man house.
On that thought, I realized that I hadn’t called my brother Madix in a couple of days. I was worried that I was bothering him, so I was trying to leave it a little longer between calls just in case.
Picking up my cell from the counter, I pulled up his number and hit call. It only rang twice before he answered it.
“Lu,” his deep smoky voice sounded in my ear. “You okay, girl?”
I freaking loved my brother. He was the best big brother in the history of brothers.
“Hey, Mad! How you doing?”
There was silence for a beat and the sound of a door closing, then he replied, “Asked you first, Lu.”
Snorting, I looked out the window and took in Archer and Noah still talking. Their jaws were tense as were the lines of their body as they spoke.
“All’s good, Mad. Levi had to go to one of the sites…”
I hadn’t even finished the sentence before he was interrupting me.
“Why didn’t he call? Where are you? I’ll come get you now.”
There was the jingle of keys and rustling his end of the phone, no doubt him picking up his ‘pocket shit’ as he called it.
“No, no. There’s no need. I’m staying with Noah until he gets back.”
Every last bit of noise his end stopped. I’m pretty sure the birds stopped tweeting where he was too, no doubt wondering what the hell was the problem.
“Noah?”
I blinked and looked at the man in question, still standing with the same pissed off expression as Archer said something. “Yeah?”
“You’re staying with Noah?” he clarified.
“That’s what I just said, wasn’t it?” Maybe I hadn’t? What exactly had I said to him, I couldn’t remember?
There was another beat of complete silence before he groaned and there was a thud. “Ah, fuck! Wasn’t there any other crazy available?”
That was how he referred to the Townsends– the crazies. He didn’t just do it behind their backs, nope he would totally say it to their faces too. Growing up, he’d been very strict on a lot of morals, one of which was, ‘never say behind someone’s back what you wouldn’t say to their face’, but I was sure there were instances like this when that wasn’t a good motto.
“Noah will keep me safe, Mad,” I sighed. “He’s probably the best of the crazies for the job.” At that moment, both Archer and Noah started speaking more heatedly and were waving their arms up and down at their sides. It almost looked like they were trying to take flight. “Do you think he’ll try to get me back?” If anyone knew what my dad would do, it was Madix.
“Your dad?” Rolling my eyes, I stayed silent and left that as my response to the stupid question. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “I wouldn’t put it past him. In fact, I’d be more inclined to say yes than no.”
I was about to answer when something thudded in the pantry just off the kitchen. Spinning to face the door, I watched and waited until it thudded again and then screamed. Of course, he had noise canceling windows so he couldn’t hear me. Suddenly, I hated them.
“What the fuck is going on?” Madix yelled down the phone.
“There’s something in the pantry!” I was starting to really panic. “It’s trying to get out.”
“What the hell? If it’s a human, why doesn’t it just open the door?”
That was a good question. Maybe Dad had hired a wolf or something to get me?
I was about to voice my thoughts when there was an almighty thud and the wood cracked slightly. Screaming my ass off, I spun and ran toward the front door hearing more thudding behind me.
I’d taken the weird boot thing off my broken foot when we’d gotten home because I hated the thing, and it felt like it was going to explode each time it connected with the floor. It could explode, I didn’t need it. Well, it could explode after I got to the safety of the two Townsend men standing outside.
I opened the front door with so much force that it hit the wall of the house with a crack. I didn’t care one bit as I ran full pelt toward the two Townsend men who were looking at me with concern.