Page 135 of GAF Factor

I didn’t know where she was taking me as she led me through the halls of the silo, but I didn’t care. I was stretching my legs and seeing new things. It was better than twiddling my thumbs at the mansion.

“Cabin fever is a real thing,” she agreed. “And how are the nightmares?”

I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about them.

“They get better with time.”

“You’ve had them?”

“You should have seen me after I was attacked by that creepy guy who went after Fox. He was the son of the guy who killed Fox’s mother.”

“And he took offense to Fox still being alive?” I asked, not understanding.

“Well, Fox walked in on the guy killing his mom, and then he bashed in the guy’s skull with a trophy. Apparently, the kid witnessed it. Then followed Fox and took his revenge by taking me.”

“That’s a little messed up.”

She stopped and spun toward me. “He saved my life. He’s a little crazy, but he’s my crazy, and I would do anything for him.”

“I can see that.”

“So,” she said, continuing to walk on. “This is home for all of us. It’s where we come to let off steam and be someone other than who we are out there.”

“The face you put on for all the normal people.”

“Exactly. Because our men are not normal, Isla. They never will be. And if you think for one second that anyone out there will ever understand what it’s like to be married to or even date one of these men, you’re wrong. All we have is each other.”

“But they still go out. They go to bars. They grocery shop. I’ve seen it.”

“Uh-huh. What’s the last thing you saw them do when they were grocery shopping?”

I thought about it and frowned. “Um…buying melons.”

“Do you remember what they were buying them for?”

“Something about target practice for umbrellas?”

She gave me a pointed look. “Now, think about how many men you know that use umbrellas of any kind for anything other than rain. Or could even formulate a sentence that includes melons and umbrellas.”

Shit, she was right. And now that I thought about it, the last time I saw Fox in the store, there was the whole fiasco with Funyuns. They couldn’t even go shopping normally. What happened when they went to a bar? I was almost afraid to ask.

“So, when you’re ready, you ask Fox to give you lessons, and he’ll be more than happy to show you the ropes.”

“You mean, throwing knives.”

“That and so much more,” she grinned. “Don’t worry. We all fall in love with it. It’s just a matter of how long and what your weapon of choice is.”

Well, I could honestly say I never saw that coming. But as I looked around the bunker, it didn’t lookthatstrange. And maybe that’s why I made an appointment with a therapist when I got back to the mansion later that night.

33

IKE

I slammed the phone down,wishing it was an old rotary phone that would actually hang up on the person instead of just crack my screen. There wasn’t a goddamn person alive that could give me what I needed. No one wanted to touch the Irish. Either they were already working other angles or didn’t have the manpower to go after them.

My only option was to pay the fuckers.

Pressing my fingers to my temples, I massaged away the headache forming and knew what I had to do. The sooner this was over, the better for everyone.

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