Page 52 of Escape From Me

“What is that?” I peeked over the barrel's edge.

“Cleaning solution. It will destroy forensic evidence, eat away certain materials, and make it easier to polish down for Cas’s little guilty pleasure.”

It took seconds and Zeid was pulling me away from the barrel and away from the bike. Right. My eyes lingered for a moment longer. Forensic evidence. That made sense. Weird sense. But it had logic.

“Where are we going? Do you live in a warehouse?”

Everything was clean. Shiny sealed floors, raw but not rusty metal, windows that were high up and frosted. But still, it was a warehouse.

“Yes and no. The other door leads to our living space. This, however, is where we will be doing some planning and taking inventory.”

Inventory?

I watched as Zeid scanned his hand against another pad, just like he’d done at the other building, and the door unlocked.

It was silly, but I found myself wondering if I would ever have a key, or was it a handprint? Zeid had asked me to marry him, but something about being given permission to go into their spaces felt more intimate. It puzzled me that that’s what seemed more official to me than even getting a ring. Which I didn’t have.

A little part of me worried I’d been hallucinating the whole thing. Like therapy hadn’t ever been enough and I was living out some strange guilty pleasure fantasy.

“Dove, why are you so quiet?”

He pulled me through the door into heavy metal music playing over speakers and echoing off the cement floor and metal walls. This warehouse was huge. I tried to take it all in. A bar in a corner. Probably a fridge. Seconds later my eyes caught on a sculpture that, if I looked hard enough, looked a bit like a city skyline. But what was it made from? I studied the shapes and then it all made sense.

“Are those guns?”

Zeid followed my eyes and pulled me closer.

“Corruption knows a lot of different looks. One of them is selling off the weapons that we use to keep our power and our city clean to those that think they are above such matters. Something tells me your father isn’t above this.”

I looked at it again. Small lights had been set in strategic places while it looked like there were glimpses of color here and there.

“Cas?”

Zeid seemed a million miles away for a few seconds before he blinked and looked down at me.

“Cas’s visions are what helped get us the money we needed. We already had the strength. The numbers of loyal members begging for change. We already had the bloodlust. But money? The world runs on it. Money means power. You’ll see soon enough. But this is one way to keep clean money coming in, and the art gets rid of evidence and keeps our gang clean.”

He held my hand and pulled me away but I still couldn’t seem to look away from it. In some strange, morbid way it was beautiful. How could any of this be something my father was hellbent to destroy? It was far more than anything he gave to this world.

“Hey, Zeidy, it’s about time. The girls are trying to place a fucking order online for clothes for Daisy over there. Please, for the love of god, let Daisy sign off on this shit. I almost had to stop at the mall.”

X shuddered and received a punch to the arm from Cali.

“Shut up. We were not dragging you to the mall. But it seems stupid that you wouldn’t let us go up to Zeid’s floor at the building. Like a few minutes would have changed anything.”

That strange feeling that was hard as hell to identify from back at the penthouse had me fighting off a sting in my eyes.

“You’re waiting for me to pick out my clothes?”

The entire place went quiet, minus the music. Five sets of eyes were all staring at me.

“Oh, honey.” Rylee moved to my side and pulled me into a hug. “Zeiden, you better have a good plan because this girl needs some damn closure.”

Closure?

Rylee pulled away and held me at arm’s length.

“We are family. Chosen family, and we do not stand for control or abuse. I mean, outside of the bedroom. What you do there, that’s your choice.”

---