Page 157 of Home to the Hollow

Where is Euryale and where is the judge himself?

A loud screech pierces the air and I watch the huge eagle fly in, immediately swooping past my bird loving partner before settling on the same perch she chose when we set up the grand opening. Edgar comes out of the back, his expression stern as he looks at us.

“Wherehave youbeen?”

Jolene rolls her eyes and makes a silly face at us. “Don’t mind him; he’s been a fucking mess since we got rid of Britannia.”

“First, Tilly, the girl was inexcusably nasty to you and I won’t stand for it. Second, these two clowns took their sweet time getting here. If theyhadset this to go off, we’d be a giant meat puzzle by now.” He runs a hand through his raven locks, looking at the chest before turning back to us. “It would begreatif you could stop attracting trouble,drugar.”

Prez grins as he and I walk the machine over, approaching it carefully while Boone rants. “That just wouldn’t be our magpie, now would it? Her penchant for unintentionally getting into messes is part of her charm.”

Chuckling, I nod. “He’s right, Edgar. Sugarplum bumbling her way through town like a hurricane is one of my favorite things. It makes every day an extra surprise.”

“Thank you, little Wolfie,” Jolene murmurs, giving me a private smile. She pauses, eyeing the machine for a moment. “Are you two going toliftthis thing?”

“Yep,” Prez replies. He drops to the ground, pressing his face against the floor as he studies the bottom of the trunk. “Lucy, will you fetch your vet bag out of the car? I’d like to see if we can use the dental mirrors to peek under here. There could be pressure plates for all we know.”

My eyes widen and I jog out to the car, pulling both of my bags out just in case they contain anything that might help. Edgar and my sugarplum are closing the animals in the back room when I get back, and I sigh in relief. As spooked as we are, the animals will leap to defend their supes no matter what the cost is—that’s how companion bonds work. I’d hate to lose one of them because we didn’t stop to secure them before we tried to disarm a bomb.

Disarm a bomb? What in the chicken fried hell have we gotten ourselves into?

“Be careful!” Our girl hisses the command as Prez lies on his side and roots through the bags until he finds the tools he wants. I don’t blame her for being nervous—it’s not likeanyof us have experience with this besides what we’ve seen on TV, but since we don’t knowwholeft this suspicious package, we can’t call for help.

“I don’t see any wires, plates, power sources or extraneous shit attached to the bottom. Outside of a mercury switch, we’re probably safe to move it.” Presley slides away from the wooden object, rolling to his feet as he looks at Edgar. “What do you think? You’ve probably had more experience with crazies because of your dad.”

Boone snorts, shaking his head. “ I can't imagine anyone with the skill set to rig a mercury switch being after Tilly.”

“Um…” Jolene rubs her hands over her arms and scuffs her foot on the floor. “I should maybe tell you guys a little more about some of the shit Seer and I did, especially in Asia. But, uh… I think those people would have just blown the place up rather than be this subtle.”

I gape at her, and she shrugs, pressing her lips together in a knowing smirk. “You have assassins from Asia hunting you?”

“Probably not?” she says hopefully. “It’s notlikely, but the likelihood isn’tzero.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Tilly,” Edgar mutters as he walks over and pulls her into his arms. “You have some serious ‘splainin’ to do after this.”

She chuckles. “I’ll tell you what I can without having to kill you.”

Rolling my eyes, I look at Prez and he nods. Together, we bend down and carefully lift the chest, positioning it on the machine. I dig in the cabinet, finding the right size plates, and fiddle with the placement until I think it’s right. The portable x-ray hums to life and I take films from as many angles as I can without jostling the chest. When I finish, I place them all in the sleeves and close everything down.

“I can take these outside to the reader in the back of my SUV.” Tucking the films under one arm, I turn to go out to read them. “Behave while I’m gone, you three.”

Their snorts of disbelief follow me as I take the x-rays to my Range Rover, loading them up. It takes longer than I’d like and when the image comes up, I heave a sigh of relief. There’s a ton of papers and books, but nothing that looks like a mechanism to blow us to bits. It’ll take a while to go through everything inside—the sheer volume of crap shoved inside that thing makes it hard to believe anyone ever got it closed, but it doesn’tappeardangerous.

I shut everything down quickly, running in with a bright smile. “Just books and papers. Nothing suspicious looking. We’re good to load up the machine, the trunk, and everything else and head home.”

“Thank fuck. I’ve been side-eyeing this stupid thing forhoursnow, and I’m pretty sure every muscle in my body has a cramp,” Sugarplum grumbles as she lifts her head off of Edgar’s chest and stretches her arms above her head.

His rumbling laugh fills the air as Presley picks up the chest. “We can help you take care of that,drugar.”

“Hell, yes, we can. Once we stow this bad boy in the garage, I’ll whip up a stir fry. How does that sound?” I let the animals out of the back room as he and Jolene wheel the machine towards the back door. “We might even wrangle a few milkshakes if everything goes well.”

“Oooh! You know the way to my heart, Wolfie darling.” She waves her hand at Prez and I impatiently. “C’mon, then. Let’s get this crap loaded so you can all feed and pamper me.”

“Are we creating a monster?” Prez pretends to whisper.

“If we are, she’sourmonster and I’ll happily worship at her shrine.” I shrug and look at both of the guys. “Don’t hate me because you ain’t me. I’m definitely her favorite.”

Edgar shoots me a dark grin. “We’ll see about that, pup.”

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