Page 6 of Astrid
“When Morgan first had the plans drawn up, she wanted six operatives, not including herself. I don’t know if it was by design, or a fluke, but so far, Ava and Joyce have no family to go back to. Morg wanted her people to be former EWMs, used to living the military life, and not having family to harass them about when they’re coming home.”
“I get it, I too have no family to go home to. It was my Dad and me for the longest time, but he died three years after I went in. That was nine years ago, and since he rented his home, I was able to pack up our memories, and stored them while I was in. I have them in the back of the Jeep.”
“You can store them up here, or you can keep them in your room. If you need anything for up here, shelving units, or cupboards, let Morgan know.” He looked at her with a smile, and Astrid tried not to melt into a puddle of goo at his feet. “So far, Ava’s purchased everything for the house, Joyce has done everything for the garage, and now I believe you will have the ability to purchase everything you’ll need to do your communications. I do know that Morgan was waiting for you to arrive before she purchased any TVs, or monitors, or whatever you needed for surveillance equipment.”
Astrid turned on her heel and headed toward the door. “Then let’s go see what was delivered.”
“Wait,” John reached out and grabbed her forearm, and they both looked at the contact, then at each other in shock. With his hand still on her arm, he only tightened his grip slightly, then nodded once. “Uncle Chip asked us to do something to the house, and I don’t know whether it will interfere with what you do or not. I thought you should know in case it does, and might have to compensate for something or other.”
“Okay, what’s that?”
“The entire house, even up here, has reinforced steel in the walls. The basement, and the new office will have the same thing, but they have a layer of concrete blocks, the steel, then the blocks again. In addition to the drywall that goes over that for the actual walls.”
“Wow, that’s a lot, can I ask why?”
“Uncle Chip thought it would be a safety matter. Personally, I think he thinks that someone might come looking for you girls and open fire on you. That’s why the walls are reinforced like they are, and all the windows are bulletproof.”
“Well, if they do, we’ll be safe. Will you and your brothers be going out on missions or stake-outs with us?”
“No, though we are weapons trained, because we don’t have the military background, Uncle Chip thought it would be better if we did our regular stuff and leave the missions to you girls.”
“May I ask what your regular stuff is?” Astrid asked as she felt a loss when he removed his hand from her arm, and pointed that they should go downstairs. He explained as they walked over to the stairway. “Justin is a construction engineer, he makes up blueprints, and can help people if they are stuck on something that’s not working out. Josh and I own and operate Stuart Construction, with Chuck as our foremen. The A’s when they’re not helping me, do different things. Alfie enjoys working with leather. Alan is into carpentry. When you get a chance, check out the cupboards in the kitchen, he made them from scratch.”
“And Alex?”
“He’s a ranch hand on Wyatt’s spread down the road, but until his hand heals, he’s been helping Morgan, Ava, and Joyce with some computer work.”
“What happened to him? And who is Wyatt?” she asked as she turned to him on the next level down, and frowned when he held up his hand for her to wait for him.
“Wyatt is Wyatt Erwin, he’s Morgan’s fiancé, and he owns and operates the Flying E ranch down the road with his brother, Dillon, who by the way, was in the military for twenty years. Now, about Alex, he literally got caught between a rock and a hard place. Well, one thing was a wall, and the other was the horn of a very pissed-off bull. Something had to give, and since the wall was concrete, and the bull’s head was his skull…” John shrugged, letting her picture what had happened. “He ended up breaking three fingers, and crushing every bone in his hand. He had reconstructive surgery, and has only been out of the hospital for a week.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. Okay, these are the bedrooms. This one belongs to Ava and Justin, and this one belongs to Joyce and Alex.” He pointed to the doors, and opened the unoccupied rooms. “You get to take your pick of whatever room you want. Go in and check them out. As you can see, each room holds a queen bed, two dressers, two night stands, and has a huge closet. They also have their own en-suite bath.” John stepped back and held his arm out, allowing Astrid to take a look into all the rooms. It took her fifteen minutes, then she was back out in the hallway with a frown, and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. She had to blow the curl of blonde hair that had come loose from her ponytail, and then sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, and I can pick whichever room I want?”
“As long as it’s not Ava’s or Joyce’s, yes.”
“I want this one,” Astrid said, and strode over to the room that was next to Ava’s.
“May I ask why?”
“Because, the color is peach, and it’s my favorite color.”
“Okay, I’ll tell Morgan you picked that one. Now, let’s go down and I’ll show you the rest of the house.” He put his hand on the small of her back and took the next thirty minutes to go over everything on the first floor of the house, and had to smile when she said she’d look at the boxes of computer equipment later. Their next stop was in the basement, and she laughed when she saw all the gym equipment. John led her to another room, but she stopped and pointed.
“What’s in there?”
“That’s where we sleep. We each have a queen-sized bed, and share a bathroom.” He opened the door and she looked in. She hadn’t expected for it to be neat and tidy with all the beds made, and no clothes lying on the floor, which impressed her.
“Okay, next we have a room that we had no idea what we were going to do with it when we built the house, but between the others, it’s been set up as what Morgan calls the ‘War Room’.”
“Show me,” Astrid felt the familiar tingling down her spine when she realized she was about to learn about a new mission. John opened the door, and escorted her in. Five feet into the door, she stopped dead in her tracks and took in all the items hanging on the wall, and the writing on a huge clear board. She walked over and began studying the information there.
“What’s all this?”
