Page 60 of Painless
“Really?” I didn’t hide my surprise. “Her presence doesn’t bother you like other women, huh?”
“No, I uh…” A deeper shade of red crept up his face as he stammered. “I’m comfortable around her. It felt strange at first, but I think she’s helping me get better at this in general.” He gestured a hand between us. “You know, talking. Socializing.”
“You have been more talkative lately,” I observed. “Not a Chatty Cathy by any means, but I’ve noticed the change, Shadow. Your whole demeanor is more confident around people now.”
“Thank you, Pres—ah, Reaper.”
A sudden growl from Hades startled us both.
The dog lunged for the window, hackles raised and teeth bared. A deep coldness settled over me. I hadn’t seen him act like that since Mari was kidnapped at the market.
“What is it?” I followed him to the window to look, but saw nothing amiss.
Hades barked menacingly, then abruptly whined, rubbing a paw over his snout.
“Do you smell that?” Shadow cracked the window open.
I felt it in my throat first, like someone shoved sandpaper down my gullet, then saw it outside.
“Shut all the windows!” I rasped before a dry cough overtook me, my lungs already heaving for fresh air. “Do you have gas masks?” My eyes started to water, like someone rubbed peppers into them.
“I’ll get them.” Shadow coughed into his arm before running out of the room.
Outside, I watched the small canisters rolling over the street, releasing dense, fluffy smoke that burned the inside of my lungs and made my eyes water. Tear gas. Someone was attacking usagain.
And then an explosion knocked me off of my feet.
Twenty
JANDRO
Ipulled the garage door down with a heavy clank of metal on concrete. Wiping my brow, I locked it securely before heading down the driveway.
Mari would be at Tessa’s house until later, checking on her and the baby, while helping around the house, so I meandered to the front gate where I knew Gunner would be posted.
He and I were always cool, though not especially close. We disagreed more often than not, but respected each other enough to not start shit. Because of our differing opinions, Reaper often listened to us in equal measure. He balanced both of our viewpoints before coming to his own conclusion.
Reaper had always been my brother. I knew him almost as well as myself. In contrast, my friendship with Shadow grew out of him having no one else to help him lead a somewhat-normal life. So even though I knew the big guy for the shortest amount of time, I felt closer to him than Gunner.
Now that Gunner was part of our little love-rectangle, I felt an inkling to spend more time with him. Just to kick back as a couple of dudes who loved the same woman.
A screech and the feathered bullet flying over my head alerted Gunner to my approach. Or more likely, he saw me coming from down the street as soon as I closed the garage.
“Vice president,” the posted guards mumbled in greeting as I approached the front gate.
“Just come to bullshit with your boss,” I announced, shielding my eyes to look up at Gunner, sitting on the edge of the brick wall surrounding our compound.
The blonde Demon jerked his head at me in invitation to join him, a black cigarette between his lips. “Come on up, VP.”
I grabbed the wrought-iron bars of the gate, hauling myself up and scooting onto the pale, sandstone bricks next to him.
“Smoke?” Gunner held his soft pack out to me.
“Sure. Thanks, bro.”
He lit us both, then leaned back to address his posted guard. “Y’all nosy fucks can keep an eye on shit over there.” He pointed at unguarded areas of the perimeter to the guys who’d been coming in closer to smoke, chat, bullshit.
They returned to their posts and Gunner exhaled a white cloud of smoke. “They’re bored,” he sighed. “Nothing’s come near us for weeks. They’re getting lazy, but I can only bark so much if I don’t know what we’re guarding against.”
