Page 116 of Veiled in Brick

“Oh, I’m making this up as I go—I had zero plans to interrupt you two; it just kinda happened.” He quipped, “This entire conversation is word-vomit.”

The phrase made me snicker, but my laughter dissipated quickly.

“Sorry, Jay.” The apology meant several things at once, and it was clear that he understood as he nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. I asked hesitantly, “Are you, erm—good?”

“Nah, I’m bathing with a toaster tonight, for sure,” he mocked me with utmost sarcasm.

The unexpected morbid nature of his response made me choke on my spit.

“James!”

“Joking,” he whispered. “I’m fine—I don’t have a blonde boy toy to turn to like you do, so I’m not fine like you, but I’m fine. Good. Grand, actually—”

“Jesus, Jay,” I laughed. “I get it.”

“Cool,” he stated. “So—scooting right on past this conversation as if it didn’t happen,” James made a quiet whooshing noise and fluttered his hands in front of his face. “Let’s go join the debate.”

“The debate?”

“About your life and how we intend to ensure you are able to keep living it,” he responded. “Small shit, really.”

“Uh huh—small shit, sure—let’s go.”

I walked behind James down the short hallway, and the moment that we were visible from the kitchen, Cassie was pointing at James intently.

“You,” Cassie sat at the table, calling to him from what had been Liam’s wicker chair.

He flinched, muttering, “Jesus, she’s a lot.”

“Do you have that camera with you?” she asked with bright eyes.

James moved with a heavy exhale to sit in his seat once more, sinking into it with a grunt.

“I do—it’s in my laptop bag in my car,” he told her. “What are you on now?”

Claire caught my eye before Cassie could respond, raising her brows at me as she not-so-subtly looked to James and then back to me. I glanced at the ceiling, shaking my head at her ill-timed questioning, and crossed the kitchen to where Liam stood. His backside was resting against the counter behind the kitchen table as he looked toward his feet. He remained like that until I reached his right-hand side, climbed on the counter as I had done before, and allowed my legs to dangle off the edge. I nudged him with a bump of my shoulder against his, and he looked up to me.

“All good?” he asked.

The tension in his gaze tugged at my heartstrings, and I nodded in return. “All good, Lee.”

He focused on the group again, and in an act that I had little to no control over, I leaned down ever-so-slightly to plant a kiss in his hair. The quick, consoling brush of my lips on the damp strands was over in the blink of an eye and when I straightened myself, Liam’s cheeks held a slight pink tint to them that was notably absent before. I brought my attention back to the room, and Cassie was speaking once more with thrice the enthusiasm.

“All I’m saying is, we can use this to our benefit—”

“We have no idea how to work it,” James noted. “I was hard pressed to look through all the footage on the SD card, honestly.”

“Yeah,” Cassie argued, now leaning forward with her hands pressed flat against the table. “Because you were doing that shit manually. It’s the twenty-first century—if that thing’s half as techy as I imagine it is, there’s gotta be an app for that.”

Liam nodded, silently agreeing with his sister.

“What’s the point in figuring that out now?” Luke asked.

“How do you think this guy was spying through it? An app would have a live feed,” Cassie remarked. “You said he’s been living in 2D? He’s probably back there now or, if he’s not, he will be soon. Smack that thing back up on the wall, point it at his door, and turn the tables on this fucker so we know exactly when he’s home instead of sitting on our asses in hiding, waiting for the police to question whether or not they have enough evidence to do anything worthwhile.”

“I…” James paused before saying, “Okay, for the sake of argument, I don’t mind that idea, actually, but there’s loads of things that get in the way of that happening.”

Cassie beamed at him, sat up straight, and cooed, “Like what?”

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