Page 69 of Little Fury

“Easy there, guys. He needs my signature.” The concierge hands me a leather folder. Not even blinking at the behavior of the two large men glowering at him. I remove the pen, fill in the tip, and sign, then hand it back to him.

“Thank you, Miss Landry. I’m Robert, and I’m the concierge for this floor. I will be happy to accommodate you with anything you need.” With that, Robert leaves us, taking his cart with him.

“I wasn’t sure what you guys would want or if you were even hungry, so I ordered a bunch of different things. Please help yourselves to any of it.” I watch them both, waiting to see what they’ll do. Matt is the first to move and lifts a cloche, finding a couple of sandwiches. Lifting a few more, he finds soup and a burger. He looks over at me and gives me the slightest nod. He places the burger in front of a chair at the table, goes to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water.

“Anyone?” he asks.

“Me, please,” I answer.

“Same,” Caden says.

Matt comes back to the table, water in hand. Passing us each one, he sits down and devours his food.

Caden finds a salad and soup, sits down, and eats. I grab the turkey BLT on rye and sit in a chair between them. The room is quiet, and I can hear people chewing. Picking up my phone, connecting it to the audio system, I scroll looking for something I want to hear. Then I remember the two men in the room with me. “Do you two have any music you absolutely despise?“ They both look at me. Matt raises a single dark eyebrow. He shakes his head and goes back to eating.

Caden takes a sip of his water and says,“Jazz.”

“No jazz it is. I also despise jazz, so you were never in any danger of hearing it.”I select a playlist, and“Charleston Girl”by Tyler Childers fills the air.

We’ve just finished eating when there’s a knock at the door. I look at the time and smile. Right on time, only 54 minutes late. Caden gets up to open the door.“That’ll be Ben, 17, skinny and has a dimple,”I tell him. He walks and opens the door.

“Well fuck you’re big,”I hear Ben say, and I realize his outburst when he saw me on the video call is his normal.

Ben enters the room, sees me, and grins,“Yup, still hot.”He turns and sees Matt.“Well fuck, you’re even bigger than the other one. You also look really angry, but I bet that works well for you with the ladies, eh? Tall, dark, tattoos, the ability to grow a beard.”

Matt looks at the kid, and if I wasn't sitting down, I’m pretty sure I’d have fallen over because he looks at Ben, and lets out a throw-your-head-back laugh. I shake my head, amazed that this may work out well.

“All right, gentlemen. This is Ben. Ben, that’s Matt,”I introduce them. Matt gives him a small smile,“And that's Caden.”

“Hey, kid,” Caden says.

“All right, the gang’s all here. Let's figure some stuff out.”

The guys head back to their rooms about four hours later. I was able to fill them in on what’s about to go down here in New York. Ben is already running a program to monitor Enzo’s banking, ensuring no big moves are made. He also tapped into the security system at the house to monitor him until we pay him a visit. The visit to Enzo is set to take place in 48 hours.

I got a text from Marcus telling me he’ll be another hour. I tell him to take his time. Taking my Kindle I head down to the lobby. There's a cute coffee shop, and I find an empty table in the back. I order a large London fog and a cheesecake pastry. The waitress brings me my order and I sit there for over an hour reading and drinking two London fogs. I know it’s been over an hour because I hear the chair pull out across from me, and Marcus sits down.

“Well, hello there,”I say without looking up from my Kindle.

“Babe, what would Harry say about you sitting out in public so engrossed in a dirty book that you’re unaware of your surroundings?”Marcus asks.

“First of all, the spice in this book is fucking impressive, so I feel like he would understand. Seriously, it’s given me a few ideas.”I hear him chuckle at that, but it sounds a bit forced.“Secondly, there are nine people in this coffee shop. The waitress, the barista, the dish boy in the back, you, me, the couple behind you to your left who just decided they want to adopt a cat. The man to my right has an Americano and is very deep in thought. It’s a little remarkable. The dude hasn’t stopped staring off into space for 23 minutes. And the young lady over by the door is studying for a class. I’ve been here for an hour or so, and 11 other people have come in, got coffee, and left.”

Marcus laughs hard at that, a real laugh,“One of these days, it’ll sink in just how good you are, Ava.”

I close my Kindle and look at him. It will never stop shocking me how beautiful he is. His eyes and mouth are exquisite, even with the pulled expression marring them. Something happened today with Alexi and his family. I wonder if he will tell me what it was. I won’t ask, its not my place to ask about his family things.“Did you eat?"

“I did. Did you?”

I nod and stand up, moving to stand beside him. I grab his hand.“Come on, then, let’s go up.”

We get to our room just as the sun is setting over New York. The city lights are starting to come on, and the view is magnificent.“Want a drink?”he, asks.

“Scotch, please,”I reply, watching him walk to the bar. I bend down to undo the laces on my boots, kick them off and remove my socks, enjoying being barefoot.

He grabs a couple of glasses and pours a drink for each of us. Marcus walks to the window, looking out over the city.“Do you miss New York?” I ask him.

“You know, when I was young, when I first came to the Ranch, I did. Now it doesn’t feel like home anymore.”

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