Page 56 of Rock Bottom
“No,” Kirsten agreed. “Nathan and I were barely even speaking when we settled on the blueprints and got started building.”
“Over time, Homewood has become so much more than we envisioned back in the beginning, but our lives are full, and this land and home give us a safe place to live them,” Cora said. “You are more than welcome here, even after we’re no longer protecting you. Whatever works best for you and Julian, we’ll figure out how to accommodate.”
“Is there anything I can do to help out?” I asked. “I mean, mostly I’m only good at playing guitar, but I can wash dishes, vacuum, sweep.”
“Everyone washes their own dishes, and we have the floor sluts,” Cora said.
Kirsten laughed and explained, “The robot vacuums. You have to name them something on the network, and someone named the first onefloor slut. Now we have one named the second floor slut, the underground floor slut, etc. We have a robot mower, too, and I guess it isn’t a surprise it’s the lawn slut. Chase handles most of the rest of the outdoor maintenance, and one of Cora’s wolves comes in once a week to dust and do laundry. She has her own cleaning service, and we know she’s trustworthy.”
“Technically, she’s here twice a week,” Cora said, “since she takes some of our laundry to the bikers one day, and then picks it up the next day and brings it back. She washes sheets and towels here, but our clothes go to the bikers.”
“You understand,” Kirsten said, “I live between two realms, and I have a lot of responsibility in Alfheim. I spend some time while here with Nathan’s cats, and especially his local pride of lionesses. I’m working for Drake Security again, acting as therapist for employees who occasionally need someone to talk to, and going on ops for special cases — and I help Cora with her wolves.”
“She helpssomuch,” Cora said. “Newly bitten wolves, especially. She’s basically therapist to them, though it isn’t a legal relationship because of the circumstances, but I’m not sure what I’d do without her to help with them and then step in and mediate local stuff when I’m out of town dealing with other packs.”
Kirsten shrugged. “In a healthy pack, the alpha’s mate does just as much to make the pack run smoothly as the alpha. I’m not her mate, but we’re a set.”
“How are you and the necklace getting along?” Cora asked.
I touched it and shrugged. “I mean, I can’t really feel it doing anything. I put it in the box and it stays for a while sometimes, but then I look in the mirror a while later and see it on my neck, when I didn’t even realize it’d returned. I felt it the first time, but now, I don’t always know.”
“It’s sneaky when it wants to be,” Kirsten said. She sat back. “Mordecai’s here.”
He stepped into the room as she said his name, and she stood and walked to him. They kissed, and then the two of them walked to us.
“Let me see it on you, please,” Mordecai told me, and I turned so he could see me fully from the front.
He nodded. “You wish to have different chains for it?”
“I do.”
“I have a jeweler who can anodize titanium to color it. He also has some secure clasps, so you can change the coin out from one chain to another without too much worry of the clasp coming loose so you lose it.”
“Though if it wants to stay with you, it’ll just come back to you, so losing it isn’t much of a worry,” Kirsten said.
“What kind of payment does your jeweler take? If he won’t take a card, I’ll need to get some cash.”
“We’ll be traveling to Italy. I can handle payment.”
I shook my head. “It’s an international card with an eight-thousand-dollar limit, and if that isn’t enough, I have another with a higher limit.”
“I pay him in gold, which he’s more than happy to receive. If you wish to repay me, come to my home and play the cello for a small gathering of my neighbors.”
“No,” Kirsten said, looking at me. “You meet them, someone becomes interested in you, and everything goes to shit.” She looked at Mordecai. “You donottake Silver to Olympus.”
He rolled his eyes. “No payment, then. Let me do this for you and the necklace.”
“Kirsten said the owner of the gemstone wears it on a ring. I’d considered having some bracelets made in different colors as well. Honestly, I’m going to want probably eight necklaces and five or six bracelets. I’ll feel much better if you’ll let me pay for them.”
“And I have tons of gold. Literally. Losing a few ounces won’t affect me. The price won’t affect you either, so let’s just do this the simplest way possible. I don’t want the jeweler to know who you are. I can make him see someone who doesn’t look at all like you, but that doesn’t work if you use a credit card.”
Chapter 19
Silver
I slept in the next morning and woke to heavy rain outside the windows. I’d planned to play on the boulder, so I went straight to the workout room with zero makeup and my hair in a ponytail, wearing genderless sweats and a t-shirt. I used the stairstep machine and then the weight machines, working my upper body until it was exhausted before I climbed back on the endless stairs like I had something to outrun.
And I thought of Laurent.
