Page 71 of Booked for Murder

Wait. What? The Hampton family had installed a gun range in the house? “You have to be kidding me.”

“He’s not kidding. He refused to carry a firearm without having a place to practice, and unlike you, he is not naturally skilled with a firearm. He had a ten stall firing range installed as a detached basement. So technically it isn’t in the house. It’s near the house, and you can access it from a hallway in the actual basement. The Hampton family had the range made to professional standards.”

“Professional standards? What does that even mean?” There were regulations all firing ranges had to meet, but I’d never heard anyone call the regulations professional standards before.

“It’s suitable for law enforcement of all stripes to get hours in as long as they’re properly registered, and the range meets all legal requirements.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You tore up your perfectly nice yard to install a firing range?”

Bradley grinned. “It also doubles as a bomb shelter, too. The walls are a mix of modern materials meant to eliminate ricochet blended with magic that also eliminates ricochet and muffles the sound of gunfire.”

“Really? A bomb shelter? Why a bomb shelter? Who uses bombs nowadays?”

“Terrorists, really. The military does at times, and they’re available for war-time use, but it’s a defensive structure capable of withstanding both magical and mundane attacks.”

“What do you know that I don’t?”

“I know that there are millions of Americans who don’t have a high enough magical aptitude rating to qualify for a lot of services they need, and when they reach the boiling point, there will be a revolution, and only an idiot isn’t ready for it. My family has already decided what our action plan will be.”

I stared at him, my mouth dropping open as I processed his words.

A bomb shelter made a great deal more sense when viewed in the light of a civil war. “What sort of action plan are we talking about here?” I avoided the news unless I couldn’t because of work, but even I could recognize he made a very good and chilling point. “They’re not wrong.”

“You know that because you’ve lived it. I know it because I’ve spent the past few years talking to a lot of people of all aptitude ratings, your parents included. My family gets it because we’ve been coming out of our shells and taking a closer look at the world around us. It’s been eye opening. And unless change happens in substantial ways, it will escalate. We will not be joining the other adepts in their last stand if it comes to that. We’ve taken some steps, but it’s a pretty tough line to walk right now.”

“What do you mean by taken some steps? What line?”

“Money talks, and where we’ve been spending our money is a big issue. How we hire people has changed substantially, too.”

“You mean like Jezabella.” Jezabella, technically, didn’t count as a hire, as she was more of a foster or an adoption. I wasn’t sure if she had been formally adopted yet or not, and I wasn’t going to ask. Puzzled, I stared at Bradley out of the corner of my eye, trying to determine how the changed family would have handled her situation.

“Not exactly, but I suppose she makes an okay example. I’m not sure why you’re looking at me like that, but I swear we haven’t done anything nefarious to Jez. She made us hire her. Apparently, she has picked up your work ethics and habits, and it’s a bit of a problem.”

“How are my work ethics and habits a bit of a problem?”

“You work too hard, too often, and too much. I was not happy to learn nothing has changed on that front. You only miss work if you think you’re contagious with something.”

“Yes, that is how life outside of adept social structures works. You work, or you do not get paid. As I like getting paid, I work. I have a limited number of days I can take off for being sick, and I don’t want to use my personal days on illnesses.”

“You don’t like using your personal days at all, and you never have. We had to force you to take time off.”

I scowled. “So?”

“You have taught Jezabella bad habits. Why did you give me that look?”

“I can’t tell if she was only fostered or if she was adopted into the family.”

“Adopted. Mom and Dad took the dive shortly after the accident, one part distraction method, one part because it would have been a great deal more difficult to adopt her after she turned eighteen.”

Good for her. It explained a lot, too, especially about how she viewed Bradley’s mother—and Bradley. It also explained Bradley’s commentary about how his mother took Jezabella to mother-daughter outings.

They weren’t like mother-daughter outings.

They were mother-daughter outings.

I’d have to figure out how to tell him the proper form of address for Jezabella was as his sister, something he likely struggled with due to the cold upbringing endured by most adepts.

No, waiting wouldn’t help. “For the record, that makes Jezabella your sister, and you should address her as such.”