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“Once we’ve taken Daniel down, we’re going to have a celebratory bonfire in the yard here and burn it and everything else they add to it. They’re gathering more stuff now.” I reply with a chuckle.
“What did my grandfather say?” Ace asks, amusement dancing in his eyes.
Rome clears his throat and replies with a huge grin, “He said, and I quote, it’s so bad that I feel like I need to finish this bottle of whiskey, spray it with gas, bring out my very rusty bomb-making skills, shoot it a few times just because I feel like I need to for my own peace of mind and then blow into teeny tiny pieces that we can then burn again just to make sure that no one ever has to be subjected to that horror ever again.”
Everyone bursts into loud laughter, including me; despite the fact that it’s the second time I’ve heard it, it’s no less funny than when I heard it the first time.
The conversation is kept relatively light, all of us deciding not to focus on the serious stuff, there’s going to be plenty of time for that, and it’s important that we find these small moments to take it easier.
“Hey, Kids, did you find anything yet?” Ruth asks, Francis following behind her and both of them bringing in trays of sandwiches and some waters.
“Nope, not yet. Nothing that’s to do with smuggling anyway,” Rome replies.
“Don’t worry. I know you will find what you’re looking for. We may not have been back in your lives for longer than forty-eight hours, but all of us can already tell that you are incredibly capable and achieve what you want,” Ruth compliments.
“Thank you,” I reply, and she smiles.
“We’ll leave you to it. Let us know if you need anything. The others are having great fun finding all that godawful royalty shit Silas had in this place and putting on the bonfire in the yard.” Francis tells us with a smile.
“They’ve gathered so much that they’re having to build another one because Malory pointed out that it was getting dangerously big,” Ruth tells us with an amused smile as they both leave.
Once they’ve gone, I ask, “Do you think that Cecil is going to do all of what he suggested to the painting?”
“I hope not. At least not without us, I want to join in.” Rome chuckles.
We all reach for a sandwich and then dive straight back into the paperwork that is spread everywhere by this point.
Jynx
I’m getting bored. I know that’s not something that I should be thinking about, but I can't help it. Shifting through paperwork is boring as hell.
“Guys?” Mason starts.
“Please, for the love of just about fucking everything, tell me that you have something because I’m about to lose my mind and go join the grandparents in gathering tacky shit,” I practically beg.
My rant is out of the blue enough that the guys just stare at me for a second before Mason clears his throat and replies, “Yeah, I found something. It looks like Silas was helping to smuggle in guns.”
“Seriously?” I ask.
“Yeah, look at this, it’s the only one I’ve found, but it's got the guns listed on there and the dates that the shipment is coming in. He must have forgotten to destroy it. It’s enough to be sure that it was guns.” Mason explains.
“Okay, well, at least we know what we’re dealing with. We will have to be more careful with how we approach it, but we should be able to work out who was buying the guns,” I reply.
“Yeah, we can get a good idea, but I think that it's still a good idea to bring the Ravens in. They can capture the buyer, and we can go after the seller. Having their presence here as well should dissuade them from continuing. Especially if we show them that this place is incredibly well protected,” Malachi adds.
“And once we’ve cleared it out as much as we can and taken out the vast majority of players, then I’m sure that the grandparents are more than capable of keeping them out,” I add.
“Oh, definitely, and I want to set up a new network of cameras for them, for the harbor and the entry points into town; that way, they can keep an eye on it and deal with it as soon as it pops up,” Ace suggests.
“Good idea, and if they can’t, then they can call us back in, and we’ll deal with it again, bring in more firepower, and send an even bigger message.” Rome’s smile is sharp.
“Great, so first we check the cameras and see how easy it’s going to be to get to Daniel, and then we extract him. Once he’s dealt with, then it’s basically sorting the town and making sure no huge threats still exist thanks to our families, so that means taking down the smuggling operation and making sure that it doesn’t return,” Malachi summarises.
“That sounds about right, and then it’s just up to the grandparents to turn this back into a great place to live, and we can go home,” I reply and then add, “Unless anyone has changed their minds by that point and wants to stick around.”
“I doubt that’s going to happen, but we’ll discuss it when it gets close to leaving anyway,” Rome replies with a smile, standing up, “let’s go and fill the grandparents in and then head back to the Hawthorne estate to check the cameras and see what Daniel is doing, the sooner that we can get that dealt with the better.”
We all get up, gathering the papers into a huge pile but leaving them on the table as we head back to the grandparents and explain what's going on and what the plan is. Thankfully they all seem quite happy to leave us to it, although Demelza and Gerald both insist on coming back to the house with us to check out the cameras and because she got a ride with them, Malory leaves with us too.
