Pocket Dungeon 2, page 27
“Fair point.” I laughed. “Well, come on, it’s your turn again.”
We traded places, and Monty picked the gun back up. We fell into a steady rhythm of rotating who shot and who watched as we trained. Occasionally, I would pop my head back over to see how Iris and Yasha were doing, and it was clear the two women were having a fun time together, even though Yasha clearly didn’t want to be handling a gun if she could help it.
We stayed at the shooting range for a few hours, and by the time the four of us finally left, the sun was low in the evening sky.
“Thanks for including me,” Monty said as we meandered our way out to our vehicles.
“Of course,” I said. “You’re part of whatever team we are now. It would be stupid not to include you, especially when you’re going to be fighting with us, too.”
“Still,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said.
“I’d ask if you guys want to grab dinner or something,” Monty said. “But I’ve got some work to get done back at the shop. I can start getting the right papers drafted up so we can get your name on the store, too, Wes.”
“Sounds great, man,” I said. “Two days, then all of this ends.”
“Two days, and I can finally sleep again.” Monty grinned and lifted his hand up in a wave. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Goodbye, Monty,” Yasha said.
“Bye,” Iris added.
He turned on his heel and started to jog slowly in the direction he had presumably parked his car. Meanwhile, the three of us made our way over to my motorcycle and went about the process of getting our helmets out and getting onto the bike.
My body still thrummed with excited energy from our time in the range, and it carried over the entire way back to the apartment. Even when I pulled into the parking garage adjacent to our building, I still felt like I had run a marathon. Who knew using a gun was an arm workout?
“So, what are we planning for the rest of the evening?” Iris asked as the three of us made our way inside.
I paused to unlock the door then held it open so they could get in ahead of me. “I’m not sure. We should probably get some rest, because we should go back to the range to train again tomorrow.”
“I do not wish to do that,” Yasha sighed dramatically. “But if you think it is the best plan, then I will not disagree.”
“Sorry, Yash,” I said. “I think we should get comfortable with the guns while we have the chance. We don’t know what sort of thing could go wrong, and I think it’s best we make sure we’re as well prepared as possible.”
“We should also pack the rest of the items we’re going to need once we get out,” Iris said. “Like gloves.”
I snapped my fingers and pointed at her. “Good idea. We need gloves and earplugs to be sure. Monty is going to handle the guns and ammo for us.”
“What else might we need?” Yasha asked. She moved over to throw herself down onto the couch. At the same time, she managed to work her shoes off and her hat, and she threw the offending items aside. Her ears twitched once they were free from her beanie.
“Uh, you don’t need anything to hotwire a car, do you?” I asked Iris.
She grinned. “Maybe a screwdriver to put in the keyhole.”
“Cars have changed some in the last fifty years,” I said. “Are you sure you’ll still be able to do it?”
Iris frowned. “You know, I hadn’t thought of that. Do you know a place where I can find a car lying around to figure it out?”
I started to laugh, but the sound was quickly cut off as a sudden loud, pounding on the front door erupted.
Iris, Yasha, and I all jumped out of our skin and whipped around to look at the door. Yasha’s eyes narrowed into slits, and her ears were pinned back flat against her head as she stared at the door like she was about to pounce at it and take care of whoever was on the other side herself.
I quickly held my hand up to stop her and looked over to Iris.
The other woman’s eyes were wide with fear, and she had moved a few steps behind me toward the kitchen.
“Wesley Rhodes!” someone shouted in an annoyed tone, and instantly, I felt myself relax.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled that my landlord was banging on my door at seven in the evening, but it was better than the alternative. The alternative, of course, being that someone with nefarious intentions had showed up to try and murder me, as nefarious people were prone to trying to do.
“Coming,” I shouted, then in a lower tone I looked back at Yasha. “You need to put your hat back on.”
The fox-woman scrambled to grab her hat from where it had fallen and quickly yanked it back onto her head.
As soon as I was certain her ears weren’t exposed, I pulled open the door just enough so I could see my landlord’s unhappy face glaring back at me.
“I thought I heard you in there,” he said. “I was just coming by to inform you about a rent hike–”
I tried to step into his field of vision so he couldn’t see inside the apartment, but it was clearly too late as he raised his eyebrows at me incredulously.
“How many people are living here now?” he huffed in aggravation. “I’ll have to add to your bill to account for the extra residents.”
If he thought he was going to get some sort of argument from me, he was wrong. I just wanted him out of my damned apartment.
“Great, thanks, email me the details,” I said loudly and slammed the door closed with an audible thud. I pressed my back against the door and didn’t move until I heard him sigh and stalk off, all the while he was muttering under his breath.
Iris and Yasha were both still on high alert, despite my reassurances that nothing was wrong, so I tried to offer them again.
“It’s fine,” I said. “It was just my landlord. He’s kind of an asshole, but we’re fine.”
“Right,” Iris said. Her voice wasn’t shaking, but she looked pale.
“I promise,” I told her. “He has no affiliation with Harper. He’s just a money-grubbing leech.”
“I do not like landlords,” Yasha announced.
“You and me both,” I told her. “But, well, his appearance does make me think. Maybe we could start looking for a better place to live.”
“Better than here?” Yasha’s eyes went wide, as though she couldn’t possibly believe there was anywhere better than my current apartment.
I snorted. “Yeah, Yasha, better than here. I know you like the apartment, but it really isn’t that great.”
Yasha looked at Iris like she needed the other woman to back her up. Iris held her hands up.
“I think the apartment is nice,” she said. “But I’ve stayed in nicer places… Albeit, the nicer place was paid for by Billy, and he tried to kill me.”
“So it sounds like my shitty apartment is still better than the Chateau Marmont,” I joked. “I’ll count that as a victory in my favor.”
Iris rolled her eyes, but she was grinning all the while.
“I think it’s a good idea. We can finally find a place that has enough space for all three of us,” I continued.
“Do you not wish to share a space with me any longer?” Yasha asked.
“It’s not that I don’t want to share a space with you,” I said. “But it would be nice to be able to see my floor again.”
“I do not understand,” Yasha said, and Iris pressed her hand to her mouth to hide a laugh.
“A bigger place sounds like it could be nice,” Iris said. “If that’s what you want.”
“I think it might be,” I said. “I feel like it’s about time we all get the nice things we deserve, and that includes a bathroom that’s bigger than a closet. We can even find somewhere with a better shower, Yash. They make some with multiple shower heads, so you can get water from every angle.”
Her eyes went wide. “And those are not meant for only kings?”
I grinned. “Nope. Not just kings.”
“I would like that very much,” she said. “Very much. The shower is one of the best parts of this world.”
“I’ll put it on the list of requirements,” I told her.
Excitement bubbled in my chest as I thought more and more about getting a new place. It was something that wouldn’t have felt feasible even two weeks ago, but now that I had access to the crystal and all the wealth it provided, it felt like a whole new world had been opened up to me.
We could get a new place to live, a new car, and whatever else we wanted. The world was our oyster and all of that.
“What was it that Monty was talking about earlier?” Iris asked and broke me from my fantasies about having more than one bedroom.
I blinked and looked over at the blonde. “What?”
“Monty,” she repeated. “He said he was drawing up some sort of paperwork for you.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “I nearly forgot to tell you two about that. He’s offered to make me a co-owner of his store, that way I’ve got a pretty solid reason to be pulling in so much money in case the IRS wants to butt into my life. There are only so many fictitious wills I can be a part of before someone’s going to start getting suspicious.”
Yasha frowned. “What is an I-R-S?”
“Bureaucratic bullshit,” Iris said for me. “But that sounds like a pretty good plan, I mean, it would definitely help to keep them from looking too hard at you. Or at least I think it would. I don’t know that much about things like that.”
“I don’t think most people know much about things like that, either,” I told her. “So don’t feel bad.”
“I didn’t even finish high school,” she said. “So, I’m sure there are plenty of things I don’t know, but that hasn’t stopped me yet.”
I blinked in surprise as I took in her words. Meanwhile, Yasha seemed to have grown bored with our conversation and had rolled over onto the couch to find something Star Wars related to watch, I was sure of it.
“You didn’t finish high school?” I asked, and I couldn’t keep the shock from my voice. I supposed it made sense that she didn’t, given everything else I knew about her, but it was still strange for me to process.
Iris hesitated before she shook her head. She was no longer meeting my gaze, either, and it was as if she was suddenly insecure about her lack of high school diploma.
“Hey,” I said and stepped closer to where she leaned up against the island in the kitchen. “It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”
“I know,” she said a little too quickly. “I just… realized how different things could have been had I stayed in high school and not gone off to pursue music. I would have never met Billy, and I would have never gotten trapped in the crystal.”
“That… is definitely a different life trajectory,” I admitted.
“But I wouldn’t have met you or Yasha, either,” she said. “And I’m glad I did. It might be nice to have finished school, but things happen for a reason.”
I reached out to gently cup one of her elbows in my palm and smooth my fingers over her soft skin there. “I don’t think you have anything to be ashamed of. Besides, we can get you enrolled in classes.”
Her brow furrowed. “Really?”
“Really,” I said. “We might have to forge some documents, but we can get you in whatever classes you want. Whatever would make you happy.”
A small, almost shy smile spread across her beautiful face.
“Thank you, Wes,” she said. “I’m glad you found me in the crystal, and that you brought me out.”
“Of course,” I said. “And just… I just want to make sure you’re okay to do this.”
“Take classes?” She looked confused.
“No, no,” I corrected quickly. “I mean, deal with Harper. You did well in the last dungeon, but this is going to be different, and I just want to make sure you want to do this. That you aren’t just doing this because you feel like you have to. I know you must have complicated feelings about this, and I can’t even imagine what they might be.”
“Oh.” Her voice was soft. “You don’t have to worry. I want to do this.”
“You’re certain?” I asked.
“Yes,” she assured me. “I want to do this. Anything I might have felt for Billy– for Harper– once upon a time, has changed. He tried to coerce me into a relationship, and when I said no, he left me to die. And now he’s been hurting so many more people. I want to make sure that never happens to anyone else ever again. And I want him to know it was me who stopped him.”
“You’re awfully tough, do you know that?” I asked her. “Tougher than anyone I’ve ever met.”
She looked down at where my hand still cupped her elbow, and her lips curved into a smile. She cast her gaze up at me through her thick fringe of dark eye lashes.
“I wouldn’t call it tough, not when it’s just surviving,” she said.
“I would,” I told her. “You’re spectacular, and I think you deserve to know that. And in two days, we’re going to get back at Harper for everything he did to you and make sure it doesn’t ever happen to anyone else again.”
“That sounds like a fantastic plan,” she said. And then she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine in a soft, slow kiss.
It was less heated than the kisses we had shared before we slept together, but despite that, it didn’t leave me wanting for more. I was content just to stand there kissing her against the kitchen island for as long as she would have me.
Eventually we separated so we could both come up for air, and we went on to have a peaceful rest of our night.
By the time we all crashed into bed together, it was just past midnight, and I felt spent beyond imagination. I knew that come morning, we would have another day of training waiting for us, and then everything would finally come to a head.
I fell asleep with Yasha tucked under one arm and Iris tucked under the other, and I couldn’t remember a time I had felt more content.
It wasn’t until my phone started to vibrate with a vengeance that I actually woke up in the morning. My head was thick and foggy with the haze of sleep, and I was confused as to what was even making that annoying buzzing sound for a few long seconds.
Finally, I looked over to see that my phone was vibrating so hard it nearly escaped my nightstand. Yasha was curled up on my arm and using it like a pillow, and I had to carefully extract it from beneath her head before I could finally reach over and gently pluck my phone from the edge of my nightstand.
A series of text messages filled my screen, and they all had the same frantic energy.
Every single text was from Monty.
I had to blink a few times so my eyes could adjust, but when they did, they finally fell down onto one single message at the bottom of the screen.
They moved it up. The dungeon is going to happen today.
Chapter 19
“Shit!” I shouted.
My sudden outburst caused both Yasha and Iris to jolt awake.
Iris sat up first, and her platinum-blonde hair stuck up all around her head like she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. If I wasn’t so panicked, the sight would have been endearing. But unfortunately, I felt another wave of panic rocking through me without mercy.
Yasha moved to a seated position a little slower, but her entire body had gone rigid with tension, like she was ready to spring into action at the drop of a hat.
“What is it?” Iris asked. Her dark blue eyes were wide, and her gaze darted from my face to the phone I held clutched in my hand like a lifeline.
“Monty,” I said. “He’s been sending me messages for the last few minutes. Apparently Harper is moving up the time. He has to go into the crystal today.”
“What does that mean?” Yasha yawned. “We no longer have a second day to train?”
“Nope,” I said. I started the awkward process of attempting to get out of bed without crushing either of them. “We need to get a move on, and fast.”
As I spoke, I thumbed through all of the messages I had just missed. According to Monty, Harper was going to have him go into the dungeon around noon. I checked the clock at the top of my phone.
Fuck. We only had two hours.
Iris rolled out of bed at the same time I managed it. She started to change out of her pajama shorts and then paused.
“How should we dress? Do we need to dress in a specific way?” Iris asked.
“Anything that isn’t identifiable should work,” I said. “I don’t want us to be distinguishable when we get out of the crystal and into Harper’s warehouse. I’m sure he has some sort of high-tech security system we’ll have to be on the lookout for, too. I wish Monty had known something about that, but I guess it’s better than nothing that we know anything at all.”
“Got it,” Iris said.
I fired off a text to Monty to let him know we were now up to date on the situation at hand, and that we would meet him in the dungeon.
He sent back a single thumbs up emoji, and I had never seen an emoji convey so much distress in my life.
Yasha finally pulled herself out of bed as well, and together the three of us put together our all-black ensembles that either made us look like spies or like stagehands at a local theater company.
“What is our plan?” Yasha asked me. “And how are we going to get the guns from Monty? We still need the guns, do we not?”
I paused. “Shit.”
I sent Monty another text.
Do you have the guns???
For a few long, dragging seconds, no response came through, and I could practically feel my anxiety ratcheting up. But then, finally, the small bubble appeared on the screen to indicate that he was typing.
They never search me. I think he’s too cocky I won’t hurt him bc my family. I’ll bring them in with me, just bring the other stuff.
I sighed in relief. Okay. If Monty had the guns, then we could easily deal with the gloves and the earplugs, and I was sure I had a screwdriver around my apartment somewhere. Everything would be fine.
Once I was entirely dressed, I grabbed the bag for my gold coins Mimic had given me, the crystal, and the piece of parchment Trog had given me that contained the steps to meet up with someone in the dungeon. I buzzed with anxious energy as I started the hunt throughout the apartment for the rest of the things we needed.
