Peyton laughed. “Says the woman who has her own place, but yeah, I do think it’s worth it. It makes me feel like an actual person rather than some weird hermit you keep in this warehouse. No offense, Lily. It’s like an initiation into Team Shay.”
“None, taken,” she said, holding up the tennis racket.
“I’ve got something to ask you, and I want you to be honest,” said Shay.
Peyton’s face tightened, and his gaze dropped.
Shay snickered and realized she still had her gun out. She holstered it. “Just being careful, but it’s nothing bad. I want to know what’s up with the meowing I keep hearing when I call you.”
He shrugged, a nervous look on his face. “I’ve got a cat. It’s not a big deal.”
“You’ve got a cat?”
“Yeah, Osiris. He was a stray, but now he’s mine. He’s a cat. It’s not like he can sell me out to my brother.”
“Maybe, but you never know anymore.”
Peyton rolled his eyes. “He’s just a cat, Shay, not some Oriceran or shape-changing magic user.”
“You needed an apartment so you could have a pet?”
Peyton shook his head. “No, I’ve brought him by here. Lily’s met him. Like I said, I want my own place. I’ve been decorating, and…” He sighed. “Besides, what if I meet someone? Where was I was supposed to bring them, here?”
“Meet someone?” Shay kept her face neutral even though she knew exactly what the man was getting at. Of all her sins, needling Peyton was minor.
“You know…a girl.”
Shay opened her mouth to probe deeper when a harsh alarm sounded from the office computer.
“What the hell is that?”
Peyton rushed toward the office. “Perfect! It’s here.”
“Here?”
“Yeah, my delivery.”
Shay’s hand drifted back toward her holster. “What the fuck is here? Who the fuck did you give this address to?”
“Does gun wielding happen a lot around here because if it does I need to get better prepared,” said Lily.
“Your weapons work is your weakest area,” said Peyton.
“Said the guy whose hand shakes when he holds one.”
Shay gritted her teeth. She’d gone from being sorry the place was empty to ready to take down Peyton.
He shrugged. “Relax, it’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal? How the fuck is it not a big deal?”
“It’s Purity Solutions.”
Shay blinked, now more confused than angry. “Huh?” She shook her head. “As in the cleaners and movers?”
Peyton grinned and bobbed his head. “Yep. Once you confirmed they were the real deal, I figured I could use them. I mean, after all, they come, they go, and they forget they were ever here. And they deliver.” He tapped on his computer, and the loading bay opened. The world’s most nondescript gray van pulled inside.
The tinted windows denied her a view of the drivers, and it took Shay some effort to keep her attention on the vehicle.
Magic, huh?
Shay sighed, still unsure if this was a good idea, let alone not a horrible one. “What are they delivering?”
“A pizza oven. The real thing.”
“Oh, sweet! Let me see,” said Lily.
Shay groaned. “I told you before. There’s a lot more to pizza than just having a pizza oven.”
Two men in blue uniforms and short-brimmed hats stepped out of the vehicle and threw open the back. They extended a ramp.
“I don’t care if its Purity,” Shay bitched. “This is still stupid.”
The men ignored their argument as they rolled a dolly with a large stone oven off the van.
Peyton whistled. “You guys really do it all.”
They set the oven down near the wall, then returned to the van to grab boxes filled with tools and other supplies. Lily was already opening one of the boxes.
Shay took several deep breaths. Part of her wanted to point her gun straight at Peyton’s head, but he was right about Purity. If there was one company on the planet that could be trusted with the location of her warehouse, even temporarily, it was them. It wasn’t like they didn’t already know where she lived.
She waited for the men to finish their delivery and pull out of the warehouse before returning her baleful gaze to Peyton.
“We need to have another talk about security, Peyton.”
Peyton held up a finger. “Hold that thought.”
“Hold that thought? What the fuck?”
“Got an alert on my way here. I meant to mention it. Another quick job. Not any sort of ancient underwater crap or evil haunted Walmart. Just go to a place, sneak in, steal something, and sneak out. It’s a one-day thing.”
Shay could slap him around about security later. “What? Is this more boner magic?”
Peyton snorted. “Nope. Rich guy wants you to fly into Antarctica to grab some seeds from the seed vault.”
“Wait, I thought the big seed vault was in Norway?” asked Lily.
“You’ve been using my computer again when I’m not here. Talk about that later.” The researcher shook his head. “That’s the more famous and public one. This one is more low-key, probably because they built it on top of a place where certain groups have been storing magic plants for centuries—long before the truth of Oriceran came out. It used to be completely secret, but word got out and now they just try and keep tourists away. The facilities are top-notch, so it’s become another global seed vault even for non-magical stuff. They’ve also got a secret vault there for high-value seeds, and our client wants some specific ones.”
“Let me guess—are they magic beans?”
Peyton nodded. “Well, yeah.”
“It’s funny how some people in the past had a clue about magic, even as they were keeping things away from the rest of us.”
“Isn’t that always the way?”
“Because humans handle the idea of magic so well,” piped Lily.
“Worthy point. Tell me what they do. The beans? Grow a beanstalk that stretches to the sky?”
“Very funny.” Peyton shrugged. “He refused to get into too much detail, but he did warn that if you got them too warm you’d find out, and you’d also lose the rest of your payment. He offered some cryptic comment about pod people. I don’t know.”
Shay scratched her cheek. “Is this
