Lily nodded quickly. “I understand, and I’m sorry about all this.”
“Don’t worry about it, Lily. Just pay it back, and we’ll be fine.”
Shay spared another glance at the disappearing triad members. She’d bruised and bloodied a few, and they’d probably suffer the lingering effects of the sonic grenades for a couple of hours, but she hadn’t killed a single man.
It was an odd experience defeating a gang without serious bloodshed, but the important thing was, they should stop coming after Lily.
The old Shay truly is dead. The old Shay would have wasted all those guys the first minute she ran into them.
Lily eyed Shay. “Something wrong?”
The tomb raider shook her head. “Nope, just thinking about how things change. Let’s get back to the van and the warehouse.”
Chapter Eleven
Peyton whistled as he made his way down the narrow hallway in the physics building with his hands in the pockets of his Nehru jacket. No one even glanced his way. It was as if he were meant to be in a place like this.
Maybe I’m just not that suspicious-looking? Damn. I think Shay’s got me thinking in weird ways now.
His stomach tightened as a frowning man in a suit approached from the opposite direction. His gaze lingered for a few long seconds. There was nothing wrong with a visitor heading to the computational physics department, but that wasn’t what worried Peyton.
Shay Scrooged my brother, and it looks like it’s working, but how can we be sure? Maybe he’s just waiting for the right time to track me down and kill me, like when I’m going to meet my girlfriend for lunch. Randy would love to kill me on a date. That’s so him.
The man passed Peyton without saying anything, let alone pulling out a gun and plugging several bullets into him.
Paranoia is not just a river in… Oh, wait, that doesn’t work.
Peyton frowned as he continued down the hallway. Randy now knew that his accounts were being watched, so he wouldn’t hire someone. If he could figure out where Peyton was, maybe he’d finally take matters into his own hands and finish off his brother. That was assuming he still believed him to be alive.
Randy acted like it, but he was letting greed up his paranoia.
Coolidge family paranoia for the win!
Peyton scrubbed a hand over his face and stopped in front of the door to Amber’s office. It might be easier to ask Shay to go kill his brother. She had broken into his house easily enough. Finishing him off without getting caught would probably be just as trivial. It wasn’t like she didn’t have years of experience killing people and getting away with it.
He groaned.
What am I thinking? I’m going to put out a hit on my brother? Sure, he did it to me, but I’m not a complete asshole like he is. Besides, if Shay thought it was the only way, she wouldn’t have gone and Scrooged him. This can work. No one else has to die.
He blew out a breath. The idea of Randy coming to LA to kill him was stupid on several levels, but there was a more important fact to consider.
“Not like Randy’s going to be around any smart people,” he mumbled under his breath. “Or even semi-smart people.”
With a chuckle and a light heart, Peyton knocked softly on the door.
“Come in,” Amber called.
Peyton opened the door and entered. The cramped office only had enough room for a small black desk with a computer and a couple of chairs. Although Amber’s soft leather chair looked comfortable enough, the other side of the desk had only a stiff black plastic chair.
It’s like getting called to the principal’s office.
The dark-haired woman frowned as she continued staring at her computer screen. Her fingers rattled the keyboard in a machine-gun staccato. “I’m almost done, and then we can go to lunch. Sorry.”
Peyton sat with a shrug. “Take your time.”
“You know how programming goes. Sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes you just want to pull your hair out.”
Peyton chuckled. “Yeah. What are you working on?”
“Oh, a big joint project between the physics department, computational physics department, and the extra-dimensional engineering department. Of course, despite all the people involved, I’m doing most of the heavy lifting on the programming, especially for the testing simulations.” Amber grinned, her happy face contrasting with her complaints. “I guess everyone’s acknowledging that I’m the best.”
“I think you’re the best.”
Amber beamed at him. “Thanks, Peyton.”
“So what is it that you’re working on? Something cool?”
She nodded. “Simulations on high-energy containment.”
Peyton nodded. “Oh? What for?”
“Fusion containment, mostly.” Amber bobbed her head and continued typing. “It’s not like there’s been tons of money for esoteric physics experiments, with everything that’s happened in the last couple of decades. And you know, practical fusion—it’s always five years away.” She finished typing, sighed, and leaned back. “So, step one is exploring simulations of how we might apply magical containment systems to fusion reactions using a specialized type of air magic that seems to function somewhere between telekinesis and gravity manipulation.” She shrugged. “Some of the physics are slightly above my pay grade, let alone the magic, but the short version is that if these simulations go well, there’s a good chance the university can get funding for a kind of magically-enhanced reactor that would be very powerful but way smaller and cheaper than other power sources.” She smiled. “Lots of papers have come out of the university on the subject, even if they are a little coy on the applications. It’s funny how everyone is still afraid of talking about magic even though we know it’s very real and powers a whole other civilization.”
Peyton sighed. He wasn’t solving the energy crisis when he ran down info for Shay or hacked into a few cameras. How lame. He almost didn’t deserve a woman like Amber.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He pointed to her computer. “I’m guessing you’re not doing
