“I’d appreciate it if you two wouldn’t snoop through my things. Thanks.” She looks at us, giving a quick smile, and then leaves.
I raise an eyebrow at Spence, we could definitely snoop, I’d be up for some snooping, but he shakes his head sternly and pulls me along, closing the door behind us. “You heard her. And you might want to focus on other things.”
When we reach the living room, Liam and Cyra are on their laptops while Max is frowning at something on his phone. The big TV over the fireplace is set to silent, but it’s showing one of those ridiculous gossip ‘news’ channels. There’s text running along the bottom of the screen: ‘30 minutes until the interview with the Fireborn Alpha pairing, the missing Omega’s parents.’
Fucking hell. They don’t even name Cyra, just her Alpha... How is it that they manage to make a story about Cyra all about her parents and especially her Alpha parent?
My stomach twists. I need to protect Cyra. I need to be there for her. I might not really know her yet, but everything in me screams that I need to protect her and take out anyone who might harm her. “Are we going to watch the clock count down the whole time?”
Max glances up, frowning as he looks from me to the TV and back. “You got something else you want to put up on there? Be my guest, but I think it’s a good idea if we at least try to watch some of the interview. So, whatever it is, you’ve got about thirty minutes.”
A snarky comment is on the tip of my tongue, before I shake my head. “Nah, tis fine. Just not the biggest fan of watching these ‘news’ channels. I can get my gossip anywhere, why would I watch a channel full of it?”
“Maybe you can,” Liam grumbles and glares at me. “But there are a lot of people who do believe what’s said on them. And if we want to know how to protect Cyra, we need to know what we’re up against.”
He’s got a point, even if I don’t like it. “Okay, what can I do until the timer runs out?”
“Ehh...” Max looks at Spence and me. “Any chance you two can pick up a couple of things? Maybe find a printer somewhere? Food? Clothes?”
I sigh. “I’m not your nanny. But I think I can try to get us a printer and a few more laptops. Plus food, hopefully.”
It’s better than nothing and definitely better than sitting around, waiting. It feels like I’m at least doing something. Even if it something stupid like being an errand boy...
Spence turns onto the parking lot of a big ‘all in one’ store. He parks the car on the fairly empty parking lot, and then turns to me, his eyes serious. “We’re just picking up some laptops and a printer. Don’t go be difficult about the specs of them. We just need a couple to use right now.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I look at him. “Don’t you trust me? How long have you known me?”
“Long enough to know you can be difficult if you’re too bored. Minimal specs for the laptops only, they just have to work until we’ve got time to get better setups. That’s all. Unless you want to be the one in charge of picking up underwear for all of us, or getting dinner?”
“No, thanks.” Ick. I’m not buying underwear for other guys. “I’ll do the tech side. Don’t worry.” I’m no good at figuring out how much food we need for a group of people. I just eat, I don’t prepare food.
Spence gives me one last look and then climbs out. I follow him and we make our way to the store. It’s pretty empty, but at least it seems to be open.
I grab a cart and spot the electronics directly to our right.
“I’ll meet you at the checkout.” Spence keeps walking on with his own cart as he pulls his phone out, checking it. Of course, he probably got himself a shopping list... That guy can be a little too analytical sometimes.
I pass rows and rows of laptops, quickly scanning the specs of each of them. We’ll want something that’s got a good battery life and a pretty good screen too.
On my first round, none of the laptops are good enough. But I know that Spence will rip me another one if I come out of here empty-handed, so I walk past them again. Battery life and portability are going to have to be priorities. So nothing too big, no 17-inch laptops.
I stop in front of a laptop that I would normally not even look at twice, but it’s small enough at 15 inch in size, and the battery is good and it’s got decent specs on the motherboard. Not the best graphics card or storage, but we obviously can’t have it all with the limited choice in this store.
We need something right now. We can’t order them online and then wait days for them to arrive or even potentially outing where we are. So these will have to do.
Sighing, I grab three of the laptops and put them in my cart. Then I grab another one. Cyra’s laptop looked about to fall apart and it would be a good idea to replace it before it fully gives the ghost. She might not appreciate the offer, but it’ll be good to have on hand.
Four laptops in the cart, I make my way to the sparse selection of printers. It’s something I don’t know as much about, but our office is filled with laser printers, so those are probably the best choice. I grab one of the chunky laser printers, in colour, and it even has a scanning feature, which could come in handy.
Then I put two packs of paper into the cart too. That should keep us going for a while,
