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He had no fucking doubt their youngest sister, Scarlet, was the same way. In fact, he’d heard the other Shadows, and even her sisters, call her Scary Spice. Since she was a Green Beret in the Army National Guard, he had no doubt the call name fit her.

“Don’t you have a security system in place?” If she did, she had hidden it well.

She leaned back against the counter. “Not including myself, I have five Shadows living on the property, do I really need one?”

“It wouldn’t hurt. Especially with what’s going on right now. It also wouldn’t take much to put one in. Cameras, too.”

“I’ll take that into consideration.”

He wouldn’t push it tonight but he would definitely keep mentioning it. It would also be a good idea to have cameras where the lane met the road to monitor who was coming and going, as well as installing them on the exterior of all ten cabins.

Nowadays one couldn’t be too careful.

He tipped his head toward the door. “If you don’t have a problem with it, I’d like to sit my ass on that porch swing for a little while and decompress. If you want to go to bed, and as long as you don’t mind, I’ll be fine out there on my own.”

“Haven’t you heard? There’s a male loneliness epidemic. I wouldn’t want you to get caught up in that.”

“I’m perfectly content with my own company.”

Vi lifted her beer. “Well, tonight you can suffer through mine.”

He’d hardly be suffering. Vi wasn’t a woman who simply ran her trap to hear herself speak. However, the amount of ball busting she did was of epic proportions. Luckily, that also meant she wasn’t easily offended. Even better, she could not only dispense it but could receive it without any major meltdowns.

But then, Reaper had met Diesel quite a few times. No one would survive his household if they were emotionally weak or easily offended. Vi’s father would easily stomp on someone’s feelings and not give a shit.

He did not raise sensitive women. But her mother, who was a tiny thing next to her beast of an ol’ man, had also passed down her skill of fighting fire with fire. If Diesel couldn’t intimidate her, no one could.

Reaper had never been attracted to doormats or women without a lot of strength. Being tough, down to Earth, and not worrying about the latest handbag or any designer bullshit, had always been more his speed.

Forget shallow; he wanted substance.

With a groan, he settled on the porch swing next to a woman who checked off all those boxes.

With a boot planted on the porch, he slowly began rocking the seat back and forth. They said nothing for a few minutes and simply enjoyed the peace brought about by a late night out in the country. No traffic, no light pollution, no crowds of people. Only crickets, bullfrogs, and the occasional hooting owl.

He tucked an arm behind his head and slouched further in the seat to get more comfortable. The night was warm and a little muggy, but not completely unbearable yet. The hot, sticky summer months would be on them soon enough.

“Who’d you take out?” She kept her honey-smooth voice lower than normal, most likely to not break the peaceful spell. Though, the topic was certainly the opposite.

He waited for a mouthful of the cool, refreshing beer to finish sliding down his throat before answering, “Two low-level goons. The Russos will be searching for a new favorite restaurant.”

“Good. We want to keep them uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, we want to make them paranoid and think someone is out to get them so they start digging to find out who it is.”

“Indie’s been burying more digital hints where they might look.”

“Think we need to leave some physical hints, too.”

“Without getting caught,” she added, then tipped her beer bottle once more to her lips.

“That’s a given. We can’t rush this. If what we leave behind is too obvious, they’ll suspect it’s a setup.”

Vi sighed. “Sorry. You wanted time to decompress and here I brought up that shit. Let’s leave this discussion until we’re back at the Warehouse and on the clock.”

On the clock. Like his job was some boring nine-to-five. “Are we ever off the clock?”

She laughed softly. “Sure, while we’re sleeping.”