Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,21

just around a corner, the internal stairs leading up to the fifth floor. Up there were two conference rooms, a common room she could easily see using for lunches and more relaxed workspace use. If she had to read some long boring tome, why not do it on a couch with her feet up and food nearby? There were also several offices including a few with executive bathrooms attached. A nice thing to have if you were out in the field and needed to clean up, or if they had visitors.

Additionally, the fifth floor held the safes where they could store all the weaponry, along with any other dangerous or valuable items.

When the real estate agent had left to let her discuss things with David, Rowan opened herself up fully. The offices and the common room had windows with views of the mountains on one side and the Strip off in the distance on the other.

Star moseyed through, sniffing her way around every office and at every door and window.

“Not as big as the Motherhouse in London but more than large enough for our needs. Enough to be a flagship but not the Titanic if you know what I mean. I don’t want to drag down our smaller chapterhouses. I want to strengthen them. I want to be a resource.”

“You have a vision,” David said.

She did. And the more she thought about it, the more she pieced together the sort of organization she thought would be of most benefit, the more she realized she could make something real and important there in the United States. And that she was part of taking Hunter Corp. into a sustainable future.

The flyer the real estate agent had provided also mentioned the option of buying or leasing the entire property, including the parking lot. Something she’d already done for the Los Angeles chapterhouse. Rowan held it up for David to read.

“The more I think about it, the more I think it’s best that we take up the whole building. This one isn’t nearly as large as the other two we looked at. Overall, it’s good square footage. Manageable. Defensible. The bottom floor has open retail space. I can think of several people who’d be great tenants for that. It’ll keep us in money—and Goddess knows we’ll need to bring money in to run this right—and we can be sure to lease to paranormals we trust. Another layer of security too.” Community, it seemed, kept making its way into her thoughts.

“Considering the need to keep secrecy the way we do, I tend to agree about owning the whole property. The security would be totally within our control that way. We can limit visitors in any manner we need to.”

“And if people need help, we’ve got a whole floor of paranormals down there who’ll know about us and be able to send their friends our way.” Rowan nodded once after taking one last look. “Let’s have the agent show us all the other floors and if they’re all good, we can start the negotiation process to buy. I’m going to call Genevieve and see if she can come over here and get a feel for the place. Star seems to be happy enough so that’s a plus too.”

* * *

Clive awoke slowly, his consciousness rising, seeking the bond he shared with Rowan to assure himself she was all right.

She was there, bright and powerful. Not in pain. Not even annoyed, which was a good start to his day. She’d left a note that she was off looking at space for her US Motherhouse but should be back right around the time he returned from going out to feed.

He made quick work of that, returning home to shower and dress so Rowan would know he was taking care of himself but the act of his feeding on someone else would be long over. It worked for them both and in truth, he was simply grateful she’d found a way to be comfortable with those aspects of his life that pushed painful buttons caused by a very messed up childhood. Generally he didn’t need to feed daily anyway. But in the wake of all the battles they’d been in recently, he needed to keep his strength at top shape. This overall war against whoever had been manipulating Lyr wasn’t over and he wanted to be ready at a moment’s notice.

And once he’d allowed himself to focus, finished with the basics he needed to take care of before Rowan’s