"Huh?" Brie asked.
"She always means masochist when she says mannequin," Nigel informed her.
"Good to know."
Brie saw that they, were, once again back at Dav's.
When Aiden opened the door to pub, there was silence then rowdy men's laughter. Brie couldn't help laughing herself. Ari's expression was sure to be priceless.
They made their way back to where they had just left as more table and chairs were scooted over. Wordlessly, yet with a smirk, Dav handed Ari a fresh pint and a small shot glass.
"Thank you, Dav," Ari said, downing the shot and taking a hearty drink from his tankard.
Aiden finished clasping forearms with the warriors from Lycaonia when looked around and winced. "Dav, we're gonna need to take over your pub for a bit."
"One step ahead of you, Commander," Dav said, as he walked back from where he flipped around the closed sign.
A few minutes later, the unit warriors of Éire Danu filed in and sat down. The only ones missing were Corrin and Balder, who were standing guard at the storage facility and Darian and Kincaid, who were escorting Anne and Amelia.
The men from Gamma kept throwing coasters at Ari and teasing him over his misfortune. Brie watched as Bryok leaned over and explained what was happening to newly arrived Bastien, who still sported a white bandage around his head. Bastien leaned over and whispered to Ian who turned to face the Gamma unit, his eyes narrowing. A moment later, each warrior that had been teasing Ari jumped from their chairs, cussing as blue sparks popped around each man.
Ian just grinned. "Still want to play?"
Sascha sat back down. "Menace, did you teach them that?" he asked the small woman, who was still in fits of giggles.
"Nope, but that was very awesome. Keelan would be proud," she said, holding up her hand to Ian for an 'air' high-five. He obliged and turned to Ari. "The way you Lionhart men are, you'd need more time anyway," he said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Ari straightened. "You know it," he said, sounding a bit less depressed.
"I'll make it up to you, baby," she promised.
Ari brightened at that, then gave each man around them that was scowling a shit-eating grin. "I win," he said.
Aiden cleared his throat. "All right, men, let's get started. Kendrick?"
Kendrick shook his head. "One's already in place."
Quinn raised his hand. "I did it earlier, sir."
Aiden gave a short nod. " As you may have noticed, quite a few warriors have suddenly found themselves without standing orders." All of the men nodded. Lorcan pointed at Brie. “Brie spelled it out for some of us slow ones earlier."
Aiden gave her an appraising look. "Very good." He turned to the men. "My mate has identified two more possible warehouse locations here on the East Coast. I'd like to use every warrior in Éire Danu to hit both at once."
Bastien, along with the other fae warriors, placed their fists over their hearts in a silent show of gratitude and respect.
Brie eyed Meryn. She knew the woman was a genius, so her information wasn't wrong, but could they all be missing something. She raised her hand before Aiden started in on the mission details.
Aiden looked surprised. "Yes, Brie?"
She turned back to Meryn. "Why the Coast?"
Meryn blinked. "It's what's closest."
Brie pointed to the fae. "But we have portals, couldn't we go anywhere?"
"I suppose."
"Meryn, I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the reports from the second site, but in mine, I made mention that it felt staged. The people hadn't been dead that long, hell, we could still smell the lemon disinfectant in the hallways."