Damaged Goods

Chapter 18- A Change of Heart

"I swear Nate, if you try cooking me Hot Pockets to eat one more time, I'll sue for attempted murder! You're killing me here!" Aria complained.

"Hey now! When I said the kitchen was fully stocked, I didn't mean with salads and shit. Plus, these have your grain, cheese, meat and maybe a couple vegetables; pretty much everything a pregnant woman needs!" Nate argued.

Aria rolled her eyes, not in any mood to deal with his idiocy. She went to his study, rifling through his desk drawers in search of a pen and some paper. She wrote out a detailed list of ingredients to make actual meals with; roast, lasagna, meatloaf, even pork chops. She'd only been there a day and a half, and already her stomach was eating itself in hunger.

She shoved the list into Nate's chest and said sharply, "Here."

He looked at the list, clearly confused. It was almost as if he had never seen the words potatoes, carrots or eggs before. Surely he hadn't lived of Hot Pockets and frozen waffles all his life!

"What is this?" he asked flipping the list over back and forth.

"You can't be serious," Aria mumbled. He was like a child, good grief! "Nate, those are words. This is a list of food. Get your car keys, you're going to the store," she slowly explained.

His face looked like you had asked him to catch his house on fire. He couldn't quite tell if she was serious or not, but he didn't know where to find eighty percent of the crap on her list. Pickles and sweets he could do. He was becoming a master at that from grabbing them for her the last couple weeks, but what the hell was parsley?

"Um, maybe it's the pregnancy affecting your brain," he began, "but last I knew oregano was a state."

"What did you just say? Sweet Jesus! Nate! Oregano is an herb, Oregon is a state, you idiot! Do you even know how to spell your own name?"

It was official, moody Aria was annoying, but arrogant Aria was unbearable, Nate decided.

-- --

While Nate and Aria were arguing over seasonings, Marcus was approaching his destination. Breaking straight into Mason's stronghold would be suicide though, so he had decided to gather some intel first and hopefully get a leg-up on the competition. First stop on the list was the office.

Marcus opened the front door and was only slightly surprised to see it ransacked. He had a feeling they would do that sooner or later, just hoped it was later. At least there weren't any connections to Nate there or Mobile, Alabama for that matter. That would prove disastrous.

He walked into his office to find an even bigger whirlwind of devastation. His desk was smashed to mere splinters, the bookcase emptied across the floor with pages torn out of some books and tiles popped out of the ceiling. Whoever had been there had scoured his office clean, just as he suspected. Too bad they destroyed the wrong room.

He walked into the bathroom and saw only part of it had been searched. Idiots. He opened the linen cabinet; part was emptied but nothing relevant. Underneath the second shelf, hidden from view was a switch. After pressing and holding, the lock released and what you would assume was the cabinets, was actually a secret door. He slipped through the opening and shut it back carefully behind him. The safe room showcased a variety of weapons, spy gear and recording equipment. He loaded a couple duffle bags, mainly with audio devices to listen in to conversations and small, discreet cameras. He wasn't going to see Mason just yet and didn't anticipate any fights, so he kept weaponry to a bare minimum.

He locked back his safe room, ignoring the mess scattered and headed out to do some recon work.

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