Lennon snickered at Indi’s side.
Riordan laughed. “How kind of you. Honestly, the first two fights hold no appeal for me. The man I bet on is in the third fight of the night, so until then, my attention can safely wander.”
“Oh,” Indigo scoffed, “so if you don’t have any skin in the game, then it doesn’t interest you?” She said it with derision, speaking to her true appreciation for the art of the fight. Her eyes were on the match below us, so they didn’t catch the way he studied her face as she spoke.
“Not when someone so captivating is sitting right next to me,” he said, causing a blush to bloom on Indi’s cheeks. I didn’t like the way he looked at her, and I couldn’t pin down why.
It wasn’t sexual exactly, and even if it was, that wouldn’t bother me. Indigo was a grown-ass woman who could do what she liked with her body. No, he looked at her like he was trying to memorize everything he could about her. He lookedinterested, and if it wasn’t for sex, then why was he so captivated by her? Don’t get me wrong, chica loca was an interesting person, to say the least, but knowing what I did about her past, I was deeply suspicious of anyone paying her that much attention. Indigo didn’t seem to mind; in fact, she preened at his comment. She was a sucker for praise; I’d noticed how her eyes lit up with the smallest compliment. She was starved for acceptance and approval, and this motherfucker somehow knew it.
Cricket nudged me, using his chin to gesture down by the ring, where Bear was standing, gesturing for one of us to come speak with him. “Go ahead,hermano, see what he wants. I’ll keep an eye on these two.” Lennon scoffed and rolled her eyes as Cricket worked his way down through the crowd.
“It must be tedious to have a watchdog trailing you all the time.” Ivan’s words were for Lennon, but his smirk was all for me. I gritted my teeth, feeling like that was pretty freaking hypocritical, considering there were three security guards situated around us in the stands that weren’t here before the Russians decided to join us at our seats.
“You havenoidea,” Lennon lamented.
My jaw ached from how hard I was clenching my molars together. I had to shift my focus back to Indigo to stop from shoving my way between Ivan and Lennon. However, watching him touch her slightly made me want to hit something. Like his face.
“That’s an interesting accent you have there, Indigo, where are you from?” Riordan asked.
Indigo, unlike her bestie, was still enjoying the savagery of the fight below. “What? Oh. Um, I don’t have an accent. Why? Where are you from?” she replied distractedly.
Riordan leaned back casually, resting his elbow on the seat next to me. “I’m from Chicago, where our family is based, but I’ve traveled all over. Where did you get your lack of accent, then?”
Indigo leaped up and cheered as one fighter, the slightly smaller one, had his opponent on the ropes. Three savage hits to the abdomen and one hook to the ear had the larger opponent on the floor in a daze. A savage kick to the head ended the fight. Indi tucked two fingers into her mouth and let loose a shrill whistle, cheering with the crowd for the victor, who pumped his fists in the air while his fallen opponent lay unconscious on the mat.
Either oblivious to Riordan’s attempts to lead Indi in conversation or uninterested in his line of questioning, Indigo turned in her seat to speak to me. I saw a flash of irritation in Riordan’s eyes before he could smother it. Something about the way he looked at that moment was eerily familiar, and it set off alarm bells in my mind. “Bones,” Indi said in a wheedling voice and a sweet smile on her face, “do you think Bear would let me have one teeny-tiny match in the ring tonight?”
I shook my head. “Matches are arranged one day prior to the fight so people can place bets. Bear has a system, so if you want in the ring, you need to talk to him.” Chica loca pushed out her plump bottom lip in a pout.
“You guys never let me have any fun,” Indigo whined. “Stop drawing faces on all the yogurt cups, Indigo. Indigo, you can’t call Pyro a cuntsicle in the Walmart frozen food section. Indigo, that’s not what the spittoon is for,”she mimicked in a deep voice. She rolled her eyes and turned to Riordan, who was watching our exchange with a slightly amused expression. “Seriously, they won’t even let me be a bouncer at Crow’s Landing, which is closer to being in my wheelhouse than a bartender. Don’t get me wrong, I make a mean whiskey neat, but I’d be a kick-ass bouncer.”
Riordan chuckled. “Well, maybe you need a little distance from the Crows? If you ever decide bartending isn’t your thing, come see me at The Goldfinch. I’ll have a job for you.”
I glared at the mobster, not liking his interest in chica loca at all. “She won’t be coming to see you anywhere,amigo. Indigo is under the protection of Los Cuervos and uninterested in working for the bratva.”Indigo turned her head slowly like she was a possessed doll in a horror movie, giving me a green-eyed glare from hell.¡Mierda!
“Unless I have my hand up your ass, Bones, you shouldn’t be speaking for me. Capisce?” Indigo waited for me to answer with eyes narrowed in irritation. I held my hands up and used my best “crazy-bitch whisperer” voice, which I’d used more in the time Indi’s been with us than I did in all the years I’d lived before.
“I’m just pointing out that we take care of our own, chica loca. You know that. You don’t want the Russians in your business.”
“I know that!” Indigo yelled. My crazy-bitch whisperer voice seemed to have the opposite effect than intended. “But that’s for me to say, not you, Bones! You’re not my real dad!” She huffed and crossed her arms.
Riordan sat watching the scene unfolding before him with an ambiguous expression. Meanwhile, Ivan and Lennon were eating literal fucking popcorn as they watched the drama like it was a Netflix reality show. Where did they even get popcorn? “And you.” Indigo turned to Riordan and narrowed her eyes. She poked him in the chest and demanded, “Why are you so obsessed with me? You keep giving me puzzle eyes and asking questions.”
“What are puzzle eyes?” I heard Ivan murmur to Lennon, who shushed him and grabbed another handful of popcorn from his bag. I sat back, feeling a tad smug that now it was Riordan’s turn to face the honey badger that was Indigo when she was pissed. “I can tell you don’t want to bang me, and this isn’t a damn career fair, so what is it?” she demanded. “Because so help me, I’m gonna pluck your eye out like that retiree inKill Phill 2if you don’t stop giving me that weird look.”
Riordan blew a breath out from between his pursed lips, and I sympathized just a little bit with the man. Indigo was a lot to take in on a good day, but when she was mad, she gave off meth-addled chipmunk vibes.
“Can’t a man enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman?” he asked, smile coy and eyes smoldering. Indigo threw back her head and gave a throaty laugh. Yeah, she wasn’t buying what he was selling. Her reaction threw Riordan for a loop, the laugh seeming to unsettle him for a reason I couldn’t explain.
While his eyes were on her face, he didn’t seem to see the fingers of her right hand dip down into her boot. Indigo hid the knife against her thigh, using her free hand to wipe at her eyes, which had begun to water from her laughter. Moving, as quick as a flash, Indigo struck. She had a knife to Riordan’s balls, and no one other than the four of us had any idea it was happening. Without batting an eyelash, Indigo calmly answered his question. “No.” She planted her left elbow onto her knee, resting her chin on her fist, and peered deeply into Riordan’s eyes. “Last chance before I get to pluckin’. What do you want? And just know, liars make me twitchy.” To illustrate her point, Indi pressed the tip of her blade into the fabric covering Riordan’s crotch.
At his side, Ivan tensed. When he started to reach below his jacket, presumably for a weapon, Lennon shocked the hell out of me by holding a stiletto knife to Spike’s back under his jacket. Where the hell did she get that from? It looked like she was poised to stab him right in the kidney if he so much as moved an inch. Riordan shook his head at the three Russian thugs that had followed him over to our seats when they moved to intervene.
“Niet. Ne vmeshivaysya.Do not interfere.”Riordan studied Indigo’s face like he was going to be tested on it. “At the risk of sounding trite,there’s something about you.” I scoffed as Lennon murmured “aw” under her breath. Indigo dropped her free arm and leaned a little closer to Riordan.
“Explain,” she demanded, jaw tight and posture rigid.
“I…” Riordan licked his lips. “Look, it’s a long story and shouldn’t be spoken of in the open. If you’d come back to The Goldfinch, I could explain…”
