“I guess I’m a vague guy.”
“I don’t like vague guys.”
“Well, let me be anything but, then.”
She laughs again. Even warmer this time.
I shouldn’t be doing this.
I came here for that kid I nearly forgot existed, had a saintly moment letting him flirt with the skanky blonde instead of dragging him out by the hoodie and cracking his teeth against the jukebox.
But here I am, leaning in toward this bartender like I’m some clean-cut college boy trying to impress his date instead of a Fisher dog with blood still under his nails.
Come on, Talon. Curiosity’s one thing. Stupidity’s another. That’s enough.
But then Rhea tilts her head, studying me with some slow, curious patience, and it makes my skin crawl in a way I don’t hate. Most girls? They’re all in a rush to get drinks, or to get laid, or to get whatever they came for. She’s not.
A stranger glancing into my soul. Just for a second or two.
Am I losing my mind? I must be. Because why the hell is that enough to completely fuck me over?
Look at me: gang member, murderer, thief, criminal through and through, and I’m sitting here letting a girl with soft eyes mess with me.
“You can shapeshift like that?” she asks. “Think you could hide your true nature from me?”
For a second I lose the thread of our conversation. My mind spirals; I see Lark’s green-glass eyes, hear her laugh smashing into the waves the night before it all went to shit. My throat clamps shut and I forget to breathe.
But then, I smirk, because that’s what I always do.
“I don’t know. You tell me,” I murmur. “Could you read me?”
She studies me, the blush still there. “I think,” she says slowly, “that you’re a really dangerous man. When you came in, you were watching that kid in the booth like you were just waiting to hurt him. Are you talking to me so he lowers his guard?”
I glance at the drug dealer. Frankly, his guard is already low enough. Blondie’s got that covered.
“Ah. Well, I’m working,” I say. “Part of the job description.”
Her gaze flicks to the booth and back. “What if I go and warn him?”
The words don’t wobble. They land.
So she blushes like a schoolgirl and still runs a tight ship. “You were asking me not to cause trouble moments ago,” I tell her. “Now you’re threatening to cause me trouble?”
“Nope.” She shrugs. “Just trying to feel you out.”
She smiles. I find myself smiling back.
“You see, he’s a dealer. I’m going to make sure he remembers where his money’s supposed to go,” I say. “But I also know where he lives. So even if you warn him, his fate’s sealed.”
She exhales through her nose, a tiny breath that fogs the edge of the pint and disappears.
“I see.”
I glance at the kid. He’s got that hollow-cheeked, loose-jawed look of someone who hasn’t eaten a proper meal since the first frost. The blonde is halfway in his lap now, whispering in his ear like she’s narrating a porno just for him. He keeps nodding, eyes shiny.
“You know him?” I ask.
“Nope,” she says. “Just having some compassion for a stranger.”
