“You think?” Drifter asked.
“I had fucking nightmares,” Strike muttered under his breath. “I fucking hate snakes.”
“They either don’t have the numbers to spare right now,” Flir replied, ignoring the tangent, “or they don’t think we warrant sending more manpower our way.”
“See, for once, I agree with Relay. That’s a fucking mistake on their part,” Kilo said with a laugh.
“It is,” Ruck replied. “But this gives us a chance to take out two more groups before they decide we’re worth spending the time and troops on.”
“Always better to take out some of their underlings before we find ourselves outnumbered,” Strike added.
“Underlings?” I asked, raising my brow.
“Goons?” Strike suggested.
“Doesn’t matter what we call them,” Bolo replied. “They’ll be dead soon enough.”
“It’s not nearly as much fun taking out small groups,” Relay pointed out.
“Says you,” Drifter commented. “I’m the one who has to patch up all these fuckers when we face ten to one odds.”
“So?” Relay replied.
“So… You realize if I’m overwhelmed you’re going to have to help them, right?” Drifter said, tone saying he wasn’t sure that was the best idea.
Relay considered that. “Fine. We take on two factions. Then we go after the whole.”
“You don’t want to help heal us?” Kilo asked with a smug look toward Relay.
“I’d letyoubleed to death,” Relay told him, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair.
“Well, that’s just fucked up,” Kilo said. “Ruck, he can’t just-”
“Back to Relay’s question,” I said, cutting Kilo off before he got everyone going on another tangent. “How long do we have?”
“No way to tell yet. Probably not long.”
“So we need to lock our shit down,” I replied.
He nodded. “Good thing your boys aren’t in school right now.”
I grinned. It was still weird to me that my brothers had taken to calling Ryan and Teddy my boys. But that was exactly what they were. Rue was mine, her baby was mine, and everything else that was hers was, by default, mine. They were hers. I was a lucky fucking bastard, that was for sure. “They’ll probably be hoping this runs into fall so they don’t have to go back to school.”
“Just means Flir would need to homeschool them,” Bolo replied.
Flir’s head jerked up. “Me? Why would I homeschool them?”
“Well, I’m not going to fucking do it,” Bolo said.
“You’re not capable of doing it,” Kilo taunted.
Strike reached out and put a hand on Bolo’s shoulder to keep the enforcer in his seat. Not that he couldn’t have shaken Strike off like a gnat. Bolo pointed at Kilo. “I’m a smart motherfucker. I read good.”
Kilo made a face that said he doubted it. “Yeah you do. Talk good too.”
“Would we want that twitchy bastard teaching kids?” Relay asked. “He’d make them as neurotic as he is.”
“I’m not fucking neurotic,” Flir growled.
