“I thought you liked living here?” Aneski frowned.
“I do, but mostly because I like living with you guys. The rest of the gang members are annoying.”
“He’s not wrong,” Rexton chuckled. “Maybe we should just disband.”
“That all sounds well and good,” Bridger, ever the voice of reason, stated, “however, someone would take over the gambling dens we abandoned. Not to mention, who will people turn to if they need a safe loan option? We handle that now, and a good chunk of this community actually relies on us.”
Bridger was in charge of the books, so he’d know better than the rest of them. Aneski, having only been in this for his brother and to get to Flix, hadn’t really paid much attention other than to ensure it was all running.
“Cool, so we stay.” Kage shrugged.
“You came to that decision so easily,” Rexton drawled.
“Why not? Why overcomplicate things when they don’t need to be?”
That was…a very valid point.
“Sometimes you can be pretty smart. It’s not just your ass,” Aneski found himself saying, elaborating when his friend seemed confused. “Why Bridger is with you? It’s not just because of your ass.”
“Wanna see it?” Kage got off the bed and reached for the waistband of his shorts, stopped only when Bridge lunged for him.
“Okay,” Rexton corrected for Ani, “it’smostlybecause of his ass.”
The four of them burst into laughter, the tension finally draining away.
Chapter 24:
“What are those?” Kaz plucked one of the faded envelopes off the table and pulled out the letter without waiting for Flix to give him the okay. After reading only the first few lines, he scowled and tossed it back into the pile, not bothering to slide the letter back into place. “What a waste of space.”
He, Baikal, and Flix were sitting on campus in the west quad, an area surrounded by bamboo forest. The school had cleared a good circular portion, and tables had been set up for students to study and hang out. The path leading back to the main parts of the campus was fairly short, and they could see the art building from where they were seated.
If the art program here was even half as good as the one at Guest, Flix might have played with the idea of having Ani transfer, but as it were…He’d interfered with the guy’s future career enough.
Last night, after returning from the Shepards' home, they’d come to an agreement about school. Flix would drive Ani to and from, and Ani wasn’t allowed to go anywhere off campus until Flix came to pick him up. He had no idea how long that rule would last, but for now, Flix needed that peace of mind, especially since he couldn’t stop thinking about all the sharp objects his Tiny Terror would be around.
They couldn’t live like this though, always on edge, wondering when the other shoe would drop. Flix wanted to believe that the stabbing had been a spur-of-the-moment one-off. A really shitty error in judgment that would never happen again.
After reading the letters Russ sent, it was more believable. If he’d been in Ani’s shoes, he’d probably have had a mental crisis afterward, too.
“Are these from Russ?” Baikal selected one more carefully but didn’t open it, reading the address scrawled on the front instead. “He sent them to their old apartment?”
“This all of them?” Kaz asked. “There aren’t many.”
“Perhaps they lost touch?”
“They stopped coming long before Ani moved,” Flix informed them. “Russ got pissy when he didn’t receive a response fast enough for his liking. The last one is filled with curse words. He even disowned him.”
“You were supposed to bring your Onus by last night,” Baikal reminded, setting the letter down to sip at the to-go coffee he’d brought along. “Why’d plans change?”
Flix had taken Aneski out for lunch afterward instead and then shopping. The second Ani had come down the stairs carrying only a single duffle, he’d texted Baikal letting him know they wouldn’t be making it.
“Still settling him in,” he ended up replying, quirking a brow over at the table next to theirs at the students who were clearly staring.
There were two guys and a female, none of whom Flix was familiar with. They weren’t only interested in him, their gaze pinging back and forth between all three of them, but they’d been there even before Flix had arrived, and it was clear their lunch trays had been picked clean a while ago.
“Keep your eyes to yourself,” Flix snapped. “We’re all taken.”
Kaz snorted, and Baikal’s eyes widened slightly before he got a hold of himself.
