“I’ve had enough already,” I say, passing them the bags.
“Cute thing like you?” Christina dumps the potatoes in the sink. “Looks like you have that one guy all wrapped up.”
“The prospect!” Jami says with a laugh.
“The other prospect,” Christina says. “Jami has been eyeing the red-haired one.”
This is new. “Adam? You’ve talked to him?”
“Nah,” Christina says. “She’s been giving him fuck-me eyes.”
Jami elbows her. “Hush. He was looking the other day.” She presses a hand to her faded purple hair. “I wish I could fix this.”
“I’ll see if someone can’t get you some dye,” I tell her. We’ve gotten a few ordinary clothes and some toiletries through Celia, who is allowed to go into the city. I don’t know who pays for it.
“He’ll be at the last supper, for sure,” Christina says, taking the washed potatoes from Jami and poking them with a fork.
I’m glad they haven’t talked yet. Adam would probably do all right and not spill anything important, but he was definitely easy for me to get information from.
I pull a hunk of cheddar out of the fridge to grate for the baked potatoes.
“So, how long have you and the hot prospect been a thing?” Christina asks, laughing as she shifts to avoid Jami’s irate swing of her leg.
“Adam’s hot, too. Geez.”
I sit on the stool with the cheese and the grater. “I don’t know that we’re a thing.”
The two of them look at each other.
“Is he poking any other holes?” Jami asks.
Christina sobers at that. “You know I didn’t want Halo.”
“I know,” Jami says. “He was an ass. But I want to know about Marietta’s man.”
“I don’t think so,” I say. “I keep him busy.”
They burst out with fresh laughter at that, and I realize how it sounds. My cheeks burn. But it’s true. Merrick comes in aroundthree every morning after the bar closes, and I’m always awake. And we’re still up for hours.
Everyone seems to know about us. Chain’s room is next to ours, and he sometimes bangs on the wall for us to shut up. I asked Merrick if anyone has mentioned it to him, but he just shrugged it off. Adam is on the other side, and he won’t say anything, I’m sure.
“We heard you were a cherry before him,” Christina says.
I wonder how they heard that. They’ve been kept away from the club members other than when we serve food, mainly to avoid them hearing about the raid.
“I was.” My concern grows. Could they talk to the Kin? Could I find out if they were communicating somehow?
“Is the prospect your ride or die?” Christina asks.
That’s a new term to me. “I don’t know. What makes someone a ride or die?”
Jami turns off the water. “It means you’re with them no matter what happens. If it gets ugly or hard or dangerous, you’re still in.”
I’ve never had to think about a relationship in those terms. “Do you have a ride or die?”
Jami shrugs. “I thought Halo would be, but obviously not.” She scrubs extra hard at the potato with the steel wool, like it’s a difficult thing to talk about.
“I had a ride or die once,” Christina says. “Back when I was twenty before I messed around with the Kin.”
