"Nothing much to say. I own a nail salon. They wanted us to launder money for them. I declined."
"Didn't like that too much, huh?" Logan asked.
"Nope," Sanun agreed.
"They can be insistent." Bruno finished the last of his muffin and squashed the paper into a ball, which he aimed at the ping pong table and missed.
"I hope you play better than that in the last game," I teased.
He grinned. "Of course I will. Don't worry, we have this."
Did we, though? Did I want us to?
If I made it through this, I was going to have nightmares about ping pong and shooting people in the head for the rest of my life. It was normal for some of the people in Dusk Bay, maybe even most of them, but not me.
I was a humble librarian, trying to live my life and help people connect with the right books. And yet here I was. Stuck in a dank room, with the ridiculous name of 'the arena,' taking part in a ping pong tournament.
"Why ping pong?" I asked.
"Why not ping pong?" Bruno replied.
I swivelled around to look at him.
"It could have been anything. Tiddlywinks. Monopoly…"
"Fuck that," Logan snapped. "I'd rather die than play Monopoly for hours. Monotony is more like it."
"Don't say that too loud," Bruno warned. "You might give the twins ideas about the next torture session. Monopoly tournament, Dusk Bay-style.” He didn't seem to like the idea much either.
"I wonder what they'd do to anyone who tipped the board over," I said with a half-laugh.
Logan was right though. Ping pong was better than a board game like that.
"Uno would be fun," I said thoughtfully. "Maybe poker? Or something outside?"
"What about stand-up paddle-boarding over a school of sharks?" Bruno suggested. "Fall in, you die. Horribly."
"I'm shocked the twins haven't thought of that yet," Logan said. "That's exactly the kind of shit they'd pull. Or standing in hot oil. Not the massage kind." He grimaced and scratched one of his ears.
"I can imagine that," I said with a grimace. "See who can stay in the oil longest, as it heats up. If you get out too soon, you die. If you don't get out, you burn to death."
"If they could hear you now, they'd give you a job as head torturer," Logan said dryly.
"No thank you," I told him. "I prefer library books to listening to people scream."
"I should have guessed you're a librarian," Bruno said. "You have that hot librarian thing going on." He gestured vaguely at me.
"Thanks. That was the look I was going for." I gave him a warm smile.
"Maybe we can get together after this," he suggested. "Have dinner. Maybe catch a movie."
"I'd like that," I said. "If we get out of here alive."
Logan glanced over at Sanun. "We could do lunch or some shit."
Sanun grunted. It might have been a yes, but it wasn't a firm commitment.
Fair enough. It wouldn't be long until the twins returned.
