“And I thought they were going to crown Suryn, so we didn’t need to,”he counters.
I huff out my irritation.“I don’t know how I feel about the whole kids thing. For sure not now. Maybe not ever. I don’t know.”
“Okay,”he answers simply.
I stare at him for a minute, trying to figure out what the catch is. What am I missing?
“Okay? Just like that?”I question suspiciously.
“I don’t want kids now. My biological clock is still on itsspring daisysetting. We just never talked about it, and you brought it up.”
I flip him the bird, and he chuckles.
“Anyway…”I drawl, aiming one last glare at Sabin,“I told Suryn and Sauriel about the money the readers saved and invested on behalf of the Sentinels. They said they had no idea who would have set that up and that Tierit didn’t want it or need it. So,finders keepersofficially applies,”I finish, and Siah raises his eyebrows with surprise and gives an approving nod.
“Okay, so nobody pays us cash, but maybe the people we help owe us a favor instead. Not in the mob boss kind of way, but in a way that helps us build a network that could do good or help others down the road,”Valen states.
“That could work,”I agree.
“But who decides who we help and how we help them?”Ryker asks.
“We would,”Sabin answers after a moment.“We could set up some kind of referral situation. Aydin, Evrin, Sorik and Vaughn could help us vet things if a lot of requests came in, and we would decide what to work on and how,”he adds thoughtfully.
Sabin’s statement warms me. I really like the idea of getting Aydin, Evrin, Vaughn, and Sorik involved in whatever this is that we’re trying to do.
“That’s...a really good plan,”I beam at Sabin, forgiving him for the baby bomb he just threw out there.
All this talk stokes a fire in me. It all feels so right that I want to run out of this room right fucking now, make a plan, and go for it. I look around the table at my Chosen, and I can tell by the excited light I see in all of their gazes that they’re feeling the same way.
“Okay, so that’s it. We walk away from this table and figure out how to make BBEP happen.”
“What the hell is ba-bep?”Knox asks with a wide smile and a confused glint in his eyes.
“You know...Beta, Badass, Enforcer, and Paladin. I had to switch it around a little so it could make some kind of logical sound…”I trail off when the guys start snickering. “I was making an initialism or an acronym or whatever the fuck it’s called,”I defend.
They start to shake with suppressed laughter, and I glare at them.
“Witch, I already told you, you are not allowed to name anything, ever!”Torrez tells me, and the angry veneer I’m trying to keep in place cracks.
“Fuck off, Geriatric Wolf,”I tease.
“That’s The Geriatric Wolf to you, Witch,”he corrects, and I crack up.
A couple people turn to me, including Marn and Tok, and give me a bewildered look. I offer a sheepish smile and try to remember that I look like a fucking loon sitting here laughing to myself.Actually, that’s not such a bad thing. People don’t vote for crazy, do they?
“Okay, so my name is off the table—what would you guys call us?”I challenge.
Bastien throws out,“The Super Saver Squad,”and then gives himself a look like his mind just had some kind of meltdown. I can tell he’s hardcore judging what just came out of it, and it’s fucking hilarious.
“You’ve made us sound like extreme couponers,”Valen points out, and then he fucking loses it.
Half the room turns to see what’s going on. He waves them off and apologizes as the rest of us try to keep from cracking the fuck up too.
“What about the Wet Bandits?”Knox pitches with a proud smile on his face.
We all stare at him for a moment with a giantwhat the fuckwritten across all of our faces.
“Is this some kind of reference to Vinna’s vagina? Because I gotta say her TGV trumps the ‘Wet Bandits’ any day,”Torrez tells Knox, and I snort.
