“What’s his name?”Nixi asked again.
Amka’s chest tightened.Christian would hate being on the internet.“You should take down the video.”He didn’t even like being looked at too long, let alone going viral.“Seriously.He wouldn’t want that.”
“Not a chance.”Nixi reached for a menu.“Do you have a special tonight?”
“We do.The Cobb salad is excellent.”Amka finished the drink and placed it on a cocktail napkin.She didn’t wait for a thank-you and just moved back down the bar to refill two beers and check a soda at the pass-through.
The crowd didn’t let up for another hour.Somewhere around ten-thirty, things finally started to slow.Amka took a glass of water and slipped two Advil into her mouth, swallowing hard.Her arm still ached and the pain in her side had sharpened.
Daisy came up beside her.“I can finish out.”
Amka looked around.Most of the crowd had drinks, and plates were mostly cleared, but the tavern was still too full for comfort.“I’m really fine.”Except she wasn’t.Her arm throbbed, her legs burned, and even her back ached from the constant movement.Her ribs were the worst.Something was definitely cracked.
A sharp clinking cut through the room.
“Excuse me, everybody,” Jarod called out, smacking a knife against his glass.
Amka bit back a groan.His voice had that slight slur she recognized.She hadn’t been watching his intake.He served himself, and that made it hard to track.
He walked around the bar and slung an arm over her shoulder, pulling her tight to his side.Pain shot through her ribs and down her arm.She smiled through it and definitely had to figure a way out of this mess.
Across the room, Christian stood.Not fast, not loud.But she felt the shift in the air like a wire pulled taut.Her spine went rigid.
Jarod didn’t notice.He raised his glass.“I wanted to tell everybody—since you’re all here—that Amka and I have set a date.”He grinned.“We’re getting married.June eighteenth.”
A few people clapped.The murmur rolled through the crowd like a light breeze, one mostly of excitement.
Flossy, seated across the bar flipping through the bridal magazine, looked up.“That’s only three weeks away.”
“Yes,” Jarod said, leaning in and pressing a kiss against Amka’s cheek.“We couldn’t wait any longer.”
Her stomach twisted, and the pain along her ribs deepened.She smiled, or tried to, but her lips trembled.“We didn’t talk about this, Jarod,” she said under her breath.
“It doesn’t matter.It’s going to happen.”He kissed her on the temple again.
Her body went still.She kept the smile on her face, or something close to it, and tried to hold it steady.Even so, her eyes drifted across the room.
Christian was staring.Not just him—Brock and Ace too.All three Osprey brothers watched her with the same expression.Confusion, maybe.Something close to anger.Definitely suspicion.
She shifted slightly and caught Flossy’s face across the bar.She had the same look with maybe a bit more bewilderment.Amka forced her smile wider.
“Drinks are on the house!”Jarod yelled.
A cheer went up from half the tavern.A few claps, a couple whistles.Someone slammed a hand on a table.
“Just great,” Amka muttered, finally pushing away from Jarod as he began lining up shot glasses on the bar.
The door opened and Doc May walked inside with a box in her hands.“Hey.I told you to go home and rest.”She pushed the box across the bar.“You should be home in bed binge-watching something good.”
Amka would need to work late just to pay for the drinks Jarod was already spilling.“What’s in the box?”
May sat on the stool next to Flossy.“No clue.It was right outside.”
Amka leaned over to see her name scrawled on top in black marker.She swallowed.“That’s weird.”Reaching beneath the counter, she found a knife and quickly opened the top, looking in.
May leaned over.“What is that?”
Amka pulled out a can of lighter fluid, dropping a note on the bar.Her breath quickening, she turned it over to read:That was just the beginning.The whole world needs to burn.
