I set my glass down. “Didn’t think you looked that close,” I called toward the back.
Valkyrie’s head turned. Slowly. She walked toward the bar, each step deliberate, like she was measuring the distance and the effect.
Up close, with the daylight through the high windows catching her, she was even worse for my self-control.
Her hair was pulled back tight, a few strands loose around her face. Neck inked solid in black and gray, a tangle of wings and blades that disappeared under her shirt. Eyes a pale, impossible blue. Husky-dog eyes. Her jaw was strong enough to take a punch and give one back twice as hard.
She stopped just on the other side of my glass.
“I didn’t,” she said. “You’re just loud to look at. Hard to avoid.”
Laughter snorted out of Medusa. California thumped the bar once in appreciation. Raven straightened, pretending she wasn’t eavesdropping.
“Loud,” I repeated. “That’s a new one.”
“You’re wearing twenty poundsof ink and a patch that screams I start trouble,” she said. “You walk into my hospital with that, it’s loud. You walk into my clubhouse with that and a bag you won’t let go of, it’s louder. Clean shaven is the least of it.”
“Could grow one if it helps,” I said. “I aim to please.”
She tilted her head, looking me over like she was checking a bike she was thinking about buying and probably stripping for parts.
“You couldn’t grow a good beard,” she said. “You’d get three weeks in and look like a depressed barista. Do yourself a favor and keep it clean.”
Raven choked on her drink. Diamondback laughed outright.
I couldn’t help it. I grinned. “You’re very sure for someone who’s only known me for half a gunfight.”
She leaned her elbows on the bar, closing the distance to an inch that felt like a mile.
“We’ve had men like you drift through our peripheral for years,” she said. “We know the type. Pretty. Dangerous. Think the world owes you something for the scars you’ve collected. News flash. It doesn’t.”
“I never said it did,” I replied. “I just want it to stop throwing stray bullets at my head while I visit my best friend.”
Her gaze flicked to the backpack strap on my shoulder. “And carry someone else’s apocalypse for them,” she said. “Don’t forget that part.”
“You sound like you have a problem with me doingthat,” I said.
“I have a problem with anyone dragging that kind of heat, whatever it even is, over our line,” she said. “But I’m not blind either. I know you didn’t choose it.”
Her voice cooled a notch.
“You don’t have to like being here,” she added. “You just have to accept it. For now, you’ve got a roof, a drink, and a promise from Liberty that we won’t let someone put a bullet in your head while you sleep. It’s more than what most people get.”
“A hostage with benefits,” I said.
She smiled then, small and sharp.
“You’re not that special,” she said. “Our bunnies get better perks.”
“He’d make a cute bunny though,” someone said.
“Bunnies?” I asked. “You have those here too?”
The woman on my other side, Raven, piped up. “What, you think just because we’re an all-female MC we don’t get to have groupies?” she asked. “We like pretty distractions just as much as the next club.”
“You’re not my type,” Medusa called from the table. “Too symmetrical. I like ’em fucked up.”
“Give it time,” I said.
