“I need to try this,” I say.
“We’ll take you,” Ace says.
I glance at him across the table.
He says it so easily. No big production, no hesitation. Just, like, of course they’ll take me as if this is already a thing now and I’ve slipped into their plans without meaning to.
I drop my gaze back to my plate before that can settle anywhere dangerous.
“I can’t eat another thing,” I announce, which is when I realize the table is almost clear. Three giant men, one lunch I’m pretty sure could’ve fed a small wedding, and somehow there are only scraps left. “Seriously. How did you all do that?”
Luca leans back in his chair, pleased with himself. “We warned you.”
“Not properly.”
North wipes his mouth with his napkin. “You underestimated the situation.”
“I did.”
“Common mistake,” Luca says. Then he lifts one finger like a man struck by divine inspiration. “Dessert.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Hula pie,” he tells the waitress as she passes, in a tone that suggests this decision has already been made by higher powers. “One. Four spoons.”
The waitress laughs and heads inside, then returns very soon. The pie lands in front of us on a large plate. Macadamia crust. Ice cream. Chocolate sauce poured over it like somebody in the kitchen had recently been through a breakup.
I take one bite and close my eyes. “Oh, no.”
Luca grins. “Yeah.”
“This is obscene.”
“Correct,” North says.
“I’m going to need this again.”
Ace’s mouth curves. “That can be arranged.”
I open my eyes just in time to catch them watching me in that quiet way that seems too intense for a public place.
Then Luca’s phone rings. He glances at the screen, lifts two fingers at us in await a secondgesture, and answers. “Yeah.”
He listens while the rest of us dive into the dessert.
“When?” Another pause. “All four?” Luca’s expression hardens by degrees, the humor gone clean off it. “You’re sure,” he says, sounding like he already knows the answer.
Then he hangs up. Luca sets his phone down and looks straight at me. “That was the garage.”
Something cold starts crawling up my spine.
“All four tires were slashed,” he says.
“But there were only two when we left.” My voice comes out flat.
Luca nods once. “I checked them before we called the tow. Someone went back.”
North’s chair creaks as he leans forward, forearms on the table, all easy charm stripped out of him now. “So someone was watching you both.”
