Page 2 of More Tricks

Like ducks following their mother, we trailed after him into the kitchen with a chorus of rumbling bellies. “Fuck, man, anything sounds good right now,” Void said as he grabbed a plate and dumped a massive pile of noodles on it.

“Ah, did you want to leave some for the rest of us, big guy?” I asked with a chuckle.

He paused and looked at his plate, then me with a wicked grin. “Then I guess you’re just going to have to sit on my lap and share this with me, little demon.”

“Guys, I made plenty of pasta for everyone. I know you’re all bottomless pits,” Wes cut in, opening the lid to another pot full of pasta. Void glared at Wes, but to his credit, my best friend didn’t flinch, just handed him a ladle for the sauce. “You might want that to make sure you have enough to cover all those noodles.”

I snorted, turning away so they couldn’t see me laughing. Never did I think a group of alpha males like this could become this hodgepodge family we’ve seemed to have created. While they came from all different walks of life, somehow, they each felt it was worth putting up with the others to be with me. It blew my mind, and I tried not to dwell on it too much, but the facts remained the same. I was dating and in love with seven men and they were in love with me— go figure.

“What are you laughing at, spitfire?” Picasso whispered, coming up behind me.

I shook my head and wrapped an arm around his waist, to which he automatically pulled me closer. “That you’re all friends. Seriously, how crazy is that?”

“Yeah, about that, I’m still not sure about this guy,” Cognac said, jerking his thumb at Cam. “He still seems a little too assholish for my liking.”

“You met his dad. There’s no way that wouldn’t have happened,” Sprocket remarked. “That man is drama and a half. Speaking of the shifty bastard, where is he?”

“He’s still showering,” Picasso muttered. “Thank God, Cam warned me to shower before he did. I’m not sure we’re going to have enough hot water for him at this point.”

“Oh, he’s out of the shower. It’s his skincare routine that takes a million years,” Cam explained. “As for the asshole comment, one can only do so much with the personality the Lord has blessed me with.” This caused all of us to give him a baleful look that caused him to toss up his hands in surrender. “Message received. I’ll work on it.”

“Leave the black knight alone. He’s exactly who we needed in this group,” Void scolded the others. “He is the only one who can keep up with the devious nature of my little demon. With him around, we might be able to keep her alive a little longer.”

My jaw dropped at his words. “What does that mean?”

“Really, little demon, do you think we’re all mad at you for no reason?” Void asked, giving me a deadpan look. “You are smarter than that. Take a moment to think it over and let me know when you’ve managed to see our point of view.”

Fuck, if Void was upset with me too about what happened earlier, then maybe I did go too far.

Wes seemed to follow my train of thought as he snapped out an arm to block the giant man. “Hold up. How are you mad at her when you were right on her heels, running into battle?”

Void looked completely confused by the question. “You would rather I let her go alone? My little demon is many things, but bulletproof, she’s not. I’d rather enter the fires of Hell beside her than send her off to fight alone. There is always better luck when you have backup.”

Wes tried to come up with a rebuttal but couldn’t. Damn, my man, Void, is the best kind of crazy, no wonder he believes we're soul mates. While he made a good point about why he went running off into danger, I, on the other hand, didn’t have one other than being an impulsive adrenaline junky. It was simpler to just deal with things head-on, get to the root of the problem, and be done with it.

Once everyone took a seat and dug into our meal, we fell silent, mouths too full to harass me about my life choices. I was gonna need to fix this, though, because being grounded was not gonna happen. Just as we all started to relax, the sound of vehicles pulling up and headlights flashing in through the windows alerted us to the arrival of the FBI. Cam shoved back his chair, tossing his napkin on the table angrily as he went to greet them.

“So, did you guys already discuss what we’re telling them?” I asked, leaning back in my chair, sipping at my beer.

“We stick to the same story Cam told them when they got to the site of the explosion,” Sprocket explained.

“Great…” I said cheerfully. “Anyone want to tell me what that is? I was a little kidnapped at the time.”

This seemed to snap them all to attention as the realization that I had no idea what our cover story was.

“Right, well, part of it was the sneaky plan you cooked up with Cam behind our backs,” Picasso started, letting me know how he felt about that. “As you instructed, the FBI was notified that we were in the works with a sting operation and we were helping.”

“Huh,” I mused. “That was simple and to the point of him, now, wasn’t it.”

“You didn’t tell him to say that?” Cognac asked.

Shaking my head, I took another swallow of my beer. “Nope, I told him to do whatever he needed to, so we had backup since I had no idea how procedure works within the FBI. Seems like it did the trick since none of us are in jail.”

“Yet, none of us are in jail yet,” Wes corrected. “Don’t forget we have a massacre out there that we need to have a damn good story for.”

“Why do we need a story? They attacked us. We defended ourselves, plain and simple,” I reasoned, twirling my fork in my pasta. “They would have come lights a blazin’ if they were going to ship us off to jail. This seems too friendly in my book, and I don’t think the FBI is that good at infiltration on a large scale.”

“I just love your optimism, loba,” Cognac said with a grin. “Here you sit, calm as can be, while the iron fist of the government is sitting on our lawn.”