Page 56
My mouth twitches. Seriously?
He takes another slow drink of coffee. “Yeah, yeah… name matches the party trick. Everybody thinks they’re fucking hilarious the first time.”
“I was actually wondering if you picked it yourself?”
“I did.”
That makes it worse.
His eyes narrow over the rim of his mug.
Shit. Apparently my face has subtitles.
“You’re gonna fit in here just fine,” he mutters.
“That sounded suspiciously like an insult.”
He grins, the thorns on his arms growing a little more like they’re happy. “It was.”
I smirk and tilt my head. “I’ll take it.” That earns me the smallest hint of a smile before a hundred-dollar bill suddenly slaps onto the table hard enough to make three people look over. “Hey, Wreck?” The redheaded man near the end of the table is holding another bill between two fingers, his grin already telling me whatever comes next is going to be stupid.
Wreck glances up. “What d’ya want?”
“Hundred says Maul puts you through a wall before lunch.”
Maul stops chewing… slowly.
Wreck looks at him, then around the room as though he’s genuinely considering his options. “Which wall?”
“Does it fucking matter?”
“Structural integrity affects the odds.”
The redhead scratches at his jaw, his eyes moving around the room like the choice of wall genuinely fucking matters. “Fine! Any wall.”
“You’re on!” They reach across the table and shake on it. Maul’s eyes move from Wreck to Ruckus before settling back on Wreck, and the look on his face has me wondering if that hundred bucks is about to change hands a hell of a lot sooner than either of them planned.
I lean slightly toward Roxy. “Who’s the redhead?”
“Ruckus.”
I watch him tuck the hundred back into his pocket. “That tracks.”
Roxy laughs. “You’ll get used to him.”
“That feels optimistic.”
Ruckus hears me from halfway down the table and points his fork in my direction. “I like her.”
“She’s been here five minutes,” Thorn mutters.
“I make fast decisions.”
Coil takes a drink of coffee. “Bad ones.”
“Still… decisions.”
Whatever Thorn says next gets swallowed by two voices coming from the hallway, already arguing before they even make it through the doorway.
