“Should I pack special clothes? Is it a man or woman?” She came around the desk.
“How about I come back to your place today? We can get naked, do lots of fun things together, and then I’ll help you pack your bags?” I took my hands out of my pockets and wrapped them around her. She stood on tiptoe to kiss me.
“I do like to do fun things with you.”
***
We were on the road that next night. The address Elvie had sent me was in Colorado. That was a ways away from Arsenio. It seemed like all of us had chosen to scatter all over the country. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or not.
“Can I ask about you guys? Please?” She begged while we were on the way there. I rolled my eyes.
“You can. I probably won’t answer.” I told her again. She huffed and crossed her arms.
“Okay, so you won’t tell me which is which. If I guess right, will you tell me?”
“No.”
“Okay, what about you? Can you tell me something about yourself regarding the Seven Sins? How did you get the name? Or what about how you joined? Were you all friends first, or did you join an already established group?”
She shot question after question at me, and I laughed. I thought about them and decided there were some that I could tell her.
“We didn’t start calling ourselves the Seven Sins until there were seven of us.”
She blinked and then nodded. “Yeah, that checks out. Continue.”
“I was the last one to join. That’s why everyone calls me the baby or their little brother.”
“This Ludovica, who we’re going to visit. She’s number six?”
I nodded. “Yep. They like to poke fun at us for being the babies. Elvie’s personality doesn’t help any.”
“Why do you call her Elvie?”
“Ludo- Vica. L, V,” I said slowly.
“Oh. Duh. I don’t know why that didn’t make sense in my head. What do I call her?”
“Ludovica.”
“And which Sin is she?” Scout asked quickly. I scowled. And she flinched, smiling tightly. “Sorry, thought I could catch you.”
“Why don’t you wait until you’ve met all of us to try to guess who’s who?” I suggested.
“Am I going to meet you all?”
The question was simple enough, but it made me pause. Was she? I wanted her to. But it wasn’t safe. Taking her to see Elvie was a risk. There was no way I could take her to Corrine. “I don’t know. Being a Seven Sin isn’t what you think it is.”
“You’re like a mafia family, right? That’s what I was always told. What everyone thinks.” She frowned.
“Basically. If you were to try to put us in a group, that would be a good fit, I guess,” I mumbled. “Why don’t you take a nap? We’ve got a ways to go, so unless you want to go through the entire Universal Monster list and rank them, I suggest you close your eyes.”
“I could go for a good debate.” She reached for my hand and squeezed it.
“Frankenstein is overrated.”
The rest of the drive was spent arguing about who would beat who in a fight to the death. It was nearly morning by the time we arrived at the large home. As we passed through the hefty, white iron gates, I shook my head. We had to go through three security guards to get to the house.
“Is that- pink?” Scout asked as we pulled up to the door.
