Page 2 of Wicked Brutal

“Why Ally?”

“I want to ask her out.”

Xander’s eyebrows rose. Danny stopped chewing. Kaiden slowly lowered his phone. I smiled, and it wasn’t a friendly one. “You need a background check before you ask a girl out?”

“I want to know if she’s seeing somebody.”

“Ask her,” Danny said.

“That’s helpful.”

“Wasn’t trying to be.”

Kaiden leaned back. “What exactly are you asking Ryan to find?”

“If she has a boyfriend.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

Preston hesitated — and there it was. Xander noticed too. “Oh, this is gonna get worse.”

“I just want to know what her deal is,” Preston said.

Iz frowned. “Her deal?”

“Who she’s dated. Who she’s hooked up with. Shit like that.”

Kaiden’s expression went blank, which was usually when people should have stopped talking. Preston didn’t. “She’s always alone. Nobody seems to know anything about her.”

“Maybe she likes it that way,” Danny said.

Preston shrugged. “Or maybe she’s weird.”

Xander’s chair hit all four legs. “Careful.”

“What the fuck is this?” Preston looked around the table. “Since when do any of you care about Ally O’Toole?”

“We don’t have to care about her to know you’re being a cunt,” Xander said.

Iz nodded thoughtfully. “Beautifully put.”

“Poetic,” Danny agreed.

I watched Preston instead of joining in. “Five hundred.”

His attention snapped back to me. “For finding out if she has a boyfriend?”

“Seven now.”

“You just said five.”

“Then you kept talking.”

Iz grinned. Preston stared at me for a long moment, then gave in. “Fine. Seven.”

“Cash,” I said.

“Obviously.”