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Once I’m satisfied, I go and stand against the kitchen wall, ready to play my part.
Someone else might be scared of this. Even with his steady and tricky hands, throwing knives is a delicate art. One wrong move, and he could seriously hurt me.
But I’m not even worried. Maybe it’s just because I have a bit of a death wish, or maybe it’s because I’ve already seen how good Ash is with his hands. I stand perfectly still as I watch him pick up the first knife, the challenge reflected in my eyes.
Ash lets out a breath and adjusts his stance, the knife’s handle held loosely in his hand. He aims it with a glance and then throws.
It whizzes through the air and thuds into the plaster of the wall next to my left shoulder.
Before I even have time to fully process that, the next knife is in his hand and he aims that one too, letting it fly. Each knife comes easier than the next as he warms up, and soon there are four knives in the wall on either side of me, each one less than a half inch from my body.
I can tell from the look in his eyes that he knows he’s won, and he’s already looking forward to that kiss I promised him. Ash lets the fifth knife fly, and as he lets go of the handle, I move, just a little—just enough that the blade cuts my arm before it hits the wall.
I click my tongue in mock disappointment, hissing a breath through my teeth. “Aw. Too bad. You were so close.”
Priest looks like he’d rather slap me than be in the room with me for another second, and Gage has that growing thundercloud of annoyance on his face again. Funny how they were giving Ash shit just a minute ago, and now they’re angry on his behalf because I fucked with him. More proof that they really are brothers without the blood.
Knox, on the other hand, howls with laughter, hitting his fist against the table with amusement. “She got you good, Ash. You even had your serious face on, and she saw right through you.”
Ash just shakes his head, but there’s amusement on his face too. “Should’ve known you’d be a tricky one,” he says to me, adjusting his glasses a little. “No kiss for me, I guess.”
“Sorry,” I tell him, shrugging. “A deal’s a deal.”
I can tell he’s disappointed, but he’s good-natured enough not to let it be a whole thing. Unlike Gage and Priest, who weren’t even involved and look like they’ve been sucking on lemons over there.
“Anyway,” I say, stepping away from the wall and going to put my plate in the sink. “I’ve gotta go. I have a drug dealer to find.”
Meredith’s tip is still fresh in my mind, and I have a few good ideas for where to hunt down this dealer. Once I find him, I have a few more ideas for how to get him to talk to me. Not all of them involve asking nicely either. I’ve never had an issue making people talk when I need them to.
The informant that got me into this mess notwithstanding. That was a one-time fuck up.
“You need a passenger on this little trip?” Ash asks, cutting into my thoughts. “I could tag along. I bet we’d make a great team.”
Honestly, he’d be more entertaining than being out with Gage, but I don’t know how useful he’d be otherwise. I don’t need the dealer to be flirted with or distracted with card tricks. Ash looks hopeful though, and I can’t tell if it’s because he wants to hang out with me or because he thinks there’s going to be a kiss in it for him somewhere down the line. Either way, I don’t need him distracting me with his flirting and whatever other nonsense he can get up to, so I open my mouth to shoot him down.
Before I can, Gage cuts in.
“No,” he says firmly. “This is her job. If we start helping her with it, then what’s the fucking point of the deal?”
Irritation flashes through me, and I bite my tongue to keep from telling him where to shove it. He helped me yesterday, after all, so trying to be a hard-ass about it now just makes him seem like a hypocrite.
He’s such a fucking control freak that he has to be in charge of my mission along with every other fucking thing in his life, and I think about telling him to fuck off and let me handle my business on my own, but in the end, I don’t say anything about it.
I didn’t want Ash along anyway.
I prefer to work alone.
