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I turned, keeping any trace of discomfort from my expression. I’d show him no fear. Men like him could smell it in the air. They thrived on that smell. Bathed in it. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“I can’t,” I said for myself. “Your son was just going to teach me.”
I couldn’t help rubbing it in just a little—that his sons choseme. Had chosen to let me live despite what Diesel might’ve preferred. That they liked me enough to teach me how to shoot pool. To cut out a man’s tongue for calling me a whore.
It was stupid and maybe a little childish, but I didn’t care. I didn’t ask for any of this, and I wouldn’t go down easy.
“Is that so?” Diesel’s question was meant for Corvus, and I turned back to him expectantly.
“Yeah. Passing the time till you got here. Took you long enough.”
“We got held up,” Diesel replied, and I watched him shrug off a busted up old leather jacket and pass it to an enormous guy to his left. I recognized him asTiny. The bouncer from the illegal boxing ring downstairs.
Tiny carefully draped his boss’ leather jacket on the back of a tall chair, as though he were afraid too much force might tear it in two. He wasn’t wrong. The thing looked to be holding on by threads and a prayer. Not the sort of thing I’d have expected the leader of one of the largest gangs in Cali to wear.
“If you don’t mind, son. I’d love a go,” Diesel said, crossing the floor to hold out a hand for Corvus’ cue.
The level of sound in Sanctum had dropped exponentially since Diesel’s arrival and as I spun in a slow circle, I noticed how many of the Saints who’d been drinking merrily five minutes ago were now watching. Rapt at the exchange between Diesel and his sons.
Between Diesel and their potentialfemalenew recruit.
Fuck.
Corvus reluctantly handed over the cue and Diesel flipped it over, holding it up to his eye to stare down the length of it.
Should I have done that?
“What do you say, princess?” he asked, his voice carrying in the pub as he set the cue down and fixed me with a ready stare. “Humor me with a game?”
“I told you, I don’t know how to play. And don’t call me princess.”
He inclined his head, studying me from head to toe.
I took the opportunity to do the same. This was only the second time I’d seen Diesel St. Crow in the flesh and the first time, I’d been more than a little preoccupied.
The man was taller than I remembered. Handsome, for an older guy, with a trim, but muscled figure and bright eyes that I knew saw more than he let on. I normally didn’t like beards, but somehow his suited him, long and tapered, mostly straight and groomed. I couldn’t picture him without it. He had a relaxed sort of power. Like a lion at rest. He could spring up and strike whenever he wanted, but why would he when he had a pride at his back ready to do the work for him?
“Very well. Corvus? We’re overdue for a game, I think. Why don’t you take Ava Jade’s cue? Or shall we just get started with the real reason we’re all here?”
“Want to tell me what that is?”
Diesel smirked. “Why the rush?”
Corvus hesitated before coming to me. “Unless you’d rather just get this over with?” he muttered, holding a hand out for the cue.
I opened my mouth to replyyes,becausefucking duh,I just wanted to go back to the house, but Corvus grabbed the cue before I could reply, taking my split second of silence as a non-answer. Or maybe he just wasn’t ready for whateveritwas to begin.
Grey beckoned me to the booth, and I went while Corvus bent over the raised edge of the pool table and broke the triangle of balls apart with a loudclack.
“How about that drink?” Grey asked, sliding the rum and Pepsi over to me.
Why was he so insistent on me having a drink? I wasn’t a joy to be around sober, if I started drinking I was liable to knife someone.
“There’s not much rum in it,” he said. “It’s just a single.”
I met his gaze, finding a worried crease between his brows.
“I think you need it more than I do,” I joked but took the proffered drink, swirling the straw before I removed it and downed the icy cold drink in two long swallows. The ice made my teeth sting.
