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“Of course not. Couldn’t imagine why you would be.” I grabbed the glass of wine that had been poured for me and took a larger sip than was probably smart.
There was laughing down the other end of the table. There was no denying that the feel here was much different than back home, if I could call that place home. This was closer to the feel I’d gotten when it was just the small pack of us, when we first started out from New York.
One side of the table was shit-talking about the game tournament they were planning for tonight. I found myself more interested in asking Evangeline about her restaurant. I could taste the love of cooking in her food, but even if I’d never tasted anything else she made, I could see it in the mourning she had as she spoke of the place.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking for the pack, but I don’t know…” She gave me a small, bittersweet smile that spoke volumes.
“I understand,” I said, sounding a bit mournful myself.
“We all do,” Kicks added.
She didn’t just miss her restaurant. I didn’t just miss going for a slice of pizza or getting my nails done. We missed the world as it had been. We missed what was supposed to be our reality, our future, the plans we’d made. We missed how easy life had been. I’d moaned and groaned over the stupidest things back then, and now? I was happy if I woke up to a full stack of wood to load the stove.
“Piper, Crackers said we could get in some practice rounds before the tournament. Can I go?” Charlie asked.
I looked over at Crackers. “You sure you don’t mind?”
“No. I gotta warm up.” He wiggled his fingers. It dawned on me that this wasn’t solely for Charlie’s benefit.
“Okay, well, send him up to the room whenever you get tired.”
He smiled as they got up. “Don’t worry. It’s all good.”
“We playing?” Tico said from the other side, looking as eager as Charlie seemed.
Another couple of guys got up and followed them out.
The guys had just exited with Charlie when the sound of steps echoed through the place. Not normal steps, but the loud, booming kind that only I could hear. I scanned the crowd, trying to figure out who she was coming for. Everyonelookedfine, but the footsteps persisted, a harbinger of something dark on its way. Forget waiting around—I had to get out of here.
Death was coming, and every time she looked at me, she seemed to become more and more interested in me. My life was already brimming with enough problems without having Death around.
The second I stirred in my seat, Kicks shifted in his, turning toward me. He’d been deep in conversation with his people most of the night, seeming oblivious to me, or so I’d thought.
He reached for my hand, but I jerked it back fast—not meaning to insult him, but it was better than killing him.
He wasn’t the only one who noticed. Evangeline averted her eyes quickly, but I’d caught the look.
I went to move, but Kicks now stood in my way, his stare asking me what was wrong.
Was I white as a ghost or something? Did I have the deer-in-the-headlights look? Either way, he always seemed to sense when I was even slightly off.
“I wanted to go get a sweater in the room,” I said.
Gasps and shouts broke through the hum of conversation in the room. One of the pack was lying dead on the ground, his head rolling a few feet away from his body. I couldn’t remember his name, and I’d be too speechless to say it anyway.
Kicks immediately took a step toward his guy, but then he froze and looked back at me. His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he were piecing together my sudden need to leave with the death.
We stared at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch forever. The entire room had swarmed over to their fallen pack member, and gasps and cries came from that area.
Kicks finally turned from me to go to his pack mate. I slipped out, keeping my eyes on the ground, knowing what would come next. If I dared look, I knew I’d already see her in the room. I hurried my steps, getting to the suite and hoping it was far enough away for her to not follow.
I curled up on the suite’s sitting room couch, a blanket draped over me, unable to get the chill to leave my bones. A silly part of me had wondered if leaving the other pack, getting away fromwhere I first saw her, would get rid of the issue altogether. But it was becoming clear this wasn’t going to go away.
Now I was hiding up here, afraid to return to the dining room to look at those people, as if they’d somehow know. Kicks had.
He’d ask questions. Would he somehow blame me for what happened? I should’ve gone to bed, pretended I was sleeping. Would that be believable? No. But it might buy me until morning.
Or not. No, probably not. Not with Kicks. He’d come in and question me. Sleeping or not.
