Page 31 of King

The group exchanged glances before their eyes landed back on Steve.

“So why would they threaten Lee to turn over Amara, using Joey as leverage?” Steve pressed, his thoughts spilling out. “Isn’t his blood just as important to them as Amara’s? It seems to me that Joey was left for dead. Why would they do that if it’s the blood they are after?”

“Because they don’t know he has the same blood type.” King frowned, his mind working overtime. “Which means he’s not on the list.”

“Damn, Steve,” Adam said, impressed, breaking the silence. “There’s hope for you yet.”

“Yeah, I know,” Steve replied, puffing up slightly. “My flabber is also gasted.”

“What?” Adam and Charger said in unison, their brows furrowing in confusion.

“Sorry, I’m working on my spoonerisms,” Steve announced proudly, then noticed the confused look on all their faces. “You know, when you switch words around, like bean greens instead of green beans. I just added an extra word for fun.”

Kane snorted, shaking his head. “Spoonerism, my ass. Where in the fuck do you come up with this shit?”

“Hey, it’s a real thing. Google it.” Steve said, then frowned. “I think I used it right, so screw you all.”

“Damn, dude,” Adam chuckled, shaking his head. “You made a good point, then killed it with spoonerism.”

“I’ll call Jinx.” Kane pulled out his phone. “He already wiped the list, but someone’s got it.”

“There’s also my zips are lipped, which means my lips are zipped. I’d love to use that with Sloan when he tells me to shut the fuck up, but I don’t want to die.” Steve frowned at that thought.

“Good call,” Adam chuckled, shaking his head.

“But my all-time favorite is birty dirds...dirty birds. Get it?” Steve said proudly as Adam snorted.

“You’re fucked up, man,” Adam snorted with a huge grin.

“Kill him,” Kane ordered Charger, who glared at Steve.

King put the pictures on the table, making a note to remove them before Amara came downstairs. She had enough on her plate and didn’t need to see those pictures. Kane made the phone call and put it on speakerphone. On the fourth ring, Jinx answered.

“Fuck, Kane, can you give me more than fifteen minutes before you’re hounding me,” Jinx answered, sounding out of breath. “I just ran the license plate and was in the middle of taking a piss.”

“I have something else I need you to check out.” Kane put the phone on the table.

“I’m going to be needing a fucking raise with you guys,” Jinx said with a huff. “I’m busier than a vampire at a blood drive.”

“I’ll give you a raise with my foot up your ass,” Kane grumbled, rolling his eyes while Steve laughed loudly.

“Good one, man, but that’s an old one. Have you heard this one? I’m busier than a vampire at a neck convention.” Steve said, leaning toward the phone.

“Yeah, but it never really made sense to me,” Jinx said thoughtfully. “I mean, what the hell is a neck convention?”

“True,” Steve sat as if pondering what Jinx had just exposed. “Hey, you any good with spoonerisms.”

“You mean bass-ackward words,” Jinx said, and everyone heard the smile in his voice.

“Well played...well played,” Steve said proudly as if he was the inventor of spoonerisms. “That’s ass-backward for those of you that don’t know.”

“We know what it is, asshole,” Adam sighed, shaking his head for the hundredth time.

King stopped Kane from going at Steve. “Jinx, do you have the list of RH Null people?” King asked, done with the antics. He loved messing around, but right now, he wasn’t in the fucking mood. Steve brought up an excellent point and something he should have realized, which pissed him off.

“I do,” Jinx replied. They could hear him typing on the computer. “You need me to send it to you?”

“No,” King replied. “Is the name Joey Tarvin on that list?”