Page 27 of Lure

“You wanted oat milk, right?” I asked over my shoulder.

“We don’t have that,” Voodoo corrected me. “Yet, I will make sure we lay in the supplies for it. In fact…” He abandoned the coffee set up for a moment and grabbed a notepad and pen out of the drawer on the far side of the kitchen. “Make me a list, Firecracker. Anything we don’t have that you need or want. Just write it down.”

He left it in front of her and then went back to making the coffee. The sound of the grind echoed through the kitchen coupled with the scent of fresh coffee. In no time at all, he hadthe coffee made and I had the omelet ready. We carried them over to the table at the same time.

“The cherry tomatoes aren’t as tart as the grapes or the cherries, but they will add some acid and I added a little brie with the cheddar to give it the sweetness.” I set the plate in front of her as Voodoo delivered her coffee with a flourish.

All three of us stared at her. It was ridiculous how important this felt.

“Thank you,” she said, then set the pen down on the still blank notepad. “I’m sure it’s great.”

I wasn’t.

“Well if you don’t like it,” I told her. “I’ll make something else.” Then a door closed farther down the hall and a silence rippled across the room. All the ease in her expression vanished at the sound of the footsteps preceding Bones’ arrival.

“Good,” he said as he joined us. “You’re all here. Let’s get this over with…”

Chapter

Ten

GRACE

Boney Boy’s arrival acted like a rock slide slamming into an already agitated pond. The ripples turned into waves that sent the water surging to the edges and slapping upward. It was like a storm hitting with the ionized air growing almost electric. Maybe I was imagining it, but the look Alphabet sent across the table toward Bones was downright hostile. Even Goblin picked up on it. He shifted his weight and then moved to lay so he was touching my feet with his hips and rested his chin on Alphabet’s feet.

Such a precious dog.

Hands wrapped around my coffee cup, I tried to chase the sudden icy chill out of my palms. Neither Voodoo nor Lunchbox said a word to Bones as they resumed their activities. When I glanced at him again, I found Bones studying me in turn. Like Voodoo, half of Bones’ face was littered in bruises and swelling. One corner of his mouth was definitely fatter than the other and his right eye was damn near closed.

I flicked a look from him to Voodoo and then back. Voodoo definitely had bruises but Bones looked a hell of a lot worse forthe wear. I guess when Voodoo called it therapy, he meant more for him than for Bones. I took a deeper drink of the coffee and sighed at the bitter flavor with just the barest hint of hazelnut and chocolate underneath the rest. It was strong as hell.

Just what I needed.

“Good morning, Grace,” Bones said after what felt like a protracted silence. “I hope you’re feeling better today.”

The words weren’t quite flat, but his tone was. It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to make nice with me when they were definitely not feeling it. Perfunctory peace moves were common when you wanted to reduce the level of friction on a shoot. More often than not, it was basically an olive branch offered and accepted for that moment. After, we’d go our separate ways and it didn’t really matter what they thought of me or me of them.

This? This was different. I debated responding to him. I didn’t really have much nice to say where he was concerned. As much as I’d like to argue I could see all of this from his side—that would be a lie. Not only would it be a lie, I didn’twantto see things from his side of this. He’d treated me like an inconvenience since everything went wrong. As sorry as I was to be stuck with them, none of this was my fault.

None of it. Another swallow of coffee gave me a continued excuse to not answer him. Frankly, all I could think about was attacking him verbally. Or throwing something at him again. As much as none of this was my fault, it wasn’t totallytheir faulteither. They’d come to my rescue. Mine and others. I’d seen them take everyone else home and they’d tried to take me home.

These were all facts that were important for me to remember. At the same time, it didn’thelphis case or mine. I saidhisinstead oftheirbecause as frustrated as I was about our current situation, Bones seemed to have taken an intense dislike to me from the beginning. He didn’t want me involved, but also didn’tseem willing to just let me leave. There was simply no evading the dark look in his eyes or the hard expression on his face.

Frankly, I didn’t want to focus on the coldness in his voice. Even as I ticked off the litany of various infractions from the past few days, I turned all of my attention to my coffee. Exhaustion draped me like a deadweight and it pushed my shoulders down. Even my face seemed too tired to try and manufacture a smile.

“Probably needs more caffeine,” Voodoo said. The sound of the milk being steamed and the grind of the coffee had all offered varying degrees of comfort. “Let me know how that first one is for you, I went with regular milk. But we’ll have oat in for you by this evening.”

The ease in which he delivered the declaration made it a fact, even if it hadn’t happened yet. I surrendered the coffee mug to him as I wrapped my hand around the tumbler. Oh, the flat white was so much warmer and it penetrated the icy shell of my fingers. Even better, the scent was heavenly.

A long swallow of the hot, smooth coffee was the jolt my system needed. “Thank you.”

Hot on his heels was Lunchbox with the omelet and that smelled divine too. “Here you go.”

I glanced up at him with a smile. It was a little easier to summon this time. “This is great, thank you.” Another swallow of the coffee had my system humming. As much as I hadn’t really felt hungry when we first got down here, my stomach growled in anticipation of the food.

The pair looked pleased with themselves and I made myself put the coffee down before claiming a fork. The omelet smelled even better when I cut into it. A wave of nausea swept through me as my mouth watered and my stomach tightened. Maybe I was too hungry. It definitely happened to me previously when I skipped too many meals and even minimized water because dehydration added to my ripped look.

Not that I was ripped at the moment, but I had been avoiding food. Closing my eyes, I forced myself to breathe through my mouth rather than my nose. Deep, slow breaths to settle my stomach’s objections. The last thing I wanted to do was throw up my coffee or this omelet.

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