“No!” I hissed and pulled her back down.

“What do you mean no? That’s a good deal! We’re pinned downhere with no hope of getting out. You can’t bring a bottle of banana juice to ataser fight.”

“Sure you can. In fact, the Single Girl Rules almost demandit. Rule #5: Have banana juice in your purse at all times.”

“I thought that rule was about wine?”

“Slavanka,” I said. “Could the original Rule #5 have beeninterpreted as banana juice rather than wine?”

She nodded. “Yes, yes.”

“Then I’m making an official alteration to the Englishtranslation of the Single Girl Rules.”

“I don’t care if the Single Girl Rules say wine or bananajuice. How could either one of those things help us against seven men armedwith tasers?”

“Molotov cocktail,” said Slavanka. She held up a bottle ofbanana juice with a soaked rag coming out the top. Her other hand was wrappedaround a lighter and her thumb looked awfully eager to light it.

“She’s not wrong,” I said. “But let’s not burn the building downjust yet.”

“Final chance!” yelled the banana king. “Come on out, Ash.”

Ash sighed. “I really think we should surrender.”

“But I have a plan. Please trust me?”

“Okay. But if this plan doesn’t work and I get fucked on thatrunway…”

“Not gonna happen. Unless you want it to.” I winked at her. “Ashisn’t coming out,” I yelled to the banana king. “But I have a counter proposal.”

“I’m listening,” he called back.

“If you let us go now, we can pretend like this never happened.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you and your guards are going to chase us around thisresort for a while. And then when I feel like it, we’re going to walk right outthe front door. And I’m gonna make sure Luigi Locatelli knows how badly youfucked up.”

The banana king laughed. “There’s no way you’re gonna walkout my front door.”

“You think?”

“I’m certain of it.”

“Then let’s make a deal. If we walk out, then you’ll owe me afavor.”

“I’m not gonna give a mobster’s daughter a blank check.”

“What does it matter? You’re so confident you have us trapped.Why not make the bet? Tell you what – I’ll even limit the favor so that itdoesn’t involve money. And if you catch us, then you can auction all three ofus. You can even livestream the entire thing. Turn it into the pay-per-viewevent of the year.”

“What?” gasped Ash. “No! I won’t agree to that.”

“Ash would never agree to that,” yelled the banana king.

I looked at Ash. “I love how you two are so on the same page.So cute. I’d be shipping you two so hard right now if his cock wouldn’tliterally destroy your delicate virgin pussy.”

“We’re not a cute item,” said Ash. “We’re both just sensibleadults.”

“Who want to fuck each other?”