Page 33 of The Black Table
I shrink, instinctively, from the sudden attention. “Nobody,” I say. “No one. I just?—”
“Hey, knock it off.”
I whirl around to see who’s speaking.
It’s him. The pierced guy from earlier, with the tattoos—Kai. Leaning against the bar, eyeing us.
Elena isnotpleased at being interrupted. But her voice is sweet as ever. “Excuse me?”
“I said knock it off,” he repeats, cool and calm. “Take it down a notch, eh? And maybe lay off the G&Ts.”
“You’re one to talk.” This, from—to my surprise—Morgan, who’s at the bar just a few people away. “Cool it, Kai.”
“Cram it, succubus,” Kai fires back at her.
Elena’s face goes instantly blank, placid as a sunny day. “I’m sorry,” she says, “but this is a private conversation. Do you mind?”
Before Kai can object, Claire expertly sidesteps, boxing him out. Morgan, wherever she was, appears to have disappeared, too.
Then Elena turns back to me.
“Listen,” I say hastily, spreading my hands wide. Maybe I can reason with her. Girl to girl. “I get it, okay? You like Lanz. Fine. Cool. I am…sonot interested. Like, truly, I promise you. No issues here.”
It’s the wrong thing to say. Elena’s face contorts. “Who said I liked him?” she hisses, face pink. “Stop spreading rumors about me.”
“I…what?”
“I’d never try to get them to break the rules. And risk our winning streak? How could yousaythat?”
She sets her jaw, narrows her eyes at me.
And smacks the drink from my hand.
“Oops,” she says flatly, not even pretending to look sorry. “My bad.”
A thousand pieces of glass scatter across the floor, earning yelps andomigodsfrom the crowd.
Now everyone’s looking.
“Maybeyoushould lay off the drinks, sweetie,” Elena says from above, breath hot in my ear. “Maybe?—”
“Maybeyoushould step the fuck off.”
This time, Kai doesn’t let Claire block his path. He practically shoulder-checks her out of the way, sweeping a gaze up and down my whole body. “You okay?”
I can’t move. Can’t even nod.
“Oh my God,” Claire murmurs, a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God, oh my God.”
Elena, for her part, takes a moment—lips parted in shock—before she snaps back to standing. It’s astonishing—from quivering emotion to calm and collected in just two dabs of the eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “Things just got a little?—”
“Save it,” Kai barks. In a single, swift motion, he kneels and returns, something clear and glimmering now in his hand.
It takes a moment to register.A piece of glass.
“Oh my God!” Now Claire leaps backwards, drawing a chuckle from Kai, who jabs the glass after her.
