Page 121 of Cruel Debts
The three menin the circle around us stared down at the three blades, unaware that they had just sealed their fates.
"What the hell are we supposed to do with them now, St. Clair?" Ghost screwed up his brows and frowned. "This is a pretty puny ass knife. I hope you're not giving these out as gifts."
"Not gifts," I said with a grin.
Not quite.
"Well, mine's not much bigger, but at least it's longer," Liam said with a sigh. "Asher got the biggest one."
Sure enough, Surgeon stood there with his massive blade in hand, a quizzical expression pasted to his face. He could tell something was up, but what precisely that was remained a mystery. He knew well enough to be suspicious, though.
"What's this all about, Keehn?"
McCoy's grin was wider than the Rio Grande. "Consider it a drawing straws game. The biggest straw is the loser. Smallest one wins."
"What's on the line?" Sentry didn't look like he cared, being that he was a middleman either way, but he was curious.
"My sister."
All three of them dissolved into outrage. "What the fuck, Keehn?"
"What do you mean, your sister?"
"Trinity's not a prize to be won?—"
"I'm what? What's going on here, guys?" The woman in question walked up to the crowd with a look of confusion on her face. "What do you mean, I'm not a prize? Motherfucker, I'm a whole ass award show. I'm ten trophies in one. I'm?—"
"About to get married to one of these idiots," her brother said with a grin. "Short straw was Hawke. Long straw was Asher."
Her eyes darted between the men with hesitance in them. "What do you mean, get married?"
"If you think I'm going to let you stay here in this place, bouncing between men, without a safety net, you're insane. You marry one, you're taken care of for life by the provisions of the Guild. You get to maintain your good name. Your honor."
It was amazing to see how he broke for her, even in the smallest ways. If I didn't know for certain she was his sister, and there was nothing there, I'd suspect we had another situation like the Skeleton Crew on our hands.
"It'll prove they're serious about you, which will be a load of worry off my mind."
"So you want security? Proof that we're serious about your sister?" Ghost was on his feet in a heartbeat, the blade all but forgotten on the ground next to his feet. "I'll marry her right the fuck now. Where's the nearest Vegas-style wedding parlor? I have an honest man to make of myself."
He lifted Trinity off the ground and hefted her over his shoulder, running off with a whoop of celebration as the other two followed, while their victim beat on his back and shouted her outrage. They're not listening, though. And McCoy wasn't following to make sure they would go through with it.
They would. They were head over heels for her, all three. And it showed, now that they'd finally gotten out of their own way about it.
"Well, that solves that problem," I finally said after we watched them disappear in the distance. No doubt she'd be legally married to one of them, and illegally married to the other two, by the time she came back. "Now, I've been meaning to talk to you about your first contract?—"
The phone in his pocket rang suddenly, and he held up a hand as he answered it with a rough, fast 'McCoy' and a pause of silence.
I waited patiently, eager to continue our discussion. I didn't expect to hear the details of his past catch up with him.
"Nah, I'm out of that line of work. I'm not coming back to Covenant Hollow, either. So you're just out of luck, Tanner." His face screwed up into a scowl, and he glanced at me for just a second before doubling down on his conversation. "No, I don't have any contacts back there anymore—well, wait. I do have one you can try." He rattled off a name: Dr. Gage. An address. And a phone number that he admitted might not still be in service.
"You can find him at the old sanitorium there, the one the church runs. He does charity work for them. His brother-in-law or whatever, he's in the state police force down there. If anyone can get you the details you need, it'll be him."
He ended the call after a promise to catch up later, and I eyed him with unconcealed curiosity as he hung up and turned back to me.
"Something on your mind?"
I practically vibrated with excited curiosity. "Old friends? Or old colleagues?"
