Page 49 of The Red Rider
I didn’t remember the Rage Mutation, but I remembered that pandemic. Softball season got canceled, and it wasn’t safe to open the tattoo shop. I kept myself occupied drawing and visiting Miss Mabel with a fucking mask. I had an entire collection of adorable masks.
That was when it hit me. I was caught up in what I could remember that I didn’t take in all of what Dice said. I threw my arms around his neck.
“You seriously did it?”
“Yeah. We’re flying out in three days. Leif has everything he needs to vaccinate everyone in Florida now. We’re going to vaccinate everyone, then bomb the entire world, but in a good way.”
I might be just as crazy as Dice, but I wasn’t questioning him and his bombs anymore. I’d seen Dice do some crazy shit with the material he had on hand. If he said he could bomb the entire world and only kill the bad things, I believed him.
“Do you love me, Ariel?” Dice asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because it would be kinky if you ride bitch in my plane while I’m wiping out several states of Rage Heads at once.”
Oh, shit. How long did it take me before I wasn’t terrified to ride bitch on Aeron’s horse? I enjoyed it now, and Aeron was taking me on rides through New Jersey, but a plane dropping bombs? That was well out of my comfort zone.
“I thought you were theHorsemanof War, not a pilot. I didn’t think you actually fought in wars. You just moved pieces and ended them.”
Dice just kissed the top of my head.
“War, Conquest, and Death have all personally been on the front lines. Leif could fight too if he wanted to, but he’s just so fucking smart. We always leave him to his microscopes and test tubes. I’d love to take you up on my plane. There’s no danger. Your father can’t shoot us out the air because I have all the pilots and all the bombs. Game, set, match. We drop the bombs, kill your father, then we can have our orgy next to his corpse.”
I wrinkled my nose.
“That’s not sexy, Dice. As much as it makes me nervous because I’ve never been on a plane before, I actually would find it sexy to ride bitch in your plane. Can I paint you all sexy and topless in your jet when this is over?”
“I’d be mad if you didn’t. Can it be one of those jumbo-sized paintings? I like the idea of my hotness hanging in some museum after I get called back home.”
“So, I can’t hang that one in my bedroom as spank bank material?”
Dice grunted and nipped at my nose.
“You’re dating the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Speedy. What makes you think you’ll have the energy to do that with us around?”
“Truer words have never been spoken, Dice,” Aeron said. “Once we don’t have to worry about stopping the Antichrist, I’m never going to let Ariel leave the bed.”
“I still have to work, Aeron.”
“Why? Leif doesn’t just have a lab in Mexico. We have an estate there. It’s just not in San Quintin where we were staying. We can grab Mabel, retire in Mexico, and live on the beach. You can paint to your heart's content.”
“We still have to kill my father first,” I pointed out.
I knew we had that whole painting I had done where we won, but decades before, I’d also painted a scenario where they lost. If my visions could change based on decisions, then anything could happen when we got to the Oval Office. I hadn’t exactly done a new painting of an updated scenario of how that would go down.
Really, anything could happen, and I’d steeled myself for it. For now, I was actually excited to ride bitch in Dice’s jet.
Chapter 26
D
isneyworld was bustling now that a vaccine was going to be administered, and the planes would go out soon. Aeron was still raiding the Costco with Dice, but Dice had a special request, and I felt like I should oblige him. He knew I had been drawing their horses and had met his horse. He wanted me to paint a stylized version of his horse, Arrio, on the side of his plane.
I hadn’t ridden on Arrio, but I’d gotten to know him a little at Costco. Out of all the horses, he liked sugar the most. He also liked to bury his nose in my hair and nuzzle my neck.
I was happy to paint him on the side of Dice’s plane. I had several sketches, and Dice refused to look at them and approve one. He wanted me to surprise him. Whichever one I picked, I knew it was going to have to be unique. None of the Horsemen had asked me to draw anything for them before, even though they were incredibly supportive and amazing about my art. It was more than just the fact that at any moment, I could draw the future, and it helped us. They buttered me up about my regular drawings too, and I loved them for that.
Dice had a can of old, red boat paint in his workshop. He gave it to me and left me in the hangar with all the planes with his baby. It didn’t take long. I wasn’t painting a highly detailed portrait of Arrio, but I did make it big and stylized. I wanted anyone who saw that plane to know it was Dice’s.
