Page 116 of The Thief

“What’s the difference?” she asked.

“The hangover. Plus, spiked drinks make everything go away,” he said, wiggling his fingers.

“Including your common sense,” Melody added, gesturing to his open fly. “I once knew a Mage who got himself caught in that. Let’s just say not everything grows back.”

“You’re a dark horse.” Virgil zipped his pants up. “It’s so noisy in there. The jukebox, the pool balls, the people, the ‘help me’ blah-blah-blah. Silence is underrated.” He leaned against the door and lowered his head to give us a scathing glance. “What are you two chickadees whispering about in here?”

“None of your concern,” I fired back.

“Don’t you love the acoustics in a bathroom?” Virgil sang the first line of “The Sound of Silence,” but before he could continue serenading us in the toilet, I shoved him into the hall.

“Order a pot of coffee,” I yelled behind him.

Virgil strutted down the hall, his necklace backward and the pendant resting over his spine. When a woman turned in front of him, he flattened against the wall and gave her a feverish glance. “Legs like that should be illegal.”

She paused and looked over her shoulder at him. When Krys entered the hall, I dipped back into the restroom.

“Are you okay?” I asked, making sure that Melody took a moment to gather herself.

“Hope and I are like sisters, but it’s nice to know I have other sisters now. I don’t judge you for all that stuff about your past. People change.”

“Thanks,” I said quietly.

Melody shook her tousled hair. “Now, let’s go party.”

Chapter 21

Bear stood in the clean kitchen, basking in the light of his successful opening—the compliments, getting paid for something he loved, claiming Mercy in front of the pack, and most of all, Tak’s approval. He felt like the luckiest man in the world with a pack who accepted him, a woman who loved him, and a job that made him believe that he could one day manage his own restaurant.

“Need You Tonight” by INXS blared on the jukebox. Some songs on the playlist he liked, others he didn’t, and a few he’d never heard of. Bear had a feeling that unless Calvin added new tracks, he was going to be hearing those songs in his sleep.

The clock showed an hour until closing. His pack was still buzzing over Hope’s good news, and every so often, Tak’s distinct laugh sounded from the other room. Bear wondered what it might feel like to be a father. The idea of it happening now scared him. He wanted to get to know Mercy more and accomplish great things that would make his future children proud. These were talks they would need to have going forward.

The swinging doors in the hall opened, but no one entered the kitchen. After turning on the dishwasher, he moseyed into the hallway to check it out. A slice of light leaked from the cracked doorway to Calvin’s office. Bear had been wanting to see what his boss’s thoughts were about negotiating a deal with local farmers—now was probably as good a time as any.

Low voices made him slow his pace as he reached the room on the left. Calvin wasn’t exactly a low talker.

Bear pushed on the door, and when it swung open, his heart rate spiked.

Virgil was sitting on Calvin’s desk straight ahead, swinging his legs while he thumbed through a brown folder. Clearly drunk, he still didn’t have a shirt on as he squinted at the paper. Meanwhile, Krys had one of the file drawers open on the left wall.

Bear entered the room. “What the hell’s going on in here?”

Virgil jolted with surprise. “Holy cannoli! Don’t scare me like that. I thought you were Calvin the Crazy.”

Bear swung the door partially closed and glanced around at the small office. By the filing cabinets was a water cooler, a mini fridge, and a candy machine. Virgil rested his arm on a small TV sitting on the desk—the kind you only saw in movies.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Bear snatched the file out of Virgil’s hands.

Virgil hissed at the mark it left on his palm. “What’s your catastrophe?”

“Where did you get this?”

Virgil guiltily slid off the desk and gestured to one of the drawers.

Since there weren’t any hanging files, Bear laid the folder down on top of some other shit and closed the drawer.

Raising his arms, Virgil danced provocatively to the song thumping through the walls. “Now that Mercy’s in charge of the pack money, we need proof we can trust her.”

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