Page 4 of Renegade Queen

“Fuck off!” Blue Eyes scoffed.

I knew my face had lit up in amusement, and I grinned widely at them. This was more fun than I‘d thought it would be. Humans were so funny. It was amusing to completely fuck with their understanding of the world. Why hadn’t I been doing this for longer?

“General, I think you need to tell us more about what happened to my brother.” Blue Eyes’ not smiling any more. In fact, he looked pissed. Maybe he wasn’t such a good little soldier boy after all.

I slipped off my stool and pulled on my leather jacket, snatching the bottle of tequila back off the bar. No point wasting it.

“Gentlemen, this has been a fun game to play with you all, but you seem to need a chat, and, well, I don’t want to do that.”

I skipped over to the door. None of them stopped me. It seemed like the General’s plan had backfired, and now he had three annoyed little puppets who didn’t want to be played with anymore.

Shame.

I could think of some awfully fun games we could all play together.

I ran my eyes across the group to make sure nothing was going to go too wrong when I left them. General Shitstain wasn’t even armed, by the look of it, so they should be just fine. Turning back to Smiler, who was now frowning at me like he couldn’t decide if he was supposed to stop me or not, the amusement dropped from my face.

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” I told him seriously,

Placing my right hand over my heart, I bowed my head to him in respect and then turned and walked out of the bar.

Not my problem, not my argument.

It was a tragedy, but nothing could save the dead. Especially not those stupid enough to walk into Nymeria in the first place.

Chapter 2

Alyssa

I picked up my mug of frothy coffee heaven from the counter and slid into the cosy armchair I always sat in at the back of the coffee shop. There was something about the way the soft leather cupped my butt that just made this the perfect chair. It was like sitting in a hug. Couple that with the aroma of coffee in the air and that sound of rushing steam, and I was in heaven.

Reaching up behind me, I grabbed my book off the shelf and then caught sight of Jeanie, the owner of this magnificent place, rolling her eyes at me. She used to tell me I couldn’t leave stuff here and tried to clean up after me, but Jeanie soon gave in to my particular brand of charm. What can I say? I liked to read while I spent a quiet hour making love to, I mean drinking, this coffee. She humoured me now, and we’d come to a stand-off where I was allowed to keep one book here. I was pretty sure she hadn’t found the others I’d stashed around the place yet.

If there was one thing I loved about humans, it was the extent of their imaginations. I loved all the books, movies, TV shows and some of the music they dreamed up. Admittedly, the music took a bit of getting used to.

I was a chapter in and halfway through my coffee when someone sat noisily down in the chair opposite me and put their feet up on the table between us. The place was more than half empty, and there was no need for someone to invade my space by sharing a table. I didn’t mind sharing when it was busy, but outside of those times, it was just fucking rude. When I glanced up to glare at the person sitting opposite, I broke into a huge smile instead. It was Blue Eyes, and he looked so annoyed that it was almost funny.

“You’ll need to take your feet off the table before you give poor Jeanie a stroke,” I said, indicating over to the counter with my book where Jeanie stood glaring at Blue Eyes. If looks could kill, that one would be melting his skin off.

He sheepishly pulled his feet off the table and went right back to glaring at me.

“You look adorable when you scrunch your nose up like that.” I sighed, knowing he was the type of person that would get pissed off by that.

As expected, he spluttered in outrage, grumbling about how he wasn’t adorable. Well, he was right about that. He’s not adorable; he’s fucking smoking hot. Now that he wasn’t covered in that ugly army uniform, I could fully appreciate the male specimen sitting in front of me, and I did, openly and obviously.

His dark hair was shaved short around the sides and left longer on the top. Long enough to grab hold of if you needed to. His icy-blue eyes glinted in fake outrage as he tried to look annoyed that I was checking him out, but his chest puffed up, and he sat a bit straighter. He loved it, really. He’d paired dark blue jeans with a simple pale grey t-shirt, and some aviators clipped in the neckline. This guy clearly kept himself in shape, but I supposed that was to be expected with his job. He must spend hours in the gym to keep up with the muscles he was packing. My eyes flicked down to his crotch, almost of their own free will, as I wondered if the rest of him was in proportion, and he snorted out a laugh.

“Where are your friends?” I asked, looking around the coffee shop, hoping to catch sight of the other two. I was curious to see what they’d hidden under that ugly khaki and if it was as delicious as the one in front of me.

“Finishing up their paperwork,” Blue Eyes told me like I was supposed to know what that meant. “I came to scout ahead.”

I nodded with a super serious look to show that I definitely understood what he was saying. Draining my mug, I set it down on the table in front of me and stood, slipped my bookmark into my book and stashed it back on the shelf behind the potted fern.

“Good luck with the scouting,” I said, taking my dirty mug over to Jeanie and heading to the door.

It wasn’t until I got outside onto the pavement that I realised he was actually following me. I glanced over my shoulder in annoyance. I wasn’t stupid enough to not realise that by scouting, he meant finding me again. I just didn’t expect him to be so blatant about it. Deciding to take the mature approach, I turned back to the pavement, ignored him and kept walking. Unfortunately, he continued to trail behind me.

The warehouse I’d bought seventy years ago was only about five minutes from the coffee shop. I’d gotten it once I’d come to terms with the fact I was stuck here and wouldn’t be returning to Nymeria. It had been dirt cheap, and if I wanted to sell it now, I’d make a fortune on it. I wouldn’t, though. It was home.

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