Page 47 of Fastlander Fallen

“Lie. I heard the lie in your voice.”

“I’m putting my contacts in now, hold please.”

He liked this. He liked not feeling lonely. He liked getting ready with her. “Did you already make coffee?”

“Yes, but you would hate it. I put a ton of salted caramel creamer in it. Really, it doesn’t even taste like coffee after I’m done with it, and it’s probably three hundred calories.”

“Of deliciousness.”

“Of deliciousness,” she agreed. “Let me guess, you drink your coffee black, like a badass.”

“I don’t know if it’s badass. I just don’t like the taste of creamers.”

“Have you tried salted caramel?”

“No, but I’m open to trying new things.”

“Well, friend, maybe someday when I have a day off I will bring you a salted caramel coffee to your work and use it as an excuse to get some barbecue for lunch.”

“Mmm, when’s your next day off work?”

“Today, and thank God, because this lady is dragging this morning. Hallie just left. We didn’t sleep a wink. Watched the sun come up together and everything.”

“She’s not just your cousin, is she?”

“She’s my best friend.”

Ace smiled as he put product in his hair.

“What is on your necklace?” she asked.

“A sterling silver card. Ace of spades. My dad gave it to me when I turned sixteen.”

“What happens to it when you Change?” she asked curiously.

“It would break. Actually, it’s been broken a few times. I keep replacing the chain. I try not to wear it around a Change.”

“You have a lot of control then?”

“Most of the time. Sometimes not.”

“Whooo, mysterious. When is a time you almost Changed accidentally?”

Last night when he watched her leaving with Owen. She didn’t need to know that though. “When I was fighting Captain. It was close. I had just come out of the interview with Gunner, and his animal already had me riled up, and then I was fighting Captain and his grizzly nearly dragged my animal out again. It’s going to be a real awkward workday. I damn near broke his arm. I don’t blame him if he’s still pissed.”

“Did your dad teach you to fight?”

Ace dragged the phone back into the bedroom with him. He pulled clothes out and began changing. “A lot of people taught me to fight. My dad and his brothers had me learning to fight before I knew how to walk. It’s tradition for my people.”

“You have uncles?” she asked.

“Not any longer. They were killed in a war when I was young, right before we moved here. I remember my dad and his brothers were very close, but there was a fight for power that was constant, so it was a strained relationship. He was pretty ripped up after the war. He had a bad limp for a long time, and his scars were brutal. He never walked around without his shirt on after the war, but sometimes I saw the scars right before he Changed. I could tell they bothered him.”

“What was the war about?”

He sat on the bed and pulled on his boots. “It was about me.”

“Wait, what? Why?”

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