Page 98 of Fire for Effect

“What? This sounds fun! We can play house!” Sierra said. “I’ll get my bags.”

“You don’t have to come with us!” I called as Sierra went to grab the bags from the trunk of the Corvette.

Was it my destiny to always despise my closest friends? Was it going to be their “thing” to annoy the ever living fuck out of me?

It wasn’t so much a statement, as a plea that she not come with us. Sierra was a walking cock block.

“Are you kidding? I was trying to get hired by those guys long before I joined Cerberus!” Daria hauled her Louis Vuitton bags up the ragged steps, her designer gear - which I knew were all authentic - were far too precious for the space we were sitting in. “It was easier to get into the government secret service than it was to find a contact for Paradigm!”

I let out a sigh. “What? You want to ditch Cerberus and join this Brett Bradley guy?”

“I’d dump your ass in a heartbeat, Griff. Especially now that I know you and Wifey are good.”

When Taz looked away, Sierra clandestinely reached into her pocket, and pulled out a dark gray metallic band.

“You left it in your locker at work,” she said under her breath, as she quickly and quietly placed the heavy ring in my hand.

It was a woven Celtic braid of two different kinds of brass, from two separate shell casings. Two bullets. From the one they pulled out of my thigh, and the one they pulled from my heart. A bit of sentimentality I had created as a sort of gift… a gift for Taz, because I thought that if I died, it would be funny to hand her the bullets that almost killed me.

I felt the weight of it in my hand, and the symbolism of it hit me like a sabot round to the chest.

Two separate bits of metal, like people, intertwined into a band. A circle without end.

It wasn’t just a gag gift for when she got my death notification.

It was an engagement ring.

I slipped it into my breast pocket.

Wifey. Wife.

Taz was mine.

That fact became more solidified at every turn.

So why did it feel like everything was about to blow up in my face?

Chapter 26

Sister Wives

Taz

We didn’t sleep. The three of us shot the shit until first light, when the sky turned pink over the Catskills.

Despite Sierra’s insane amount of energy, and her flippant views on everything from the right cuticle bed treatment to the most fun way to kill an enemy, I liked that she worked with Griff. He was safe with her. She knew her job, and did it well. The way she looked at him made me think she’d take a bullet for him too. Not in a romantic way, but like… like he was her family.

“Wifey,” she said, as she giggled over her vodka, “I have to help you plan your wedding.”

I snorted so hard the beer burned out my nostril.

“What?”

“Oh, please, let me plan your wedding!” she whined. “I’m an orphan, and I don’t know where my sister is. No one will ever marry my insane ass, so you must let me plan your wedding! Don’t let all this good taste go to waste.”

She gestured to her hair, outfit, and the designer bags.

“Plus, he’s rich, so budget would be no problem!” She looked up at the sky, her hand over her heart. “It would be a dream come true.”

---