Page 37 of Gilded Kisses

Knowing the sellers’ angles and why people might be interested in selling are how you cut deals.

Amber eyes turn to mine. “Nope. He barely took my call this time around. I had to do a lot of groveling to get us to this point. So don’t fuck it up with your dog faces, anti-social attitudes and asshole behavior.”

I breathe in and exhale slowly, stretching my fingers at my side. Thirty-plus years as the man’s friend has me not burying my knuckles in his face. Or him returning the favor.

Luther steps between us. “You have some glitter on you.” I look down when he brushes at the flakes. His efforts are only rubbing them deeper into the material.

“Here let me.” I strip my jacket off and give it a good shake when my phone rings. I jerk it out of my pocket to see a name I haven’t thought about in years.

“What?” I bark into the speaker.

The voice on the other end says one sentence before hanging up.

Viper catches my gaze and his brows pinch. “You look like God just offered salvation, but the devil still has your balls in a vise. What’s up?”

Nine

Viper

We speed down a dimly lit entrance to a private hangar in the dead of night.

I cast a suspicious glance in Mirsha’s direction, but his lips are sealed tight.

“Why are we here?” I check my weapons one at a time and push the clips back in. I take comfort in knowing I’m fully stocked for whatever shitstorm is about to hit us. I look out the window for a clue, but all I get back is a bunch of nothing. Clouds have rolled over the full moon and the lightning tearing across the sky is the exact mirror of my mood—electric and unpredictable.

I thump him on the chest and I get snarled at. My friend’s eyes glitter with anger. He’s been this way ever since we walked away from Aster. I can tolerate a lot, but I have my limits. I get he’s hurting. We all are, but he made the choice not to fight for her. And being the dumbass loyal friend, I backed him up. Luther wouldn’t make a move without the both of us, so here we are. All three dumbasses and suffering from some mafia blood moral code about not touching their best friend’s daughters.

I did a lot of touching the one night we all stole for ourselves and the devil can have my soul when my time is up. She is worth every flame of damnation I’m lined up to endure.

Beside me Mirsha remains silent and gawks out the window like he suddenly has night vision.

“Never’ve known you to not have something to say.” I roll my shoulder and push my weight his way. Eventually he’ll break.

Frustration fills his voice as he glares back at me like I should be sacred. What I am is tired, and he’s stomping all over my last nerve.

“Fuck off, Viper.”

“Take a swing, man. I’m ready anytime you are.” If he needs to work out some pent-up frustrations, I’m more than willing to play.

“Shut the hell up, Viper. And just sit in silence. Learn a new trick for once. You always have to be talking.”

“That’s right, motherfucker. I like words and letting those around me know what is going on. I will follow you into hell, but I need to know what weapons to bring. You can’t just shuffle us into a car and say, ‘trust me’.”

“What he said.” Luther is in the front at the wheel while Sourpuss and I ride in the back.

Luther looks at us through the rearview. “What the hell is going on and why did I break every speed limit there is getting us here? Who are we picking up?”

Mirsha’s features harden. “Stop the car and look for yourselves.”

Luther slows the car to a stop, and I am the first one out. A private jet is positioned at the mouth of a darkened private hangar. Not ours, I notice.

Luther and Mirsha come up beside me and we watch as the door opens and a set of airstairs extend to the tarmac.

“Who’s on the plane?”

There’s a breeze coming up from the south. God as my witness, it holds hints of magic or fairy dust or…fuck, I don’t know. But I swear the electricity climbing over my skin and burrowing into my bloodstream is otherworldly.

Maybe I need to see a voodoo priestess and cut this shit out of me because I feel like I am losing my mind. It’s faint at first and has that damn ache in my chest returning in full force.

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