Page 83 of Three to Fall

Trig grimaced. “I’ve never seen anyone smile so much. Like, do you think his mouth is sore?”

“Has to be.” I glanced at Whip. “You ever smiled in your entire life?”

“Not since you came into it.”

I sniggered. “Oh, Whip. How I enjoy your dry, dry sense of humor.”

Torch flicked the wheel on his lighter a few times, absentmindedly creating the tiny flickering sparks he was so fond of. “Was Gray like this with his wife? I don’t remember him being this obsessed with her.”

Trig shook his head. “He was nothing like this with Annette. They were both so fucking selfish, so wrapped up in their own shit. They were just arm candy for each other and a warm body to sleep next to at night so they didn’t feel lonely.”

“But now he’s found his true love.” I bounced on my seat, needing to expel some energy because I’d been sitting still forhours. “How sweet.” So sweet I gagged a little for effect, then grinned. “You ever been in love, Whip?”

“Why the fuck would I tell you that?”

I grinned. “Well, that’s a solid yes. What about you, Trigger?”

He twisted to stare out the window.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Seriously? Not even going to give me a yes or no head shake?”

Ace twisted a thin cord around his fingers, his long legs cramped in the small space of the back seat. “You know they aren’t going to tell you shit about their personal lives. Would you trust any of us with the details about someone you loved? Hell, look what Trig did to his own sister-in-law? Chopped her up and fed her to the pigs.”

Trigger scoffed with a laugh. “That’s creative. But why say it like it’s a bad thing? If I had fed her to pigs, she would have deserved it. It would have been poetic justice since she hacked shit on me that time I tried to go vegetarian,” he grumbled beneath his breath. “Nothing wrong with wanting to save some fucking animals.”

“Probably shouldn’t tell him about that rooster in Gray’s freezer then, huh, Ace?”

Ace shot me a dirty look. “I’m done talking to you for the rest of the trip. It was one small accidental chicken shooting, and you’re never going to let me live it down.”

“You yelled, ‘Hasta La Vista, baby!’ before you pulled the trigger.”

“It was me or the rooster, X! The town wasn’t big enough for both of us!” Ace crossed his arms grumpily and twisted to stare out the window.

Torch took over where Ace had left off. “I think the point that we’re maybe trying to make is we keep our personal lives personal. So why are you even asking about Whip’s family?”

They were all so boring. “Because what else are we going to talk about?”

Whip shifted gears. “The weather. The news. Why you told Torch to get that haircut…”

Torch self-consciously ran his fingers through the mullet I’d talked him into getting last week.

I made a face at them. “It’s not my fault Torch’s ears stick out like Dumbo. Who knew? They were always covered when his hair was longer.”

Torch scowled in my direction. “And now I’m not talking to you either. God, you’re an asshole.”

I shrugged and punched Whip in the arm. “Whip still loves me.”

“Whip is going to drive this van off the nearest bridge if you don’t learn to read the room and shut up when you’re driving everyone mad.”

I made a face at him and rolled my eyes. “Whip needs to stop talking about himself in the third person ’cause it’s as weird and creepy as that hairy mole on his back…”

The dirty look he shot my way was just straight-up rude.

So was the way none of them answered the next few questions I fired at them.

I sighed, and picked up the radio, pressing the button on the side so I could talk to the Jeep ahead of us. “Hey, Scythe?”

“Yeah?”

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