Page 312 of Vile Boys

“Books. Books. Books. Hmm …” He taps his finger against his chin. “Books.”

“Wow, you got yourself an actual book nerd,” Penelope mutters, squeezing my shoulders.

I snort, but Blaine seems offended.

“Excuse me, reading does not constitute being a nerd. It’s called sophistication. Something your lot obviously lacks, judging by that one over there nearly lighting this whole place on fire.” Blaine stares at Dylan, playing with his lighter near a bottle of rum.

“Point taken,” Penelope says, laughing it off.

“Who’s talking about me?” Dylan scoffs.

“No one,” Penelope yells back.

Felix grumbles as he places a deck of cards in front of everyone. “SIT!”

My brows rise. “Is he always this domineering?”

Penelope laughs. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Everyone chuckles a little.

“Guess we’ve been summoned.” Penelope snorts before she leaves.

I hop off my stool and sit down with the rest of them while Blaine and Ares drink at the bar and talk with each other.

“Who goes first?” Alistair asks.

“I’ll go first,” Kai says, placing down a card.

“That’s not how it works. We all gotta throw the dice,” Dylan tells him.

“Says who?” Kai retorts, narrowing his eyes.

“I do,” Felix barks. “Now shut the fuck up and play this game like normal people.”

Everyone’s quieted.

“Yay for no more fighting,” Milo murmurs, twirling his fingers around in the air.

Nathan pulls out his knife as he eyes Felix. “I’ll give you something to f—”

“No knives!” Lana warns, giving everyone a death stare. “Can’t y’all be nice for one evening?”

“One?” Alistair raises a brow.

“Thought you said we were going to do this more often?” Milo asks.

“Not if you guys keep trying to kill each other,” Penelope says.

“Exactly,” I say.

“So … you’re part of the Death Gang now?” Milo asks me.

“The what now?” Kai asks, frowning at him.

“Well, you know, we murder everyone who crosses us. She kind of helped us kill people. To save Ares, of course,” Milo explains. “Death Gang.”

“I’d be honored,” I say, snorting.

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