Page 24 of Hard Luck (Blackstone House)

JEZEBEL

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Brett had come to the Cathouse one time last year to haul Thelma out of the garage. He was one of the few people in Vegas who knew where I lived, and he’d almost spilled the details to Cole. All I wanted to do today was sweat my tits off in the gym and then head to the shooting range, and now I was stuck in a car with a hot guy who didn’t deserve to be a part of the shitshow that was my life.

I typed out a message as Cole drove.

Me

Code Hippo.

Soon after our team’s inception, the members of the Choir had created our own rating system, kind of like DEFCON, but less boring. Bear, shark, lion, crocodile, and hippo, in that order. Tulsa had argued for “snake” to be on the list, but Dice had vetoed that because she had pet snakes and thought they were cute. Privately, I was on Tulsa’s side, but I didn’t want to wake up to a viper in my bed, so I’d abstained from the vote. Spiders had also beendiscussed, but given that Spider’s nickname was, well, Spider, that had the potential to be confusing.

Echo had suggested mosquitoes because they killed more people than all the others combined, but then Barbie had asked her whether she’d rather be trapped in a room with ten mosquitoes or ten hippos, and she’d grudgingly agreed to include the hippos.

And Code Hippo meant I needed help.

Me

I accidentally accepted a ride “home” from Cole—can someone bring the key for Priest’s apartment?

Priest was in Virginia, and he didn’t live in the apartment anyway. Mostly, he stayed at the Cathouse with us, plus he had a home by the ocean in California so he could keep up his surfing habit. The apartment was where he took his lady friends. And by “lady friends,” I meant the women he married when he got drunk and miserable. Six and counting. Four divorces and two annulments later, why he did it was still a mystery, but Dice said he’d been engaged once, and it didn’t work out. We thought the multiple weddings thing was some sort of trauma response. I mean, for the most part, Priest was pretty cheerful, but there were times when he got really fucking dark, and that was when he showed up with a ring on his finger.

Anyhow, he made a terrible husband. His record for marriage was five months, and he spent most of the time somewhere else. In the end, there were tears and lawyers, and he bought the poor woman a car or a selection of nice jewellery as an apology. For now, he was single, and we were all grateful for that.

Tulsa

“Accidentally.”

Storm

How do you accidentally accept a ride home?

Me

It was Thelma’s fault.

Dice

Sure it was.

Me

Could someone bring the damn key?

Tulsa

Can’t you just get him to drop you off outside a random apartment building?

Me

Cole’s the type of man who’ll stick around to check I make it safely inside.

Marcel

That’s sooooo adorable.

Me

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