Page 73 of Gambler's Fallacy

I want to murder the woman.

“I’ll find it,” Seven says, his own voice subdued. He starts digging through the packaging the screws had come in, but after a few minutes, he shakes his head. “I don’t think it’s here.” He flinches, like he expects us to blame him.

He hasn’t been acting like himself, either, but it’s not surprising. Caleb had pushed him pretty hard.

“I don’t want to run to the hardware store,” I complain. “Maybe we don’t need it.”

Vortex grunts and drops the allen wrench onto the floor. “Why did it take you so long to even buy furniture? Shouldn’t you have done this a month ago?”

“I’ve been busy,” I hedge, my own annoyance ratcheting up.

“And why are you buying this cheap crap? Caleb pays you well enough that you can afford real furniture,” Vortex goes on.

“What’s your problem?” I snap at him. “Help me assemble this, then we can go out for lunch or something.”

“Nothing is my problem,” he snaps right back.

Seven looks between us, his expression bleak, but Vortex doesn’t seem to notice until I look pointedly at him, then at Seven.

His face softens, and he goes to Seven, crouching down in front of him. “Hey, beautiful,” he says softly. “It’s okay. We’re frustrated, that’s all. Not with you. Never with you.”

Fucking liar. If he wasn’t upset about that whole thing with Seven—another thing I don’t want more details about—then he would have joined us the other day. He wouldn’t have had to hear second-hand what Seven had revealed to us.

Or rather, the information Caleb had already known about. I wonder what else he’s hiding.

I reach for the allen wrench, already dreading how it’s going to dig into my skin as I use it. “Okay, if Vortex won’t help, I guess it’s you and me, Seven.” I grab the already assembled boards and hold the next board—a future shelf—in position. “Hold this here, and I’ll screw it into place.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help,” Vortex says, and I can hearthe strain in his voice as he tries not to snarl at me again. “Seven, would you mind grabbing us some water?”

Seven looks warily between us, like he expects a fight to break out at any given second, but he nods and gets up from the floor. “Yeah. But don’t… Don’t kill each other, okay?”

He leaves the room, and Vortex turns to me before saying quietly, “I’m not trying to be a dick.”

“Doing a bad job of it,” I mutter while I try to get the screw in place while holding the boards with my other hand. “Why don’t you just talk to him?”

Vortex grimaces, and at first, I don’t think he’s going to answer. Then he says, “I’m so pissed off — not at him, but… you know — and I’m scared he’s going to think I’m pissed at him.”

“He already thinks you’re pissed off at him,” I say. I finally get the screw in far enough that I can tighten it properly, and as expected, the stupid allen wrench digs into my palm while I turn it.

“I’ll talk to him,” he says. When I glance skeptically at him, he insists, “I will.”

I roll my eyes, then glance in the direction of the kitchen. I spot Seven’s shadow in the archway.

“You can come back now, Seven. Screwing is thirsty work,” I say, smirking when Vortex groans at my bad joke.

Seven creeps back in with two glasses of water in hand. He gives one to me and the other to Vortex, offering a tiny smile. “You didn’t murder each other. Progress.”

“I was going easy on him,” I say. “Vortex wouldn’t have stood a chance if I’d attempted the whole murdering thing.”

Vortex makes a rude sound, then he offers his arm out to Seven. Seven briefly looks wary, then he goes to him, letting Vortex wrap that arm around him.

I should be jealous, but instead, I’m relieved that they’re getting over their tiff. Seven needs as many people on his side as he can get.

I take a quick drink from my glass, then turn the page on theinstructions. “Okay. Next step. More screwing. If Seven holds things in place, we can take care of the screwing?—”

“Will you stop saying ‘screwing’?” Vortex demands, exasperated.

Seven snickers, though, letting Vortex squeeze his shoulders before releasing him. “I don’t know. I think screwing could be fun,” Seven says.

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