Page 57 of Bad Ruck

"What?" I raised my eyebrows at him questioningly.

"Things were easier when I didn't know anything about this mafia stuff," he said. "My life was all about footy, fucking Chelsea and hanging out with Frosty. Now, I feel like we're some weird version of the Blues Brothers. We'll get home and find horse heads in our beds."

"I think you might be mixing your movies, but I get your point," I said. "A few weeks ago, you wouldn't have been driving down the highway in the middle of the night, back to Dusk Bay. You would have been at home, watching a movie or seeing how many times you could make our woman come before she couldn't take anymore."

"Exactly," he said with a grunt. "How did we end up here?"

"I think it was something to do with Frost strangling Ivy," I said. "But the minute you got together with Chelsea, at least some of this was inevitable. She denies it, but this is her world. This is mine, now it's yours. I don't think you're planning to walk away from it, are you?"

"I'm not walking away from her," he agreed. "If this is the shit that has to happen, then I guess…" He shook his head. "This is fucked up."

"It is, but we can deal with it," I said.

He barked a laugh. "It's not like we have a choice. Not now. We're in it up to our balls. Our eyeballs, just to be clear."

"Whatever balls you want to bring into the conversation, we're in it up to them," I said. "If we weren't, Chelsea might have had to do this herself. I wouldn't wish that on her. Would you?"

"Hell no," he said immediately. "She'd never forgive herself."

I wasn't sure if that was completely true, but close enough. She was more of a badass than she gave herself credit for. She'd do whatever was necessary, then she'd move on. Like she had from handing Belinda Simmons to her brother to keep everyone from finding out she used to be a stripper. She did it because she had to. When it came down to it, remorse was no use at the best of times. Especially not once the woman was dead.

"Lucky she has us to do that dirty work for her," I said."

"Is that what we are now?" he asked. "Dirty deeds done dirt cheap by Dusk Bay dudes?"

"That can be our tagline," I said. "We could have a van with that down the side." I held up my hands to mime a wide sticker. "Dusk Bay dudes, doing dirty deeds since… Something beginning with D."

He snorted a laugh. "Dusk Bay dickheads, more like it. Dragged into dirty deeds despite demselves."

"To save damsels," I added. "From distress."

"Dat's about right." He nodded, but was trying to hold back a laugh.

"If you're not careful, I'm going to understand what the others see in you," I said. "Not physically; you might be much less of an asshole than I first thought."

"No, I'm as big an asshole as you thought," he said. "I'm just fucking funny sometimes. Don't tell anyone, I don't want them to get some weird expectations about me."

"I won't say a word," I said. He was definitely not that bad, but if he wanted to go on believing he was, there wasn't much I could say to convince him otherwise.

"Good. If you don't, neither will I." He took a breath in through his nose, and out again before he spoke again. "You might not be as bad as I thought you were either. I'm not saying we're gonna be best friends or anything, but I guess I can tolerate you."

"I'm flattered," I said ironically. "All my life, I wanted to be tolerable."

"It's not much of a goal, but congratulations on reaching it," he deadpanned.

"Thanks, I think." I frowned at him and shook my head. Calling a truce with him was a relief. I hoped we could make it last. For all of our sakes.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chelsea

Sadie's eyes widened."So there's a new coach now?"

"Any day now." I sipped my coffee and nodded. "Coach Stanley's remains were found in his car, just off the highway. He hit a tree and it burst into flames, incinerating him and the car."

"Holy shit," she whispered. "That's terrible."

"It is." I couldn't quite meet her eyes. "They're starting to say the Smashers are cursed or something. First it was the GM, now the head coach."

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