Page 102 of The Mercenary's Guide to Mishaps and Romance

I gape at it all. “How can I not?”

Tavish waves my attention back to our cell. “Look at these bottles. I have them all in order. Ignore those pests outside our cell.”

I realize that Tavish wants me to be impressed by the way he lined some bottles up by dates and not with the way those fuckers just like performed magic. “Oh! Right! You got them all already? That’s so fast!”

“Thanks,” Tavish says, proud as a peacock. “I don’t know what I do with them now. Think they have real alcohol in them?”

“If they do, roll one my way to make this more enjoyable,” Henry requests.

“Hey, Cassel, your key doesn’t work over here. Leland, you sure you put it in right? You look like a man who doesn’t know how to put it in right,” Micah says, tossing it back to Cassel so he can whip it back at Leland.

“We have this fun little pulley,” Jeremy states, pulling the rope that sends the bucket to the other side of the room even though Cassel obviously doesn’t need it as he shoots the key back to Leland with ease.

“I am motherfucking phenomenal at putting it in right. I am… oh no, you’re right, I totally had it upside down,” he says as he releases the box. “Jackson. Babe. Are you still stuck? I could have used your help putting it in right.”

“You’re sitting on me. How do you expect me to get up when you’re sitting on me?”

“Ellis, they’re really not that interesting,” Tavish tells me, still sounding jealous.

“Definitely not. Now let’s see what we have here,” I say, not wanting Tavish to feel left out.

“I need a code with six letters,” Cassel says.

“We might have it!” I announce as I pick up the first bottle and see a P on the bottom. “First is P?—”

“Definitely parrot, then,” Cassel says as he fills that out. “Yep, sure was.”

I glance at Tavish who just pushes the bottles over in defeat, and I can’t help the laugh that escapes me.

He eyes me. “What?”

“Nothing!”

“I had this before he figured it out with his annoying brain,” Tavish says.

“You definitely did! You did a lot!”

“Inside the box is a map,” Cassel says.

“I once killed a man with a map,” Leland declares.

“You’re so brave, honey,” Jackson says, kind of looking like he’s just taking a good rest on the floor.

“Thank you.”

“We have a parrot symbol,” Tavish says as he points at some graffiti on the wall. He gives it a push, which causes the block to move and a key to drop out. He picks it up, reaches through the bars, and unlocks our cell. “Well, this was fun. See ya guys,” he says as he pulls me out toward the door to the next room.

“You need something, don’t you?” Cassel toyingly says as he twirls a key from inside his cell. “Let me out and I’ll let you finger this key all over.”

“Dammit,” Tavish complains as I take the prison cell key and head over to let Cassel out. Once he’s free, I open Leland’s cell too, which was evidently the wrong move because Tavish grumbles, “Why the hell did you let him out?”

“I don’t know. Because he looked like he wanted out?”

“You can leave me in here,” Henry offers, but I unlock their cell too. The locks don’t actually have much to them and could easily be opened without the key—I’m sure for safety measures—but they all seem to be committed to their roles, so I dutifully free them all.

“That’s a good boy,” Leland says as he pats my head. “You’ll make a good child after all. What are your thoughts about being renamed? Waylon was such a brat about the idea, but you, on the other hand…”

I give him a smile so what I’m about to say hopefully hurts less. “I’ve heard what you’ve named your guns and… I kind of… think I’ll keep this name. Thank you, though.”

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