Page 51 of The Hard Way

“No reason to start hacking off anybody’s limbs or pulling out their intestines like rope,” Zeus added.

“Wait, what?” I said. Was that thea lotit would take to make him confess?

Odin’s hard and stormy gaze was fixed on Zeus. “Of course. No reason.”

“No, I would thinknot!” I said.

“We go forward,” Zeus said to Odin.

I was not loving their vague conversation. “I vote fornothaving a man’s intestines being pulled out like rope to be on the table. Let’s opt for following up with those motels instead.”

“Are you propositioning your husbands?” Thor asked, trying to inject humor into the whole situation, but it wasn’t working. Bloody intestines like rope were out on the table now.

I pushed away the ketchup-drenched fries. “I’m officially done with these.”

“Thor, you should follow up on the motels.”

It was a bit of a surprise that Zeus said that. Yes, Thor was the sparkly people person, but Odin was better at questioning strangers.

“Should I go with Thor?” I asked.

“You’re with us. The three of us break into the grocery store,” Zeus continued. “It closes at ten.” He glanced at the time.

“No hurry,” I said. “Stock boys won’t be gone from the Pig until eleven.” I knew that from having friends who worked there back in high school.

“What? Everyone calls it the Pig?” Zeus asked.

“Yeah.”

“We can’t get out of this town too soon.”

“What would you call it?” I asked.

“A store shouldn’t be named Piggly Wiggly in the first place,” Zeus declared.

“That’s not an answer,” I said.

Zeus shot me a stern and sexy look.

“Oh dear,” Odin said, shaking his head gravely. “What will we do with you?”

I bit my lip as delicious shivers slid all over my skin.

“Maybe we take this someplace else,” Thor said. “Not that Walmart isn’t romantic.”

We headed out to dine on steaks and frog legs at the Cobblestone Supper Club, which was not much more romantic, what with the glassy eyes of decrepit mounted buck heads.

A girl I remembered from a rival high school, Annie, was our waitress. She’d been a cheerleader, and she still had that really sunny way about her where you couldn’t help but like her.

Between courses, we plotted out a map of shady motels for Thor to visit. He wanted to deal with the night clerks, because night clerks were the easiest to bribe. One of those sorts of things criminals seemed to just mysteriously know, the way baby spiders just mysteriously know how to build perfect webs.

“I could take half these motels and you two could break into the store,” Odin said.

“I need you with us,” Zeus said.

Odin gave him a hard look. “It’s a fucking cakewalk to get in there.”

Zeus shrugged. “You’re the computer guy.”

---