Page 36 of The Brave and the Reckless

And just like that, my nerves turned from trembling taut strings to blazing fuses. “Screw you,” I hissed.

The orange light above the door died. Noah pulled his prop gun from his holster. And we were off.

I blinked and it was over.

Every step landed perfectly timed. Every word dropped from my tongue as rehearsed. Before I even had the chance to worry, we were boxed into the hideout, door shut, another orange lamp telling us to stay put.

I did it.

A wide grin split my lips and I pressed a hand against my racing heart. Relief and pride surged through my veins like pure adrenaline. So much energy. I wanted to scream and jump and run around the room. Alas, this place was maybe eight by eight feet and an old table from the saloon was crammed against the back wall, eliminating any chance of sprinting in circles.

I whirled around, at least wanting to yell at someone thatI HAD DONE THE THING,but all I got was the starkly contrasted silhouette of Ace Ryder, leaning by the frosted window with his arms crossed and the black bandana drawn over his face. The rush dropped from my head, plummeting to my abdomen, where the ecstatic surge kept tingling. I locked my jaw and turned away. Stupid goddamn shadows shouldn’t be allowed to slant this sharply over a man’s body. Not a man. Not even Ace. Noah. Ugh.

Crossing my arms as well, I sat on the tabletop and waited.

If everything went according to schedule outside– the sheriff fighting the bandits to get to the hideout– we were stuck in here for seven minutes.

I considered pulling my phone out, but the windows were only covered in a cloudy sepia film, so the bright light from a phone screen might still shine through. Points for Esra Taner for mindfulness, thank you very much.

I swung my feet, and I blew a loose strip of hair from my forehead, and I inspected each of my nails, and I traced the knots in the wooden tabletop.

“So… do you come here often?” I asked when I was close to fainting from boredom.

Noah’s head tipped, barely an inch, just enough to look at me between the brim of his hat and the bandana. His pale eyes speared through all the darkness shrouding him, and that tingling adrenaline somersaulted in my stomach. I pressed my hand flat against my belly, trying to calm it down.

It was a completely normal physiological response. Adrenaline was just another hormone, and it easily tricked the body into states of attraction. It was so common, they had a name for it. The misattribution of arousal.

Remembering the textbook definition, however, didn’t stop my body from putting me through it. Couldn’t it at least misattribute on to someone else?

“Hungry?”

“Huh?”

Noah’s eyes dropped to where my hand pressed into the folds of my costume.

“Sure,” I muttered and shook my hand out, fixing myeyes back on the orange light. To be fair, my eating habits weren’t exactly the best these days, with my stocks running low, but earlier on my phone had happily pinged with a bank notification. It wasn’t much, but it was a bit more money than I’d been promised for selling ice cream. As soon as I was out of costume, I’d be ordering the biggest and cheesiest pizza Wild Fields had to offer.

My stomach did actually rumble at the thought.

Good job.I patted my belly, thankful for its noisiness. At least that saved me from having to explain getting the adrenaline hots for Ace Ryder.

“You should really prioritize a healthy breakfast when you know how physically demanding the show gets.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Says the man with the gargantuan peanut butter jar.”

“It’s organic peanut butter without any artificial additives. It’s a good source of protein, unsaturated fats and fiber,” he said without moving an inch, but his voice was taking on that grating arrogance.

“Wow, Young,” I huffed, “you even suck the joy out of a PB and J.”

“Ace and Annie, about thirty seconds. Stop bickering and get in position.” Renee’s voice sounded through the headset. Damn. I’d forgotten that we were on intercom. Had Sanny heard all that? I hadn’t been pretending to be Noah’s biggest fan or anything, but I didn’t want my brother to think I was going to mess up his life and his friendships here. I wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, but hopefully he was connected to the actual show’s dialogue and busy interpreting that in sign language, not creeping on the intercom.

Noah mumbled asorrythat clearly wasn’t for my benefit and pushed himself off the wall.

I hopped off the table and straightened out my skirts.

Ace and Kit were about to duel it out. Once Ace was in chains and off to the jail, I’d fling myself into the sheriff’s arms and be reunited with daddy mayor. And we’d live happily ever after. Or at least until tomorrow at 4 p.m.

“Let’s go,” I huffed.

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