Page 20 of Last One Standing
Phoenix’s eyes widened. “You remembered?”
Kona snorted. “Of course I did. And I dare say that is a lot harder than this.”
Phoenix was shaking his head before Kona even finished talking. “No way. This is a lot more complex.”
They’d probably continue to go back and forth like this if I didn’t stop them. “I think you both work your butts off equally, and it shows in your beautiful performances.”
I was then graced with two beaming faces.Right…um. “So, anyway, I thought the show was amazing as well.”
Kona tilted his head, and a small crinkle formed above his brow. “Thank you, Angel.”
Over Kona’s shoulder I saw one of the Dead Kings approaching us. I could tell from the way one of them was staring at me that I wasn’t hiding my distaste for them from my expression.
“Kona, time to go. Brick’s asking for you.”
I didn’t miss how Kona winced at Brick’s name, or how his smile dimmed. “Right. Well, thank you both for coming.” He turned on his heel, and a second later he was gone.
“That was odd.” So, Phoenix had picked up on it too.
“You saw that, huh?”
He nodded. “I assumed he liked being with the MC, but I know when someone in the house says Noel’s looking for me, I light up. I don’t feel like I’m being marched to my funeral, and Kona didn’t appear too happy.”
I had to agree. I hummed. “Let’s get home; it’s late.”
I wasn’t sure what exactly I could do to help Kona without him asking and us voting. But I did know that the Dead Kingswere causing this town—hell, the whole state according to my research—a lot of grief. Vandalism, threats, a few even claimed they were forced to give a percentage of their weekly profits to the MC. Not for protection but so the Dead Kings wouldn’t destroy their livelihoods. It wouldn’t shock me if that was how Brick dealt with everything—both business and personal.
“What’s the difference between nautical miles and regular miles?” Gabe asked after Noel made some comment about nautical miles…and now here we were dealing with whatever this catastrophe would be. I just wanted to eat my waffles in peace.
“Nautical miles are slightly longer than land miles,” Noel answered, and judging by the blank look on his face, he believed that was the end of the conversation.
“Why?” Yeah, Gabe wasn’t going to accept that simple nonanswer.
“What do you mean, why?” Noel wiped his mouth. “It’s based on the Earth’s longitude and latitude coordinates.”
The whole table was now watching Noel and Gabe. We all knew this wasn’t going to be simple, and part of me was wondering why Noel had even bothered answering Gabe. It wasn’t like Gabe was dumb; he wasn’t. He was the guy you wanted to come find you if you were in trouble. He drove better than any of us in stressful situations, and more than once he’d led an operation. But certain things just didn’t compute with him. We all had those things that didn’t click.
“Don’t we have longitude and latitude on land?”
Noel rolled his eyes. “Gabe, really, are you just fucking with me?”
Gabe sighed and gritted his teeth. “No, what the fuck? Do you even know?”
“I do know. I literally just explained it.”
Gabe’s brows shot to his hairline. “Did you? Because that was a shitty explanation.”
“The answer was shitty?” Noel glanced at me for help but nope, I wanted no part of this. “Gabe, it’s the answer, though. It makes sense.”
“Does it, Noel?” Gabe turned to Mason. “Did that answer make sense to you?”
Poor Mason, he had a scoop of eggs halfway to his mouth and now he’d frozen, likely hoping by staying still Gabe wouldn’t see him.
“Mason?”
“Uh…” He placed his fork down. “Well, yeah, but I understand the difference.”
Gabe smiled. “Perfect, I’m sure you can answer this better than Tweedle Dum over there.”
