Page 48 of Heart and Soul
“Lions,” I say.
Jay stops in his tracks, pulling me against his back in a protective stance. “Where?”
“No, not here. I mean it’slions’ den, notwolves’ den, and it’s Daniel, not Peter. ‘Daniel in the Lion’s Den,’ ‘Peter and the Wolf.’ Got it?”
“Same difference, Shayne! The point is, she’s not here yet, and without her, he’s a sitting duck.”
“Do you actually know either of those stories, Jay? Daniel ends up playing with the lions, and Peter kills the wolf.”
“Really?”
“Really. So just relax, okay?”
He shakes his fingers out. “Okay. All right.”
“It’s funny, though, you calling him a sitting duck. Because the wolf actually eats the duck.”
Jay groans loudly. “Oh, shit no, where is she? Call her right now.”
As we arrive at the bar, my eyes fix on the only empty space in the mob of drinkers. I know that empty space. “Jay, she’ll be here. In the meantime, grab that empty space at the bar and get us some drinks so we look natural.”
“Drinks?” He’s intimidated by the twenty-foot wall of neon liquor bottles behind the bar. “What the hell do I order?”
“Just get yourself a Screaming Kiss.”
He looks unsure. “A Screaming Kiss?”
“Oh, you’ll love it, trust me. Hurry, before that space closes up.”
Jay dutifully hurries to the narrow open space, but when he gets there, he seems to stumble, bumping into an invisible something—or somebody. With a zing of underworld current, a fun-size socialite in a crystal blue princess dress and black leather jacket materializes out of thin air. Elvira whips her blonde tresses to face Jay. She screams at the top of her lungs, throws her arms around his neck, and locks her lips square on his mouth. In his startled haste to back away from her, his hands fumble into her boobs. Elle shrieks with mock objection, slaps him hard in the face, then wraps all four arms and legs around him.
I sidle up with a smile. “Didn’t I tell you about that drink, Jay? Knock you right off your feet.”
Elle screams again and throws herself at me in a full-on tackle. We both wipe out, hitting the floor among a sea of sneakers and high heels. Elle makesmwahnoises as she peppers my face with kisses. “Oh, I want him, Shayne, I want my own Brenner, just give him to me already. You have to. Please, please, please.”
“Nope.”
She frowns and makes a petulant voice. “But it’s what I want.”
I fake an exasperated sigh. “Well, since you put it that way, I suppose…I’ll just have to tell him I changed my mind.”
She blinks with surprise, biting the hook like a good little fish. “Changed your mind?” I see the overactive, hopeful wheels turning behind her cautious eyes. “Changed your mind about what?”
“Oh, nothing, just about getting mar—”
She explodes with a delighted squeal and shakes my shoulders, thumping my head against the hardwood floor. “Getting married! I knew it! I told you so, I told you there’d be…and now you’re…oh, and you promised!”
“Breathe, Elle. In and out.”
“You promised I could make the dress, so I need a when and a where, girl, tell me, tellmetellmetellme. Hey!” She shouts angrily at a guy who just stepped on my hair. She flicks a fireball at his crotch, sending him scurrying into the crowd.
Jay lifts us from the floor. The side of his face that wasn’t burnt from the car bomb is now a matching red with an outline of Elle’s hand. “Did you meet up with Russo?” he asks.
“You mean the total silver fox with shoulders big enough for me to lie across?”
“That would be a yes,” I say. “What do you think? Willing enough for you?”
Her eyes grow big. “Um, yes and no. For the job we’re doing tonight, definitely, but for what I’d like him to do to me later, sadly, I wasn’t feeling much.”
