Page 4 of Bullet
“Yeah, Aaron. I guess he tried to get snippy, so Tess cut him loose. Seth and Vil backed her up, so I respected her decision,” Nick explained. “That’s only happened once before.” He locked eyes with me. “Hopefully, it doesn’t go as bad as it did last time.”
I shook my head. “I’m not worried.”
He smiled. “Glad to hear it.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Anyway, I’m probably gonna get some posts out on social media and just see what comes walking through the door. We’ll have to vet everyone carefully, but I’m thinking we can pour a little booze into ’em and see who shows their true colors and go from there. Sound good?” Avery, Bucky and I all let out our own sounds of affirmation and then Nick finally broke out one of his typical, good ol’ Nick smiles. Everyone let out sighs of relief and then Nick clapped a hand against the table. “Well, does anyone else have anything else we need to cover?” No one responded so Nick clapped the table again, as if he was hitting it with a gavel. “All right then; meeting adjourned.”
We all lingered for a few minutes longer, breathing in the silence of Nick’s words, but eventually, Bucky gathered himself up from the table. “Well, I’m starving. I know it’s only about eleven, but let’s go find someplace to hole up and eat.”
Nick nodded. “I could go for that.”
Avery and I looked at each other and then Avery nodded his head with a smile. “Yeah, we’re in.”
Bucky and Avery led the charge out of the warehouse, while I stayed behind after noticing that Nick hadn’t moved. He was just sitting in place, smelling the glass of whisky in his hand. “You good, Squared?” I asked.
“He liked whisky most,” Nick said, “Taylor did. Got that habit from me. Weird thing is, I haven’t brought myself to drink it since then. Keep pouring glasses and just...” He took a big sniff in and let the sentence die out. I didn’t say anything else. Loss wasn’t something I dealt with in the healthiest way, so I couldn’t really offer any sound advice. Eventually, he set the glass down on the table and looked up at me. “Hey. You ever thought about applying for a higher position?”
Math and finances were something I’d always been good at. I went to college for it and loved being a bookkeeper. “No.”
Nick didn’t press. He nodded his head as he stood up from the table. “Let’s go then. I’m starved.”
We left the warehouse and made our way back into the main room of the bar, where the two newest and also youngest members of the Steel Knights had arrived and were packing up a game of pool. Seth and Vil had prospected for months before Colin showed up, and his fast track pulled them into membership a bit before they were meant to be. For those mistakes, they’d turned out to be worth their weight in gold. They were strong, not easily ruffled, and had been good additions to the club thus far. In short, I liked them.
“Hey, Nicky,” Vil greeted, slapping hands with the man as he walked around the bar.
Nick smiled. “There he is, Knuckles!”
“Knuckles?” Avery asked.
Nick slapped Vil’s shoulder. “These boys got nicknames last night,” he announced. “Vil here’s a bit of a scrapper, and a few disrespectful idiots wandered in at bar close and got a taste of his fists. I’ve never seen hands flying so fast. Called him Knuckles and it just stuck.”
Vil smiled. “I acted fast.” He flipped over his left arm and revealed the new moniker tattooed down the inside of his forearm.
“Whoo!” Nick said. “Look at that!”
Bucky hooked an arm around the much more stoic Seth. “This one here, we call him ‘Dynamite’ now. He’s always off in some corner quiet as a bird, but the second those guys caused trouble—BOOM!”
“True members now,” Avery said. “Welcome to the family.” Both Seth and Vil smiled at that. “To start, I need you young bucks to school Bullet over here.”
I furrowed my brow. “I don’t need to be schooled on anything,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Can we go? I’m hungry.”
Avery’s eyes narrowed. “Come on. You still have a snit up your ass about that girl.” He looked at Seth. “He went out with this chick, right? Really liked her, but he hasn’t heard from her since.”
Seth looked over at me. “Have you called?”
My nostrils flared with frustration at the sudden intrusion into my business. “Of course I’ve called. “
Vil raised an eyebrow. “Was she talkative leading up to when you guys went out?”
I crossed my arms. “Yes.” Seth and Vil looked at one another and then back at me. “What?” I yelled.
“Did you take her home?” Vil asked.
My body burned all over instantly just thinking about it. “Yes.”
Vil’s lip turned down at the corner. “And how long has it been since you guys spoke?”
“The last time I talked to her was when she left my house the morning after,” I replied, “about three weeks ago.”
Seth frowned. “Sorry, Bullet,” he said with a sigh. “It sounds like you were ghosted.”
