Page 11 of Legendary

No way to behave at all.

* * *

I can hear them as soon as the elevator door opens.

“I can carry one goddamned case of beer,” Cash’s deep voice, used to giving orders, booms through the hotel hallway.

“Not without tearing your stitches for the fourth fucking time since you got out of the hospital,” Johnny bitches back at him.

“Both of you chill, or I’m ripping out Cash’s sutures with my nails and taking out his spleen as payback for having to hear this same fight, over and over again, for the last two weeks,” Daisy warns him. “And Johnny, don’t think you’ll get out of this blood-free. I’ll come for you next.”

I leave the door open for them, and in comes Daisy with a suitcase and a large bottle of tequila. Johnny’s next with two cases of beer, while Cash stomps in behind them, empty-handed, but carrying a heavy frown.

Eli looks up from his computer for the first time today. He’s barely acknowledged me at all except to come out of the bedroom, his gaze directly on the hotel’s hardwood floors, to tell me he was going out to get some caffeine. When he came back after raiding the hotel of most of their stock of energy drinks, he sat down at his computer and hasn’t spoken a word to me since.

There is no sign of the man I held in my arms last night. He's locked himself away.

Careful, Eli. You don’t lock out a thief unless you really want him to come in.

“Nice digs,” Daisy says, setting down the tequila on the counter of the mini kitchenette. She finds her way to one of the suite’s two bathrooms and pokes her head in. “Ohh, fun! It has one of those garden tubs with the built-in jacuzzi jets. I’ll definitely be having myself a long bubble bath later.”

She comes back in and sprawls on the lounge chair opposite the table where Eli sits. “I might just have to step out on Thor tonight.”

“Who’s Tho—,” Eli starts, when mid-ask his face goes fire-coal red after his photographic memory kicks in, and he plays back Daisy’s conversation from a few weeks ago about her vibrator, Thor. She’s taken to calling it her boyfriend.

Cash is still too busy sulking to notice the conversation, but Johnny and I both start cackling. Eli gives Johnny a dirty look for laughing at his predicament, but ignores me completely.

“Don’t be embarrassed, sweetie.” Daisy flashes Eli a dimpled smile. “I have no shame in needing a littleménage-à-moisometimes.”

Obviously more than ready to move on, Eli clears his throat. “Now that you are all here, I think we should call an official meeting. Yesterday’s events need to be examined from all sides to ensure the most effective response. I’—”

“Something’s missing,” Johnny cuts in, his head cocked sideways, as he looks at Eli from the armchair of the couch he’s perched on.

“We’re usually drinking when Eli lectures us,” Cash says. “Maybe you’re used to him looking more blurry or—” he cocks his head to the side and stares at me. “Seeing two of him.”

“No, that’s not it,” Johnny says, studying Eli like he’s a puzzle he can’t sum out.

“Oh, I know what it is,” Daisy says, jumping up and running to her purse. When she returns, she hands Eli his glasses. “I stopped in Lexington and picked them up for you.”

He thanks her and puts them on.

“That’s better.” Johnny snaps his fingers. “When you don’t wear your glasses while you glare at us during your lectures, I miss the whole ‘I’m in trouble with the teacher’ vibe.” A cocky smile crosses his face. “Makes me feel like I’m losing my bad boy cred.”

I have to agree with Johnny—which I never do—but I missed the glasses. He always gets so fussy and particular when he wears them. Makes me want to fluster him. Plus, they draw attention to his pretty, dark eyes. I never spent much time in school, but if there had been teachers there like Eli, maybe I would have tried harder to attend.

“Now, as I was saying, I think it's best if we start by having Jeb give his account of the events from yesterday.” He nods his head in my direction without looking directly at me. “After Jeb has shared his perspective, I’ll give you my account. Then, we’ll open up the floor to discuss the implications and their effect on achieving both our short and long-term goals regarding Patriots Now.”

I walk over to the table where Eli is still set up and reach for the chair that’s next to him. He jumps like a scared cat. Looks like we’re back to the no-touching rule again.I guess I’m only good enough to touch him in the dark.

“Relax.” I look pointedly down at my hands on the chair, which are nowhere near him. “I just need to grab something for the little show-and-tell you want me to do.”

I drag the chair to the wall and step up on it to remove the cover of the vent return. Grabbing the bag of money I’d stashed there last night, I hop down and dump it on the table. Banded stacks of hundred-dollar bills fall onto the table and the floor.

Eli lets out a long, disapproving sigh. “Do you have to be so dramatic?” He scrunches his face at the money that’s scattered across his equipment. “And so messy?”

“Yep,” I say. “It’s who I am. Besides,” I nod at Cash, Johnny, and Daisy, who are looking at the plunder in front of them with greed and hunger—like the natural-born thieves they are. “I know my audience.”

“It’s just so pretty.” Daisy gets out of her chair and picks up a few stacks of bills. Once she checks them for authenticity, she rubs them up and down her chest and neck. “Now I’m gonna smell like money,” she says dreamily. “It’s better thanChanel.”

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