Granted, I’d just bought the damn thing when I came up with my plan, but that wasn’t the point. I knew how to ride it. I’d been riding and driving all sorts of different vehicles over the past several years.
“Then why the fuck would you drive your Mustang here?” he asked.
It was a valid question.
Even if I thought the reason was pretty obvious.
“Where else was I going to put my shit?” I asked.
To that, Voss nodded and shrugged, walking over toward his bunk, and dropping down on the lower one.
“That’s Voss. I’m on the other end,” Valen said, though it was clear it was his since there looked to be a few personal items on it. A book, a notebook, and a set of headphones.
So I was in the middle then.
At least I got to choose the top.
Both of them went for lower beds.
Moving forward, I went to the center bunk and tossed my phone up onto the top mattress.
Again, when Valen spoke, he clearly meant it just for himself. And, again, I was too tuned in to him not to hear it.
“Always making shit difficult.”
I chose to let that go because a small part of me felt a little pang at his words. At the familiarity they stood for. And some part of him that made it sound like he didn’t like that aspect of my personality.
You’d think it would be impossible for him to be able to hurt me after the whole situation went down so long ago. I wasn’t exactly pleased to learn he did still have that power.
I guess the difference was, where those same knife-to-the-back words would have had me down on my knees back then, now, they just made me stiffen. I yanked that knife out and let that sting only bolster up my resolve.
“Seth mentioned that some guy named Brooks is in charge of us,” I said instead, turning back to look at him.
“Yep.”
That was it. Yep.
“Do we go to him to ask for assignments?” I asked.
“No.”
Gritting my teeth to keep from snapping at him, knowing he would win more points if he knew he got a rise out of me, I lifted my chin a bit. “Should I ask Fallon instead of you?” I asked, watching as he exhaled hard, knowing he would get in trouble if he didn’t show me the ropes the way our president clearly wanted him to.
“You don’t report to anyone. You wait for someone to bark an order at you, then you do it. There. You’ve gotten your tour and your information. Voss, let’s go for a ride,” he said, and the other man rolled off his bed and followed behind, leaving me alone in the room.
I felt like it was the first deep breath I took in hours after they were gone.
But it got caught in my chest when the door opened again.
And there was Seth, giving me a knowing smile.
“I knew you’d show up to stick it to him, being all beautiful and shit, showing him what he missed out on,” Seth said as he walked over toward the prospect table, slipping a few chips back into their rightful places in the holder. “Didn’t see you prospecting.”
“You pissed about it?”
“About you coming in and starting shit?” Seth asked, chuckling. “Have we met? I live for that shit. Maybe wondering if you thought it through.”
“I have. Believe it or not. What?” I asked when his head shook.