“I think we’re comin’ together pretty good, especially takin’ into account how we got started. A man of that persuasion might think birthin’ a charter in blood like we did might make a curse.”
“You believe in shit like that? Curses or juju or whatever?”
“I don’t. Do you?”
With an implacable stare and the deep rasp of his voice, Ben very clearly conveyed the real question he was asking: was the ‘something going on’ with Cooper that he thought the Nevada charter had been cursed by their obliterating the Silver Dragons and losing Gargoyle in the endeavor on the first night of their existence.
Cooper didn’t believe in anything spiritual or supernatural. No god, no karma, no immortal soul to be damned or redeemed, no reincarnation, none of that shit. Humans were animals, nothing more or less. Apex predators. The world began and ended in matter, and any benefit or consequence to any act was material. If they’d set off some chain of events by killing the Dragons, it wasn’t a curse.
He knew exactly what was ‘going on with him,’ at least right now: he’d made a massive mistake claiming the gavel for himself. He was in way over his head, and he didn’t know if he could swim to the surface. But there was no curse. Just choices he’d made and things he’d done.
There was zero chance he’d open his head up and lay all that out before Big Ben Haddon, however, so Cooper simply answered his question.
“No, I don’t. You got anything else?”
With a shake of his head, Ben stood and went to the door. Before he went through, he turned back and said, “You’re doing good at the head of the table, Coop.”
Then he was gone.
Cooper stared at the closed door and didn’t know what to think.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Siena sat in the parkinglot outside the junior high entrance of Laughlin Junior/Senior High School and watched the door. Geneva had come over after school to help out Mrs. Jones’ D&D club. After the truly shitty drop-off they’d had this morning, Siena had all her digits crossed that this club would give her baby sister something good about school, something to look forward to in at least one day a week.
For her own part, Siena was in a significantly better mood now than this morning, when basically everything about her life had seemed more than she could handle—and all that improvement of her outlook was connected to Cooper in some way.
Twenty-four hours ago, she would have said she hated him. Now, she thought they were friends. Never in her life had she experienced such a dramatic and quick turnaround in her feelings for someone. It made her anxious and skeptical, but she’d been going over their interactions since he’d followed her out of the martial arts school, and he’d been nothing but kind. For fuck’s sake, he’d put her down for a nap and tucked her in, then went out and fixed and washed her car.
That hadn’t even been the best of it. She’d invited him in for lunch and put together Cubans from leftovers, and they’d spent hours at the table, over lunch and after it, just talking. No big, explosive disclosures like she’d laid on him earlier, just friendly chat. About the neighborhood and how all the houses had identical floor plans, about notable neighbors and the rougher area that gave the whole development a reputation, about Laughlin and Nevada, about Tulsa and Oklahoma, about favorite movies and music and TV.
While she’d grilled their sandwiches, he’d stood at the fridge and studied the snapshots that covered the front, all in cheap plastic magnetic frames. One of those photos was of Siena as a teenager, on the sidelines of a high school football game, resplendent in her tiny pleated skirt and her big blue and white pompons. Cooper had asked a lot of questions about that photo, and he’d clearly been charmed by it, but he’d managed not to sound like a perv.
And that was good, because there was no chance in hell they’d be getting naked together.
No. Chance. In hell.
He was hot, and he’d been kind and steady with her lately. Also, he’d saved her ass a few times in just the past few days. A different Siena would be crushing on him hard, definitely.ThisSiena was crushing on him a little, too, now. But no. He’d tried to kiss her, yes, but he wasn’t really into her. How could he be? She’d be nothing but a pity fuck to him, and that was absolutely not going to happen.
If they could be friends, she’d welcome it, and not just because he’d been so helpful—though his help had lifted her up at a particularly low point and she was profoundly grateful. Friendship was the thing she needed, and the thing she could trust.
She hadn’t had a real friend since her mom had gotten sick. All her friends from high school had faded away as her focus turned entirely on her family. A few friendships hadn’t faded out but had abruptly exploded, and if she were honest with herself, she’d acknowledge that she’d been the one hopping on the detonator. She’d been nothing but rage and fear in those days, and yeah, she’d taken slights that most would probably consider minor and turned them into betrayals.
It was possible she was still mostly rage and fear, actually. Or maybe it was more accurate to sayagain, not still. She’d felt better before Christmas. Geneva’s troubles were tearing Siena into pieces.