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“Because you came in and took over. And…” He glanced around and shrugged. “It was nice for someone else to take over.”
“No!” I shouted. “We’re not moving backward. Onward and upward! That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. You can’t move backward and step down! You’re our leader.”
“I honestly wouldn’t mind the break. I have this pain in my back. I think it’s from sitting too much.”
“Yeah, and my knee hurts,” Chance grumbled. “I think I torqued it the last time we were running drills.”
“So move past it,” I snapped.
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind taking a little bit of a break,” Jackson nodded along. “Remember that job a few months ago with the trapeze guy? He kept bugging me to try it. I think I really messed up my wrist. All that swinging around...I don’t know how they do it.”
Chance agreed. “Tell me about it. Even my ergonomic mattress isn’t working for me. I was thinking of getting a really fancy bed. And maybe seeing a chiropractor.”
“Ooh, I know a good one,” Ice grinned. “He’s fucking awesome. I went there after Lindsey and I tried to have sex on the washing machine.”
“Tried?” Hunter jabbed.
Ice glared at him. “For your information, it didn’t work because of the height. There was nothing wrong with the mechanics.”
Burg cleared his throat, leaning back in his chair. “I’d just like to announce that my wife is no longer in need of dildos.”
The whole room went quiet as his brows furrowed.
“Uh…not that she was in need of them before,” he tried to correct. “I mean…what I mean to say is that—” He shoved back from the table, glaring at Sinner. “I’m not a sheep fucker!”
Sinner let out a laugh. “I never said you were.”
“You said it on live radio!”
“I was just teasing you. Geez, don’t take it so seriously.”
“Seriously?” Burg scoffed. “My wife runs a business and you had her talking about our personal life on the radio!”
“Yeah, but you already did that,” Sinner pointed out.
“Enough!” I shouted. “Seriously, what is wrong with all of you? Is this what we’re doing now? We’re arguing about sex and mattresses and…wax jobs?”
Hunter raised his hand. “In all fairness, we always did that stuff.”
“Okay, but we’re falling into bad patterns here. Knight, you understand what I’m saying, right?”
He shrugged, but didn’t say anything else.
“Come on. You’re the guy who yells at us when we do stupid shit. You’re supposed to get pissed at us! Remember that time you had us all shooting at each other? Remember, Burg shot someone in the neck and he freaked out because he thought he killed Hunter?”
“Yeah, that wasn’t cool,” Hunter muttered.
“But it worked,” I said excitedly. “Do you remember how alive you felt after?”
Hunter glared at me. “Sure, it was the highlight of my year.”
I looked around at everyone else. Surely, someone felt the same way I did. “Chance…”
“I guess I wouldn’t mind getting out there again.”
“You guess?”
He shifted in his chair, looking at everyone else. “Yeah, I uh…it would be good for us. Another big job,” he nodded. “Jackson, you in?”