Page 30 of Chasing Riddick

“ Y ou’re in a better mood, brother.” Turtle grinned at me as he helped me clear dishes off a party table.

I shot him one of my more mischievous grins.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m always in a good mood.”

Turtle chuckled and shook his head, tossing a handful of dirty cutlery into his bus bin.

“Whatever, man… Hey, what happened last night anyway? Quinn found us after you left, and she was pretty freaked out.”

“Yeah, I told you, she had a rough night. You know that Tully guy? He’s bad news, bro. Apparently, she used to date him, and he got violent.”

“No way, what the shiz?”

“Yeah, man. He, like, threw her on the ground and tried to kick her right in front of me.”

Turtle dropped the plate he was holding, his mouth hanging open in shock.

“Fuck off, you’re joking?”

“Nuh-uh.” I shook my head and held up my injured hand to show him. Riddick had helped me wrap it up before work, and the memory of him leaving gentle kisses on each of my fingertips as he bandaged me up made my cheeks heat slightly.

“Yeah, bro. I beat the shit out of him. Pretty sure I broke his nose.”

“Fuuuck, bro. That’s some heavy shit. You know he’s the mayor’s son, right?”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t give him the right to whale on Quinn like that.”

“No doubt, no doubt. I would have done the same thing just… damn. ”

“Yeah, pretty fucked up… Wait, Quinn didn’t already tell you all this?”

“Nah, man, she was going on about something else. Saying you had a big blow-up. She kept going on and on about some dude named Riddick. She seemed pretty freaked out. I wasn’t really following.”

I frowned. My little argument with Riddick was way less dramatic than what had happened with Tully. Though Riddick had made it clear he didn’t want me to tell people we were training together, I was starting to think his history with the locals went deeper than what he was telling me.

I remembered how people at the party had been staring at us while we argued. It had been weird that they seemed more invested in a heated discussion between me and Riddick than they had in me literally beating the shit out of the mayor’s son.

Lost in thought, I gathered up my full bus bin and headed to the dish pit to unload, leaving Turtle to clear the last few things.

“Oh, hey Finn.”

I glanced up to see Quinn filling up a tray of fountain sodas for one of her tables. Her dark hair was in a glossy, high pony, and her bright red Sharkies shorts made her long, tanned legs look like they went on for days.

I smiled at her.

“Hey babe, how was the rest of your night?”

She gave me a strange look, then shrugged.

“Not bad… Uhm. How’re you feeling?” she asked, and I mimicked her shrug.

“Pretty good, all patched up,” I said, flashing my bandaged hand at her, and she pursed her lips but nodded.

“Oh… that’s good.”

“Yeah. I gotta drop these in the pit, I’ll see you around, yeah?” I said, not wanting her to get the wrong idea and think I was flirting with her again.

The jealousy I’d heard in Riddick’s voice when he’d told me about seeing her put her hands on me made me weirdly shivery and happy.

The rest of my shift went by without anything eventful happening, though I did notice I was getting more loaded looks than normal from the Sharkies staff. I caught a few people whispering to each other at one of the service stations and staring as I bused a table nearby.

However, when I asked what they were whispering about, they pretended like they didn’t know what I was talking about.

I brushed it off and resolved to grill Riddick about it when I got home.