Page 54 of Puck
“What if you don’t wanna be done?” Layla filled in, her voice more normally pitched, and I nodded. “Then go with it. I was scared shitless when I realized Nick and I were a thing. But if what you got feels like it’s worth it, then you hold on and you don’t let go. When it stops being worth it, then you know it’s over. For Nick and me, it won’t ever not be worth it, so I keep holding on.”
“You make it sound simple.”
“Simple, yes. Easy, no.” She laughed. “Nick is an asshole. But he’smyasshole, and I love him, and his qualities far outweigh the fact that he can be a dick, that he’s a little controlling, a lot bossy, and super protective.”
“Controlling, bossy, and protective don’t seem like bad things.”
“When you’re a badass boss chick, it is. You seem a lot like me—independent to a fault, with a hair-trigger temper if anyone tries to make you do something you don’t want to do, or tries to keep you from doing what you want to do.”
I giggled, and yes, this time it was a stupid girly giggle. “You got that right.”
She nodded sagely. “When your man is used to giving orders and being obeyed but you’re the kind of chick who thinks it’s funny to defy orders just for the hell of it . . . things get tricky. And when that same man is bound and determined to make sure you never so much as chip a goddamn nail, much less see any real action, and you’ve developed a bit of an addiction to the thrill of danger and feeling like a badass boss chick . . . it gets even trickier.”
“He didn’t like you wanting to be part of the team?”
“The stupid caveman tried to order me to stay home.”
“What happened?”
“I ran off. Shook the tail he’d put on me, hunted his dumbass down.” She grinned, remembering. “He has an office on the West Coast, doesn’t go there a lot. But the op he was on required him to be in LA and I knew it, so I let myself into his office. Stripped down to my birthday suit and waited till I knew he was about to walk in, and made sure he caught me diddling myself.”
I snorted. “Wow. And that worked, did it?”
She blew a raspberry. “Fuck no, it didn’t work. Backfired completely. I thought I’d tease him until he agreed to let me go on the op with him.”
“But—?”
“But he turned the tables on me. Zip-tied me to his office chair and teased me with his cock until I was begging him to let me have it. I’ve got a weakness—I see his dick, I want his dick. He was all hard and kept putting it in me and touching my lips with it, and I was all hot and wet and shit, and he wouldn’t fucking give it to me. So I ended up agreeing to stay put.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “He must have a magical dick.”
“You havenoidea.” She said this deadpan, no hint of irony or sarcasm.
“So you don’t go on ops?”
She shot me a look. “OfcourseI do. What kind of pussy do you take me for? I had no intention of actually staying home, I just wanted his dick and was willing to say anything to get it into my mouth.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what else to say, because this girl clearly had zero filter, which was equal parts funny and disconcerting.
“Circumstances became such that he didn’t have a choice but to let me go with him, and I ended up proving that I was game—not that he should have needed more proof at that point anyway. I’d fought my way out of a previous situation, but that is a whole other story. Point is, I proved I could handle myself in a shootout and could follow orders when it really counted. And now I’m an active member of Alpha One Security’s core task force.” She leaned forward and glanced at Puck. “Ain’t that right?”
He held out his fist, and they tapped knuckles in front of me. “Hoo-rah, motherfucker.” He winked at me. “This bitch is stone-cold.”
I laughed. “No kidding. I’ve seen her in action.” I shook my head. “I think you’re all a little nuts. You crazy assholes seem like you actuallyenjoythis shit.”
Puck shrugged. “Eh, I guess we do.”
“Some people like sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll,” Layla said, “well, I prefer sex, guns, and gangsta rap.”
I laughed and shook my head, then turned to look out the window. I’d always wanted to see Prague, and so far I hadn’t seen a single thing, having been caught up in the conversation with Layla. I needed to let her advice and my own thoughts and feelings on the subject percolate a little, so I watched the scenery. We’d entered the city proper already, which meant we were on a narrow two-lane one-way road, with the buildings close by on either side, squat four- or five-story buildings with lots of windows and shops on the street level—the unmistakable look of old-world Europe. We took a twisting, looping series of turns, often doubling back or circling the same block more than once, and I realized the driver—a taciturn older man with salt-and-pepper hair underneath a flat cabbie cap—was making sure no one was following us. Eventually he must have been satisfied we weren’t being tailed, because he made an abrupt left turn and drove straight for half a dozen blocks, then circled another block twice before finally pulling into a parking spot in front of an apartment building. It was four stories, flat gray, squat and square and imposing, and pretty much identical to all the other buildings I’d seen so far.
Ivar exited the van, opened the sliding side door, and gestured at Temple. “You. Come inside.” He glanced at the men in the back. “Blieb hier. Wenn es irgendwelche Probleme gibt, gehen Sie.”
The men both nodded. “Jawhohl.”
Temple reluctantly, nervously, climbed out, glancing back at us, and Ivar sighed in irritation. “You wish a friend for courage,ja?” Temple nodded, and Lola slid out after her, and the two women held hands. Ivar rolled his eyes. “It will take ten minutes, and you will not even feel it, probably. Like a finger prick, at most. Then done. Chin up,ja?”
Temple nodded again, and took a deep breath, and then lifted her chin high, following Ivar into the apartment building. Puck was standing outside the van, leaning against the frame of the door, and he had the little submachine gun in his hands, although I wasn’t sure where he’d stashed it up until now—certainly not in his pants; I nearly laughed out loud at my own lewd joke.