Page 6 of Crash’s Secret

“That’s the spirit,” Saber says.

She points her pen at her brother. “Then it’s a deal.”

She smiles. Aims it straight at me, first one since I walked in, and I’d hand over a year of my life to be allowed to do a single thing about it.

Saber checks his phone and rounds the bar to hug her. Her arms come up around his ribs and hang on.

It’s obvious how much she means to him.

“Be safe,” she says into his cut.

“Always am.”

She chuckles. “No, you’re not.”

“But I always come home.”

He turns her loose, knocks his fist on the rail in front of me, and stops. Saber looks at me longer than he needs to, and for one cold second, I’m sure he’s seen straight through my skull to the thoughts I’ve had about his sister since last night.

“Take care of her,” he says.

“With my life.”

It comes truer than I meant to let it sound.

Saber nods once—satisfied.

The door swings shut behind him.

His bike fires up outside, and he’s gone.

And then it’s the two of us.

She clicks her tongue. “So… A week.”

“Ten days, maybe.”

“Then you’d better get used to me.” She takes a slow sip of the coffee. “You’re feeding me the whole time.”

“That so?”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s the deal I made with the club’s Prez.” She sets the cup down and turns it a quarter turn, lining the handle up like it matters. “Starting today. Tacos. The good place, not the gas station one.”

“It’s barely eight in the morning.”

“So we have time to plan.” She tips her head back against the wall behind her stool and looks at me down the length of the bar, and there’s that smile again, the one that ought to come with a warning label. “Unless the VP of the Hellborn Kings can’t manage lunch.”

I should keep the bar between us. Instead, I lean on it across from her, because apparently, I’ve decided to make my own life harder this morning.

“I can manage lunch.”

“Good. Noon. You’re buying. And if you order for me, I’m telling Saber you let me starve.”

“I would never order for you.”

“You absolutely would. You’re the type.” She puts her pen behind her ear. “But I’m warning you not to try, Crash. You don’t know the first thing about what I want.”

I could think of a few things. I keep that thought to myself.