by Liz Schulte
****
After the waitress made the announcement to the rest of the restaurant that I was going to try to eat the eighty, a bright light was pointed at my table and a timer set at sixty minutes appeared on the wall. People all around me sized me up and found me lacking as the steak and all the sides were brought out to me. Apparently I was a girl, too thin, and my pants were too tight. I curled my lip at the salad. Rabbit food wasn’t usually something I ate, but apparently I had to consume it in order to win—a necessary evil.
“Are you ready?” the waitress asked.
I nodded. “Whenever you are.”
“And you can start in five…four…three…two…one…eat!” she said enthusiastically into the microphone.
I picked up my knife and fork and tucked in. Obviously I ate the steak first, enjoying each and every delicious, rare bite. Next I ate the baked potato and roll. And finally I started on the salad, glancing at the clock. I still had twenty minutes to spare. I took a big bite and slowly chewed as I looked around the room. Everyone was suddenly really into it, now sure that I was going to win. One thing about humans was they may like the underdogs, but they loved winners.
Though the salad was disgusting, I kept chewing and swallowing until it was gone. I wiped off my mouth with the napkin on the table and sat the fork and knife down. The waitress came over and my plates were inspected.
“We have a winner in record time,” she announced, and a series of bells and whistles went off. “Stand up,” she told me. I stood next to her and the whole room watched us. “How do you feel?” she asked.
“Full,” I said cheerfully, and everyone laughed.
I finally spotted Holden and Sy standing in the back of the room. Holden obsessively checked his watch and Sy grinned back at me as I accepted my prizes (a t-shirt and a key chain) and let them take a picture of me. When the hoopla was finally done, I weaved my way through the crowd toward the boys.
“Happy now?” Sy asked.
“Very,” I said.
“Can we get on with this?” Holden asked.
“Sure. Want to get a table?” The room and the line to get in were still packed. It would probably take an hour to get a table. By then, I could probably eat again.
He shook his head. “The Office.”
After we got far enough away from the crowd, Holden vanished into a puff of black smoke and Sy took my hand, transporting us back to Chicago, leaving my car completely abandoned. At least no one would want the hunk of metal. No one but me, that was. About the only value it had was sentimental.
The Office was Sy’s bar and the bounty hunter hub for the central United States. He kept tight control over what sort of business was conducted in his establishment—mostly it was just bounty-hunting matters. He probably didn’t want other people to feel too comfortable about coming in and ruining the seedy aesthetics we learned to love and find comfort in. It was dark and dreary. The lights were never bright, no sunlight ever penetrated the dirty windows, and all the wood was dark with age and use. The room was filled with shadows and people of questionable backgrounds, but the Office was also a safe haven for the loners and rejects of the Abyss. People usually didn’t get into bounty hunting without a pretty good reason, because it was a lonely job. Most other people didn’t like you or trust you. You basically spent your life hunting down people for money. People took it personally.
Sy did make exceptions every now and then, but usually not without a lot of bitching. I had seen him allow Olivia and Holden to have a couple meetings there, as well as his cousin. Usually, though, we were dealing with life-or-death situations, and it wasn’t like they made a habit of coming back. However, this time wasn’t an exception. It sounded to me like they were giving me a bounty—coming directly from the council, though it could have been anything, even an assassination. I wondered briefly if I was prepared to straight up murder someone just on the council’s say-so. Probably not.
We reappeared in Sy’s private quarters behind the bar.
“What in the hell did you do in the hallway that long if you weren’t warning her?” Holden said, flames popping up in his eyes before he blinked them away.
“I did,” Sy snapped. “I told her not to speak unless spoken to and not to agree to anything. I can’t control her. Had I known sooner about the meeting, we could have handled all of this better. Made a plan. You or Olivia could have given her a heads-up. They watch me constantly now.”
“I didn’t know about it sooner. It appears they don’t trust either of us,” Holden growled. “And Olivia would only get involved.” He turned his annoyed gaze to me. “You just had to volunteer information. We could have gotten you out of this, but someone had to open her stupid mouth.”
“Hey,” I said. “First of all, why is it such a bad thing if I take the case? It’s what I do. Second, you need to relax. Whatever it is, I’ll handle it.”
Sy rubbed a hand over his face. “It’s not her fault. She doesn’t know.”
Holden rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch, crossing his legs. “She signed the contract. Did you even read it?”
“Does anyone read those things?” He opened his mouth, but I rushed on. “I don’t need a lecture. I have backed you up on many stupid plans. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the case without knowing what it was, but…” They both looked at me expectantly. How was I supposed to explain this to them? I had been curious about the council since I’d learned of their existence. Neither Sy nor Holden would tell me anything. Baker had been on it, but now he couldn’t tell me anything, and not knowing was driving me crazy. Also, what better way was there to get out of my bounty-hunting rut than to take a job that was probably significant? “But I didn’t. If anyone should be pissed off, it’s me. I never asked you to protect me, and frankly I find it a little offensive that you are trying. If I want to take a job for the council then I will. I don’t need your permission to do it.” I crossed my arms. “Now tell me something useful, like what exactly is my objective?”
Chapter 2
