“Cheyenne, Cheyenne,” Bhandi sighed through loose lips and shook her head. “You make it really hard not to like you.”
“I’ll take it.”
They got back to the Range Rover, and Bhandi jammed her hand into her back pocket to fish around for the key fob. She leaned on the driver’s side door and bent her knees, leaning back way too far to get her hand in.
Tate snorted. “You look like Ma’kdo trying to take a piss.”
“Yeah? Piss on this.” Bhandi yanked the fob out with a grin, and the thing flew out of her hand onto the asphalt. The troll looked down at it, blinked, then turned toward Cheyenne. “Couldn’t you catch that one too?”
“Hey, I’m not your maid.”
The guys cracked up again, and Yurik stooped to pick up the fob before pointing at Cheyenne. “Cheyenne’s nobody’s maid. Damn straight. Hell, she called us to come clean up a mess she made the other day. Nothing like what Ogsa’s gonna have to scrub out of the floor after tonight, but if anyone’s a maid, it’s me and Payton.”
His chuckle died, then he blinked at the key fob in his hand and rolled his eyes. “Shit.”
“There it is.” Tate thumped the goblin with brown human hair on the back. “You good to drive, Grandma?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“I call shotgun,” Bhandi announced, stumbling around the front of the car.
Tate went around the back to climb in behind the troll woman, and Yurik glanced at Cheyenne with a little frown. “Like I said, you can pretend to forget about what happens. That’s what blowin’ off steam’s for, right?”
“Right.” Cheyenne opened the door behind the driver’s seat, then paused. “Hey, it wasn’t you who put Payton in a hospital bed. You know that, right?”
The goblin sighed. “Course I know that. It doesn’t change us being a team. The whole damn unit. I tell you what, though. Next time you come with us in the field, I don’t give a shit about what my orders are. I’m listening to you first.”
“That’s…probably not a good idea. For you.”
“Hey, if we’d listened to you and Jamal hadn’t opened the goddamn crate, he wouldn’t be lyin’ in a bed, either. Or Payton. You knew what was gonna happen.” Yurik leaned toward her and cocked his head. “How’d you know?”
Cheyenne shrugged. “It’s a drow thing, I guess.”
“Drow thing. Yeah.” He opened the driver’s side door and paused again. “Yeah, that’s why I’m listening to you from here on out.”
They climbed inside and shut the doors behind them. Yurik started the car, everyone buckled up, and then they pulled slowly out of the parking lot. Tate let out a massive belch in the back seat. “Whoa. That would’ve been grog if Bhandi was behind the wheel.”
“Hey.” Bhandi slumped against the passenger door and dropped her head against the window. “The night’s not over yet.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Hey, Yurik.” Cheyenne grabbed the back of the driver’s seat and leaned forward. “Can you drop me off at the strip mall from this morning?”
“The one under construction?”
“Yeah. That’s where my car is.”
“Come on, Cheyenne.” Bhandi waved a drunken hand. “We get back to base, and I’m pullin’ out the cards. Got a winning streak against Kinzuro, and I plan to take everything the little shit has.”
Tate snorted. “What’d the guy do to you, huh?”
“Nothin’. He just keeps losing and comin’ back for more. Hey, Cheyenne. You any good at poker?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? Goth drow blows up an ogre’s hand, but she doesn’t play poker?” Bhandi didn’t lift her head from against the window, but her voice got louder. “You sure you were born Earthside?”
“Not everyone on this side plays poker.” The halfling sat back in her seat and stared out the window.
“Well, for someone who’s never played, you’ve got one hell of a poker face.” Tate chuckled.
“So, you in or what?” Bhandi asked.
“No. Thanks, but I’m gonna call it a night.”
“Before eight-thirty?”
Yurik slapped Bhandi’s arm with the back of a hand. “Give it a rest, huh?”
“What, you gonna get back on base and go hug your pillow too?”
“Maybe. Sounds better than sitting around watching you sober up.”
“Not gonna happen, Yurik. I drank enough grog to last me all night.”
Tate snorted. “You drank enough to last you all week.”
Bhandi sighed but didn’t say anything else, and the car fell back into silence.
Ten minutes later, Yurik pulled the Range Rover into the parking lot of the strip mall under renovation and parked several spaces from Cheyenne’s Ford Focus.
“That’s your car?” Bhandi asked.
“Yep.” The halfling unbuckled her seatbelt.
The troll woman laughed. “Anyone notice that people tend to look like their cars?”
“That’s dogs, grog-brain.” Tate shook his head.
Cheyenne snorted and grabbed the handle of the back passenger door. “How do I look like my car?”
“Rough around the edges, Goth drow.” With a grunt, Bhandi peeled herself away from the passenger window and twisted around with effort to grin at the halfling. “But you get the damn job done, don’t you?”
“Guess so. You’re not gonna try to hug me, are you?”
The agents laughed, and Bhandi slumped in her seat again. “So hard not to like you.”
“Thanks for the ride.” Cheyenne thumped the back of Yurik’s seat. “And the fellwine. I needed that.”
“Ha. Yeah, that’s on me anytime.”
“Oh, sure, she gets a free pass.”
“Bhandi, if you had free drinks for life, I don’t know what would happen first—you drinking every single ounce of the stuff on this side of the Border, or you dropping dead from trying.”
“Hey, why pick one? If I achieved a goal like that, I’d die happy.”
Shaking her head and hiding a small smile, Cheyenne pushed the door open and stepped out of the Range Rover. “Have a good night, guys.”
“Drive safe, Cheyenne.” Tate lifted his
