I dropped my chopsticks into my empty ramen bowl and lifted a palm. “Will—just hear me out.”
He shot me a challenging look and leaned against the back counter with his ankles crossed, waiting. “Well?”
I licked my lips. “I need to borrow five thousand merkles.”
He choked. “You’re out of your mind.”
“Please, Will. I promise you’ll get it back.” Probably.
He turned his back to me. “I don’t even have that much.”
“Yes, you do!” Heidi called from the front room.
I turned toward the swinging door that led to the front room where she was stationed at the desk and grinned. Good old Heidi. She kept the books—she’d know.
Will whirled around and scowled in her general direction. “Who asked you?!” He crossed his beefy, hairy arms and glared at me. “It’s my life’s savings, as pathetic as that sounds—I used to spend as much on a cravat!” He rolled a wrist.
I scoffed, unable to hold back a chuckle. “Really?”
“Shut up!” My enormous friend paced around the tight space. “So you want me to hand over my life’s savings to you for…?” The whites showed all around his eyes as he waited for my answer.
I scratched my ear. “Uh…” I looked down and away. “I need it for a buy-in to a backroom game at the Golden Tide.”
Will slammed his hands down on the metal table, which made me jump and set my bowl rattling. “Fat chance, sister!”
I clasped my hands together and fluttered my lashes up at him. “Why not?”
“Maybe because you’re going to lose my life’s savings!” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had. But I had to keep trying, for Peter.
He sneered at me. “I refuse to enable your newfound gambling addiction.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know I barely know the difference between a club and a spade.”
He scoffed. “Oh. You are filling me with confidence here.”
I huffed and leaned forward across the cold metal table. “Look, I just need the money to get into the game.” I raised my brows. “I told you, I saw a cop go into the back room and Amarina, the singer, told us she suspected someone at the Golden Tide wanted Davies dead.” I flashed my eyes at him. “I’ll get into that game to get the information I need out of Bora Kang”—who Heidi had informed me ran the Golden Tide—“and get out of there.” I folded my arms and shot him a tight smile.
Will paused his pacing and glowered down at me. “Easy peasy? No harm done?” He snapped his giant fingers. “Just like that?”
I softened a little toward him. Under his gruff demeanor, my friend cared about me. “I’ll be fine, Will, okay? I know how to take care of myself.”
He scoffed. “The harm I’m concerned about is to my money.”
“Oh.” I nodded. Yeah, that made more sense. I winked at him. “If anything, I’ll probably earn you some more.”
He shrugged and opened his mouth, as if having a silent conversation with himself. “It’s gambling.”
“No risk, no reward.”
Finally he crossed his arms. “You’re insane. The answer’s no.”
I licked my lips. I had to get into that game, and the only way was with a buy-in. Peter certainly didn’t have access to those kinds of funds from the station, and our relationship, both professional and personal, was on such choppy waves that I knew I had to sort this out on my own. I had to get Will to come around.
“What if I could guarantee you that I wouldn’t lose it?” I raised my brows and tried for my best “how could you refuse an offer like this” tone.
His brown eyes glittered with an intense mix of amusement and anger. “And how would you do that, Jolene? You going to enchant the game right under Ms. Kang, the notorious hardass’s, nose?” He moved to a cupboard and half opened it, as if offering the contents inside. “Want to bring the body bag with you or…?”
I let out a heavy sigh, tired of the antics. “Look, I’m calling in a favor, okay? That’s how I’ll win.”
Will slammed the cupboard door shut and dropped back onto the rolling stool across from me. “What favor? From who?”
I looked down and away, scratching my ear. “A favor from someone very close to Bora Kang, alright? Can we leave it at that?”
“Who?” Will demanded.
Apparently not. I cleared my throat, unable to meet his eyes. “Her name’s… Fifi.”
From the front room, Heidi called through the door, “Her dog? I rehomed the other one, by the way!”
Oh, Heidi. Maybe I didn’t always love her interjections.
“Her…” Will choked. “Her dog?!" He shoved away from the table and was on his feet again, pacing. His face had turned a shade of red so dark, I was concerned he might be about to keel over… or spontaneously shift into a bear, right there in the exam room.
I jumped to my feet. Easy, boy. “I’ve got a plan, it’s foolproof, your money will be safe, but I just need to get in the game. Something shady’s going down at the police station, and if I don’t help Peter solve this case—”
Will sputtered, cutting me off. “Which actually isn’t even officially a case, correct?”
I gulped, my throat dry. “Right.” I held up a finger. “But it totally should be.”
Will muttered something incoherent to himself as he practically wore a groove in the linoleum behind the table.
“If I don’t help him prove his suspicions were right, he’ll face disciplinary action and may get kicked off the force. And there goes my one chance to get my life back on track… plus I’ll have ruined his.”
“And this is my problem how?” My friend scowled at me, his tone more uncertain. “And how have you ruined his life?”
I plastered on a broad smile. “If I fall back on hard times, I can’t treat you
