Bad Things (Tristan & Danika #1)(7)

I shook my head, but I told him. “Well, there’s a community stable in the center of the neighborhood. Residents can rent out stalls. Most of the stalls are used for horses, but this one lady uses them for her prize chickens.”

He arched a brow. He had a way about him that was so hard for me to resist, especially the way he gave me every ounce of his attention with single-minded focus. I drank up that attention as though I’d been starving for it.

I really needed to get out more.

“Prize chickens?” he asked.

“Yes. She has prize chickens. She lives right by the stables, and as far as I can tell, spends most of the damn day there. She lets them roam the stables while she’s there, so they’re loose a lot of the time….completely unprotected.”

He started laughing again. “Oh no,” he said, seeing where the story was headed.

I nodded. “Oh, yes. I’ve timed it. Coffeecup can get to the stables in under two minutes, and nab a chicken just seconds after that. He’s taken out three of her chickens just this week alone.”

“Taken out?”

I nodded. “He eats them. He has their necks snapped before I can catch up to him, and I’m a fast runner.”

“That’s messed up.”

“Yes, I know. This is why Coffeecup and I have issues. Crazy chicken lady goes ballistic on me when she loses a chicken. Bev has to pay her fifty dollars every time it happens, but that’s no consolation to crazy chicken lady, since the damn chickens are her life.”

We started walking again, but we were both smiling..

“Well, if he gets loose while I’m around, I’ll catch him before he can murder any chickens. I promise.”

“He’s really fast,” I warned, not believing for a second that he could catch the crazy dog if it got loose.

“So am I.”

I just shook my head, laughing.

CHAPTER THREE

We got through my chores in record time. Tristan even folded laundry with me. I thought he was bizarre…and really kind of sweet.

Within short hours of meeting the strange man, I found myself rifling through my closet, looking for Vegas club gear. The dirty Vegas club scene was so not me, but I still found myself excited about going out. Tristan was just…fun, and I was excited for fun. The candid conversation that had set us up as friends right off the bat eased any reservations I might have had about hanging out with someone like him.

I didn’t have a lot of friends my own age. I’d adopted most of Bev’s circle of friends as my own, and besides myself, the youngest of them was thirty-two. I felt comfortable with older people. I attributed that to Bev. Being around her had just always been so good for me; so safe. She was mature, and she knew how to be healthy. She was stable, and I needed stability. I clung to it. And people my age living in sin city rarely belonged in the same sentence with stability. I knew that Tristan was no exception, he likely didn’t belong in the same book with stability, but still, he was hard to resist.

I was staring at my closet full of clothes for a good five minutes when Bev found me. It was a well-stocked closet, thanks to Bev’s frequent hand-me downs. Thank God we wore the same size, and I couldn’t complain, but I just wasn’t sure how to dress. The Vegas nightlife was pretty diverse; I could get away with wearing jeans, or go fully decked out, but I just couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to look like a slob, but I really didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard.

Bev gave a brief knock on my door before she came in—her usual routine. She had a black silk halter dress draped over her arm. I recognized it as one she’d worn several times before. It was one of her favorites. It bloused out, and banded at the hips. I’d tried it on for fun once, and I knew it was flattering, in fact, it was gorgeous, but maybe too dressy for a club night out with a guy I barely knew.

Still, I coveted that dress.

I bit my lip, and she gave me a ‘look’.

“If you wear this, I’ll give you a free pass at anything you want in my closet at a future date of your choosing,” she told me.

Just like that, she had me. Her closet was mind-boggling, and way above my pay scale.

“Thank you,” I told her.

She smiled and winked at me, clearly pleased with my agreement.

I showered and did my hair and makeup first, letting the steam from the shower smooth out any small wrinkles in the dress. The top was pure silk, held at the neck with Swarovski crystals. The fitted skirt was a silky looking material, but it had elastic, so it had stretch, and I could still dance in it, which was a must. I didn’t love to go clubbing, but I did love to dance.

I eyed the way out of my price range dress as I blew out my hair, letting it fall straight—a black waterfall down my back. Black was always a good bet for me. It brought out my ivory skin and pale gray eyes. My mother was half-Russian, half-Japanese, and I supposed my features were a mix of both. That was only a guessing game, though, really, since I’d never known what the other side of that equation consisted of.

I lined my eyes carefully in black, and smudged a smoky dark gray shadow onto my eyelids. I was liberal with the mascara, and used a dark maroon lip stain, but that was all. My skin tone didn’t need, and couldn’t handle foundation.

I was still wearing just a towel when Bev breezed into the bathroom with me. She and I hadn’t had privacy boundaries for years, and I only smiled at her as she barged in on me after a cursory knock.