tending to Angus while Knox also kept Jazz from pushing for any of his more extreme ideas—we'd been seconds from streaking down the beach before Knox and Faust caught wind.
Hallie and Knox participated just as much in the silly games Jazz came up with and laughed just as many times throughout the evening as the rest of us. Even Diesel looked like he was having fun.
And I felt good. Really good. My chest was warm, and my belly felt light and swirly. Every smile lasted a little longer and stretched across my face a little easier. I even enjoyed blinking more when my bones were fortified with spiced rum.
It wasn't actually that spicy, but it did burn.
"Shots!" I chirped. Faust's groan vibrated from his chest to my back.
"Morning comes no matter how many drinks you have," Hallie warned. "These wusses may not want to tell you two no, but I will."
"C'mon, Hallie," Jazz whined with sibling familiarity. "We haven't even finished the bottle."
"That isn't a mark in your favor. You will get nowhere near close to finishing that bottle tonight. That's a Hallie guarantee." Hallie's arms crossed over her chest.
"Remember that time we raided that dictator's mansion and discovered that distillery in his basement?" Diesel asked, and it may have been the first time I'd heard him speak so freely. Jazz and I weren't the only ones under the influence.
Knox snorted. "I remember clearing the location and getting wasted only so Faust and Dog could charge down the south wing unwittingly uncovering the spot where the dictator's remaining army waited to attack."
"What happened?" I gasped. I knew both had escaped the ordeal, but I didn't like hearing about either in danger. When Knox didn't immediately reply, I looked to Faust, who raised his hands in front of his body in surrender.
"Don't ask me. I wasn't in a place to remember."
Knox's barking laugh echoed off the walls. "They took care of it. I've never seen anything mow down a crowd as quickly as those two."
Faust's lip curled fondly at the moment. Annoyingly, his arrogance did nothing to dampen his attractiveness.
"Never again," I ordered with a waggling finger. "I don't want you two facing down an army. You have a pack. Let them help you."
Faust smiled wider. "Yes, omega."
I could see we would have to readdress this situation, but later, when Jazz and I weren't in the middle of trying to smooth-talk our way into more drinks.
"One more, Hallie, please?" I added my plea to the ring, though if Jazz didn't have the power to persuade her, I didn't know what I could do. Still, I was drunk enough to try without fear of the repercussions of being rejected. I shuffled across the atrium. Faust remained where he was, but Dog followed along, bracing the back of my legs in case I fell.
Silly overprotective beasts. I was just—
"Oops."
Jazz caught me as I stumbled over nothing. "Gotta get your sea legs," he laughed, hauling me upright. "We're trying to convince Hallie," he whispered loudly in my ear. His arm looped through mine, and we faced Hallie like two clumsy soldiers.
Hallie pushed her brown, bushy curls back as she fought a smile. "I must be the drunk one because I'm looking at double trouble."
We beamed.
Hallie rolled her eyes. "Fine. One more drink, no shots, and I pour 'em. I saw Diesel make the last ones. He pours like he's trying to get laid."
Diesel snorted. "More like I don't know what to do with lightweights." They had an easy relationship.
This was my first time drinking, so I wasn't offended, but Jazz was. Or acted like he was. "Lightweight!" He spun us both back around to face Diesel. "We're mighty!" Jazz punctuated his battle cry by reaching into his pocket and throwing something Diesel's direction. The object became a great white shark, jaws open as it hurtled toward Diesel.
If I'd been him, I would've fallen off my chair and broke my neck, but Diesel just grunted. "Mighty lightweights."
"I don't mind," I told Jazz in case he was doing this to defend my honor.
"Of course you don't because you are kind and good and everything amazing in this world and—sorry! I forgot you don't like the animals."
"That's okay." I smiled because he'd remembered, but I hadn't been bothered. "It was fast." And not dancing in front of me like a lifeless puppet on strings.
He pulled me back to the bench, where Faust was only too happy to have me near again. "I'm so glad you're here. And