Honestly, I wasn't convinced either, but I needed that time. We needed it.
Corin fell into his chair again, throwing his leg over the side. “I don't know, Zella. It's not going to be that easy. You know how he is, and with my brother droning in his ear, it's worse than ever. I'll use the idea, but let me work on it for a bit.”
“Just inform me when you figure it out.” My chipper words earned me a glare that morphed into an intent stare. “What?”
“I believe you are in debt to me already. Before we can agree on anything else, you need to settle up. Now, tell me the story about Hedda,” he said as he leaned forward, using his arms to brace himself on his thighs.
“Oh, right.” I launched into the tale, gesturing wildly, and at points, hopping up to pantomime various parts.
Of course, I embellished my narrative of the bar fight and assigned ridiculous accents to each of the trio. Corin roared, wiping tears from his eyes when I recounted the part where the bouncer froze at the sight of my tits. And, true to his nature, he heckled me during the remainder of my story.
Grace blushed through half of it and peered at her hands through the rest. Once, I thought I heard a giggle, but it faded so quickly, I couldn't be sure. Tough customer.
When I finished, he narrated his own bar fight tale, which seemed to interest Grace far more. I didn't mind. I stayed busy harassing Corin, which left my stomach aching. Finally, he wound down, chuckling to himself as he sat down again.
“Seriously, Corin, I know I taught you better than that. You're supposed to punch, then run—not run, punch, then try to give him a hug. Maybe you need some more exercises.” I shook my head and pursed my lips, biting on my cheek to keep from laughing when he jerked up at that prospect.
“No! No, never again. Your so-called exercises only got my ass whipped when we were kids. I still have horrible terrors when I sleep because of the one with the fountain. Why do you always find trouble?” His question was delivered with a lopsided grin, but the words held too much gravity to be dismissed.
My insides pinched, slightly hurt that he associated me with trouble. Even though I recognized what he meant, it tasted like a rejection—a declaration that preceded his disclosure of how little I was worth.
Obviously, I didn't mention any of that. Instead, I winked and retorted, “Why dabble in mediocre chaos when I can be its ruler?”
Corin shook his head and waved his hand. “Constantly striving to be the best, huh?”
I shrugged. In truth, I strived for very little. If I could, I'd hide away somewhere and devote my life to doing nothing. But I didn't have that choice, and I had to make a decision. With the trio taking the highly illegal books back to our unit, Grace certainly couldn't just plunk down in the midst of them. While Shadow helped alleviate a couple of my apprehensions about her, perhaps tossing her into a death-and-destruction level of crime wasn't a wise idea.
Another problem lay in the fact that I also needed to execute another crime at another place, followed by a quick stop on another planet to perpetrate a bit of treason. So, what I would do with the Angel depended on Corin, the Prince of the very country I planned to commit treason against. A rather delicious wave of feelings settled in me at that notion.
I propelled myself off the bed and floated to hover in front of him. “Well, I've enjoyed this meeting. I'm certain we'll have more to talk about later, but I do have other places to be. Do me a favor, would you?”
“Another one?” he asked, a mock outrage coloring it.
“I need the code, so I don't have to continue to send you notes. Maybe I'll visit more often. Maybe I'll just sneak in and hide all of your clothes.” I shrugged and snorted as I jumped back to dodge the swipe of his hand. “All right, I'm leaving, but you can give that code to Grace for me while you two go over what the OMIEB needs from the King.”
Corin zeroed in on the Angel in question while she stood behind me, trying to hide and protest at the same time. I gave Corin a tight-lipped grin even though he wasn't looking