you for a minute?”
He tilted his head the way he did when he was having one of his internal conversations.
“You see?” I said to Zee, but she was watching Gentry like she was waiting for him to finish a phone call. Like it was totally normal.
CHAPTER 40
Zee
I took Gentry into the bathroom, but once we were alone in there with the door closed, I felt stupid. I should have said what I wanted to say in front of everyone.
“My lady, thou art troubled,” he said.
“Yeah, I don’t think your friends want to go, and that’s probably a good thing. Maybe just Dirk and I should go.”
“Sir Rhys and Sir Edrard may do as it please them, but I am thy champion, and methinks more ready to do battle than Master Dirk.”
“I keep thinking about what you said about never hitting anybody in anger before, and I’m afraid this might turn out to be more of that,” I said.
“I am not afraid.” He’d had his head down, but he lifted it and said, “May I kiss thee?”
“Now? No. You need to seriously think about this.” It was nice to say no and have him listen, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“Nay, I hear thee, but thou speakest naught I know not already,” he said. Not to me, because he cocked his head to the right. If it had to be one or the other, I’d take the black knight over that bitch Hildegard any day. Gentry took a step closer to me, so that he was actually in my personal space. Face-to-face, looking down at him from only a couple inches away, I watched his eyelashes flutter when he blinked.
“It’s not that I don’t like kissing you, but that this is serious,” I said.
“I ken ’tis no light matter, my lady. I swore to serve thee howsoever I might, and I would kiss thee to remind thee I am bound to thee by my oath and my flesh.”
And I had let him make that reckless oath both ways. I’d opened my legs right up, and let him make some solemn vow to me that I barely understood.
“Is it okay if I touch you?” I said.
“Yea.”
I brought my hands up to his jaw, to hold him. Then I kissed him straight on, my lips against his lips. The most sincere kiss I had ever given anyone in my life. The same way he shook hands. Before we could get distracted, I let go of him and stepped back.
“Okay,” I said. “Whatever you think is best.”
“My bond to thee abideth. If thou goest, I shall go.”
“Then you’re going.”
Rhys, on the other hand, was not going. When Gentry and I came out of the bathroom, Dirk was leaning against the dresser, eating a piece of leftover pizza. Rhys and Edrard were huddled together, whispering. They broke apart when we stepped into the room.
“Please, tell me you talked some sense into him,” Rhys said.
“I am sensible of the danger,” Gentry said, but that was all.
I didn’t say anything. I laid my backpack out on the bed and started deciding what to leave and what to take. Gentry did the same.
After a minute or so, Edrard unzipped his bag, and he and Gentry started talking about what weapons to take. Dirk picked up an axe from the things Gentry had laid out on the bed.
“Holy shit. Y’all are some crazy motherfuckers. All’s I brought was this.”
Dirk pulled a 9 mm out of his belt. Dane’s, if I was guessing. Like he had with my gun, Gentry took it apart and oiled it. While he was wiping down the bullets and reloading them, Rhys had a meltdown.
“Jesus fucking Christ! You cannot do this!” he said.
“You don’t have to go, if you don’t want to,” Edrard said.
“I swear, I’ll call the police. You walk out that door, I will call the police and tell them what you’re doing.”
“What wilt thou tell them, Sir Rhys?” Gentry didn’t even look up to say it.
“That you’re going on some half-assed rescue mission, armed with guns and swords.”
“What do you think they’ll do?” I said, as I loaded the money into my smaller backpack.
“Stop you.”
“Yeah. They’ll probably arrest us, so if that’s what you want.”
He wasn’t going to do it, but he stood there for a few minutes before he came up with his next threat: “Fine. I’ll call Gentry’s parents. Let’s see what Mr. and Mrs. Frank have to say about this plan.”
I wondered if Gentry was about to