Page 24 of Cold Foot King
“Can I make you a girly drink? I never get the chance to practice.”
“Sure. No rum. I got sick on rum on my twenty-first birthday and still can’t stomach it.”
“Ha!” She went to work making a drink for her. “Mine is whiskey. Can’t even smell the stuff anymore without wanting to gag. Thirty-fifth birthday. Got in two fights, lost my truck, had to walk home, and met a bear in the woods. At least I think I did. Some of the men around here look like bears. I stabbed something. I think. And then I was sick for two days.”
Kat tossed her head back and cackled at the vision of it. “Hey, at least you have a good story. You havelived, Ruth. No one will be standing up at your funeral talking about how boring you were.”
A bright-white smile cracked Ruth’s face. “That’s the goal, isn’t it? To live?”
“Amen, it is.”
Ruth set a pink drink in a martini glass in front of her. It had a lemon peel, and sparkled in the light. “Is that glitter in there?”
“Edible glitter. If you’re lucky, you’ll be shitting glitter by morning.”
She laughed and nodded. “Nice.” She lifted her glass in a toast, and realized Ruth had made a girly drink for herself as well.
Ruth lifted her glass and tinked it softly against Katrina’s. “To the rare ones.”
“To the rare ones,” Kat murmured, and then took a sip.
“You’re still a little fuckin’ freak though,” Ruth said with a wink, and then bustled down the bar top to a customer who was just sitting down on the end.
She wasn’t wrong. Ruth would probably blow a gasket if Kat told her she had been killed and brought back to life by a phoenix shifter.
Damon had promised he wouldn’t allow monsters in this town. Ummm, Wreck was here.
Damon had lied.
She watched the banjo player while she sipped her drink down. Feeling a slight buzz, she ordered one more, leaned back in the bar chair, and pulled the phone out of her pocket. She poked around it for a bit, seeing what she could do with it. Could she call anyone from her old Pride? There were a few of her Pride that had stayed out of the war, and out of prison. She had a couple of their numbers memorized.
Kat’s fingertips hovered over the first number.
Did she even want to call them?
Her old life seemed very far away now.
She opened up the contacts and was surprised to find a list of names. Wreck was listed, along with Raynah, and a dozen guys’ names, one of which she recognized.
Kingston Chase.
That had to be King, right?
She leaned forward, resting her arms on the counter as she opened up a text. Ruth had set a new drink in front of her, and she was feeling relaxed and buzzed. She took another sip and then typed out,Is this your number? Katrina.Send.
She chewed on the side of her lip and typed,Kat, as a correction. Send. He could call her what her friends called her.
Katrina Holland.She read the text twice, confused.
Yeah.Send.
You are really a Holland Pride Queen.
Yeah, and look where that got me. Rook.Send.
Rook what?
What was she doing? She stared at the blank screen, then took another long sip, bolstering herself into the kind of courage he had shown her earlier.You asked what happened to my face. I betrayed my King. Rook is my King. He was my mate.Send.