The North Star | COMPLETED ✔️

Chapter 18 ~ Stolen Hearts

Chapter 18

"One more thing." Bard crossed the yard, grabbed the rusted bucket and plopped it back two feet.

Zeke rumbled a laugh.

Boe snorted. "Alright by me."

I nodded, but the way he'd positioned it took it out from directly under the nearest tiki torch. The glow still cast against it, enough to know where it was, but it would definitely be harder.

I shook my head. It didn't matter. I could do this. Fuck him. Fuck this bet. I wanted that tattoo gun, and I needed that bedroom.

Boe reached down and gathered his five caps, and his eyes narrowed into slits as he aimed. He paused, readjusting his fingers against the edge, aimed again, and when he finally decided to let it fly... it landed in the same spot the bucket had sat before.

Boe cursed under his breath then glared at Bard. "You've been watching me?"

I stared between the two, taken off guard by the question. All I knew was Zeke was going ape shit behind me, Boe looked pissed off, and Bard... his lip twitched.

"What do you mean?" I asked Boe, feeling a new wave of dread as the odds seemed to have narrowed down and not in the best of ways.

Boe's eyes shifted from Bard to me, and he huffed. "He's been watching me practice."

Bard spoke up. "He never moved the bucket."

The pieces clicked together, and I turned wide eyes onto Bard. That observant mother fucker...

As if he'd read my mind, his lip twitched again.

Boe, with obvious annoyance, turned back to the task at hand... and missed again, and again, each accompanied by a curse louder than the last, until he finally managed to hit the edge, then sunk one.

One.

I have to do this.

Bard held a hand out to Boe, and to my surprise, Boe took it. They shook hands in a manly, grippy sort of way. "I underestimated you," he grumbled as he looked over with a wry smile.

I followed his gaze. Zeke might as well have been a cat that just ate all the goldfish.

Boe shook his head. "I guess I forgot who his uncle was. Sneaky fuckers."

Zeke's smile widened. "It's not sneaky, it's smart."

"Too smart," I said. I wouldn't have thought of it. Not in a million years. But I wasn't Boe. I was a grown woman with a history. I'd survived prison, and those bitches in there were the queens of sneaky and conniving.

Bard motioned to the bucket beside me. "It's your turn, Tequila."

I turned away from him and grabbed my caps from the bottom. Don't look at him. I positioned my first cap and took aim. It sailed like a frisbee and landed with nothing more than a clink inside its destination.

Zeke let out a whoop for me, and Scarlet followed suit with a dry, "Whoo hoo."

I grinned and aimed the next. It sailed like the last, and the one after did the same. I managed to sink four of them, with only one left in my hand, when I made my crucial error.

I looked at him. I met those probing eyes, and what I found there flooded my chest with that stupid warmth. It hit me so hard, my stomach flipped. My heart skipped.

Bard didn't look like a man competing. His expression was soft, his eyes light. He looked at me like he felt proud, like he wanted me, but not in a physical way. He looked at me the way every woman wanted a man to look at her.