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A.n; this scene takes place somewhere after the first book and before the second—I highly advice reading Wicked Ones first if you haven't already.
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Vinny forced down his second shot of Tequila and recovered with a groan. "Fuck. No more, I hate that shit." Tasted like someone had pissed right over the boarder and into his mouth—but tequila had a way of sneaking into his bones faster than any drink on the planet.
"Aww, come on." Jeff shook the bottle in his hands and Vinny felt like retching as the little worm inside sloshed about. "We never get to see you anymore. You can at least get hammered with us for the first night in over a year."
"Superman's been busy." Cally swung in beside him, two beers readily in hand. She passed one on to Vinny with a rising smirk. "Too busy to text me back anyways."
"Don't take it personally." A brunette kicked her legs from the arm of a sectional, the buckles on her boots rattling with the music. Vinny recalled her from the cheer squad, but couldn't remember a fragment of her name. Let's just call her Betsy.
"He's been hard at work," Betsy said. "Plus, you know... it's Vincent. Bet he doesn't even remember my name, do you?"
"Uhh—"
"Yeah, we saw you on the news last week, Vinny." Cally crossed her arms and bumped shoulders with him. It was strange to think of her as anything but a fun lay. "When are you gonna start wearing uniforms?"
"When hell freezes over will I wear a fucking uniform."
"Come on now, everyone's just dying to see you in spandex." Jeff's words wiggled in the air. "How have things been with the Tsai kid? Where is he anyway?"
Vinny took a brief look around, tipping back the beer Cally had given him. The search was short; Kailan wasn't someone you could spot so easily. He had a knack for disappearing from the face of the earth when he most wanted to. Knowing Kai, he was somewhere on Mars, writing curse words in the sandy dunes.
They'd been there maybe an hour, but for every old acquaintance Vinny ran into, he'd put less and less focus on Kailan. He'd been caught up in all the ghosts of his old life, and he found himself tangled in so many reminiscent conversations that Kailan had left his side at some point, slipped away into the hordes of guests.
He couldn't be that mad. Or maybe Vinny just couldn't hear the storm over the house music. Maybe he was furious.
It was going to take decades to find him. The party was hosted in a three-story home, a gated community where the houses sold for six-hundred grand on a bad day. Vinny didn't know who it belonged to, but by the looks of the place, the host was well-heeled. The foyer alone was huge, and yet barely large enough to fit the multitudes of guests that had been invited. Even with April's bright, pigmented hair, finding them would be like finding a cherry in a sea of grapes.
