Helluva Luxe (21 page)

Chance started choking on the bite he was chewing.

I leaned my head against Rorke’s chest and took a deep, ragged breath. Lily pushed a shot my way.

“What’s my other gift?” I said.

She ran her fingers into the hair at the back of my neck. “The naked truth.”

I looked her in the eye. “Nobody can lie to me?”

She nodded.

“Ah hell, that’s handy. Ha! Come on, you bitches. Ask me something. Anything.”

“Are you gonna get laid tonight?” Chance said.

I paused for a minute and tilted my head like a dog just to get a rise out of Rorke. “Oh my god,
I am.
”

Ash started whistling like a construction worker.

Rorke just rolled her eyes at me. “Nobody can comfortably lie to you, Nick. That’s your gift,” she said. “You’ll always know. Even when you lie to yourself.”

“But you tried. Didn’t you? That’s what was going on right before Lily walked in.”

She nodded. “Yeah. I had to test your gift to make sure, but mine kept kicking in. I could feel you not trusting me. I didn’t actually lie. All I did was leave out part of the truth.”

“You were trying to let me believe Lily was dead.”

“It sucked.” Rorke looked startled by it and rolled her tongue around like she had a bad taste in her mouth. “It could just be me, though. Somebody else should try to lie.”

“I did,” Ash said. “The first night he got here. And I won’t do it again.”

“Yep. Me, too,” Chance said. “When we were at the bar up the road. I felt like I ate a pound of pork rinds. It was horrible.”

“What about you, Lily?” Rorke said.

“Cornnuts,” Lily mumbled.

I started laughing. “Well, badass.”

Chance was still carving and chewing. “We’re one fucking formidable family, yo.”

“No lie,” I said. “So, I’m almost afraid to ask, but who are these other three plaques for?”

Rorke’s mouth twitched into a smile, and she pulled the knife from her hair. It fell in a crazy mess down her back. She wiped the knife back and forth on her hip, trailed it down the side of my neck and stabbed it into my Chateau.

“That’s a whole ’nother story, Salem. How much time you got?”

I must acknowledge my former editor, Steve Berman, for believing in me and my “delicious villains.” And also Steve Boudreault, for teaching me everything I know about being an agent and an editor. The both of you are amazing men to be caught in a contract with.

About the Author

Natalie Essary
was the house DJ in one of the hottest clubs in Austin’s Red River District for years. She’s also been an advertising copyeditor, a ghostwriter for a Boston theater critic, a literary publicist, and a literary agent. She is now the owner of SpiderLily Publishing.

Her other works,
Love My Ashes: A Guide to Finding YourSELF After Divorce
, and
Spooky Chicks
are available through SpiderLily Publishing.

For more information about Natalie and her upcoming projects, visit: natalieessary.wix.com/spiderlily